Next Oddworld Titles Revealed

In the following exclusive interview, Oddworld Inhabitants president, Lorne Lanning, tells GameSpot News about the next two games in the Oddworld Series, as well as the systems being considered for the later games in the line.

(Note: The following shots are of public busses currently on tour in major German cities)

GameSpot News: How did Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee do for you over Christmas?Lorne Lanning: It did fabulous for us. The GT sales people have said that we had sold through, worldwide, a million units by the end of January. A big surprise is that Abe has sold even better in Europe than he has in the US. We are very happy, and GT is very happy.

GSN: When GT recently announced its lineup for 1998, the next Oddworld Game was not on the list. Is it still on track for this year, and is GT still planned as its publisher?LL: The next Oddworld game will release in '98 and will be published by GT. We were told it was a clerical error that caused the confusion when it was not mentioned in the GT press release lineup for '98.

GSN: Is the next Oddworld title a sequel to the first? A prequel? Will Abe be coming back? Will it be in a cameo or starring role? What's the rough premise/storyline?LL: The title we will be releasing in '98 is Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. This is a sequel to Abe's Oddysee, but it is not the second game in the overall Oddworld Quintology. Our game designers wanted another shot at really pumping the Abe's Oddysee engine and doing things they never got to do in the first game. We also wanted to give the gameplayer more back story before we released Munch's Oddysee (the second game in the Quintology). And we wanted to do just one more game for the Sony PlayStation and 120MHz class PC.

Abe's Exoddus will use Abe's Oddysee's engine but will be a completely new game. This game continues Abe's story right where the first game left off. It has all-new movies, adds new characters, has all-new levels, and will definitely be funnier and play better than the first game. If you liked Abe's Oddysee, you're going to love Abe's Exoddus. One of the things to watch for is that we have given the Mudokons emotions. You'll need to see it to believe it. They are absolutely hysterical. This game is going to have everyone laughing but will still maintain a high integrity of storytelling. We really wanted to push the humor and do more cool stuff like... possess all the characters in the game and use their individual gamespeak commands for other purposes. These concepts are definitely pushing the personality of the video game character to new heights.

And that's what Oddworld is all about.

GSN: I assume that the second game will reside on the Sony PlayStation, but are you looking to other platforms such as Sega's next system, Sony's next system, and/or the Project X machine for the following titles? Any interest in the Nintendo 64?LL: Munch's Oddysee, the second game in the Oddworld Quintology, will need the next-level systems (PlayStation II, Sega Dural, 500 MHz Pentium) to do the things we want it to do. We didn't go real-time 3D on the current systems because we never want to give up high image quality and lifelike animations. We want our characters to look like they come from lush lands of Oddworld, not from the land of low polys. Munch's Oddysee will be in real-time 3D, but it will do it in ways that have not been done yet, and it will look awesome. We are pushing the gamespeak, emotions, character navigations, and character AI to completely new places. This game will feel eerie in how lifelike it is and how alive and aware the characters seem to be. We are successfully merging more game genres into a single experience, and we are doing it in a most natural and intuitive way.

Which ? We are not sure because we have not yet placed our bets, and the hardware companies have not yet released dev stations. Project X... hmmm... we'll believe that one when we see it. As for the N64, it's really a shame that they won't release a CD add-on for it. That would allow it to do some really cool stuff. The 64DD is a joke. "Oh golly! Another eight whole megabytes! Gee, thanks." Our games are integrally tied with movies that help to develop character and involve the gamer in a good story. Most games movies are fluff, but ours are not. Our movies are critical to understanding what's happening and also help make the experience feel more complete. We just can't pull that off on the N64.

GSN: Who's Munch? Is he of the same race as Abe or one we haven't seen yet?LL: You have yet to see Munch. He is a new character who has a codependent relationship with Abe. Each of them has his own set of problems. They are the oddest couple but compliment one another in a hilarious way.

GSN: Should we expect an Oddworld game about once a year from Oddworld Inhabitants? If so, are these games being worked on by different internal design teams concurrently? How planned out are the next few games?LL: We will be releasing two games over the next two years. However, as time goes on, the gamer expects more from a game. And to give the gamer more it takes more time. So our hope is to be able to continue to release one game each year, but it is tied to our ability to produce high-quality great-playing games that supercede the previous ones.

We are currently working on both Abe's Exoddus and Munch's Oddysee. Abe's Exodus is the same team that did Abe's Oddysee. However both games are being built by two different engineering teams and two different game design teams, but each utilizes the same art team. This helps to ensure image consistency, and it also helps that both of these games are being directed by the same person who directed Abe's Oddysee.

GSN: Is the company planning any titles outside the Oddworld line?LL: No. We have been asked by lots of different companies to build their titles, to use their characters, or to develop new characters and titles for them. But we have no intentions of ever building anything outside of the Oddworld universe. We started this company to develop the Inhabitants and the Oddworld that they live on. However, it is possible that you might see some other companies building games that use the Oddworld characters.