OddBlog

OddBlog moves

2010-11-20T16:51:13+00:00

OddBlog is moving to a new system that allows Xavier and I to bring you news faster despite our busy workloads. This new OddBlog is powered by WordPress and can be found at the new URI of http://oddworldlibrary.net/blog/. The existing archive of over 500 OddBlog stories will not be moving to the new system anytime soon, but will remain online in their current location, as will the OddBlog Specials.

Please update your bookmarks and news feeds to the new OddBlog to keep up to date with all the latest developments from Oddworld, Just Add Water and OddMobb. And remember OddBlog has its own Twitter account that you can follow!

http://oddworldlibrary.net/blog/

First Stranger remaster dev diary

2010-09-17T18:27:09+00:00

The first in a new series of developers’ diaries chronicling the remastering of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath by Just Add Water has been published on the official JAW website. This entry introduces the changes that need to be made to the game, which will form the backbone of the series, and describes their choice of version control software. There is also an enlightening image comparing the Stranger model with different polygon counts.

Stranger’s Wrath remastered for the PlayStation 3

2010-09-16T15:03:01+00:00

Just Add Water has announced their first project working with the Oddworld universe, a remastered digital release of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath on the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStaion Network. While the game itself will remain exactly the same, it will be updated with higher display resolution, improved character models, remastered audio and support for PlayStation Move. Resolution will be upped from 640×480 to 720p, and character model polygon counts increased from the original Xbox’s 3 000 to 25 000. Dialogue, often criticized for being grainy and low-quality, is having its bitrate doubled from the original 11kHz to 22kHz.

Despite media reports that it will be PlayStation 3-exclusive, Lorne Lanning and JAW’s Managing Director Stewart Gilray have confirmed that an Xbox Live Arcade release has not been ruled out but can’t yet be confirmed because of technical and beaurocratic reasons.

Stranger’s Wrath was the choice of remaster over Munch’s Oddysee for several reasons, including its lack of middleware dependency and high ratings by critics. It is the first announced of five projects being worked on by JAW and is expected to be released—with French, German, Italian and Spanish subtitles—near Easter 2011.

JAW will be publishing a series of developer diaries about the remastering process, with the first part due today.

Early Oddworld retrospective and future Oddworld format

2010-08-03T22:42:14+00:00

NowGamer has spoken to Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna and published a couple of articles about the history of Oddworld. The first, ‘The Odd Couple’, the professional relationship between Lorne and Sherry and its role in the founding of Oddworld Inhabitants. This piece concludes with Lorne’s description of how the format of future Oddworld gaming instalments will differ from those of the past.

Rather than the, ‘Here’s the 30-hour story you’re going to unfold through an action-adventure game.’ It would be something that’s more of a living ecosystem. And I don’t mean that in terms of a natural simulation, but I mean in terms of a marketplace that would allow people to have much more custom configuration over their gaming experience.

‘The Odd Couple’ online article accompanies a fuller interview in Issue 98 of games™, available since 8 July. The second article is ‘The Making of Abe’s Oddysee’, follows the title’s development from inspirations to release, along the way looking at the game’s tone, art, audio and gameplay.

Stewart Gilray talks Oddworld revival

2010-07-19T12:34:09+00:00

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.

New Oddworld games coming

2010-07-16T13:46:16+00:00

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.

Abe’s Exoddus on PAL PlayStation Store

2010-06-02T18:42:03+00:00

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.

Abe’s Oddysee on European PlayStation Store

2010-04-16T17:10:34+00:00

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.

Oddbox delayed, achievements coming

2010-04-16T16:57:05+00:00

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.

Lorne judging NVArt5 competition

2010-04-16T16:04:23+00:00

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.

Lorne at 3D Gaming Summit

2010-04-16T15:43:46+00:00

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.

Lorne’s advice to game designers

2010-04-16T14:45:37+00:00

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.

The Antisocial Network revealed

2010-01-14T19:11:06+00:00

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.

Lorne blogs about PSN

2009-10-20T10:49:10+00:00

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.

New Oddworld trademarks

2009-10-11T17:29:27+00:00

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.

The Oddbox announced

2009-10-09T13:55:00+00:00

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.

Abe is coming to the PSN

2009-10-02T22:13:00+00:00

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

2009-10-02T21:20:00+00:00

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.

Summer Catchup

2009-10-02T20:10:00+00:00

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

2009-07-31T15:15:20+00:00

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.

More Oddworld film concepts

2009-06-29T15:44:34+00:00

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

2009-05-16T01:34:00+00:00

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

2009-03-31T15:36:00+00:00

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

2009-03-30T22:55:16+00:00

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.

Art of Oddworld Inhabitants Collector’s Folio Edition

2009-02-12T13:09:21+00:00

Ballistic Publishing has announced that The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants—one of their most successful titles—has been reprinted in a limited Collector’s Folio Edition, which comes with a special padded/stitched cover with a weathered‐leather appearance and varnished title, a hand‐crafted presentation case with purple protective ribbon, and a numbered certificate of authenticity individually hand‐signed by Oddworld Inhabitants founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna. While it includes no new content, and despite its name is no larger than previous editions, everything in it has been re‐processed so that each page features the finest possible reproduction. The Collector’s Folio Edition costs U.S. $290 (not including shipping), and has a highly limited print run of just 100 copies. It has already started shipping.

To coincide with the announcement, Ballistic has spoken to Lorne Lanning about (DFA), its history and future.

Abe’s Oddysee production retrospective

2008-12-23T00:04:00+00:00

GOG.com, which recently added Abe’s Oddysee to its catalogue, has interviewed Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning about the game’s production, some eleven years after its initial release. Lorne divulges the inspirations behind possession, GameSpeak, HUDlessness, and multiple endings. GOG.com has also added some extra bonus downloads that are free to all who purchase Abe’s Oddysee through them.

Lorne praises digital distribution and Steam

2008-12-22T17:32:56+00:00

Although Lorne Lanning has described his advocacy of digital distribution and Valve’s Steam in the past, he continues to praise the platform in Gamasutra’s latest interview with him, which is possibly inspired by the recent appearance of Abe’s Oddysee on GOG.com.

Lorne points out that the porting of the titles to Steam has required virtually zero investment while allowing them to explore the mechanisms of the digital distribution business as a channel to publish their upcoming releases—which he lists as Citizen Siege, something new for Oddworld, and a third Hollywood meets gaming project. Lorne also vaguely describes the style of their future gameplay:

We’re open to exploring how to best maximize our existing library, but haven’t been focused on creating huge story games with 40 hours of linear gameplay recently.

We’ve been focused on a slightly different chemistry that we believe will prove appealing to gamers and Oddworld fans alike, but it’s a big risk because it’s way outside the box.

And that excites us. In some ways it will be very alien to Western gaming, but it’s in this direction that we believe the excitement will be. Hopefully, not too much longer.

Lorne judging fourth NVArt competition

2008-12-20T22:58:03+00:00

Lorne Lanning is amongst the judges of the fourth NVArt art & design competition. For Surreal: In the Style of Jacek Yerka, candidates are asked to submit surrealist compositions in the style of Polish Jacek Yerka.

Oddworld inhabits GOG.com

2008-12-16T18:21:03+00:00

Digital distribution site GOG.com has today released Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (compatible with Windows XP and Vista) for download, with Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus expected to follow shortly on 23 December. OddBlog has the full press release. Praising the Oddworld games, GOG.com Managing Director Adam Oldakowski had this to say:

Oddworld Inhabitants created an unbelievable world and fascinating characters that remind us about the pure joys of gaming. It’s amazing how the game holds up to today’s games and we’re not surprised that many consider these some of the best platform games of all time

Both Abe titles games were released on Steam earlier in the year, with the promise that the Xbox‐exclusive titles would be available on Steam ‘in the not too distant future.’ While there has been no word yet of Munch’s Oddysee or Stranger’s Wrath on Good Old Games, GOG.com does have two advantages over Steam.

Firstly, to download and run the games requires no special launcher application like Steam’s client software. Secondly, for the same price, GOG.com provides bonus materials that are listed on their website as follows:

manual (28 pages)
map (series)
mp3 soundtrack
hi‐res wallpaper
hi‐res wallpapers pack (6)
avatars

And thirdly, GOG.com comes with a reassuring statement by Oddworld Inhabitants’ new president, Larry Shapiro, who says:

We are happy to add the Oddworld series to the GOG.com catalogue. It’s a great chance for anyone who’s already played the games to remember why they were so much fun, and also to introduce Abe and his fellow Mudokons to a new generation of gamers. We believe that digital distribution is the future of gaming for both developers and gamers, making GOG.com an ideal fit for Oddworld.

Citizen Siege not set aside yet

2008-11-14T11:41:33+00:00

Despite what was suggested by Variety’s videogame blogger earlier in the week, Sherry McKenna has confirmed that the project is still in development, albeit not with originally‐announced partner Vanguard Animation.

Ben Fritz originally wrote on The Cute Scene:

It’ll be a while until we find out exactly what Oddworld’s up to now. But I do know it won’t be the ‘Citizen Siege’ animated movie that it was previously working on with Vanguard Entertainment. McKenna told me there were ‘creative differences’ and the rights are reverting back to Oddworld.

But speaking to GamesIndustry.biz’s Matt Martin, Sherry has denied the multi‐media sci‐fi story has been dropped:

Citizen Siege is a project near and dear to our hearts so while we are no longer developing it with Vanguard due to the famous ‘creative differences’, it is still in development.

The Citizen Siege feature film was announced by Lorne at the first GameCity two years ago as being in development by a partnership between Oddworld Inhabitants and John H. Williams’ Vanguard Animation. Since then, little news has been reported on the project, except that it will have two videogame accompaniments including the online multiplayer Wage Wars.

Sherry has also commented on the previous day’s news that Larry Shapiro is the new president of Oddworld Inhabitants:

Lorne has always had the title of president but now with our new model he is going to concentrate on what he loves most and that of course is the creative. Larry will get to deal with all the ‘stuff’ presidents of companies have to deal with. The good news is that we all see the future in a similar vein so that makes it very exciting.’

Larry Shapiro becomes president of Oddworld

2008-11-12T11:40:37+00:00

Larry Shapiro, formerly Chief Creative Officer at Brash Entertainment, has been named the new president of Oddworld Inhabitants. Shapiro was Oddworld’s agent when he was co‐head of CAA’s videogame department, and joins the company having left Brash—the game publisher recently turned into a skeleton crew during financial hardship—in July. OWI’s previous president, Lorne Lanning, will step down to focus more on the company’s creative side.

Speaking to Variety weblog The Cut Scene, Lorne says:

No one is more in stride with us than Larry. We both see the same future landscape. It’s a petty radical departure from the contemporary landscape. While we think there’s a number of barriers to break through, we think there are tremendous opportunities on the other side of the barrier.

Shapiro has similar high hopes that the new partnership will aid Oddworld’s new business model:

I have a great opportunity to add value to a company and to work with people who I am inspired by and who look to where the industry is going and not where its been. We intend to break the model of where games are today in a unique and entertaining way.

Considering Oddworld Inhabitants’ next release, The Cut Scene reporter Ben Fritz supposes it won’t be the Citizen Siege feature film produced in partnership with Vanguard Animation, having been told by Sherry McKenna that there were ‘creative differences’ and ‘the rights are reverting back to Oddworld.’

Lorne speaks at University of Connecticut

2008-10-30T23:02:05+00:00

According to Gaius Darkfire of TeamXbox, Lorne Lanning was going to speak to the University of Connecticut Video Game Organization on Sunday 26 October. There are not yet any reports from the event.

GameCity 3 label by Lorne

2008-09-30T10:10:07+00:00

The folks behind GameCity 3 have partnered with Nottingham’s Castle Rock Brewery to launch their first festival beer—Fine Ale Fantasy. The beer’s name was chosen by Paul Treneary in video game radio show One Life Left’s competition ‘What’s the Pint?’. The ale’s pump clip and bottle label will be designed by none other than Lorne Lanning.

Lorne appeared at the first GameCity where he delivered the festival’s keynote speech, in which he first announced Citizen Siege. This years event takes place in Nottingham, U.K. from 30 October to 1 November.

Abe wins Ugliest Hero award

2008-09-30T09:53:55+00:00

GameDaily has awarded Abe of Oddworld the title of ‘Ugliest Hero’ in their feature ‘The Top Ten Ugliest Game Heroes’. Feature author Robert Workman adds: ‘Still, he’s charming enough that we wouldn't mind seeing him in a sequel.’

Xbox Oddworld destined for Steam

2008-09-08T14:27:04+00:00

Lorne has spoken to Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer and confirmed that the Xbox‐exclusive Oddworld titles Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee and Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath will be available as PC games from the Steam Network ‘in the not too distant future.’ In his recent interview with Lorne, Nate was told that these conversions would wait for good Steam sales of the Abe games.

Lorne: Consoles are a problem

2008-09-06T11:54:36+00:00

After taking the stage at NVISION 08, Lorne Lanning sat down with GameDaily BIZ’s John Gaudiosi to talk about console vs. PC game development, user‐created content, fitting games into our increasingly fragmented daily lives, and talks a bit about the next Oddworld game, news of which was slipped by Jeff Braun earlier in the year.

Also, the final part of Nate’s interview with Lorne has now been published. Lorne talks about the bettering of the Oddworld universe, the new cast of Stranger, and the Oddworld theme tune.

Abe’s Oddysee and Exoddus on Steam

2008-08-29T13:33:08+00:00

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee (1997) and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus (1998) are now available to download in their entirity from Steam, Valve’s online digital distribution platform for PC games. A free demos of each title is available, but the full games can be purchased for a mere $9·99 each, or just $14·99 if you buy them together as part of the ‘Oddworld Pack’. What’s more, to celebrate the re‐release of the games, Steam is deducting 10% from all these prices for a week, ending 4 September.

News that Oddworld was going to be re‐released on Steam was first revealed to the online fan community by Oddworld Forums member Nate on 16 April, the very day he had just been told this by Lorne Lanning in person as part of his interview. However, the revealing part of the interview had not been published by OddBlog until today, coincidentally the day after the games’ online launch. This is the penultimate section of Nate’s epic and highly received interview with Lorne Lanning.

Now, though, fans of the first two Oddworld games can buy and download Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus legally, instead of scrabbling for remnant game discs from carboot sales and eBay. Furthermore, according to Lorne, good sales of these titles makes it possible that this relaunch will be followed up by Steam releases of Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath, the first time these games will have been made available for the PC.

The Making of Oddworld

2008-08-29T12:55:39+00:00

Lorne has given a substantial interview to Edge magazine, detailing much of the overarching development of the Oddworld titles and brand, from the founding of the company to the closing of its game production studio, and how changing limitations in the video game industry have affected the series’ story and gameplay over the years.

Lanning speaks for digital art

2008-08-29T12:45:50+00:00

Lorne has given an interview for VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi, in which he complements his comments at NVISION 08 by talking about the mainstreaming, acceptance, and authentication of digital art.

Lorne at NVISION 08

2008-08-29T12:36:59+00:00

Lorne appeared at NVISION 08 last week, where he spoke about digital art. Showing several examples of fine art (which Sylvie Barak of The Inquirer says ‘looked more like massive, complex, multicoloured bacteria than anything else’) and the recent trailer for Ubisoft’s Beyond Good and Evil 2, he talked about how digital art is allowing science and physics to inspire the creation of impossible worlds, which are in turn an inspiration to scientists; how such datasets can be used by games and, in turn, movies; and claiming that students of the future will be submitting videos, not text.

Realtime coverage and live video was available from Ryan Shrout on PC Perspective. Digital art shown by Lorne includes ‘Grow of cubic bacteria’ by Václav Pajkrt, ‘Torn’ by Monsit Jangariyawong, and ‘Process + Propagation 14’ by Chris Bobotis. A collation of reviews and media is maintained by Xavier on the Oddworld Forums.