Wii’s Lost Game: Winter
You know Matt Casamassina from IGN, well he’s always seems to have info on stuff he can’t talk about. But he constantly teases everyone about games only he knows about. For awhile Matt kept talking about a certain dark game coming out for the Wii. Matt now reveals the game as Winter. Unfortunatly the game is canceled, but the developers still want to realease the game if any publishers are interested. There is a article on IGN about the game.
Premise: unnatural snowstorm that has settled over a small town in the Midwest, effectively closing it off from the outside world. The main character, Mia, begins the game inside a wrecked ambulance with no recollection of how she got there. As she treks off towards the small town, she starts to see signs of something monstrous that is traveling with the storm.
– Initially player just keeps Mia alive (sheltering her from temperature/snow)
– Learn that Mia has a connection to the storm
– Creatures appear, town is being transformed by snow and icedoors are blocked
– Ways to keep Mia warm: Use Wii controller to spark fire, light oily rags, finding keys to abandoned vehicle to start engine and run the heater
– Wiimote/nunchuck extension of player’s hands
– Opening a door: Player points at handle, punches A+B buttons, pukllsit open
– Each tool takes advantage of Wii controllers – Flashlight flickers, player has to tap the Wiimote until it starts working again
– 12 people were working on the game at its peak
– Video was made to publishers in March 2007
– If the game got a publisher, would have liked to improve graphics (lighting, etc)
– Game was pitched for months, response was positive. Got hung up with sales and marketing groups – couldn’t get behind a survival horror
– Fact that the game was an original IP might have been part of the problem – also, publishers would have to go out of their confort home
– There were talks of movies/comic books (standard tie-ins) – Had to get game off first which stalled everything
* – Devs would still want to release Winter if publishers showed interest – would welcome to the opportunity to pick up where they left off
