EA confirms that it will publish the next
Oddworld title; game is bound for PS2 and Xbox gamers sometime
in 2005. Oddworld cofounder Lorne Lanning takes us behind
the scenes.
See it » Developer Oddworld Inhabitants'
next game is now officially attached to a publisher. Referred
to informally as "Stranger," the game is set in
the Oddworld universe but isn't actually a part of the studio's
notorious quintology. The game will be published worldwide
by Electronic Arts Partners (EAP), a business unit of Electronic
Arts.
Oddworld had previously partnered with Microsoft
and developed its last game, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, exclusively
for the Xbox, but the two parties long ago went their separate
ways. In addition, Atari recently announced that in late 2003,
it relinquished the stake in Oddworld Inhabitants it had held
since 1996. Those two moves opened up the way for Oddworld
to freely shop Stranger.
In a statement to be released later today,
Oddworld Inhabitants president Lorne Lanning said of the deal:
�Partnering with EA is a major win for us." For its part,
EA also expressed high hopes that the arrangement would net
a solid game and a solid performer at retail. "Over the
past 10 years, Oddworld has consistently elevated the creative
bar in each of their titles," Greg Richardson, general
manager of EA Partners said. "Oddworld Inhabitants represent
the type of high-quality developer with which we're seeking
to partner moving forward." Other EAP developer partners
include Digital Illusions, Castaway Entertainment, Gas Powered
Games, and Lionhead Studios.
EA isn't revealing much about the Oddworld
title save for the fact that the game's lead character, Stranger,
is a "Western-style bounty hunter who chases outlaws
throughout [a] new frontier of the Oddworld universe."
But EA is clear about reminding the industry that leading
up to this announcement, Oddworld has sold a slew of products:
The Oddworld titles have moved close to 5 million copies worldwide,
have picked up 100-plus industry awards, and have--in one
form or another--graced more than 50 magazine covers, according
to EA.
GameSpot spoke with Oddworld cofounder Lorne
Lanning about the upcoming game--how it differs from earlier
Oddworld titles, a thing or two he learned from Munch, and
what the sport of fly-fishing has to do with game design.
GameSpot: From your perspective, in what
ways does Stranger signal progress on your part as a game
designer?
Lorne Lanning: I have to say that Stranger
is the first game that has been an enjoyable experience for
me to work on throughout the entire production, which in itself
is a huge statement towards progress. The credit goes to having
an amazingly talented team that is intensely passionate about
breaking some new ground and doing it to the best of their
ability. I've never seen a crew work so hard or be so committed.
This has enabled me to wear less hats and delegate more while
seeing stronger results overall. I'm really proud to be working
with this crew.
GS: What are some of the personal and professional
lessons that have come from the development process?
LL: A big lesson was in trying to do less,
but trying to do it better. Historically, I have been too
ambitious and thus have compromised some of the macro design
objectives. On Stranger, though challenging due to experimentations
with new play styles, our code base was incredibly strong
and this reduced a lot of the typical anxieties that one might
encounter in an innovative game venture. In the past, our
efforts have been challenging to code and design as we've
always tried to inject strong puzzle-oriented play styles
mixed with light action. This has proven somewhat successful,
but puzzle play is difficult to ramp successfully without
getting repetitive. This time we went for a much heavier action
mix with a "puzzle lite" weave. The results have
retained the Oddworld sense of wit while also blazing a lot
of new ground for us. My personal lesson is to keep a continued
focus on "less equals more."
GS: How do you believe that progress will
be perceived by gamers?
LL: I think gamers are going to be very
surprised by Stranger, and surprised that Oddworld built a
game like this. We have no doubts that a lot of people who
didn't attract to the previous Oddworld games will be attracted
to Stranger. Stranger is also our first hero that is quite
strong and possesses prowess. For those fans that have had
early peeks at the project, they were really excited by the
new play style and the new cast, and yet also thrilled to
see that we retained and evolved upon the humor, sarcastic
wit sensibilities, and character depth that they always felt
made Oddworld uniquely entertaining.
GS: Can you tell me about the references
and real-world points of view you referred to in order to
create the Oddworld characters and storyline in Stranger?
LL: My first love is fly-fishing, and as
a fly-fisherman I've been close to observing how the construction
of dams often causes turmoil to the communities of people
and ecosystems that live downstream. This was the inspirational
kernel for Stranger's plot, while the character of Stranger
was inspired by those who look out for themselves when confronted
by racist cultures.
Stranger makes his way as a bounty hunter,
which means he's a loner with no shortage of resentful enemies.
This lays a nice groundwork for heavy action as well as an
unfolding epic. From there, this game had a much greater team
participation to the creative process than our previous titles,
which set the stage for a lot of happy surprises.
GS: Over the years, Oddworld Inhabitants
has had publisher relationships with GT Interactive, Microsoft,
and now Electronic Arts. What has the impact of the publisher
relationship been on the creative process?
LL: We've always been fortunate in that
we've been able to sustain control over our creative ambitions,
regardless of who our publisher was. Yet, having been with
several publishers has given us more perspective on how the
industry as a whole finances product and makes decisions about
the marketplace. It's been very insightful to witness how
various publishers operate and what makes them tick. What
turns them on and off, what trends do they see coming, how
are they utilizing testing...all of these things help us to
learn and shape our projects into something that we feel will
be more widely received by the audience.
GS: What lessons do you bring from having
been part of the Xbox launch effort (with Munch's Oddysee)
to the current arrangement with Electronic Arts?
LL: I suspect that the lessons learned from
the Xbox launch come down to trusting, or not trusting, focus
testing. You've got to be extremely careful with how you use
this data and how much of it you can trust. On Munch, we were
too trusting of the focus-testing data and not trusting enough
of our own critical analysis. Making sure you meet launch
as a first priority is not always the best thing for the box
or the game.
Microsoft was a great partner and we have
no doubts that they will continue to be very successful in
the game business. With Electronic Arts, one of the things
that you immediately notice is just how tightly buttoned up
they are. These people really know how to build multiplatform
games and how to get them to market successfully.
GS: Tell me as much as you can about Stranger.
What are your goals with the game, and what gameplay elements
did you emphasize?
LL: From the start, we had hoped to achieve
the following response from gamers: "Wow, I never thought
Oddworld would have created a game like this, yet it only
could have come from Oddworld!" We wanted to give gamers
something new, something fresh, but something that evolved
upon the most popular gameplay styles that they love today.
We wanted to show that we're far more than the "Abe and
Munch puzzle-platformer company." To be pigeonholed like
that concerned us, and we wanted to give ourselves more flexibility
and opportunity to break out from those perceptions. Hence,
the creation of Stranger.
GS: What attributes of the modern-day game
character did you choose to imbue Stranger's character with?
And how does he differ from previous Oddworld characters?
LL: He's a much more powerful yet mysterious
hero who embraces shooting and melee capabilities...yet with
several unique twists that add greater options for gamers
to enjoy entirely different play styles and strategies. It
was an important design goal that this game retain open-ended
play options. Some may approach it completely stealth, some
will charge into it completely balls out, and others will
find a balance somewhere in between. Regardless, all approaches
were to be rewarding, and I feel we've accomplished that.
GS: How does Stranger and its world relate
to the Oddworld universe established by the studio's first
three titles?
LL: Stranger's world takes place beyond
the boundaries of our previous Oddworld territories. It's
on the same planet, yet in a different locale. This enabled
us to retain some consistency per the divisions between the
rich and the poor, the dark side of globalization, etc....but
also gave us the freedom to create an entirely new cast and
gameplay style, without being hampered by what boundaries
fans might have thought the old cast should adhere to.
GS: What, in your opinion, contributes most
to a good, significant game-creation process today?
LL: $10 to $15 million bucks and a great
team!
By Curt Feldman -- GameSpot
POSTED: 06/17/04 07:30 AM PST
Stranger
finds a home with Electronic Arts