Max: Added pictures

2010-11-25T21:07:17Z

Added pictures

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:07, 25 November 2010
Line 1:		Line 1:
			[[File:BalladOfFangus.jpg\|thumb\|<span title="">Fangus Klot and his rabid flock</span>]]
	'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that [[Oddworld Inhabitants]] started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix of first- and third-person action and combat as ''[[Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath]]'', but with a more muscle-bound and human character wielding guns in a darker and more political setting.		'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that [[Oddworld Inhabitants]] started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix of first- and third-person action and combat as ''[[Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath]]'', but with a more muscle-bound and human character wielding guns in a darker and more political setting.

	== Story ==		== Story ==
			[[File:PitfighterFangus.jpg\|thumb\|<span title="">Fangus is enslaved as a pitfighter</span>]]
	In ''Fangus'', various sapient races have evolved from felines and canines, the two cultures maintaining a deep mutual hatred. The inhabitants of Fangustan are a race of nomadic herders descended from bulldogs, but their lands are invaded by Vamps, the cat-like Mafia of another country. These feline Mafiosi build factories and refineries to produce hardcore catnip, forcing the native shepherds to work them.<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="NeverWas"/>		In ''Fangus'', various sapient races have evolved from felines and canines, the two cultures maintaining a deep mutual hatred. The inhabitants of Fangustan are a race of nomadic herders descended from bulldogs, but their lands are invaded by Vamps, the cat-like Mafia of another country. These feline Mafiosi build factories and refineries to produce hardcore catnip, forcing the native shepherds to work them.<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="NeverWas"/>

Line 7:		Line 9:

	== Production history ==		== Production history ==
			[[File:Fangus_FirstArea.jpg\|thumb\|<span title="">The first area of ''Fangus'' built in Maya</span>]]
			[[File:Vampanim.jpg\|thumb\|<span title="">Still from a Vamp animation</span>]]
			[[File:GameInformerFangusOrig.jpg\|thumb\|<span title="">''Fangus'' is revealed in April 2005</span>]]
	The game was going to use the ''Stranger'' engine, which Oddworld Inhabitants were very proud of and wanted maximise their use of,<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="Bloom"/> to tell the story of an Inhabitant ‘so intense he makes [[Stranger]] look like [[Munch]] in terms of intensity’<ref name="Intense"/>.		The game was going to use the ''Stranger'' engine, which Oddworld Inhabitants were very proud of and wanted maximise their use of,<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="Bloom"/> to tell the story of an Inhabitant ‘so intense he makes [[Stranger]] look like [[Munch]] in terms of intensity’<ref name="Intense"/>.

Max: Created page with "'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that Oddworld Inhabitants started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix ..."

2010-10-22T18:19:56Z

Created page with "'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that Oddworld Inhabitants started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix ..."

New page

'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that [[Oddworld Inhabitants]] started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix of first- and third-person action and combat as ''[[Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath]]'', but with a more muscle-bound and human character wielding guns in a darker and more political setting.

== Story ==
In ''Fangus'', various sapient races have evolved from felines and canines, the two cultures maintaining a deep mutual hatred. The inhabitants of Fangustan are a race of nomadic herders descended from bulldogs, but their lands are invaded by Vamps, the cat-like Mafia of another country. These feline Mafiosi build factories and refineries to produce hardcore catnip, forcing the native shepherds to work them.<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="NeverWas"/>

Amongst the shepherds is Fangus Klot, who is taken from his familiar forested hills and popberry fields<ref name="GameInformer"/> and enslaved for years as a pitfighter.<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Raymond"/> After many fights with increasingly powerful opponents, Fangus is pitted against a huge and rabid fighter who bites Fangus—infecting him with rabies—and destroys enough of the arena to allow Fangus to escape.<ref name="OddBlog"/> With the help of his rabid flock, Fangus must then free Fangustan before he succumbs to his rabies.<ref name="GameInformer"/><ref name="Raymond"/><ref name="NeverWas"/>

== Production history ==
The game was going to use the ''Stranger'' engine, which Oddworld Inhabitants were very proud of and wanted maximise their use of,<ref name="OddBlog"/><ref name="Nate"/><ref name="Bloom"/> to tell the story of an Inhabitant ‘so intense he makes [[Stranger]] look like [[Munch]] in terms of intensity’<ref name="Intense"/>.

The story is inspired by documentaries about Russian forced labour camps in Siberia that grew into city-scale prisons.<ref name="NeverWas"/> [[Lorne Lanning]] and Raymond Swanland were interested in exploring an area of Oddworld ‘like where Eastern Europe meets Russia’<ref name="Nate"/> and drew on the timeless mythical rivalry between cats and dogs to create opposing races who harboured an unrelenting mutual hatred, like Palestine and Israel.<ref name="NeverWas"/> Fangustan was modelled on traditional Afghanistan, populated by nomadic herders, while the Vamps were inspired by the post-Soviet collapse of Russian intelligence services into a corrupt mafia.<ref name="NeverWas"/>

Production started on ''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot'', including concept art<ref name="Silvio"/>, level design,<ref name="Durall"/>, music<ref name="Bross"/> and realtime animation (with over 100 animations outsourced to Alcazar Entertainment)<ref name="Alcazar"/><ref name="Winkelman"/>, all with a more serious, intense and politically shocking tone in response to the current trend in the market.<ref name="NeverWas"/><ref name="EGM"/> Originally, Lanning had set the story on Oddworld, albeit different part of it (even giving it a title of a different ilk to past Oddworld games)<ref name="Nate"/>, but keeping the setting on Oddworld, albeit a different part of it. However, having given the production team more control over the project, he saw that they shifted the design into something much more realistic and human<ref name="Radio"/> to make a more traditional shooter. Eventually Lanning lost interest, but let the game’s development continue on the proviso that it would not be set on Oddworld at all.<ref name="Nate"/><ref name="NeverWas"/>

''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot'' was announced in the April 2005 issue of ''Game Informer'',<ref name="GameInformer"/> previewed for fans on the Oddworld Forums by member LawnChairFire, but receiving some suspicion that it was an April Fools’ joke.<ref name="LawnChairFire"/> Unfortunately, by the time the magazine had reached news stands Oddworld Inhabitants were already shutting down the game development studio.<ref name="GameSpy"/>

Lanning was having talks with EA Games about a sequel to ''Stranger’s Wrath'' the year before the game’s release,<ref name="CVG"/> but having seen that their retention of the Oddworld IP meant the publisher was unwilling to invest in the game’s marketing, OWI eventually settled on Majesco Entertainment to publish their next title. However, Majesco began witholding payments to coerce Oddworld Inhabitants into renegotiating their contract, a situation OWI were not willing to put up with.<ref name="Nate"/><ref name="NeverWas"/> Feeling that an original Xbox title with no Live play would not succeed at a time when press and gamer attention was focused on the Xbox 360<ref name="NoFangus"/>, and receiving no more technical support from Microsoft,<ref name="OddBlog"/> Lanning and [[Sherry McKenna]] decided it was best to shelve the game and all future in-house game development. However, ''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot'' remains a story Lanning would like to tell one day,<ref name="Nate"/> possibly to be completed by an external story-game developer and digitally distributed.<ref name="NeverWas"/>

== References ==
<references>
<ref name="OddBlog">Max the Mug (8 November 2006). ‘[http://oddworldlibrary.net/oddblog/specials/Meeting_Lorne_and_Sherry Meeting Lorne & Sherry]’. OddBlog. The Oddworld Library.</ref>

<ref name="Nate">Lanning, Lorne (16 April 2008). ‘[http://oddworldlibrary.net/oddblog/specials/Nate_interviews_Lorne_Lanning#Fangus_and_Stranger Part 6: Fangus and Stranger]’ of ‘Nate interviews Lorne Lanning’. Published by Max the Mug (22 August 2008). OddBlog. The Oddworld Library.</ref>

<ref name="NeverWas">Lanning, Lorne (May 2009). ‘[http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/09/27/feature-interview-lorne-lanning-oddworld-fangus-klot-.aspx The Oddworld Game that Never Was]’, interview by Ben Reeves. ''Game Informer''. Posted online on 27 September 2009. [http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?p=384108#post384108 Scans] by ArtemisPanthar (23 May 2009). Post 36 in ‘Fangus Klot article in the new GI.’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums.</ref>

<ref name="GameInformer">Game Informer (April 2005). ‘The Brutal Ballad of Fangus’, ‘Connect’, p. 24. ''Game Informer''. Bloomington (IN): Sunrise Publications. [http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?p=194710#post194710 Transcription] by LawnChairFire (17 March 2005). Post 32 in ‘New Oddworld game published by Majesco!’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums. [http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/togg/index.php?image=OTBB0001.jpg1 Scan] by LawnChairFire (18 March 2005). Post 108 in ‘New Oddworld game published by Majesco!’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums.</ref>

<ref name="Raymond">Swanland, Raymond (unknown). [http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/bsw/bigImage.php?image=32131 Description of image] submitted to Ballistic Publishing.</ref>

<ref name="CVG">Daultry, Stephen (3 September 2005). ‘[http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=108803 EGN 2004: Stranger get your guns: Oddworld sequel planned]’. ComputerAndVideoGames.com.</ref>

<ref name="Bloom">Bloom, Charles (30 March 2005). [http://cbloom.com/oldrants.html Old Rants]. cbloom.com.</ref>

<ref name="Intense">Lanning, Lorne (20 December 2004). ‘[http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=113375 Interview: Enter the Oddworld of Lorne Lanning]’, interview by Graeme Boyd. ComputerAndVideoGames.com.</ref>

<ref name="Silvio">Aebischer, Silvio (19 July 2005). Various images in his [http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=113375 online portfolio].</ref>

<ref name="Durall">Durall, Jameson (3 April 2005). ‘[http://web.archive.org/web/20051215073838/http://jamesondurall.com/Pages/designprocess.html Oddworld: Design Process]’.</ref>

<ref name="Bross">Bross, Michael (31 May 2009). ‘[http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=102102760&blogId=492084940 Oddworld's "The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot"]’. Blog entry. MySpace.</ref>

<ref name="Alcazar">Alcazar Entertainment (13 January 2007). ‘Animation’, ‘Games’. [http://alcazarentertainment.com/ Alcazar Entertainment website].</ref>

<ref name="Winkelman">Winkelman, Kyle (24 June 2007). ‘[http://superwinkel.com/Winkelman_Anim_Games.html Game Cycles]’, ‘Animation’. Kyle Winkelman’s website.</ref>

<ref name="EGM">UnforgivingEdges (22 March 2005). [http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?p=195657#post195657 Post 299] in ‘New Oddworld game published by Majesco!’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums.</ref>

<ref name="Radio">Aebischer, Silvio (10 March 2005). Interview by Jason, 22·03. Broadcast by Jason (06/04/2005). Press Start. KCPR. [http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?p=199628#post199628 Transcript] by UnforgivingEdges (07 April 2005). Post 21 in ‘Date set for my Oddworld show!’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums. Made downloadable by Max the Mug (05/06/2005). ‘[http://oddworldlibrary.net/oddblog/2005/06/UnforgivingEdges%27_Oddworld_radio_programme_downloadable UnforgivingEdges’ Oddworld radio programme dowloadable]’. OddBlog. The Oddworld Library.</ref>

<ref name="LawnChairFire">Oddworld Forums members (17 March 2005). ‘[http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?t=11756 New Oddworld game published by Majesco!]’. Oddworld Discussion. Oddworld Forums.</ref>

<ref name="GameSpy">Padilla, Raymond M. (29 March 2005). ‘[http://gamespy.com/articles/599/599811p1.html The End of Oddworld?]’. GameSpy.</ref>

<ref name="NoFangus">Lanning, Lorne (27 April 2005). ‘[http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=117845 A brave new Oddworld: Lanning speaks out]’, interview by Graeme Boyd. ComputerAndVideoGames.com.</ref>
</references>
[[Category:Unreleased Oddworld videogames]]

The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot - Revision history

Max: Added pictures

Max: Created page with "'''''The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot''''' is a cancelled video game that Oddworld Inhabitants started developing for Microsoft’s Xbox. It would have featured the same mix ..."