Give 'em a few weeks, and they'll all be fourth prestige pwning your a$$ on Modern Warfare 2.

What does the phrase ‘casual gamer’ mean to you? Are you indifferent to it? Do you consider yourself to be one? Or perhaps the mere mention of this creature fills you with rage as it conjures up an image of a talentless, dumb nobody who has no place in ‘your’ hobby? If the latter applies to you, you’re at odds with industry legend David Braben:

“Many of these so called casual gamers are smart; they simply are not part of all the knowledge that has been built up over the years by hardened gamers like us. [...] To a casual gamer, an FPS’s controls are still complex – it is simply they haven’t yet been drawn in by them.”

That’s what skill in any game or genre comes down to: experience. So the next time you whinge about casual gamers or ‘noobs’, remember that you weren’t born with knowledge and experience of your favourite games. David Braben (with whom we have an exclusive interview today, by the way) does.

The one and only David Braben.

Yes indeed, the might David Braben talks to your favourite gaming blog (no, us, you cheeky git). While we were waiting for the answers, his PR lady told us he was ‘travelling’; which we took to mean he was exploring deep space, trading and killing as he pleased.

CG: When you created your first starfield, did that ignite your imagination for the beginnings of Elite?

David Braben: Partly – but in some senses it was the other way around. I was excited about doing a game set in space, as there is no ground to draw, and the starfield was effectively the alternative – to give a sense of movement and speed. As I’ve said elsewhere, my first starfield was a huge disappointment – written in BASIC, it took an appallingly long time to draw and then undraw the stars, so it was the trigger to learning machine code.

CG: When you and Bell took Elite to your first publisher, what kind of response did you expect… and what did you get?

David Braben: Before I met Ian, I had had a discussion with Thorn EMI, who offered me a job when I showed them the 3D code I had written, running – but it would have meant not going to university, and I already had a place at Cambridge at that time, so in a sense when we later took “Elite” to them, it was a second visit – they had even seen ‘Ship 1, 2 and 3’ – which later became the ‘Cobra MkIII’, the ‘Python’, and the ‘Sidewinder’.

The response was very strange. About half a dozen people saw it, and clearly some were very impressed, others were marketing people… In summary, they said that what we had was amazing, but an amazing demo of tech, and that no one would want to buy it as a game. We’d need to get rid of the saved positions, bring in a score, make it so you could ‘beat the game’ in around ten minutes, and we should have multiple lives. They were worried that it would take hours to make any progress, and of course they were right!

CG: It’s known that after Elite sold 100,000 copies, the story was covered by the news. How did you feel when you saw this?

David Braben: We were approached by John Taplin, the Editor of Channel 4 News, when most of the people in his newsroom were playing “Elite” (It is an interesting thing that they were using a network of BBC Micros in order to write their news pieces – how times change!). Both Ian and I were interviewed by them, as was Peter Warlock the editor of “PCN” – a news magazine about games. So when we saw the piece on TV, alongside interviews with Arthur Scargill, coverage of the miner’s strike, and a strike at British Leyland, it wasn’t a surprise, but I got a real ‘buzz’ from it. I was even stopped in the street and in college about it.

CG: Although Frontier (Elite2) took around five years to make, if you had been given more time to work on it, would you have spent longer on it?

David Braben: I would have liked more testing, but to be honest I would have gone mad, I think (or is that even more mad), as five years is a long time to work on something!

CG: You’re one of only a handful of figures in the industry recognised by fans worldwide. How does that make you feel? Why do you think so few individuals stand out in this way in the world of videogames?

David Braben: It is great, but it is also a sign of the at times corporate nature of our industry. These days, games are made by large teams, so perhaps that is an inevitable consequence, but I expect we will see more figures coming to the fore as games become more of a creative medium, like cinema, than a technological tour de force, as is currently often the case.

CG: What influenced the original Elite? Did you have any idea that it might still have such a huge fanbase twenty five years later?

David Braben: George Lucas’s first Star Wars film was probably the biggest influence on me, as were the numerous science fiction books that I read. I didn’t really think as far forward as 25 years, but I did hope that it would have a big fanbase.

CG: How do you feel when looking at successful games such as Eve Online, that are often seen as heavily influenced by Elite? Does it make you swell with pride that something you created twenty five years ago still has such a profound effect on the industry?

David Braben: Yes – I am proud of the effect it has had.

CG: Has the rise of the so called ‘casual gamer’ made you think that a new Elite will need more mass appeal…as some would say, dumbing down?

David Braben: The ‘casual gamer’ is merely a whole new group of people that have come to games. All games don’t have to appeal to all people, just as all films don’t appeal to everyone.

It is also a dangerous assumption that casual games are ‘dumbed down’ in the first place. Many of these so called casual gamers are smart; they simply are not part of all the knowledge that has been built up over the years by hardened gamers like us. Remember the criticism of (for example) the excellent “GoldenEye” game on Nintendo 64. People said it was too confusing/too difficult to control – but with time it established probably our most popular genre, with much the same control scheme. To a casual gamer, an FPS’s controls are still complex – it is simply they haven’t yet been drawn in by them.

CG: How and why did the sublime Lostwinds come to be made?

David Braben: It was the first game to come through our “Game of the Week” process – essentially a set of internal forums where people can pitch ideas, and see whether others rip them apart, suggest improvements, or simply demand they be made. Game ideas that can survive this process are generally pretty strong – our MD David Walsh likened it to dipping a leg of lamb into a piranha-filled river – only the toughest bits survive.

The opportunity for a small number of people to work on a project for a short time arose, and LostWinds was the obvious choice.

CG: What influenced that game? The art and music seem to show strong Eastern influences.

David Braben: It was more of a case of taking inspiration from ‘windy’ places – a mix of Incan, Mayan, Tibetan designs, and getting a consistent look that meshed with them. This, and the creative talent of particularly Chris Symonds and Steve Burgess amalgamated them into a stylish whole, with music from Alistair Lindsay.

CG: What have you kept, and what have you changed, for the sequel? Did fan feedback play a part at all?

David Braben: We have improved on just about every aspect of the first game – there are major new gameplay mechanics (such as season switching) as well as most of those from the previous game, there are of course all-new larger environments, a strong story element and greater interaction with NPC’s, and the game looks even better than the first. We actually had an unprecedented amount of fan feedback from the first game, but they were mainly general expressions of joy about the game rather than specific ideas.

CG: Freedom seems to be at the core of a lot of your work in games, do you feel that gaming’s future lies down a non-linear storytelling path, that can help distinguish it from other media such as film or television?

David Braben: Games don’t need to have distinguishing features shoe-horned into them. Frankly they already stand apart. It is more that there is more of an opportunity, that is often missed, to craft an experience for the player, where they play a far bigger part. We are seeing this increasingly now in games, and it is a very good thing.

CG: Do you think that there is a tendency towards simplicity in game storytelling, that focuses on basic concepts such as good and evil or right and wrong? Is the industry finally beginning to mature and offer a more realistic and ambiguous approach to writing?

David Braben:The industry is continually maturing. Much as cinema started with essentially black and white characters (both literally and morally), it gradually introduced subtlety, much as we are doing now in games. To establish a concept, often it is easiest and clearest to do it in its purest form, but now we are starting to introduce those subtleties, doubts, ambiguities too.

CG: You recently said that the games industry has “arrived financially”, but still has a long way to go in other areas. What needs to be done, and what are you doing in your games in general to help?

David Braben: Games have arrived in many respects, but there are sectors in society that haven’t noticed our proverbial tank parked on their lawn. There is an older generation (and MPs are good examples of this sector) that still regard games as variants of the first Mario Brothers game or Space Invaders. The industry (myself included) has been spending time with government ministers, and I think that is making a big difference to perceptions of our industry.

CG: If we introduce this interview by saying ‘David Braben begged us to interview him for weeks, and we finally caved in’, will you kill us?

David Braben: Yes!

The first LostWinds game was charming, original, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. It met with well deserved widespread critical acclaim. Can Frontier follow that up without getting lazy and complacent?

The LostWinds games are 2D platformers with 3D graphics, but to leave it at that would be a gross oversimplification. You theoretically control two characters at once: the boy Toku (who can do little more than run, and eat fruit to replenish his health) with the nunchuk; and the wind spirit Enril, who appears on screen as a cursor, with the remote. Enril does most of the work, using the power of wind to kill enemies and throw Toku up to high platforms – amongst many other things.

Winter Of The Melodias picks up where the first game left off, and makes much more of an effort at a story than the first instalment. After a brief interactive intro controlling a new character (who you don’t control again), it becomes clear that Bad Things Are Happening once again. Toku’s mother has gone missing in the icy mountains and once you find her, you have a new problem. Luckily, Enril has some new tricks up her proverbial sleeve to help you out.

Enril, help me you ffuuuuu....

You retain the same wind powers from the first game, though Toku’s cape mysteriously disappears till near the end of the story. A new chapter brings new powers with it: a mini cyclone to lift Toku up or drill through certain floors, the ability to drain water into a cloud which you can then gust along and draw rain out of, and abilities to create snowballs and freeze small enemies – which only work in winter.

The biggest difference in WOTM is that you can now, after completing a few brief fetch quests at a certain point, switch between summer and winter by activating holy statues. This feature is employed for some simple but clever puzzles which, combined with the cloud creation ability, usually revolve around exploiting the fact that water can exist as a liquid, a solid, or a gas.

The same levels look suitably different depending on the season, with some minor differences to the enemies too. The clever and satisfying puzzles, atmospheric and relaxing music, and distinctive character design (supported by graphics that outshine even many retail Wii titles) give WOTM a Zelda feel, while still making it very much its own game.

As with the first game there’s some retracing of your steps, but you’ll rarely find yourself without something new to do – and you’re now given a basic map with destination indicators, which eliminates any aimless wandering trying to figure out where to go next. You can also see how many of the hidden collectables (which now unlock character info) you still haven’t found in each area.

You don’t need to have played the original to enjoy this, but those who have will get the most out of it – and we really can’t imagine why you would have an online Wii without LostWinds. Unfortunately, the one inescapable problem that the last game had has been passed on to WOTM – it’s all over far too quickly.

In just under four and a half hours we’d seen the story through to the end, and harvested over three quarters of the collectables. 1000 Wii points (about £7.50) is a small price to pay for such a lovingly crafted game however. We hope Shigeru Miyamoto plays the LostWinds titles, and remembers that he used to make games this clever and wondrous all the time.

4/5

For the 100th WiiWare title to be launched on the service, Nintendo have picked Frontier Development’s sequel to last years best selling LostWinds.

Despite sounding like some kind of JRPG, LostWinds is from the development studio led by David Braben, he of Elite fame. In the game you’ll control the elements of nature as you guide protagonist Toku on his quest to save his mother, lift an ancient curse and thwart the evil Balasar.

David Braben has this to say about the games release “We launched the original LostWinds game on WiiWare with much anticipation, as it was such an exciting and new way to access games. We are now thrilled to be able to mark the 100th game launch on WiiWare with LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias.”

To find out more about Lostwinds: Winter of the Melodias head over to: http://lostwinds.frontier.co.uk