Oddworld creator gives update on next game and hints at Abe TV show spinoff Oddworld InhabitantsAfter the launch of Oddworld Soulstorm, we spoke to creator Lorne Lanning about the difficult journey of creating the game, what fans can expect from Abe\u2019s next adventure, and the potential for an Oddworld animated TV series. Almost two decades after the original Abe\u2019s Oddysee put Oddworld on the map for gamers everywhere, a remake called New \u2018n\u2019 Tasty was released in 2014 to huge acclaim \u2013 so much so that Lorne and his team were given the go-ahead to create the sequel they\u2019d always dreamed of making. Enter Oddworld Soulstorm, an entirely new experience that managed to capture what fans have always loved about the franchise, while bringing it firmly into the next generation with incredible graphics, solid gameplay, and mysteries to discover (check out our review if you\u2019re not convinced). A few launch-day bugs aside, fans were generally pleased with the arrival of Soulstorm, and being a free PlayStation Plus title for PS5 meant Abe was able to reach a whole new audience. But creating the game wasn\u2019t easy, with creator Lorne Lanning describing it as an \u201cincredibly challenging\u201d experience. Why did Oddworld Soulstorm take so long to come out? Soulstorm was first announced in 2015, but it would be another six years until the game eventually dropped. Aside from the obvious major world events, there were a number of other reasons why development took so long. Unlike the straight remake New \u2018n\u2019 Tasty, Soulstorm was pretty much a whole new game, meaning it required far more resources. Then, the boom in free-to-play titles like Fortnite made it harder to find the talent required. \u201cThe industry kind of blew up in a glorious financial way with free-to-play and the monetization of mobile gaming, and that put a tremendous demand on the workforce,\u201d Lorne tells Dexerto. \u201cBig studios were willing to give contractors sweet deals, and we\u2019re just the little guys, so it became more challenging to secure our needs. That caused us to fragment more around the planet, firstly finding talent that was skilled in unity \u2013 which is challenging \u2013 and secondly finding people that can actually do it. So as a creative project around the world, I would say it was really difficult.\u201d Despite the lengthy production time, there were still some interesting features that the dev team weren\u2019t able to get into Soulstorm. One big idea on the Oddworld creator\u2019s wishlist was to have more end bosses. A tiered \u2018panic\u2019 system was once in the works that would see more and more enemies unleashed on Abe until, in the final round, giant Slig Mama robots would be summoned. Sadly, these ideas ended up on the cutting room floor, or played a smaller part in the final game. \u201cWhat I would say in general with games, is that you start out with the game you want to make, but then you deliver the game that you can make \u2013 and they\u2019re almost never the same,\u201d explains Lorne. \u201cI have a lot of fun conceptualizing games, I have a lot of fun directing story, and I have a lot of fun writing, but when it comes to the process \u2013 and this is something I tell film directors when they move to games \u2013 it\u2019s not about being a genius auteur, it\u2019s really about being a master of compromise.\u201d Munch and Stranger could return to Oddworld Fortunately, Lorne isn\u2019t opposed to having some of these missed Soulstorm features show up in the next Oddworld installment, which fans have been eagerly awaiting information on. \u201cRight now, no other game has been financed, so until that happens, I can\u2019t say the next one\u2019s coming,\u201d he explains, joking that he knows better than to promise anything to the fans before it is confirmed. He does have \u201ca lot of ideas\u201d about where the third game will go, though, and there might even be some familiar faces from Munch\u2019s Oddysee and Stranger\u2019s Wrath showing up. \u201cSoulstorm really gave us the capability to start telling the Oddworld story with more depth, more mystery, and more power, and people have noticed that,\u201d Lorne continues. \u201cThose emotional hooks are sinking in better, the story went deeper into Oddworld in a way, and I think it sets the stage well for what comes next and for bringing other characters into it. Stranger should play a role in the [new] quintology, for sure. Munch as well, but he won\u2019t be as dominant as he was before. I\u2019m always surprised at how many people want more Munch.\u201d Is Abe about to get his own TV series? Arguably the standout feature of Oddworld Soulstorm is the cinematics. There are around 48 minutes of these stunning CG animations in the game, all of which add a whole new level of emotion to the story. It also meant that Abe could finally appear as production designer Steven Olds intended when he first drew the unlikely hero over two decades ago. \u201cWhen we went into this project, we were able to get [Abe] looking more like those original 1995 drawings: more expressive, more empathetically driven, bigger eye sockets,\u201d says Lorne. \u201cWe over-invested in the cinematics so we could finally take them to the next level.\u201d In fact, the cinematics in Soulstorm were so good that conversations have started about a potential animated series or movie. Bennie Terry III, an executive producer on Soulstorm, told us that the prospect of expanding the Oddworld franchise beyond video games was one of the main reasons they were able to sign off on the high cost and time involved with creating the impressive visuals. Read More: The ultimate Oddworld Soulstorm guide – \u201cWhether the textures were 8k or 4k, whether we had characters who were expressive or hyper-expressive, that wasn\u2019t necessarily going to change the story-telling and the gameplay. From a budget standpoint, it didn\u2019t make sense,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what it did do was build a deeper emotional connection for everyone who sees those cinematics, to the point where they ask, \u2018Should it be a movie? Should it be a series?\u2019 I don\u2019t want to talk too much about possibilities, but those are the kind of conversations we imagined and hoped would happen, and those are the kind of conversations that continue to happen.\u201d As with the next game in the Oddworld quintology, Lorne is hesitant to say too much about a potential movie or TV series in case it doesn\u2019t come to fruition, but he does hope to be able to expand the franchise\u2019s universe and make Abe a more developed character in the future. \u201cI really hope to be able to go deeper into the story of Abe, because I think his story so far has been kind of superficial,\u201d explains Lorne. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about doing an animated series, and I\u2019d like to keep that first season right in Rupture Farms, just looking at these lives and see what we could do if we were just focusing on telling the story.\u201d Oddworld\u2019s social commentary still resonates today Oddworld has always been a game with a message. Beyond the fiendish puzzles and dark humor lies commentary on both human and animal rights violations, as well as the side-effects of corporate greed. Lorne says the objective with Oddworld has always been to \u201ctranscend the climate of contemporary politics\u201d and instead focus on philosophy at large, doing for a modern audience what classic authors like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley did for him. \u201cWhen I was conceiving the first episode, Abe\u2019s Oddyssey, and shaping it into a game with others, I was kind of amazed with the lack of awareness on fast food policies in terms of raising cheap meat and what it was doing to rainforests and native cultures,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThere was this astounding level of cluelessness that existed even with people I knew who were really smart \u2026 and I remember thinking that the gaming industry was just ripe for that deeper storytelling.\u201d Read More: New Pokemon Snap review – Many of Oddworld\u2019s messages are just as relevant today as they were back when Abe\u2019s Oddysee first released on PlayStation in 1997. Creating what he describes as \u201ccontent with an aftertaste\u201d is what\u2019s most important to Lorne, and that will continue with whatever comes next \u2013 whether that\u2019s the third game in the planned quintology, or an entirely new venture into the world of TV and movies. \u201cThe story I want to tell, of course, is Abe changing the world,\u201d he teases. \u201cBut it\u2019s a little dangerous to talk too much about where you\u2019re going, because the audience is always disappointed if they\u2019re waiting on what you say. So I think that\u2019s the best answer I can give [about the future] right now.\u201d Oddworld Soulstorm is out now on PS4, PS5, and Windows (via the Epic Games Store).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oddworld creator gives update on next game and hints at Abe TV show spinoff Oddworld InhabitantsAfter the launch of Oddworld Soulstorm, we spoke to creator Lorne Lanning about the difficult journey of creating the game, what fans can expect from Abe\u2019s next adventure, and the potential for an Oddworld animated TV series. Almost two decades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}