Page 3
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
Lorne at D.I.C.E. 2008
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.
Sources: D.I.C.E. Summit
Lorne at VGXPO 2007
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.
Sources: America’s VideoGame Expo
Bross’s ‘Fighting Outlaws’ multitrack files
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.
Sources: Michael Bross’s MySpace
Code Monkeys
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
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.
Sources: getrichgaming.com
Lorne Lanning on CGSociety: Online game Wage Wars announced
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.
Sources: CGSociety
Luminary Lorne interviewed inside Inside Game Design
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.
Sources: SPOnG
Lorne Lanning on EGM Live* Podcast part two
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.
Sources: 1Up.com
Oddworld feature film concept art
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.
Sources: Oddworld Inhabitants
Lorne Lanning on EGM Live* Podcast
The EGM Live* Podcast with Lorne Lanning is available now and can be found on this page. The interview is 31 minutes long and starts at 8:30 (if you are not interested by GTA IV). Lorne talks about why he switched to movies, how he is approaching the development for Citizen Siege and his opinions about the relations between the Game and Movie Industry. Major revelations includes the fact that there are going to be two games related to Citizen Siege and that the Movie is set for 2010 at the moment.
Sources: 1Up
EMG Live* talks to Lorne
EMG Live*, the weekly podcast of Electronic Gaming Monthly, has interviewed Lorne Lanning on the topics of multimedia convergence and Citizen Siege. The audio interview is ‘coming soon’ according to 1UP.com.
Sources: Atusi
Depths of Oddworld resurrected
Forum veteran Hayley (Fan of the Month, November 2002) has brought back her fabled Oddworld fan site, Depths of Oddworld at a new address, currently appearing almost exactly as it did when it went down in 2005.
Sources: Hayley
OddChat revived
Alcar has re‐created OddChat, the Oddworld chat room provided by OddNet. As before, it is a registered IRC channel accessible through both your regular web browser and any IRC client. To connect with your IRC client, find the channel #oddchat on the server slashnet.org.
Sources: Alcar
OddBlog interviews Michael Bross
Monday, 30 July sees the release and shipping date of Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, Volume 1, the first Oddworld soundtrack released worldwide. To help promote the album, OddBlog has interviewed Michael Bross, composer of the music and the man responsible for getting the soundtrack released. You can find our interview along with out other special reports.
Video interview with Lorne by GamereactorTV
GamereactorTV has published a video interview with Lorne Lanning, conducted at this years’s GDC, where Lorne was otherwise sharing his experience of Burning Man. The interview reminds audiences why Oddworld Inhabitants left game production to focus on the Citizen Siege film, but plays down progress on the Citizen Siege game.
The video is also available on YouTube.
Sources: Atusi
Stranger’s Wrath soundtrack reviewed
The first review of Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, Volume 1 has been published by Music 4 Games. Jayson Napolitano praises Michael’s music as a ‘blockbuster soundtrack’ ‘composed masterfully’, saying it it ‘some of the most appropriate and catchy material I’ve heard from a title developed by a Western game developer.’
Sources: Music 4 Games
Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, Volume 1
Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, Volume 1 is now available for pre‐order from Michael Bross’s online music store in time for its worldwide release and ship date of Monday, 30th July 2007. Volume 1 of the official soundtrack contains 25 tracks accounting for 73 minutes’ worth of music. Previews of each track, and the album artwork, are available.
According to the official press release, digital distribution of Music From Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath by Nettwerk Music Group will offer the downloadable version of the album from iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music, and eMusic. The CD version will later be available from Amazon also, but with less of the proceeds going to Michael Bross.
Sources: Bross.com