With how passionate Lorne got with discussing how important Abe's stitches were, I wonder if Sam will show up in Soulstorm? Even just a glimpse, like a stitch lips backstory cutscene.

Key notes I found in the interview. Some were already known but were brought up again.

- Caddicarus has played the game. Says it's good given how early it is. (I mean obviously he wasn't going to say it was bad in Lorne's face, but thought I'll just mention it)

- The original design of SoulStorm goes all the way back to the 90s when developing Abe's Exoddus

- SoulStorm wasn't possible on the PS1. (Obviously)

- Lorne praises the Unity engine. Calling it "stable". Make of that what you will.

- SoulStorm is indeed a franchise reboot.

- Lorne was talked out of making Hand of Odd after a conversation with Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) in an airport bathroom. Basically saying to Lorne "there is no future in RTS."

- SoulStorm is at the moment using some of New 'N' Tasty assets. Makes sense given it's the same engine.

- When asked about Scrabs, Paramites and other creatures from AE appearing in SoulStorm. He said SoulStorm will have fewer encounters with wildlife and will focus on Industry and the Mudokon Revolution.

-The Shrink has no plans to be in SoulStorm and is just remaining as a PS4 Theme. For now. Lore wise, The Mudokons at Rupture Farms went to the Shrink when they needed 'motivated' for work. (unsure if that was ever known or not).

- One of the reasons Oddworld Inhabitance stopped working with Just Add Water was because working on UK time was putting Lorne under a great deal of stress. Lorne even got Bell's Palsy after an intense amount of work and time put into NnT.

- Lorne is wearing Xavier's A Fan Art badge during the interview. Without a doubt the OWF's biggest achievement.

I hadn't seen this interview (I was elsewhere while it was being filmed) and it's an interesting one.

Yeah Caddy played (some of) the game, he really enjoyed it and had some good feedback too. I showed it him first, then he played after, with a completely different approach (which is what we wanted to see). It might be 'early' but as Lorne says in the interview, a lot of the initial dev time was on the systems and mechanics, and getting them right, so Caddy got a good grip of what we're trying to do with the game. Spoiler: he'd played it before, actually, although a /really/ early version...

Unity's working out great for us. Obviously (again, as Lorne says) there's a lot of money on top of what they provide out of the box here, and there's a little ways to go yet, but we're running nicely.

I'd not heard the Hand of Odd story before!

And yeah, we commissioned The Shrink conversion specifically for the PS4 theme. I did say at the time that it had nothing to do with Soulstorm... ;)

My impression of Caddicarus' interveiw with LL

- Thats a lot of bigmacs

-100% squee through the whole interview :DDD

-So glad Caddy asked if Shrykull will be making a comeback in the game Though didn't really get a yes or no answer on it. Seems doubtful :(

- Even more curiois about this crafting mechanic to help you through the game :)

- There will be puzzles :D

- Mentions the importance of Abe's stitches x x :fuzgrin:

That was too adorable<3

-Going to watch this interveiw a few more times when i get the chance :DD

I'm not in a position to edit it, and I could only see it on the 4k version which I don't intend to plaster from here to the end of the forums, but there's a cute little detail on the new artwork of Molluck: the 'Emporio Magani' clothing brand imprinted on his shirt button :D I'll just link the article so you can see it here, thought it was quite cool. Wonder what other little details and references to the real world there will be in Soulstorm.

http://www.oddworld.com/2017/10/oddw...raits-molluck/

I know you guys (referring to the forums) dont consider the importance of crafting in speedruns, but this opens a whole new element to routing that wasnt present in NnT. In NnT, the only ways to differ play were difficulties, and if u were going for the bad ending, good ending or 100%.

Of course there will probably be an optimal way found eventually, but from what Ive seen, heard and read, we're gonna have a lot of fun working out the giant puzzle of how to complete the game optimally. The idea of setting Mudokon modes is key. Obviously the game would become easier if your mudokons are happier, but Id assume that would take time, and speedruns dont have that kind of time. So it may be a balance of keeping mudokons happy to use that power to speed up sections, and abusing mudokons to suicide so u can get through slig patrols, for a couple examples. Obviously we dont know gameplay but thats kinda where my thought process is at right now.



But I like the ideas being presented.

This is exactly right. Crafting/Inventory opens up huge amounts of ways to play the game and every encounter in the game, and that naturally affects the way speedrunners will approach the game.

I can't give too much away, but I can (I think) say that whilst saving Mudokons (and Sligs) will be one way to do well at the game, there are plenty of other possibilities to get the most out of Soulstorm and we're very aware that speedrunners focus primarily on one thing: time.

;)

Omg I just remembered that Moolah is also a thing.Thats a whole other layer.

It's like an onion.

ODDWORLD. HAS. LAYERS.


e: something Vyrien and I were talking about at EGX regarding Molluck: it looks like his lapelles and shoulder pads are much smaller than in AO. Perhaps he's been demoted...or perhaps this is just an aesthetic decision?

This sounds awesome, but I do hope that there aren't situations where you do need a certain thing for a secret room or something, but you used it all up a while ago and if you go any further you can't come back. That would encourage people (at least me) to not use much at all "in case I need it", at least for the first playthrough.

Also, with whether or not the Shrykull will be in the game; Unless they re-tool it, it would be a bit annoying if you had this awesome power to kill everything on screen but you were actively encouraged not to kill anything, for a "perfect" playthrough you wouldn't be able to use it. It would be sad to see it end up being a panic button or an automatic "evil" switch, so maybe it will have a different purpose or use, or let you choose a target so you can destroy what you want, such as mines or Greeters if they make it in.

That also makes me question too, if there are robot enemies in the game, would it be considered evil to kill them too? Or if Fleeches and Slurgs make it in, would simply stepping on a Slurg count toward bad quarma? I'm thinking too deep into this.

Games are like onions...

...they stink?

They make you cry.

O.O Slig allies!? i'm sold everything else could be a mess but having sligs on Abes side alone will get me to pre order this game

I think what he meant was just not killing them, I really doubt we'll get slig allies.

maybe maybe not after all if this is a full on proper rebellion some Sligs may see how the flow is changing and may decide it's better to defect over to abe for a shot at not getting wiped out when everything starts crashing down on their heads and it would be cool to see a small Slig civi war going on even if it's just in the background

i would fucking love to see a slig civil war. that sounds cool as fuck. sligs are great.

Sligs are great! Let them kill each other!

Hm sounds like it'll be adapting elements of Munch's Oddysee's original concept. I honestly don't see the problem. We've already had 4 (5?) relatively linear games and I'd personally love to see something a bit more fluid and multilayered. Plus I'd really love to see OWI could do with the whole "dynamic" concept.

I really hope there are new assets this time around. Don't get me wrong, I loved New 'n Tasty, but the reuse of Munch's Oddysee assets and sounds was really annoying.

There are no new assets. It's basically Munch's Oddysee, but with less Munch. Sorry.

Have you been living under a rock for the past 6 months?

Can we at least get the scrab and paramite noises done proppa?

^

This. They were perfect and haunting.

also, death fizzles due to atmospheric wibbly wobbly reasons.

and maybe glowing gluk eyes. lol.

I like gluks eyes more in new interpretation - they are so human that it's creepy. All characters redesign gave them one unique feature - now they look not on you but into your soul. I never saw so real 3d art before, though I played dozens of games in my life.

Am I the only one who’s confused about the whole 301 Mudokons thing? If there were 299 in NnT.. and abe was the 300th and Alf was the 301st.. where’s the extra Mudokon Abe is leading in the desert?

The Big Face.

You're making no sense. You just answered your own question.

299 + Abe + Alf. What's not to get?

No, no. Don't count Abe, he's the one leading them.

I'm guessing the extra mudokon is Big Face.

He said "you're leading them" referring to the player. 301 includes Alf and Abe.

If Big Face were one of the 301, then what about the rest of the muds in the Monsaic Lines? As with AO, NNT showed us a fair few chanting natives there. If the 301 are all supposedly RF affiliated, it seems the natives don't embark on the journey with Abe. But that begs the question, if they're all alive and well, why wouldn't Abe + Co make the Lines their new home?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I remember reading about an original story concept that the Monsaic Lines get firebombed by the cartel after RF is shut down. This would fit with Lorne's vision for Abe's actions having consequences, and him feeling guilt. It would also explain why the muds need to evacuate and risk travelling elsewhere. The destruction of the Lines would initiate the story of Soulstorm.

If this is the case and we see some mudokon casualties, the 301 could be a mix of native and RF muds. The number itself could be purely for continuity's sake to follow on from NNT.

There was an inferno at Camp Sixty according to the Newletters so maybe this aludes to the Monsiac Lines getting torched as well(maybe they find it somehow, was Camp sixty anywhere near ML?)

E:
I think the "firebombing the monsaic lines" idea was mentioned in a post in an Arg thread, but i don't thinks its canon or was a concept mentioned in an interview or just someones idea when we were trying to figure out what was reflected in Abe's eye in his pic reveal.

For those questioning me, im referring to the HUD in the Soulstorm preview which shows 301 Mudokons.. Why would Abe be counted in the HUD? So unless it’s bigface then I don’t know where this extra Mudokon came from

Is it from a fanfiction?

Yeah, it would definitely seem kind of useless to count him, you'd always have one Mudokon minimum, and if you had zero... well then you'd be dead and be reset anyway. Unless you can somehow beat the game without Abe, like you could play as any of the Mudokons, but that would be kind of ridiculous and very unlikely. I'm thinking the 301st Mud is Toby, that's the only other thing I can think of.

It could be Buddy.

That doesn’t really address his question, Vlam. Abe and 300 other Mudokons makes 301, but Abe being counted as a follower in the HUD still doesn’t make much sense. Abe is not a follower, he’s the leader – and furthermore we’ve seen that the HUD disappears if there are 0 followers, so there isn’t a minimum of 1 follower at all times.

e: And Toby appears to be one of the Mudokons from Rupturefarms.

Lorne Lanning also said that "Now, unfortunately I'm not showing game screens, I'm not showing gameplay, but I just gave a big indication of how this is a very different game"; which means that it shouldn't be taken as definitive.

It hasn't been confirmed nor denied yet.