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Lorne & Sherry at MARAMA; Lorne at NVISION
Lorne will once again be amongst the instructors in attendance at the ConceptArt.Org and Massive Black’s International Art and Design Workshop. The Marama workshop takes place at the Wellington Conventian Centre in Wellington, New Zealand on 13–16 November 2008. Sherry McKenna will also be instructing at the event.
Lorne will also be present at NVIDIA’s NVISION 08, a three‐day visual computing conference held in San Jose, California on 25‐27 August 2008. He will be interviewed by NBC 11’s technology reporter Scott Budman as part of Day Two’s ‘Visual Computing Perspectives: Interviews with Remarkable People’.
Watch out for the fourth installment of Nate’s interview with Lorne Lanning, published tomorrow morning on OddBlog.
Sources: ConceptArt.Org Forums, NVIDIA press release
Nate interviews Lorne Lanning
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
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.
Sources: IGN Insider
The Oddworld Cinema on YouTube
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
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
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.’
Sources: GamesIndustry.biz, ComputerAndVideoGames.com, Cordweekly.com
Maxis co‐founder working on new Oddworld game
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.
Sources: The Cord Weekly
Limited edition Stranger’s Wrath soundtrack
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.
Sources: KeepMoving Records, Soundtracks
EXPOSÉ 6 released
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
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.’
Sources: The CGSociety
Lorne on Adventure Classic Gaming
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
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
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