Previous threads:
This week I wanted to highlight a particular interview I came across in the Oddworld Library, titled “You want INSIDE info? How’s this…”
The interview was an email Q&A published in May 2000, with questions submitted from members of a private Yahoo club “The Exoddus Club”, and answered by Lorne Lanning. I personally thought it was an interesting read as it was published during MO’s development, and many of the answers Lorne gives discuss the game’s planned development, including target platforms, PC and PS2 versions, how the gameplay visualizations were put together, and so on.
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I want to know if the movies sligtoss1 and 2 were from actual gameplay (meaning someone was using a controller and making abe move)
These were the actual game databases, animation moves, camera moves, and mechanics working. But it was not recorded via controller. These were pre‐rendered using this data… but with all pre‐rendering benefits turned off. However, this is exactly what the game will look like and how it will play… at least on the X‐Box. The PS2 is having some aliasing and mip mapping shortcomings that hopefully Sony will be addressing.
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and is there any news as to what Munch’s Oddysee is going to require for the PC version…what speed processor?
We’re not sure what spec the PC will need. Our guess is a minimum CPU of 700 mhz with a high end graphics board…This one may be early to tell…
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Besides this, there’s also some of the usual talk about the lore from previous and future games:
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Will we be seeing any of the moon in this adventure, or gain any more insight on why it came to be like that?
You will be seeing more of the moon, but you won’t know why it’s like this. I can tell you that Munch’s foot print also winds up on the face of a moon too. The Mudokons don’t understand why this happens, but they take it as an omen.
Will munch have his own ‘moon’ i.e. something to show him his importance?
Yes. Each of the heroes of the Oddworld Quintology will have their own moons.
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Will we see any interesting forms of sybiosis?
Actually, most of our very first character designs were based on symbiosis relationships, but they were too hard for us to achieve in gameplay in the 32 bit era. We have a lot of creatures like this in our design library, some of them are extremely cool. I’m sure they’ll start showing up in some of the games coming right after Munch. In the long run, symbiosis creatures are important to the Oddworld Quintology. Squeek’s Oddysee (Quintology #3) is dependent upon it.
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Do glukkons have any religions?
Today, Moolah is the Glukkon faith. The Moolah motto is, ‘Power, Profit, Wealth’. It mirrors the Modokon faith in Spooce, which has the motto, ’Harmony, Humility, Health’.
Long ago, the Glukkons were a superstitious race that dabbled a lot in sorcery and occultism. But eventually things got bad for them and they had a sort of supernatural meltdown (something like dark ages in earth’s history). This event destroyed their ancient culture and nearly wiped them out. As a result they abandoned and outlawed any sort of mystical beliefs and instead they became a very practical and logical minded race. They became pure purveyors of profit. They believed that they’d make Oddworld a better place by providing civilized jobs to the native savages, while in the meantime they’d provide all of the other races with cheaper consumer goods. So ultimately, the Glukkons believe that they are good. They just believe that they are amoungst the few that clearly perceive the harsh realities of nature.
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All things told, I think it provides an interesting snapshot of where Oddworld was at the time: MO was seemingly in full production, a lot of the lore was already in place, and plans were being made for the future Quintology game.
Read the full archived interview on the Oddworld Library: You want INSIDE info? How’s this…
Odd Piece of the Week: Inside Info from MO development
