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Lorne talks concepting on Full Moon Show
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.
Sources: Insomniac Games
Citizen Siege pitch art revealed
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
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.
Sources: Andrew Pfister’s 1UP Blog
Lorne at NVArt but not D.I.C.E.
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.
Sources: PR Newswire, Kotaku
Abe’s Exoddus Short Film available for everyone!
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
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’
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.’
Sources: Kotaku
Lorne interviewed at Revelations
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.
Sources: Revelations, Ustream.tv
Lorne shares pitch experience
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
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).
Sources: Design Week
End of ‘End of the debate?’
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
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
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.
Sources: GameIndustry.biz, GamePolitics.com, Game Developers Conference website
‘Oddworld 2·0’ big plans in pipeline
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.’
Sources: GamesIndustry.biz
Raymond Swanland in Advanced Photoshop
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.
Sources: Advanced Photoshop website
Lorne to instruct at ConceptArt.org Winter Workshops
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.
Sources: Oddish, Jason Manley of ConceptArt.org Forums
Joystiq reports live from Thompson–Lanning debate
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.
Sources: Joystiq
Lorne judging ‘Amazing Creations’
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).
Sources: The CGSociety
Ballistic Media 2008 Calendar
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).
Sources: CG Newsletter, October 2007
Lorne on Hollywood Goes Gaming
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.
Sources: GameDaily Biz