Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure immediately stood out with its eye-catching announcement trailer, and its interesting mix of mystery, exploration, and crafting, so we reached out to developer Snowcastle Games to find out more.We chatted to Snowcastle Games’ lead artist Fredrik Dahl, who was kind enough to answer all our questions about upcoming adventure crafting game Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure!What is Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure?Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure is an adventure crafting game set on a magical island, which mixes together elements of exploration, building, and crafting, while also tasking you to befriend the island’s creatures. It’s in development from and published by Snowcastle Games.When does Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure launch?We don’t yet have an Xbox launch date for Ikonei Island, which first arrives in Early Access for Steam, but the devs currently plan for the full release to take place in 2023. We’ll keep you posted!What’s it about?“Ikonei Island is a game about rebuilding a deserted island and making a life for yourself, and for your friends,” Dahl begins. “The main characters are down on their luck kids in a port city trying to eke out a living playing music on the street when a mix of opportunity, dastardly hog-pirates and a certain boy in a frog suit (but don’t tell him it’s a suit) finds them and wants them to have an adventure.” Along with that more than intriguing premise, we’re told, “The Amri is something that is very much an undercurrent in the universe we’re creating in our games here at Snowcastle. I guess it can be best described as our most potent natural force. It is naturally benign, helping plants and animals get weird and wonderful abilities. If it is exploited, however, it can also cause quite an amount of chaos.” This is what’s gone wrong on Ikonei Island: according to the game’s Steam page, “an overabundance of magical amri is corrupting the flora, turning plants into dangerous monsters,” while “pirates are capturing and trading wildlife for profit.” We’re thrust into the midst of this chaos, to try to restore order and balance to the island.What’s the gameplay like?We’ll be kept busy during our adventure on Ikonei Island: exploring, gathering resources, crafting, building workshops, fighting pirates and freeing trapped creatures, taking care of our farm, and building our home. “There are also some fun little puzzles to figure out,” Dahl adds. “I’d also say that once you rescue the creatures they’re happy to help out too! They might know a thing or two the kids don’t — both helping you to new places and get hold of things you would have a hard time getting on your own.” It seems we’re not entirely alone on Ikonei Island, either: “Without spoiling too much,” Dahl says, “I can reveal that it’s not only pirates around. There might be some other people around that can fill in some blanks, and potentially be of some use both in rebuilding and making the island home.”So, we know pirates feature pretty heavily on the island, and that we’ll need to face them to free the creatures they’ve captured, but it seems they’re not the only threat. “The hogbunny pirates are perhaps not the best pirates out there (they do try though), and when they got greedy and tried extracting amri out of the ground things might’ve gotten a little out of hand,” Dahl says. “So they are certainly not the only threat, and I’d wager they’re really not the biggest either, no matter how tough they view themselves as.” We’ll also have our own base, that we’ll need to build up from its ruins, and we wondered whether this base might also expand to include the island’s locals. “Yeah, you’ll get to know the locals and some people that also are finding themselves on Ikonei Island. Some very interesting ruins provide a good base for building a roof over your head,” Dahl explains. “Once people get past the first hurdle of having a place to stay, they are inclined to want to do what they’re good at. I’d definitely say you might be well off lending them a hand or two.” We’ll be armed with tools for farming, crafting, resource gathering, and building, but it seems we won’t just have to rely on these. “Well, you can craft your way out of a lot of situations if you’re clever of course,” Dahl says, “but the animals have been there a long time and definitely have a trick or two up their…fur? One example would be that something that has a set of horns, or an axe beak, could for sure be an effective help when you’re trying to get through a rock, or there’s a particularly big tree stump in your way. We’ve seen schools of fish in the rivers and lakes around the island too,” Dahl adds, “and I wonder if there might be a four-legged friend that could help out with things like that too… they’re a varied bunch and I think there’s quite a lot they’d prove themselves useful for.” What’s the world like?“Ikonei has become a pretty sizable place as we’ve been building this game,” Dahl says. “When the players first arrive, it’s maybe not the best place to live. It’s very rainy and drab, there’s a lot of stuff that needs clearing out and the slimes and other monsters don’t make it any easier. But I think all the interesting things you’ll find while exploring, and battling the monsters will make it worth it!” We’re told that Ikonei Island used to be inhabited by an ancient people known as the Onurasi, but that “they’ve been dormant for a good while. But frogs and magical forces are still around and can help get in touch with them.” Ikonei Island is a mysterious place, and sees a lot of diversity between its regions. “As you get into the game, you’ll span everything from lush green areas through deserts, swamps and to the cold side of the island where the sun is hidden behind a mountain ridge,” Dahl says. “We’ve tried our best to create a richly varied place for the players to explore and experience! There might even be a few secrets to be found in the nooks and crannies around our little world.”Any news on the Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure achievements?We don’t yet have the Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure achievements, but Dahl gave us a few hints on what to expect! “We want a good mix of things that are very concrete goals for the player (story progress for example), and things that will reward the player for maybe thinking a bit outside the box,” Dahl explains. “Our game is pretty diverse and we’ve found more than one way to use our gameplay mechanics in-house, so we’re trying to leverage that as well. We’ve tried to make something where the players are allowed creative freedom and we’re hoping that our achievements can reward and reflect that.” Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure looks to be packed full of secrets and mysteries — out of everything the game offers, what is Dahl most excited for players to experience? “There’s a LOT of stuff I’m very excited to see people try out and do in our game. As a totally biased and subjective answer; as lead artist I can’t wait for people to see all the stuff we’ve made and put together for everyone to see,” Dahl begins. “I think we’ve made a good-looking game, thanks to my lovely art team who keeps knocking it out of the park, and that’s definitely a big one for me. It’ll also be super fun to see how people will use the things we’ve made for them to craft and decorate with too! I’m positive our players will do things we’ve never thought of! I’m into the combat in our game too, even at this early stage of it. During early access, it’ll be very exciting to get feedback from everyone about what they like and work to expand those systems together.”What do you think? Will you be diving into the magic and mystery of Ikonei Island when it launches for Xbox One? Let us know in the comments!
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