Latest news
Stewart Gilray talks Oddworld revival
Stewart Gilray, managing director of Just Add Water, has given an interview with VG247 in which he ellaborates on how the relationship between OWI and JAW was struck up, comments on how much press and fan excitement has been generated, and reassures fans that the series will stay true to itself. Stewart says the first thing they’ll release may even come before the end of July, but that it doesn’t qualify as any of the ‘big stuff’. According to him, there will be no announcements made at GamesCon.
Sources: VG247
New Oddworld games coming
English game developer studio Just Add Water has announced that it has been co-operating with Oddworld Inhabitants over the last 12 months and is currently working on four or five projects that will see a return to Oddworld.
While there are very few specifics, Just Add Water’s managing director Stewart Gilray told Glenn Percival, Joel Sherfinski and Josh Langford of the PS Nation Podcast the first project would see Abe but not on the PlayStation, and that he was hoping to reveal more in the next couple of weeks. Listen to the interview in Episode 173 of the PS Nation Podcast, ‘Portable Gravity’.
Just Add Water, whose popular retro-styled PSN shooter Gravity Crash is being released on the PSP soon this month, specializes in digital distribution, and like Gravity Crash the upcoming Oddworld games will not be released on physical media.
Stewart Gilray has also confirmed that the Twitter account AbeMudokon is official. Several keen followers had already put the pieces together, and video game blogs and forums were getting excited by Abe’s promises of ‘there's a new Oddworld.com coming soon’ (confirmed by The Native on the Oddworld Forums) and ‘In less than 48hrs, the truth will start to come out.... Sssssssssh’. One exchange with a fellow Tweeter has him mention 2.5D, a possible gameplay style for a future game.
Other key accounts to follow on Twitter include those of Just Add Water and Steward Gilray.
Sources: Just Add Water, PS Nation Podcast, TheSixthAxis
Abe’s Exoddus on PAL PlayStation Store
Following Abe’s Oddyee in April, Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus has been released on the PlayStation Store in PAL territories. Owners of the PlayStation 3 and PSP in these regions can now download the 1998 bonus game from PSN for just £3.99 or €4.99.
Sources: PlayStation.Blog.Europe, erwinraaben55
Abe’s Oddysee on European PlayStation Store
Confirmed by several members of the Oddworld Forums, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is now available to purchase and download from the PlayStation Store in Europe. No release date for Abe’s Exoddus has been given.
Sources: PlayStation.Blog.Europe
Oddbox delayed, achievements coming
Oddworld Forums administrator Nate has shared his correspondence with Lorne Lanning regarding the release of the Oddbox, a compilation of all four Oddworld games currently being created for Steam, marking the first time Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath will be published on anything other than the Microsoft Xbox.
In his messages, Lorne says he is still hoping for a 2010 release even though the conversion of Stranger’s Wrath is proving more troublesome than had been expected. Munch’s Oddysee, on the other hand, was in final gold at the time the message was sent.
He also revealed that Steam achievements are being built for all four of the Oddworld games.
Sources: Nate
Lorne judging NVArt5 competition
Lorne is sitting on the panel of the fifth NVArt competition, as he has done for all four previous competitions. The latest—Accelerate—challenges artists to create futuristic vehicle designs in the style of Syd Mead, who himself is leading the panel of judges. The deadline for entries is 30 June 2010.
Sources: CGSociety
Lorne at 3D Gaming Summit
Lorne Lanning is a featured speaker at the first ever 3D Gaming Summit being held at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City on 21–22 April. Lorne will be amongst the panelists discussing the role videogames will play in promoting the growth of 3D entertainment, particularly consumer purchasing of 3D HDTVs, on The Futurists Panel, at 3 p.m. on 22 April.
Sources: Zukan
Lorne’s advice to game designers
Lorne was amongst the panelists at the first annual Game Design Panel hosted by the Academy of Art University in San Francisco on 3 March. Lorne gives advice to people persuing careers in game design, specifically concept artists. Other panelists included Glen Schofield of Activision, Peter Tsaykel of Telltale Games, and Bill Mooney and Craig Woida of Zynga.
A recording of the panel, in two parts, is available on YouTube courtesy of Electrobud Games. The videos are low-quality but subtitled.
Sources: Zukan
The Antisocial Network revealed
Lorne Lanning was a panelist on Play It 4-Ward's debate, hosted by Paul Hochman, about international policing of the Internet, alongside game designer Jason Rohrer, Facebook's chief privacy adviser Chris Kelly, and author Andrew Keen. Lorne takes a polar stance on the topic and extols the idea of citizens forming a watchdog to police authorities and governments.
When asked to define the perfect game, Lorne takes the opportunity to describe the current focus of his latest company, OddMobb. The Antisocial Network is designed for users to find their enemies and ‘lock and load,’ unleashing their real world angst so that ‘enemies can attract and engage in fun together’ and ‘grow closer.’ Further details at this time are unavailable, but the Antisocial Network will be opening as a closed beta in the coming months.
The Antisocial Network is the first new project to come out of OddMobb, a company comprising Lorne Lanning, Sherry McKenna, Larry Shapiro and Daniel Goldman, which was first exposed when it filed a number of trademarks with the USPTO, including ‘Online social networking services’. While not online yet, the company will soon have its own website.
Sources: Zukan
Lorne blogs about PSN
To promote the release of Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus on the PlayStation Store this week, Lorne Lanning has written a blog entry in which he shares his excitement over Abe being brought home to Sony. The Abe games will be available U.S. $9·99 each from this Thursday, 22 October (not 21 October).
Lorne also replies to a number of the comments made, not only confirming that Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath will be made available on PC in 2010, but claiming they are investigating bringing them to the PSN as well! Lorne also hints that the next Oddworld title may just use the Stranger engine.
Sources: SparkErosion
New Oddworld trademarks
Seven patents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Monday 5 October hint towards the future projects of Lorne Lanning. The patents, all under the name of OddMobb, cover a variety of media including video games, action figures, card games, board games, novels, online social networking service, and online 3D virtual environment featuring user generated content.
The patents are owned by the Berkeley company OddMobb, Inc., which shares its address with Oddworld Inhabitants. Furthermore, the list of attendees of the Social Gaming Summit 2009 identifies Lorne Lanning of the company OddMobb.
Sources: James Cottee of Games On Net and supererogatory of superannuation
The Oddbox announced
Lorne Lanning was recently interviewed by Toby Davis of Bitmob. In this interview Lorne reconfirms that the Abe games are coming to the PSN:
TD: Will the gaming community ever see a re-release of the first two Oddworld games on the PSN store for PS3?
LL: Funny you should ask, because they are already on their way. We just signed the contract this week and the original Abe games will officially be coming to PSN very soon.
But he also announces The Oddbox!
TD: How big is the Oddworld universe in the grand scheme of things? Any chance of seeing another Oddworld game in the next five years?
LL: Oddworld is a creation that we'll likely never sell or part with. It wasn't created for that purpose. It was created with the intent of creating modern myths in pop culture mediums. Nurturing these myths and their casts [of characters] to actually mean something in an increasingly meaningless landscape of blatant consumerism.
So yes, we will be seeing more from Oddworld. Regarding the library, we are in the process of converting Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath to the PC, so that all four of the major Oddworld games will be re-releasing this winter in a package called "The Oddbox." This will be the Abe games, Munch, and Stranger as one package for Steam's digital distribution network, as well as a few other digital distribution outlets.
Regarding new material, we hope to have an announcement soon, but I've been saying that for awhile now so I'll just shut up and hope for the best.
Sources: Bitmob
Abe is coming to the PSN
Here's an excellent news for all of you that have been waiting to play Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exodus on their PS3 or PSP: the Abe games are coming to the PSN.
For those who don't trust ESRB leaks as a reliable source, we have have received confirmation from Oddworld Inhabitants themselves that this is indeed happening.
Players Only
The second season of Players Only with Scott Steinberg is finished now after eight episodes being released. Lorne Lanning is featured in several episodes where he shares his opinions and covers various aspects of the gaming culture. If you are a bit curious about what's going on in the game industry you definitely have to check out this show.
Sources: Players Only with Scott Steinberg
Summer Catchup
Here’s a little catch up of all the old news that are lickely to interest you but didn’t end up being posted on Oddblog because of our busy schedules.
Lorne Lanning was a panellist along with Brian Schmidt, Tommy Tallarico and Paul Lipson during the "Sound and Story" panel at the Siggraph 2009 in New Orleans.
Lorne is regularly juror for Ballistic Publishing’s EXPOSEs, and this year's edition is no exception. But this year he also conducted an interview with this year's Grand Master Award winner: Ralph McQuarrie.
A very interesting interview has been posted by 4 Player Podcast where Lorne explains the story behind Clakkers and various other aspects of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath.
Lorne has also recently given his opinion on the topic of Physical Video Gaming and has reacted towards Bioware's statement about ingame violence.
Finally it has been announced that he's an Advisory Board member of GameX , a video game expo scheduled October 23-25, 2009 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.
New Michael Bross album: Subway Meditations
Michael Bross’s sixth release, Subway Meditations, has been published on his own Deep Lever label. The album consists of ‘experimental, minimalist, ambient electronica’, composed largely using sounds recorded by Bross in the subways of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Subway Meditations is available on CD or download from Bross’s site, which also features track previews and one free track download.
It is also officially for sale at Amazon, eMusic and iTunes, but with fewer of the proceeds going to the artist.
Michael has writen some notes to accompany the release and describe his experience putting the album together. Subway Meditations has been reviewed by Patrick Gann of Original Sound Version and Marc Weidenbaum of Disquiet.
Meanwhile, two tracks by Michael Bross have been released on Oceans and Atmospheres, Deep Lever’s first compilation album that has been released under a Creative Commons license and is available as a free download.
Michael Bross’s ‘Fighting Outlaws’ multitrack files have been remixed by Deep Lever netlabel artist Tom Lynn, and the result is also available for free download.
Sources: Michael Bross and Deep Lever
More Oddworld film concepts
Today we would like to share three more images of concept art painted for the Oddworld films, very kindly given to us by Oddworld Inhabitants. The first two are by Raymond Swanland, and the third is by Lorne Lanning. The thumbnails below link to the full-size images on TOGG.
We would like to remind fans and press that Oddworld Inhabitants will not be answering any questions about these images, they are simply gifts for the loyal fans. Any information we provide about the meaning of these images is our own speculation and interpretation, and should not be taken as absolute truth. The Oddworld films are almost certainly still in pre‐production.
Fangus interview in Game Informer
The July edition of Game Informer is out, containing an interview with Lorne Lanning talking about the cancelled game The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot. The article includes several images of concept art by Silvio Aebischer and Raymond Swanland, only some of which have been available on TOGG.
It was Game Informer who first published the announcement of Fangus in their April 2005 edition, which was released just as Oddworld Inhabitants were ending their game production. The interview provides information for GI readers who were confused by the conflicting news.
Thanks to Daxter King for bringing this to our attention, and to Waterborn of 2old2play.com for uploading photos of the article.
TOLshop opens for business
Oddworld Inhabitants will soon be announcing the creation of the Oddworld Store, an online shopping centre where loyal fans can buy Oddworld merchandise and games. Although this may not seem like the greatest thing OWI could release at this time, the store puts an end to scouring eBay for rare whoopie cushions and baseball caps.
Although the Oddworld Store will not be opened for another few weeks, the Oddworld Library has been able to negotiate not only early news coverage but our very own preliminary TOLshop: a tiny preview of the eventual official site to help us celebrate the Library’s official third birthday.
Available now are a selection of five T-shirts in a range of sizes, one based on each Oddworld game and one based on the upcoming Citizen Siege film and games. Hopefully we will be permitted to add more items before the full range becomes available on the official Oddworld Store, but for now you have the option of lending your support for Oddworld Inhabitants with this nifty set of merchandise.
Socially responsible games discussed at GDC09
Lorne Lanning was amongst the big name participants in a panel discussion at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. ‘Stretching Beyond Entertainment: The Role of Games in Personal and Social Change’ was hosted by videogame author/analyst Rusel DeMaria (who wrote the official game guide to Abe’s Oddysee, as well as scores of other titles) with speakers Peter Molyneux, Bing Gordon, Will Wright, Ed Fries (who worked with Lorne during Oddworld Inhabitants’ time with Microsoft), and of course Lanning, and sought to address questions such as how games can be socially responsible and whether they should be.
Transcripts of the session can be found on Shacknews and Wonderland, while commentary and summaries are provided by Gamasutra, NowGamer and GameSpot.