There’s a cherry blossom tree right outside the offices of Frontier Developments Ltd., the Cambridge-based game development studio whose creative environment nurtured an idea borne from the wind rustling through its leaves. That idea was LostWinds, released to critical acclaim on WiiWare in 2008, blowing a fresh wind into the platform genre with a little help from a Wii Remote.

Inside the office, we’re meeting with some of the key people behind LostWinds and its sequel deep into development, LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, for a sneak peek at the follow-up to their original WiiWare offering.

It’s clear from the start that we’re meeting a creative team that knows how to take ideas and run with them. Stacks of concept art, character renders and level layout maps are strewn across the meeting room table, painting a rich, mashed-up picture of what we’re about to see on screen.

David Braben, chairman and founder of Frontier, leads the way: “When we set out to develop LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, the challenge was to deliver the same level of innovation and surprise as the first game rather than rest on our laurels and 'knock out' more levels, so we focused on major new gameplay elements that combine seamlessly with the powers from the first game.

“We made the characters and story more important for those who want it, the new environments in Mistralis are more varied, the directional hints given to the player are improved and we've continued to put in lots of small touches and polish that make the world even more interactive and rewarding of exploration.”

While the Frontier men don’t like to talk of their new game merely in terms of “more”, the sheer amount of things there are to talk about, and the passion for these that they bring to the table, speaks volumes. Director of Production Johnny Watts shows detailed maps plotting out all the possible paths for the player and explains how game development is all about the careful introduction of each gameplay element at the right point in the flow of the game.

“You’ll see that the graphics, at the moment,” he says, taking a brief pause trying to hide a little smirk, “…while we’re actually pretty pleased so far… are not yet in a polished state. That’s because we want to nail down our gameplay first: our puzzles, the interactions with the environment, and the way the player traverses it with new possibilities at different stages of playing through the game.” Watts produces one example after another of how the gameplay’s new building blocks interact and create new spheres of possibility. “It’s all about balancing the gameplay. We want players to experiment with their new powers, to discover new things.”

But Winter of the Melodias is meant to bring more than just new gameplay possibilities. It is after all the continuation of a story that started with so much left to tell. Managing Director David Walsh explains: “We’ve created this narrative universe where there are so many things left to explore, and this game really expands on what we started, while at the same time not forgetting where it began. We’re really exploring the world of Mistralis in a lot more detail, elaborating the mythology. People wanted more and this one definitely delivers on that.”