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'Oddworld' creator on how customer feedback changed gaming
When Lorne Lanning released Abe's Oddysee, the 1997 hit PlayStation and PC platformer, "most people didn't know what 'www' meant." Nineteen years later, the world has changed, and the video-game industry with it. Abe's Oddysee was the first title set in Oddworld, a fictional universe Lanning has devoted his career to. He followed it up the next year with a sequel, Abe's Exodus, and released Munch's Oddysee in 2001 and Stranger's Wrath in 2005. During this time, the internet developed significantly, but developers had yet to learn how to use it to their advantage. Lanning and I sat on the floor of a busy conference center, surrounded by developers, fans, other journalists and "terrible, terrible live music." We were supposed to meet to chat about Soulstorm, a follow-up to 2014's Abe's Oddysee remake New 'n' Tasty. Sadly, we're stuck talking around that piece of news, as just a week before our meeting the decision was made to delay the formal unveiling of the game. Luckily, Lanning is nothing if not loquacious, and we talk about the changing state of the industry over the past two decades.
'Oddworld' goes dark with sequel 'Soulstorm'
The Oddworld games have always had something to say about the world we live in, but despite tackling themes like environmental destruction at the hands of ruthless corporations, the games themselves were pretty bright and colorful. Oddworld: Soulstorm could change that. Soulstorm picks up immediately following the events of last year's New and Tasty remaster of the first game and sees returning protagonist Abe leading some 300 liberated Mudokon brethren through the desert.
Citizen Siege: Oddworld studio's new game & CG film project
Lorne Lanning has confirmed that work has begun on Citizen Siege, the new project from his Oddworld Inhabitants studio. "Citizen Siege was conceived as a game and film from the very beginning," Lanning told GamesIndustry.biz, revealing that John H. Williams will produce the CG animated feature, and Lanning himself will direct. The game concept is currently being shopped around to publishers.Lanning is interested in merging the game and film mediums, hoping that Citizen Siege will become a reference point for future ventures. The idea is that both parts are created simultaneously, influencing each other's courses; rather than one providing the basis for the other. While doing so, it will be important for Lanning and has team to create the right distance between the game and movie. If the finished products demand consumers invest in both, Citizen Siege will have lost a huge chunk of its potential demographic; the group that exclusively watches films -- and does not play games.
