OddBlog

Nate interviews Lorne Lanning

2008-07-18T12:32:09+00:00

Earlier this year, my fellow administrator of the Oddworld Forums, Nate, was travelling through California and had the great fortune to be able to meet up with Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning and ask him several questions, including several suggested by members of the Forums.

Nate has teamed up with OddBlog and allowed us to publish his transcript of the interview. The entire article is several pages long, and so we have elected to divide it into eight segments, to be published every Friday over the next two months. Part 1: Citizen Siege and current projects is online now. A full listing of the upcoming segments is available on the Oddworld Forums.

Lorne talks E3 with IGN

2008-07-17T22:49:17+00:00

Episode 13 in IGN Insider’s To Catch an Editor video podcast features Lorne Lanning talking to Michael Thomsen and Dave Clayman for 90 minutes about E3 and other game conventions, game pre-release visibility and funding, retail and Steam, merging interactive and linear technology, voice acting in games, the gaming press, and democracy in corporate media. In fact, the interview is so long that it only ends when it does because the interviewers ran out of space on their hard drive to record the audio. Lorne offers anecdotes about his experiences with Oddworld at E3, and even brings up Penny Arcade’s Oddworld comics.

The Oddworld Cinema on YouTube

2008-07-02T00:35:27+00:00

The Oddworld Cinema, the Library’s repository of freely downloadable Oddworld videos, has opened a new branch on the epic video sharing website YouTube. This new channel will allow some of our videos to be streamed, a service the Cinema doesn’t currently offer. Due to copyright restrictions, not all of our videos can be uploaded to YouTube, but everything we have will remain in the Cinema for download.

Lorne in IGN Insider’s Hot Seat

2008-06-12T03:19:33+00:00

Lorne Lanning has been interviewed by Michael Thomsen of IGN Insider’s new Hot Seat feature. The interview attempts to ‘dig deeper into [his] personal life, tastes, and inspiration’.

Lorne confirms working with Braun

2008-05-31T14:07:33+00:00

Lorne Lanning has confirmed to various sources that Oddworld Inhabitants are working with Jeff Braun, but has not gone on to clarify what they are working on together.

Lorne acknowledges that Braun ‘let slip some comments’ during his talk to Wilfrid Laurier University while they are not ready to make any official announcement. There has been no confirmation over whether the game is set on Oddworld, in the Citizen Siege universe, or a separate world.

Meanwhile, online student newspaper Cordweekly.com has published its interview with Jeff Braun, conducted by Daniel Joseph prior to Braun’s speech, where Braun says he has been helping with the business side of things, guiding Oddworld though the ‘tricky minefield’ of ‘“gotchas” in the game industry.’

Maxis co‐founder working on new Oddworld game

2008-05-23T00:33:38+00:00

Speaking at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, the co‐founder of video game developer Maxis, Jeff Braun, has revealed that he is involved in the production of a new Oddworld game. No details were given on any setting or story, nor did the report on Braun’s address by stuent newspaper The Cord Weekly make certain that Maxis itself was involved, but a slow production schedule is said to mean it will be years before the game ships.

Apparently, the game will feature ‘a revolutionary new 3‐D animation system allowing videogame players to experience a cinematic quality on a “1 to 1 scale” to that of computer‐generated motion pictures.’ This means that the game will be built out of the same digital backlot used to create any films relating to the game. This is the production model Lorne has been describing in interviews since it was announced he was shutting down Oddworld Inhabitants’ internal game development studio in favour of outsourcing programming and animation to other companies.

‘The rendering tools are getting so good now for 3D animation that you can literally create a linear animation and create a video game using the exact same objects. The tools are finally getting to the level where we can come out with a show and we can come up with a game,’ Braun says about this method, adding that players of the game would be ‘literally on the set.’ Braun hints that this new Oddworld project will be released episodically.

This should not be seen as news that Oddworld Inhabitants has stopped working towards releasing the Citizen Siege games and feature film. Lorne has stated that there are currently four projects he is working on.

Limited edition Stranger’s Wrath soundtrack

2008-05-13T13:21:13+00:00

A limited collector’s edition version of Oddworld music composor Michael Bross’s soundtrack to Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is now available from Russian label KeepMoving Records. ‘Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath’ Original Soundtrack: Volume 1 contains the same music as the original release, but includes alternative packaging and CD art, and a 24‐page, full‐colour insert featuring track descriptions, Michael’s interview with Game‐OST, and reportedly‐never‐before‐seen Stranger’s Wrath CG and concept art. This release has only 500 copies, each available for USD7·99 plus shipping costs.

Michael’s latest album is the three‐track EP Dogs and Their Stars, released 29 April, and his upcoming three‐track EP Nomad will be released on 27 May. Preview tracks for both albums are available on Michael’s site.

EXPOSÉ 6 released

2008-05-11T18:37:56+00:00

EXPOSÉ 6 is now available to pre‐order from Ballistic Publishing—publishers of The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants—and will start shipping in early June. Lorne Lanning sits on the book’s Awards Committee.

This year, five pieces by Oddworld artist Raymond Swanland have ben included in the digital art yearbook:

‘Fomori Nomad’ – selected for the ‘Fantasy’ category
‘Of What’s to Come’ and
‘Brothers of the Wind’ – both ‘Excellence’ in the ‘Creatures’ category
‘Books of the South’ – ‘Excellence’ in the ‘Warriors’ category, and available as a 220 × 297 mm bonus print with the limited edition of the book
‘Sea of Death’ – ‘Excellence’ in the ‘Conflict’ category

Lorne continues judging NVArt

2008-04-24T10:51:48+00:00

After judging ‘Amazing Creation’, the first competition in the NVArt series, Lorne Lanning has gone on to judge submissions to the second competition, ‘artspace | Architecture and Landscape’ (whose winners have been announced), and the upcoming third, ‘Design Fusion’, in which entrants are challenged to create ‘great fusions of 2D and 3D design.’

Lorne on Adventure Classic Gaming

2008-04-08T19:30:02+00:00

There’s an new interview with Lorne Lanning over at Adventure Classic Gaming. He talks about a whole lot about media and its flaws, films and games.

The second part of the Full Moon Show has been posted on the Insomniac Games site. Lorne's part is from 0:23:30 to 0:41:10.

The Oddworld Scriptures relaunches

2008-04-01T12:22:49+00:00

Today is the Oddworld Library’s second birthday, two years since its official opening. To celebrate, the Library has reopened its catalogue of Oddworld interviews and designer diaries: The Oddworld Scriptures are back online!

For more information on today’s birthday celebrations, and all the latest updates to the Library, check regularly the reopened Library Bulletin Board or the brand new TOL Thread on the Oddworld Forums.

Lorne talks concepting on Full Moon Show

2008-03-21T12:09:50+00:00

Lorne Lanning has been interviewed by James Stevenson for the twenty‐second episode of Insomniac Games’ Full Moon Show, where he talks about concepting for video games and films. Lorne describes the difference between designing stories and characters for games and for films, and talks about how unrestrained focus on graphic realism and big‐name actors is showing up current technical limitations of CGI and diluting characters’ emotional extremity.

Lorne’s interview is so long that the second half, in which he talks more about Citizen Siege, will be available in the next episode of the Full Moon Show, available from 3 April.

Citizen Siege pitch art revealed

2008-03-17T14:58:44+00:00

OddBlog is pleased to present an exclusive round of Citizen Siege production paintings by Raymond Swanland, used by Lorne to pitch the film to prospective publishers and developers. The paintings can be found in the latest OddBlog Special, ‘A glimpse of Citizen Siege’.

Some of these images have previously appeared in Iain Simon’s 2007 book Inside Game Design, recently scanned by Alcar, but now these and three exclusive extras in available in much greater resolution.

Lorne on 1UP Yours

2008-02-20T12:30:02+00:00

Lorne Lanning, along with Amy Hennig, game director on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, have sat down with Garnett Lee, Shane Bettenhausen, Shawn Elliott, Bryan Intihar and Andrew Pfister in the first 1UP Yours GDC 2008 special podcast to talk about mainaining creative control over character design and storytelling in videogames.

Lorne joins the group at 6·55 and leaves around 50 minutes in.

Lorne at NVArt but not D.I.C.E.

2008-02-05T11:09:02+00:00

As we reported in November, Lorne judged submissions to NVIDIA’s and CGSociety’s inaugural NVArt digital art challenge, ‘Amazing Creations’. He was present at the unveiling of the winning pieces at the San Jose Museum of Art on 1 February where he discussed his perspectives on art.

However, since we reported it in October, Lorne’s talk “But wait, there’s more…!” Lessons learned in creating & selling original IP has been dropped from the D.I.C.E. Summit schedule.

Veteran media industry executive Jim Banister has written on his blog about spark marketing versus traditional marketing, drawing on an analogy of Lorne Lanning’s.

Abe’s Exoddus Short Film available for everyone!

2008-01-25T19:20:00+00:00

Back in 1998 Oddworld Inhabitants submitted the first short film based on a video game for an Oscar Nomination. This film was mainly made with the CG movies contained in the game itself but has also exclusive footage to bind them all together and make the story understandable. This Short Film was shown for a very brief period in a local theatre and then only released on a very few videotapes. But today you can finally view this little piece of Oddworld history as it is hosted on the Oddworld Cinema. Enjoy it guys!

Guided tour to Oddworld Inhabitants

2008-01-25T18:40:00+00:00

The old guided tour of Oddwolrd Inhabitants filmed by the GamePower crew of Jim TV has finally found his way to the internet and is hosted by the Oddworld Cinema (end of the page or download directly [DivX, 64MiB]).

This video is still interesting years after (it was filmed right after Munch’s Oddysee was finished), indeed it shows plenty of never seen anywhere concept art and explanations of Lorne himself of some creatures and characters that didn’t make it in the final version of Munch’s Oddysee.

I really hope you will enjoy this one.

Xbox 360 backward compatibility updates ‘winding down’

2008-01-10T16:24:27+00:00

Having spoken to Albert Penello, group marketing manager for the Xbox 360, at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, Kotaku is reporting that there may well be no more updates to the list of original Xbox titles made backward compatibile with the Xbox 360. This comes as disappointing news to fans of several popular (if not top selling) games, amongst them Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath.

Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee was finally made backward compatible in April, but there were numerous reports that the game ran with appalling audio quality that made GameSpeak, sound effects, and background music virtually inaudible.

Kotaku, quoting Penello, tells us not to hold our breath for further updates: ‘At this point the stuff that’s left is work per title, every title now is almost a one‐off. Right now we have to think, are we really going to do 300 one‐off titles? I know it’s not exactly the answer everyone wants to hear, but I feel like it’s time.’

Lorne interviewed at Revelations

2008-01-08T14:40:00+00:00

Oblio and Phong of the ConceptArt.org Forums have been broadcasting live direct video feed from the Revelations workshop run by ConceptArt.org and Massive Black. Amongst numerous interviews (all initially broadcast live) is a 44‐minute chat with Lorne Lanning.

Lorne talks about the role of artists, video games as an art medium, the importance of economics, how he became an artist, and how aspiring artists can make their dreams come true.

Lorne shares pitch experience

2007-12-21T22:09:02+00:00

GameSpot has examined the process of pitching in the video game industry, by which developers secure funding and distribution of their gaming ideas. Lorne Lanning contributes to ‘Spot on: ‘Here’s the pitch…’’ by explaining his own methods. He exlains how Abe’s Oddysee owes its production to venture capital, why Citizen Siege was secured as a film before it was a game, and—in GameSpot’s news blog ‘Sidebar’ entry ‘Pitched and ditced’—why Pound Dog never made it as a game.

Iain Simon explores Lorne’s passion

2007-11-20T17:41:40+00:00

Veretan gaming commentator Iain Simon, director of GameCity (where Lorne first announced Citizen Siege) and author of Inside Game Design (in which Iain interviews Lorne), presented to the Institute of Contemporary Arts last night an exploration of ‘the processes, passions and motivations behind some acclaimed video game designers’, among them Lorne Lanning (although he was not present).

End of ‘End of the debate?’

2007-11-20T16:58:07+00:00

The second part of Lorne’s interview by Mark Androvich has been posted on GamesIndustry.biz. In it, Lorne talks about censorship of art and of the truth, violence in art, and the nature of art.

More Oddworld film art

2007-11-15T18:04:20+00:00

OddBlog is tremendously excited to be able to share two more production paintings from the very early stages of the Oddworld film. The first is by none other than Lorne Lanning, and the second is another piece by Raymond Swanland.

Once again, we must remind fans that the Oddworld film is only in pre‐production, and Oddworld Inhabitants are concentrating on the Citizen Siege feature film for the time being, so don’t expect to see trailers any time soon. This is just a special treat to remind fans that a return to Oddworld is still on its way.

Also, we understand that Matt Lee, who has recently been responding to mail from the Oddworld fan community, has still not caught up with our fan mail, but has every intention of doing so given time!

The video game violence debate

2007-11-13T15:59:36+00:00

Mark Androvich of GamesIndustry.biz has interviewed Lorne Lanning following his Moral Kombat panel debate with Jack Thompson, on the reasons why violence in video gaming is still generating debate. In the first part of the interview, published today, Lorne blames press sensationalism, ‘the opportunity‐seeking politicians and the Jack Thompsons of the world,’ for keeping alive a contention that science and the courts have repeatedly dismissed as a non‐issue.

Jack Thompson recently claimed to have been asked by ‘the man who organizes’ the Game Developers Conference to reprise the Moral Kombat debate at GDC 2008, although it later transpired (after investigation by GamePolitics.com) that Thompson had not been invited to GDC by either its director, Jamil Moledina, who did not attend VGXPO, or video game composer Tommy Tallarico, with whom Thompson actually spoke after the initial debate.

It was documentary filmmaker Spencer Halpin’s wife who broached the possibility of repising the debate at GDC to Thompson over the ’phone, after the idea was discussed by Lorne, Halpin, and Tallarico over dinner after the Moral Kombat debate at VGXPO. The GDC team has released a preliminary list of sessions and speakers for GDC 2008, and although neither Lorne nor Thompson are yet announced to be in attendance, attorny Lawrence Walters will be speaking on the topic of Jack Thompson’s antics, and other legislative attempts to restrict the sale of video games.

‘Oddworld 2·0’ big plans in pipeline

2007-11-13T15:08:17+00:00

Marking the ten‐year anniversary of the release of Abe’s Oddysee, GamesIndustry.biz has spoken to Lorne Lanning about the change in Oddworld Inhabitants’ approach to production, and the future of Oddworld.

Calling the future of our favourite intellectual property ‘Oddworld 2·0’, Lorne admits that the long‐anticipated Oddworld feature film is in the early stages of pre‐production, the most explicit mention yet of the film’s state of development. Two production paintings for the film, by Raymond Swanland and depicting the Cell Condo Silo in RuptureFarms, were released through OddBlog in early August this year.

He also states that there are four projects currently being worked on, another of which is a machinima television series, probably the same ‘very strange HD episodic television series’ Lorne told the the CGSociety about in September, although whether this is an Oddworld or Citizen Siege production is left uncertain. The other two projects are likely to be the Citizen Siege film, and its Wage Wars online game accompaniment.

Lorne finishes by admitting to fans that it may take longer than they’d like to see Oddworld again, but that the universe is still ‘really, really close to our heart, […] and we have big plans for it.’

Raymond Swanland in Advanced Photoshop

2007-11-12T16:19:09+00:00

Oddworld Inhabitants artist Raymond Swanland has been interviewed for the latest issue of Advanced Photoshop, a magazine for professional and enthusiastic users of Adobe Photoshop.

Lorne to instruct at ConceptArt.org Winter Workshops

2007-11-10T20:01:11+00:00

Lorne Lanning will be amongst the people instructing at the ConceptArt.org Winter Workshops, which are happening at the Bell Harbor Convention Center, Seattle, 4–7 January 2008.

Joystiq reports live from Thompson–Lanning debate

2007-11-03T10:17:22+00:00

Reporting live from the Philadelphia Convention Center, Joystiq has been covering the panel discussion between Lorne Lanning and advocate of banning violence in video games Jack Thompson as it happens. The debate, moderated by Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, was over whether video games are responsible for certain instances of violent crime, a topic discussed in the recent documentary film Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat.

Lorne judging ‘Amazing Creations’

2007-11-02T16:51:44+00:00

Lorne is a judge for the first NVArt competition, ‘Amazing Creations’, which is calling for digital art of ‘things that are impossible in the real world.’ NVArt is the result of a partnership between NVIDIA and the CGSociety (on whose Advisory Board Lorne sits). Also judging is Mark Snoswell (President of the CGSociety), whom OddBlog interviewed in September 2004 in anticipation of The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants (released by the CGSociety’s sister division, Ballistic Publishing).

Ballistic Media 2008 Calendar

2007-10-24T23:03:39+00:00

Ballistic Media, publishers of Oddworld’s ten‐year anniversary art book, have released an 18‐month calendar featuring artwork taken from EXPOSÉ 5 that can be framed as prints, available now only through BreakPoint Books. The calendar features two of the four paintings by Raymond Swanland used in EXPOSÉ 5: ‘Shadowstorm’ (December 2007) and ‘Bladesinger’ (December 2008).

Lorne on Hollywood Goes Gaming

2007-10-24T00:27:06+00:00

Lorne Lanning will be amongst the various guest stars from the video game and film industries appearing on Hollywood Goes Gaming, a Starz Original Production that promises to examine ‘the synergistic link between Hollywood and the video game industry, which has been evolving over the last three decades.’

Presented by Richard Roeper (of Ebert & Roeper), Hollywood Goes Gaming will be broadcast by the Starz cable network at 9 p.m. EST–PST on Monday, 26 November.

Lorne at D.I.C.E. 2008

2007-10-09T20:45:00+00:00

Lorne Lanning will be amongst the key speakers of the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit. He will deliver his speech, entitled “But wait, there’s more…!” Lessons learned in creating & selling original IP, on 7 February.

Lorne at VGXPO 2007

2007-10-09T20:30:00+00:00

Lorne Lanning will be at America’s VideoGame Expo (VGXPO) this year to meet gamers and to have a panel discussion with Jack Thompson, supervised by Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal. The panel will be about Spencer Halpin’s controversial documentary, Moral Kombat, featuring ‘leading politicians, journalists, academics, consumer advocates and special interest group executives, game developers, retailers, trade associations and publishers.’ Of course, Lorne and Thompson are in the documentary too. Halpin was recently interviewed by Generation: Gamerz.

Bross’s ‘Fighting Outlaws’ multitrack files

2007-10-02T21:50:00+00:00

Michael Bross posted the multitrack files of his ‘Fighting Outlaws’ (from Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, Volume 1) on his website. You can download them and start mixing it into your own creations now.

Code Monkeys

2007-10-02T21:20:00+00:00

Pilot has found out that Lorne Lanning is a guest star in episode 10, ‘Third Reich’s the Charm’ of G4TV’s Code Monkeys. Kastere found a clip of it on the G4TV site under the name ‘Worst Game Ever’ it is now also hosted on The Oddworld Cinema.

Get Rich Playing Games

2007-09-21T20:40:00+00:00

Lorne Lanning has been interviewed by Scott Steinberg for his book Get Rich Playing Games where he’s looking at how people from the gaming industry break into the business and hit the jackpot. Lorne talks about the early days of Oddworld Inhabitants and how they started it. You can buy the book or directly download the pdf file on his site.

Lorne Lanning on CGSociety: Online game Wage Wars announced

2007-09-05T18:35:00+00:00

Lorne Lanning announces that actual production of the first Citizen Siege game will start soon. Wage Wars will be the first game online of the franchise and will tie in with the film. The game was mentionned in an article over at CGSociety, where Lorne talks about some other projects, EXPOSÉ 5 and how important creativity is to him.

Luminary Lorne interviewed inside Inside Game Design

2007-08-27T22:31:00+00:00

Lorne Lanning is amongst the twenty designers profiled and interviewed by Iain Simons in Inside Game Design. This new book, by the director of Nottingham’s GameCity (in which Lorne first announced Citizen Siege), studies the approaches developers take to design and produce video games, using examples from today’s top creative individuals and teams. It contains glossy images depicting the transformation of creative ideas into functioning games.

Inside Game Design is published by Laurence King Publishing and released this October. You can already pre‐order the book from Amazon.

Lorne Lanning on EGM Live* Podcast part two

2007-08-15T23:40:00+00:00

Another EGM Live* Podcast with Lorne Lanning is available now and can be found on this page. The interview is 19 minutes long and starts almost immediately. This time Lorne talks about how terrorism and violence is handled in media, The Sims and the PlayStation 3. No news about Lorne’s projects but still interesting to listen.

Oddworld feature film concept art

2007-08-07T22:46:00+00:00

We have a delightful surprise for Oddworld fans today. Oddworld Inhabitants has very kindly shared with us two conceptual paintings by Raymond Swanland that have been produced for the Oddworld film. The thumbnails below link to the paintings on TOGG.

We would like to stress that it is far too early for Oddworld Inhabitants to talk about the film to the press or answer questions about these images in particular, and we suggest not bothering OWI with questions they can’t answer. However, they always welcome interest and mail from fans, for whom these paintings are a special treat.

OddBlog

Nate interviews Lorne Lanning

Lorne talks E3 with IGN

The Oddworld Cinema on YouTube

Lorne in IGN Insider’s Hot Seat

Lorne confirms working with Braun

Maxis co‐founder working on new Oddworld game

Limited edition Stranger’s Wrath soundtrack

EXPOSÉ 6 released

Lorne continues judging NVArt

Lorne on Adventure Classic Gaming

The Oddworld Scriptures relaunches

Lorne talks concepting on Full Moon Show

Citizen Siege pitch art revealed

Lorne on 1UP Yours

Lorne at NVArt but not D.I.C.E.

Abe’s Exoddus Short Film available for everyone!

Guided tour to Oddworld Inhabitants

Xbox 360 backward compatibility updates ‘winding down’

Lorne interviewed at Revelations

Lorne shares pitch experience

Iain Simon explores Lorne’s passion

End of ‘End of the debate?’

More Oddworld film art

The video game violence debate

‘Oddworld 2·0’ big plans in pipeline

Raymond Swanland in Advanced Photoshop

Lorne to instruct at ConceptArt.org Winter Workshops

Joystiq reports live from Thompson–Lanning debate

Lorne judging ‘Amazing Creations’

Ballistic Media 2008 Calendar

Lorne on Hollywood Goes Gaming

Lorne at D.I.C.E. 2008

Lorne at VGXPO 2007

Bross’s ‘Fighting Outlaws’ multitrack files

Code Monkeys

Get Rich Playing Games

Lorne Lanning on CGSociety: Online game Wage Wars announced

Luminary Lorne interviewed inside Inside Game Design

Lorne Lanning on EGM Live* Podcast part two

Oddworld feature film concept art