Original Game Ideas – Winter Island (Gameplay)

Yesterday, I went over the recap of Winter Island’s story. Seeing how long it is shows how ambitious I am about this. For a reminder, here’s the schedule for the week as seen the last couple of days:

You may click on one of the red buttons to read more about the section. The green button is the current section.

Winter Island – Gameplay:

As previously said, Winter Island is an adventure game with action. Although there are dungeons like in the Zelda games, much of the game’s walkthrough is about completing missions, with focus on dealing with the cult, investigations, and other stuff. The first act is more about gaining knowledge on the cult, while the second act is about saving the island.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s entry, here’s the details. The early missions imply that the whole reason why Jenny got involved in the cult’s business in the first place was because she had an overdue library book, and the library she borrowed it from was burned down. This resulted in a series of investigations that not only helped her learn about the cult, but also James’ identity as the cult leader. To end the eternal winter, this was the right path for her, while James lied about the existence of an ice sorcerer, or at least assumed that there was an ice sorcerer.

Missions:

One of the key features is that you have a mission log. When you have unlocked a mission, it will appear in the mission log and on the game’s map, which depends on where you are. The two types of missions are story missions (which are marked with a white cross icon) and side missions (which are marked with a blue snowflake icon). Story missions are for progressing through the story, while side missions are for unlocking rewards. Rewards for side missions include, but not limited to:

• To-Go Boxes (the game’s equivalent of the fairy bottles in Zelda)
• Snowball Shooter (a gun that shoots snowballs)
• Snowball Shooter Upgrade (choice between more powerful shots with worse firing rate, or weaker shots with better firing rate)
• Jingle Bells (which puts enemies to sleep within a certain radius)
• Snowflake Coins (the game’s currency)

The side missions aren’t the only sidequests in the game. You also have present worlds (which are very much like the secret levels in Super Mario Sunshine) and golden snowflakes. There are even some that are required to collect or complete as part of the first mission. For the golden snowflakes, each time you collect five, you can expand your health (one unit each for a total of twelve additional units), your staff energy (one minute each for a total of four additional minutes), your wallet size (twice only), or your inventory (twice only). If you get all 100 golden snowflakes, you can unlock a defense upgrade, where you only take half as much damage. In regards to present worlds, they can upgrade on your snowmobile or other abilities, such as running twice as fast, being able to shoot snowballs with your snowmobile, or no damage to falling into water.

Candy Cane Staff:

Your primary weapon is the Candy Cane Staff, a metal rod shaped and decorated like a candy cane. Before you get the weapon, you can only punch or kick. But after picking it up from the vault, you will have a weapon to fight with, which deals more damage. You can also make it glow, which is useful for navigating dark spaces like the Cold Caves.

Each dungeon you enter, you unlock a new ability with the Candy Cane Staff, and it’s not just boosting the power of it for completing four of the dungeons.

• In the Cold Caves, you can change the color of the light casted by the staff after talking to Charlotte’s mother in the cabin.
• In the Hall of Death, you can glide using the staff after freeing one of the prisoners.
• In the Cavern of Fire, you can zipline using the staff after defeating all five fire spirits in one arena.
• In the Bayside Haunted House, you can perform a dash attack after breaking five chests, which can hit wall switches.
• In the Sand Caves, you can break heavier objects after defeating a larger sand crab.
• In the Robot Airship, you can block attacks with your staff after solving a puzzle.
• In the Revelations Temple, you can cast lightning with your staff right before you awaken the seven gargoyles.

If you complete one of the present worlds, your prize will be additional colors to the light created by the Candy Cane Staff, which can trigger two different flashing light sensors instead of just one.

Speaking of which, one of the mechanics as seen in the dungeons, present worlds, and even some parts in the main world, is the flashing light sensors. If your glow is off or of the wrong color by the time you step near a flashing light sensor, an alarm will go off as the light will flash on and off. But, if your light is of the same color as the flashing light sensor, it will stop flashing, and something convenient will happen, like opening of gates, ledges popping out, or spikes in spike traps receding. The change won’t even be temporary, unless if there’s another sensor that reverses the change. And once you trigger the flashing light sensor, you don’t have to worry about it flashing again.

Playable Characters:

Although you get to play as all three characters, the ability to play as Charlotte or Andrew are underused game mechanics and only happen in some parts of the game. For Charlotte, you only get to use her to investigate Carl Robertson and to give out the money James previously owned. For Andrew, you only get to use him when saving people from the house fires and when establishing the Republic of Terra Vita. Most of the time, you’ll be playing as Jenny. You also rarely get to play as Jenny when she is without her staff, as she gets it very early in the game.

Health, Power, and Inventory:

At the very beginning, you start with four units of health, represented by snowflakes in the HUD. Each time you take damage, you lose an entire snowflake or two, depending on how big the attack is, but with a defense boost, you lost half a snowflake or whole. There’s also an energy bar, which depends on your energy. By default, you can only have your player light on for one minute if your light is white, or 45 seconds if your light is colored. And if you are gliding with your light off, you can only stay in the air for 45 seconds. You also can have at most 500 snowflake coins and five items in your inventory.

Each time you collect five golden snowflakes, you can choose a reward, which are:

• Health Upgrade – adds one unit of health – 12 upgrades max.
• Energy – adds one minute worth of player light energy – 4 upgrades max.
• Wallet Size – doubles the size of your wallet – 2 upgrades max.
• Inventory Size – doubles the size of your inventory – 2 upgrades max.

When you complete the story mission that requires collecting all five five golden snowflakes in the Diamond District, it will automatically count as an inventory upgrade, which means you can have only one more upgrade.

If your wallet or inventory is full, you can always place them in the storage box in the Star Estate or the squad’s base of operations.

The following besides enemy attacks are considered hazards: spikes, fire, falling in the water (before water resistance upgrade), electricity, and falling from heights. Of these hazards, fire deals the most damage, but ice hardly has any effect on Jenny. James’ attacks when you battle him also deal a lot of damage, especially his lightning strikes. Poison, lava, and bottomless pits, as well as being crushed, will result in an instant death, regardless. There’s also only one attack from enemies that will kill you, regardless of your health. That would be James’ accelerating purple homing beam. If you get hit by it, you instantly die. But if you hit James before it gets you, you not only break the spell, but also beat the entire game since that won’t be seen until the near end of the game.

Restoratives:

Most of the pickups you get from defeating enemies or smashing presents are restoratives or snowflake coins, where the coins build up your currency, while restoratives are automatically consumed once collected. The most common kind of restoratives are loaves of bread, grape juice, and fish. Bread restores health by one unit, while grape juice restores energy by 30 seconds worth of energy. Fish are less common than bread and grape juice, but they restore two units of health and 45 seconds worth of energy at the same time.

You can also restore your health and energy by filling your to-go boxes with Cajun food. Each food has different effects.

• Red Beans and Rice – restores four units of health
• Dirty Rice – restores one minute worth of energy
• Boudin – restores four units of health and one minute worth of energy
• Beignets – restores four units of health and grants temporary immunity to damage
• Bananas Foster – restores one minute of energy and grants temporary infinite energy
• Crawfish – restores eight units of health
• Cajun Shrimp – restores two minutes worth of energy
• Cajun Fried Chicken – restores eight units of health and two minutes worth of energy
• Jambalaya – restores all health
• Gumbo – restores all energy
• King Cake – restores all health and energy
• Filled Donut – restores either health or energy

The better the items, the more expensive they are. King Cakes are the ultimate restoratives, but they cost 1,000 snowflake coins, and there’s only one seller that sells them. Said seller also doesn’t appear until after the eternal winter has ended. Jambalaya and Gumbo can be collected earlier in the game. In every city except for Lumen City, there’s only one seller that sells either (or both), and you’ll have to break the curse of the city to unlock them. Health restoratives typically cost more than energy restoratives, and for every item that restores both health and energy, the price of the health restoratives is 80% as much, while the price of the energy restoratives are 60% as much. As for the filled donut, you may never know which meter is refilled or how much will be refilled. It has a 25% chance of restoring four units of health, a 25% chance of restoring eight units of health, a 25% chance of restoring one minute worth of energy, and a 25% chance of restoring two minutes worth of energy.

Bonus Content:

Aside to the present worlds and golden snowflakes, one other feature of Winter Island is the mini-games. When you go to a sports arena, there are three different types of mini-games to choose from. You can play winter sports, even after the eternal winter ended since Penelope Sky made the stadiums cold.

• Snowmobile Race – a racing mini-game similar to games like Mario Kart. You race against seven other racers while you drive the yellow snowmobile. The four types of power-ups are snowballs (which you can fire ahead and slow down racers), boosters (which allow you to speed up), ice blocks (which you can leave behind and temporarily freeze racers), and shields (which can defend your snowmobile from snowballs and ice blocks. If you finish the race in first place, you will earn 500 snowflake coins. Finish in second, you win 200 snowflake coins. Finish in third, you win 100 snowflake coins. You can also collect trophies from different stadiums.
• Ice Hockey – a team game where you have to get the puck to the other side to score points. If you score the most, you earn 300 snowflake coins and a trophy. If not, you come home empty-handed. You can collect trophies from different stadiums.
• Snowball Fight – a game where you throw snowballs against three other players. Your goal is to hit each player while dodging snowballs. If you take five hits, you lose. The later you get eliminated, or the more health you have by the end of the game, the better your prize. You can earn 250 snowflake coins if you finish in first place, 100 snowflake coins if you finish in second place, and 50 snowflake coins if you finish in third place. You can collect trophies from different stadiums.

Each time you want to play a game, you have to pay 10 coins to play snowball fight, 20 coins to play ice hockey, and 50 coins to play the snowmobile race.