What does this have to do with anything? This entire thread basically does nothing but inflate our hype boners and deflate our E3 boners, seeing as it's been how long since SS was announced? And What do we know? Besides a few key elements like the depravity and darkness being amped up to Hannah Baker levels of fucked up, and that there are Vykkers and Mudokons being tortured, and LL channeling his secret eye fucking fetish..? Don't get me wrong, I love that it's happening, and that we'll see it eventually, but when you start teasing us with regular updates even if they're in the form of an ARG, then just hilariously ghost on us like some cheap one night stand groupie that doesnt warrant leaving any contact info for, and then calling us up again and having our hearts fluttering like giddy school children only to LOL JK out of E3? It's just..frustrating trying to keep your own hype train rolling.. I hope this at least makes some sense..

step away from the keyboard... :p

Lol.

But seriously, it'd be nice if you could show us some more footage ;)

I understand feeling teased and being frustrated about not getting the full scoop, but i think there's value in seeing a long time fan write their general reaction to what was shown.

I personally think that we all shall be patient and thankful that they taking more time than usual on making this game. If they didn't we would get another incomplete title like AE or MO (no offense OWI), so you guys should take this as a reminder.
The teasing is normal, hateful but normal. And actually the thing that we're so full of hype for this game is actually a good thing, especially for the Inhabitants in the commercial and social aspect.
More hype = more people interested = success for the game.

To @Meech, take a step back and chill, and think before saying such stuff please. I can understand you're upset but if you don't watch your language you could just end in being miserably inadequate (you weren't completely now, but you were close to that).

I think it's perhaps worth taking a minute or two on this, so here we go. Caveat being that this is my personal opinion and thoughts, and thus not necessarily being those of Lorne and the crew...

During game development, there's a period where you're pretty happy with what you have and you want to share progress with key parties. This will happen with every game. So whilst I'm not going to go into detail about to whom or where we showed Soulstorm this week, obviously one of those parties was Xavier. This was pre-set up a little while ago in advance, and Xavier was gracious enough to spend the time to come see the game.

What I should stress, then, is that this stage could very well happen without any public announcement of that specific game. That is: all these demos, meetings and so on normally happen well before a game is announced. In our case, we wanted to be very clear last March that we're working on a new game - remember: this is a new game, the first all-new game since Stranger's Wrath, and thus it was important for us to get that message out, and we think it's a message well received. People were hungry for more Oddworld, and we're delivering that.

To complement the reveal, given it was done a little further ahead of the game's reveal, we started to boost the lore with an ARG that is designed to populate the gaps a little more than we'd be normally do: instead of complete silence, you get those cool screenshots and puzzles that not only show off the visuals and provide some community-building challenge, but should also help fans figure out where we're going in terms of the storyline this game.

So: we aren't yet at the stage where we want to put out screenshots and videos of gameplay - it's too soon. As Lorne said on the Giant Bomb show on Wednesday evening, the marketing cycles are way shorter just now than they might have been a few years back - just look at all the games announced at E3 this week that are out this year.

However, we are at the stage where we can show the game privately, because such meetings and demos aren't bound to the usual marketing cycle, and that's actually what we've been doing for some time. Whilst we wouldn't normally show a fan/community member, Xavier's been great with us recently and we would consider his opinion on things carefully, hence the demo. For what it's worth, Xavier got a really good handle on what we're doing with the game and associated manifestations of that, but it doesn't make total sense for him to talk about what the game is right now because it's more sensible to package up all the info properly as there's a lot to digest, and we want to get that messaging right, at our own pace.

Again, to re-iterate, this happens with video games all the time.

So, whilst I appreciate that some of the comments in this thread suggest frustration and so on, why not take away something else instead: the game very much exists, Xavier liked what he saw and felt compelled to communicate that with his assurance that he wouldn't go into specifics. I understand that you want more info, and that will absolutely happen, but there are multiple reasons why that info isn't happening right now publicly.

That said, we very much see and hear the desire for something, and thus once we get back from E3 you can expect the ARG to start to move onwards again, towards what we hope is a satisfying immediate conclusion. We have grand plans to explore the new lore this way whilst the game reminds behind the curtain, that's always been the plan since LL committed to it last March. Does that mean we can fire out screenshots, puzzles and mini-movies every week? No, but we will be widening the scope of the ARG, and we think there'll be plenty to get your teeth into.

~a

Thanks your elaboration on the reasoning behind the lack of public showings at events and such, appreciate that. And I look forward to see what you have taking us through the lore when the arg starts up again, thanks again, guys:).

Well, it's a long process. When you're so early in development, pretty much everything could be different by the time you ship, so it really doesn't make sense to show anything publicly yet.
That being said, the name of this thread indicates that it will actually contain information about what it says it will. I mean, it should've just been a blog called "I played SoulStorm and it was really good". So this is why many people are frustrated where they previously wouldn't have been.

There's also another point, the fact that OWI have a really good track record of broken promises. You could say that by not showing anything you're managing expectations well which is true for the most part. Lorne would always get ahead of himself in the past and show too much, and then info would just fizzle out as they silently dropped the project.
I think this reinforces a paranoia that hardcore Oddworld fans have in general that this could happen to any Oddworld project.

So when you take into account all these factors, I totally get why people see this thread as a dick move. As a fan, it's easy to see where people are coming from.

Many people are frustrated? It's basically just MeechCrunchies complaining.

This should all be common sense lol. When they're ready, they're ready. It aint hard to pass time.

My main concern is that I didn't get one of those cool brew usb sticks from way back >:L

This is a little off topic but I'm opening a bar soon and I totally want to put a cocktail in the menu called Soulstorm brew. Something with Midori or anything green lol.

My points are completely valid, and as an Oddworld fan, I'm used to it, more than with any other company. But just because I actually say something negative about our Lord and savior Jesus OddWorld Christ doesn't mean I'm just pointlessly complaining. You know what? It's frustrating. It really is. And with two decades and 4 main games (And a flawed, but badass remake) to show for it, we have every right to be sketchy and ķicking up dust, so forgive me for being the only one to actually want to vent some frustration towards the few sets of ears that not only can listen, but have the power to actually act on it. Not that it will happen, but I can still be hopeful, more so, for the future. I'm sorry for being a dick guys, but it's just getting hard, ya know? :(

Yeah, we do not want another Munch's Oddysee or Sonic 06/Sonic Boom, where the games weren't given enough time and came out much less than satisfactory :fuzmad:. While Exoddus was a good game, and there was SOME enjoyment out of Munch's game, a lot of their potential was lost due to technology limitations and time restraints. They have the technology now to do what they wanted to do in the late 90's/early 2000's, but they still need to take the time for the game to be another masterpiece like Abe's Oddysee or Stranger's Wrath. I'd rather have a game that's gonna take an extra year to make, than a game that comes out in a few months that has game-breaking bugs, major plot holes in the story-telling, or boring and repetitive gameplay.:fuzmad::fuzmad:

How great for you, you should so make one!

And to get back on topic as much as i would love to see more, a finished product that is worthy of viewing is best. But a few peeks would hurt, right?

You don't like MO?

It was an okay game, but it could get a little repetitive at times. It was also a bit goofier compared to the other games in the Oddworld franchise. Plus, you didn't really have consequences to messing up since Abe and Munch could always resurrect each other. Plus, a crap ton of content was cut from MO like Queen Sam, Molluck's trial, Lady Margaret, and the Meetlesv:fuzsad:. Also, completing levels just didn't feel as rewarding as the previous two games since they didn't have cutscenes in between the Paramite Run and the Splinterz CEO office.]

Also, when I played the PS3 version of the HD version, I found a crap ton of bugs and glitches, including trophies not unlocking such as the possession once unless I reinstalled the game without the patch. It was almost as bad, if not worse, than the bugs and glitches in New 'N' Tasty. I was not amused. :fuzmad:

All in all, it could feel a bit of a chore and a disappointment. :fuzsad:

You didn't read me sentence right, the emphasis was on the you, not on the don't.

Sorry, sometimes I misread things or misunderstand things.

Even in a state of near-death, OWF surpasses previous records for fan entitlement. How embarrasing.

Oddworld fans want Oddworld games, which is nice. But yeah, we can't magic them out of thin air.

Oh, I guess you've never been anywhere else on the internet.

But why not, Alex? It should have been finished at least six months ago. It should have also been objectively perfect to everyone on the forums. No excuses mate, c'mon.

Contrary to whatever alternate reality you conjured up, the whole point of this is that we don't expect it to be out soon. It's just not going to happen. We just want some more updates, some more ARG goodness, and maybe an actual look into that three second clip that was the OddWorld equivalent of Viagra for most of us. Silence is not fun, and if it can't be helped, then so be it, but it's also very concerning given OWI's track record, and you, me and everyone else knows this too.

I don't know who you're actually talking to in particular (be useful if you quoted) but there's no need for concern here. Soulstorm's coming.

I think he's referring to the fact that OWI pretty much up until the announcement of NnT, had broken countless promises and cancelled a lot of titles. I mentioned this before but tbh I don't have this concern at all, I'm actually hyped.
Keep sucking their dicks STM, we all know that when fans do that nothing but great products get released.

Is it really concerning when we can see that things are progressing?

I'm curious; can you please explain what's the purpose of showing of the game at this stage, if not for PR?

For customer feedback I assume, Xavier would seem like a good choice if you ask me as the guys been on the forums since 2001 and was fairly open about being at E3 and wanting to find the OWI crew, so the guys clearly a big fan.

We just need to be glad that one of us got in and im taking Xavs reaction as a good sign as he pretty much knows how critical we can all be, and from his reaction I am hopeful.

But I have a question for you Xav, if you weren't pleased with what you saw, would you have shared your concerns with us? Even if you couldn't say much and kept close to the NDA?

Or is giving negative feedback (even if it was as vague as your original post) considered an act against the NDA and harmful to the product?

And let's say for arguments sake, OWI staff gave it the go ahead to post your concerns because I'm sure you guys must have talked and bounced feedback off one another before the post itself.

Either way, judging by your reaction I'm super thrilled for what's to come.

The NDA doesn't say "please only say nice things", it says "don't say anything about the game at all."

Xavier had plenty of feedback, most of which he and I discussed at length. :)

Can't wait to see and play Soulstorm. It's going to be more of a scary game like we never seen before!