SligStorm

SligStorm was a title and game idea pitched by Paul O’Connor that never started development. He proposed the game for inclusion on a bonus CD of ‘making of’ features that would accompany an omnibus re-release of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus for the PlayStation.

The game would have been built using the A.L.I.V.E. game engine, slightly adapted from the version used in Abe’s Exoddus, probably so that there would not be infinite lives, and would have been roughly 50–100 screens in size, with perhaps two minutes of FMVs to provide the story. The player would have controlled an albino Slig grub trying to escape from a Slig birthing complex, where because of his abnormality he would be expected to be eaten by his mother, the Slig Queen Skillya.

However, Oddworld’s publishers at the time didn’t want to invest in a game starring Sligs, fearing that they were too ugly to appeal gamers. By the time Oddworld Inhabitants had starting full production on Munch’s Oddysee and The Hand of Odd, the company’s infrastructure no longer supported the 2D A.L.I.V.E. game engine. Paul said we might yet see Slig grubs and the birthing complex in Munch’s Exoddus, which was going to show Sligs in a way never before seen. The script for Munch’s Exoddus was started, but the game’s development gave way to that of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath.

Nonetheless, Oddworld Inhabitants haven’t forgotten SligStorm, and the ideas for it may yet be seen in some form in the future.