March 2005
Oddworld Inhabitants downsizes
It is becoming apparent that as well as moving to Emeryville/Berkeley and outsourcing technical work to external teams, OWI is also undergoing downsizing. Currently, it is known that OWI have ceased in‐house games development, although the current status of the company and the recent project The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot is unknown.
Sources: Gamasutra
Future Oddworld production to be outsourced
GameSpy’s Raymond Padilla has spoken to Lorne Lanning about the next move Oddworld Inhabitants will be making, both in terms of their HQ and in the way they birth the Oddworld Universe. As well as OWI packing up their San Luis Obispo office and setting up shop in Berkeley, California (three miles north of the previously mentioned Emeryville), Lorne tells us that the Inhabitants will retain a small creative force, but will outsource much of their work to external developers to be produced for a much wider range of media, including television and films.
Sources: Raymond Padilla, GameSpy
The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot
Oddworld Universe has learned from an unnamed official source that Oddworld Inhabitants’ next time is tentatively titled The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot, supporting the recent article in April’s Game Informer.
In addition, OddBlog’s sister site, TOGG, has been updated with a whole host of new images. Specific details are available on the Oddworld Forums.
Finally, OddBlog is now back in operating order following a short technical shortcoming!
Sources: Oddworld Universe
Lorne confirms off‐Oddworld entertainment possibilities
Frank Meyer of G4TV has interviewed Lorne Lanning, quite a long time ago it is true, but I decided to report it anyway. So head over here. Lorne confirms they might develop games in an other world then Oddworld.
Sources: Frank Meyer
Mickaël Sangarin writes about Lorne’s inspiration
Mickaël Sangarin of GameOne has written an excellent article about Lorne Lanning, his inspiration and how he intergrated his life’s frustrations in his games. The bad point is that it’s in French.
Oddworld announces next game: Fangus
LawnChairFire has been able to get his hands on a copy of April’s issue of GameInformer and was able to scan a page of it, talking about Oddworld’s Next Game, that’s right, Oddworld 5 or Oddworld Fangus. Some belive this is an April’s Fool joke…
But according to UnforgivingEdges:
Lorne Lanning is quoted in the newest Electronic Gaming Monthly that the next Oddworld game is going to be driven by a huge political atmosphere to the game, and will be majorly shocking in the issues that it tackles, and how those issues relate to real life.
And when he was over at Oddwolrd Inhabitants last week and interviewed Production Designer Silvio Aebischer, he could get some additional info from him:
The stuff we’ve been doing previously is very Oddworld, it has a signature look; kind of quirky, weird, not necessarily beautiful, but they might be cute or likable. Now where the next game is going, it’s evolving definitely into a little harder look, more realistic in a lot of ways actually.
Sources: Game Informer, LawnChairFire,
Electronic Gaming Monthly, and UnforgivingEdges
Gamereactor interviews own editor
GameReactor.dk has put up an 11 minits interview. It’s in Danish, but don’t worry, Solitus translated a part over here (scroll down).
Creation of Stranger’s CG intro
CGNetworks has put up another very intresting article about Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath. ‘Creation of CG Intro’ that features some footage that didn’t made it into the final version of the video (click here) and also an interview with Technical Director Iain Morton and Sr. Animator Rich McKain.
Thanks to Scrubs for the head up.
Sources: Scrubs
Stranger’s Wrath online mini game
EA Dutchland has put up a nice little flash game to promote >Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath. Go over to that site, register and play: Oddworldgame.nl. There is also an English version available over here.
CGNetworks features Stranger’s birth
CGNetworks’ (owned by publishers of The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants, Ballistic Publishings) Barbara Robertson has written an article on the design processes and game concepts behind Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath with many quotes from Lorne and Sherry. ‘Character Ammunition’ looks at the industrial reasons for Oddworld going action‐oriented, the cinematic and gameplay advantages of dual perspectives, the backgrounds of Lorne and Sherry, some details on the creation of pre‐rendered cinematic sequences and the creation of Live Ammo, and is accompanied by large, highly‐detailed images from the game.
Oddworld.com has updated with more tracks from the games: four mp3s from Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee have been added to the site’s audio downloads, three of them previously available only through Alf’s Fan Club and Tea. Also, twelve tracks from the Japanese promotional release of the soundtrack to Abe A GoGo have been uploaded.
Oddworld Inhabitants and Lorne at GDC ’05
Oddworld Inhabitants had a booth at the Game Developers Conference. Also, Lorne Lanning took part to the ‘Additional question survey’ to the ‘Designing the AAA Title: Letters from the Trenches’ lecture.
Oddworld Inhabitants share Stranger tips
The Oddworld Inhabitants have contributed a number of hints and tips for playing Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath to IGN’s FAQs for the game.
Official site opens audio section
Oddworld.com’s download section has been uploaded with an Audio Section and a brand new Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath wallpaper in the Wallpaper Section.
Xbox Mag interviews Lorne
Xbox Mag posted up a French interview of Lorne Lanning. Very intresting to read if you can understand some French.
Official site celebrates Europe’s getting Stranger
Oddworld.com has been uploaded to celebrate the launch of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath in Europe TODAY! It contains new screens of the game and a fistfull of links to interesting pages about the game.
EA France presents new minisite
XboxGen along with EA France created a new minisite to promote Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath. It is hold by the Grubb Litchen a Stranger fanboy and has 2 exclusive gameplay movies on it (1 & 2)
Oddworld skat cards for download
Remember the Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath card game from the Man!ac magazine? Well the 2 card sets are available to download now in hi’ress version! (set 1 and set 2) There are only 32 cards because it’s a skat set, a typical German card game.