Online distribution made LostWinds work

By Rob Fahey Published 30 July, 2008

It was all "very refreshing", says Braben.

Frontier boss David Braben believes WiiWare title LostWinds would have been canned were it not for online distribution.

"It's a fantastic way of de-risking publishing," said Braben during the Develop conference in Brighton. "This is a game we probably wouldn't have done through normal publishing channels. It was a very difficult game to work out who's going to buy it, and so on. We just wrote this game for ourselves, and that's one of the reasons why we enjoyed the process so much."

The game was made over four months by 12 people, explained Braben, describing the process as a "very, very refreshing experience".

LostWinds began as a "Game of the Week" idea on a Frontier forum from one designer who had been gazing out of the window on a windy day. Braben thinks secretly we're all capable of ideas like this.

"Most gamers are frustrated game designers in their hearts," said Braben. "How many times do you hear that Game X would have been great if... Or Game Y was ruined for me because... Or hey, if only I could do this thing in the game. If only CoD4 had more rabbits in it, or whatever - I'm not saying all the ideas are great ones.

"[The LostWinds idea] turned, over time, into a game idea - not fully formed. We thought the art style should come from somewhere that was naturally windy, and ideas like Tibet, the Incans and the Mayans came forward... Those were compressed into a really natural look.

"Design documents were prepared, discussed and criticised openly in a forum where criticism was expected - and then they gathered dust for a while, before Nintendo came to us with WiiWare," he added.

Having settled on WiiWare as a launch platform, the team created a prototype in one week, using just two developers - with very basic black and white block graphics, but the Wii control system fully in place. Full development started in January, and ran until April, with the game released on 12th May.

You may remember we rather liked LostWinds, too.

Frontier's next big project, The Outsider, is at the other end of the creative spectrum - a major action title, Braben hopes to use it to explore non-linear storytelling and create complex characters that players feel genuine empathy with.

Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Rob Fahey is a former editor of GamesIndustry.biz who spent several years living in Japan and probably still has a mint condition Dreamcast Samba de Amigo set.

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraser #1 4 years ago

    Shame that Lost Winds is just about the only off-beat "high-risk" game available on WiiWare.
    There should be more of those types of games in there, and not re-re-re-remakes of existing games.

  • bitesize #2 4 years ago

    The game was made over four months by 12 people

    bout time you had a sequel out then innit? been gagging for some more lost winds, i loved it!

  • firm3d #3 4 years ago

    LostWinds isn't just the best game of all the WiiWare titles, it's also the only one worth buying. Which is not to put it down: If it's not the best new IP I've played this year it's in the top 5.

  • paulf #4 4 years ago

    as seems to be a pattern with my wii purchases at the moment, i bought it but haven't played it yet

  • Der_tolle_Emil #5 4 years ago

    Paulf: A lot of my games suffer the same fate. However Lost Winds can be easily completed in one evening, it shouldn't take longer than 3 hours, which is actually quite nice.

    The game is really good because of how much the developer cared about details. The sound (both the music and especially the wind sounds) are very relaxing and it's also charming that all the bushes, flowers and trees move when you move the cursor. It makes the whole game feel very natural and alive and thus very, very enjoyable. I just wished that there were a few more areas - not necessarily more but maybe the extisting ones with a more distinctive look. I fear this was a space/budget constraint that came with the decision to publish it on WiiWare but I hope it won't be an issue in the next games. That said, a sequel couldn't hurt.

  • Kazzahdrane #6 4 years ago

    Lovely little game, and my only WiiWare purchase. My only Wii purchase since Zack and Wiki, in fact.

  • pjmaybe #7 4 years ago

    LW was such a great little game, set the standards impossibly high for other WiiWare stuff.

  • FFS #8 4 years ago

    Yeah, if only Okami had gone down the downloadable route. Maybe it wouldn't be dying.

    Hey what if the Wii had a HD! Surely Nintendo are working on one?

    Oh.



    Anyway, I didn't get on great with LW. Completed it but felt no great compulsion to get all of the dolls. It did feel very 2 dimensional if you'll pardon the pun. I also hated the first bit that told you to go to something Falls but didn't say what direction you had to go in! Anyway... yeah, great use of remote but just didn't captivate me like I hoped it would (and most other games do).
    Edited by 1 at 30/07/08 @ 21:34

  • space_ace #9 4 years ago

    a fantastic way of de-disking publishing

    fixed.