Oddworld: Devine Intervention
 

By the Many Arms of Odd, I am honored to be among all you wonderful weirdos in Oddworld. :fuzwink:

I didn't know where to put this particular first topic of mine. I thought of doing it as a discussion of official Oddworld stuff, but this is more of a fan idea for what I wish to be an Oddworld game, so I thought it would be more fitting for the Fan Corner. What I have to discuss is a proposal for what I want to see as a new Oddworld game, and it takes cues from both the original Abe series and from Stranger's Wrath. Here's the proposal.

Oddworld: Devine Intervention

The setting is based off Ancient India, albeit a futuristic one, with locales which take inspiration from South Africa and Northern England mining towns. Presumably, it is set in the same continent as the main games. In this setting, the religion, the government, and all the industry are under the supreme control of hybrid creatures who resemble a cross between elephants and cows, and multiple arms like Vishnu. This part of Oddworld operates under a system combining India's caste system and South Africa's Apartheid, where the upper echelon are called the Blessed Dudes, and everyone else, who compose of varieties of different Oddworld species who have an average number of arms, are referred to with revulsion as the Icky Thingies. The Blessed Dudes believe that their many arms signify that they were chosen by their Oddworld gods, and have been given the divine right to rule and harvest the land however they wish. All the characters have Indian accents, but their names are Irish and English.

The Icky Thingies are forced to work in these vast crystal mines and the factories, for an industrial purpose I'm not exactly sure about yet. Enter the hero: Devine. Devine is a purple Mudokon with a moustache and spectacles (looks like a cross between Abe and Gandhi), who is shorter than most Mudokons, very old, but ripped like Bruce Lee. His family were killed long in a crossfire during a Icky Thingy Revolt while they were searching for another home further away from Glukkon territory. He was discovered by soldiers for the Blessed Dudes, and was instantly classified and raised to be an Icky Thingy miner. Devine has worked in the mine for all his life. Although he is very strong, and practices daily a form of Oddworldian Fighting Yoga to keep himself fit, he has never held any resentment or violent intent for the Blessed Dudes. However, that all changes when he grows four, or six, extra arms. The Blessed Dudes Overwatch, upon witnessing this sudden metamorphoses in the mines, instantly brand him as a blasphemer and brand him for death for growing arms he didn't deserve, because only the Blessed Dudes are supposed to have extra arms as a sign that they are chosen by the Gods. Naturally, Devine goes on the run, and in order to survive, puts his Fighting Yoga abilities and extra arms to use.

While escaping, Devine has a vision from the Gods of his land, who tell him that the Blessed Dudes have forgotten their ways and and succumbed to decadence and corruption. They tell him that inevitably, the Icky Thingies are destined to evolve with many arms, and will displace the higher caste soon. In order to spread the message of the Gods and bring hope to the Icky Thingies, Devine is tasked by the Gods to infiltrate all the mines to liberate the miners, and then infiltrate the higher temple and enact divine retribution upon the high priests and the CEO of the city.

The gameplay I have in mind is very similar to Stranger's Wrath: players can alternate between third-person and first person modes any they wish, but the third person camera would be more under the player's control, and the combat would be primarily melee. The stealth would be a combination of the original Oddworld's and Deus Ex 1's. You can lure enemies to your direction, hide in the shadows, and easily dupe them. The environment would be more useful to your advantage than it was in Stranger's Wrath, and you can more easily sneak into crowded areas without alterting everyone to your presence instantly. The melee combat would be inspired by the old film Kung Fu vs. Yoga, which involved doing bone crackingly insane movements that seem to defy natural anatomy. It's also inspired by an interview with Bruce Lee, where he said that humans would have to create a completely new style of fighting if they had extra limbs. Bruce Lee's philosophy was about being adaptable, "like water," and that the best form of fighting was to not strictly adhere to technique. After growing the extra limbs, Devine must learn to take his Oddworldian Fighting Yoga to the next level, where he must abandon he past notions of fighting with only two arms and his two legs, and become adaptable to every situation.

His best means to survive is to stealthily take down his enemies one by one with specialized multi-armed Yoga takedowns. Depending on where the enemies are standing or what they are doing, Devine would have a vast variety of Yoga stealth kills to implement upon them. Because Devine did not grow up knowing his Mudokon heritage, his ability to chant open portals or possess enemies is very limited, but they are there. He just has to learn them gradually, while at the same time learning new abilities from the culture he was raised in.

The locales outside of the mines, Devine would wander through city streets that a cross between Blade Runner's LA and a mythological ancient Indian setting inspired by the Bhagavad Gita and other Indian epics. Outside of the city, the terrain would resemble Northern English and South African mining towns, with all the creatures speaking with Indian accents but dressed like a cross between early 20th century English miners and the Indian Untouchables. Slogs would be rampant around this territory, as well as large and extremely venomous Paramites.

The choice for Devine to be a cross between Abe and Gandhi was inspired by the GOG.com interview with Lorne Lanning about Abe's Exoddus

"For one struggling against servitude and helplessness, some might wonder if Abe's ability to unwillingly possess a foe and bend him to Abe's will is hypocritical. To Lanning, fighting for your life, the only life you're ever going to have, is anything but hypocritical.

'I’m a big Gandhi fan, but I always thought he took the pacifism thing too far. He didn’t believe we should pick up arms against the Nazis, but I could never subscribe to that. I believe people like the Nazis gave up their right to live as soon as they started selfishly taking the lives of others. Sometimes good people need to do bad things so the rest of us can have a chance. Abe was born a natural pacifist and lover of all things alive, he marveled at the smallest things in life, but he finally realized when it was time to stand up and put up a fight.'"

Devine was pretty much an Oddworldian re-imagining of what would happen if Gandhi, or someone like Gandhi, had to take even greater risks in order to ensure the survival of his people, or other peoples. I just like the idea of having Gandhi's traits combined with that of Vishnu and the a Fighting Yoga Master, and I think this Odd combination would fit well into the Oddworld universe.

Do you think it might work as an Oddworld installment?

I can't believe I made it through all of that. Okay, so first off, I doubt that anyone is going to want to a production of a full game. Even if they did though, it would take years to develop the complexity of the mechanics you want. I don't know about other people, but a few years of production seems like a large donation of time to me. Secondly, this story really doesn't seem like t needs to be Oddworld related. You could easily change all the Oddworld elements to alternate earth and the story would hold a lot better. I mean honestly, the story is almost good. The Oddworld tie just seems so wrong though that it just sours the whole thing to me.

I'm all for helping people begin game design. I can give advice on what engine would be best for what kind of game you want, what colour scheme to use for particular moods, and basic music structure. If you want advice, feel free to PM me.

I hope you do well in creating your game, as well as hopefully reworking the story.

Before I say anything else, I think it might be worth noting that this could be perceived as a breach of rules for the Fan Corner, but since this place is a little dusty, it might also be fine.

You're not exactly making a request for a game though, so much as you are just promoting a discussion of an idea for a game, but you're sort of in a grey area.

Now, there's a lot of this that I really do like. I like the idea of a sort of multi-armed fighting style; I think that'd just flat out look amazingly cool. I also like the setting you've described, which sounds exactly like something an Oddworld game might have, and I really enjoy the quiet mix of Hindu ideas and Indian flair. In particular, the growing multiple arms as a sort of sign from god is something I really like.

But there are a few things that bother me. I think Devine being very old makes it hard for me to buy that he'd be doing all this extreme tough work. I also find it hard to believe that he'd have time to hone his combat skills if he's forced to work so much. There's also something about it that doesn't seem quite right, but I can't put my finger on what exactly. Still, it'd be cool to see.

I live in a Northern England Mining Town, where's my extra set of arms?

Also on the topic of arms, would this make Chroniclers one of the "Blessed Dudes" as they're the only sentient Oddworld Species I know of that has an extra set of arms.

Vykkers too, possibly the Ickiest of Thingies.

Well screw what I said. Everyone just found multiple ways to make this story fit perfectly in the oddworld universe. I think what threw me off was that the descriptions of other characters was done with earth things.

Nothing like meeps or ratz or slurgs or bats or scrabs or paramites or glukkons or gloktigi or clakkers...

Seeing something with the Gloktigi would be really awesome. Maybe a Gloktigi outside of it's machine.

Oh no no no. I'm not wanting to request people on this forum to make this game. This is a game I want to make myself, but I would love to see to become an official Oddworld Inhabitants game. I was just discussing the ideas with you all on what I would need to do to make it more Oddworldian when I am drawing concepts for it, writing the story, working on the gameplay, and actually develop it. There's no harm in that.

Weren't the Clackers in Stranger's Wrath count as creatures done with Earth things? They're the only creatures in Oddworld so far who are based on Earth creatures, so why not have a species that is an amalgam of cows and elephants.

But I am really glad that others find it really Oddworldian.

:fuzzle:

.

Okay, maybe not too old. Still, there some very old people in reality who have been able to keep themselves fit for a long time. Old Tai Chi Masters still have enough inner strength to throw people across the room. But maybe I should make Devine into a middle-aged Gandhi-Mudokon. The reason why I think he would be able to find the time to hone his skills is because the Blessed Dudes Guards don't even realize he's doing martial arts. Yoga, after all, is one of those martial arts which we are least likely to think of as being a fighting style. That's why it's so perfect. What is at first seen as a harmless exercise and fitness routine for an obedient slave is actually the slave's secret weapon for his liberation. How do you think Abe learned how to chant open portals or possess Sligs, when he was far removed from his heritage all his life?

This is awesome. Thank you, J_dude320 for making me feel like this story could work and reach out to the different countries the setting is based off of. If this ever became an Oddworld game, you will get the chance the grow extra arms, and enact "Devine" retribution upon the Glukkons of your coal mine. :D

Actually, Chroniclers might well fit in as Blessed Dudes, provided that they grow two extra arms. Otherwise, they might serve as the Middle Class merchants in this part of Oddworld, who are nearly Blessed but not quite to get the privileges as the cow-elephant critters.

The reason why I wanted to create new creatures is based on the same reason why Oddworld Inhabitants created a new setting and characters for Stranger's Wrath. To explore other parts of Oddworld, and come up with fresh ideas that don't meddle with the main Abe series, or with the Stranger series (which I hope it grows to become).

They would be the lowest of the lower middle-class caste. They have have four arms, but they are too icky to even be considered Blessed. But a few may have evolved through some bribery with the Blessed Dudes.

I definitely would appreciate your advice, Job. I'd love to know which kinds of engines you'd recommend.

All in all, I'm glad that no one asked me to change the species of Devine from a Mudokon to something new. I was worried that him being a Mudokon would make him to similar to Abe, while Stranger and Much were done to be different from Abe.

If this ever became an official Oddworld game, I'd want a whole cast of Indian actors to voice all the characters. That would be quite a feat if that was ever pulled off.

He doesn't seem much similar to Abe at all personally. Yeah, he is a hero character that's a Mud, but he has much different character than Abe. While Abe is often referred to as a lovable idiot, Devine (I assume that's going to be his name?) is more like some sort of master sage. That, and Abe usually doesn't get directly involved in anything, as in he doesn't usually slap Sligs to death.

Now that looks back, most of the creatures are based on earth creatures. There are a few nice changes, but the thing that I think I liked the most about the Oddworld games was that there is not just one sentient species. Anyways, it's pretty obvious that a Meep is just a Sheep, Slogs are Dogs, and Bats are... Well, Bats.

After some consideration, I do think it fits the world just fine.

I'm a tiny bit on the fence with Devine being a Mudokon, now that you bring it up. On the one hand, having seen comparatively little of Mudokons in battle, it seems a tiny bit incongruous to have one of them now have an extremely honed fighting style that would kick everyone's ass. But on the other hand again, there were warrior Mudokons, so why not go ahead and give a little more power to them? And Devine's plight is sort of in-line with Abe and the other Mudokons and he's easily distinguishable from Abe, what with the 6 or 8 arms thing, so it would seem sort of superfluous if he was anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYWYSVOLM6s

This is the film I was referring to which I want to use for Devine's fighting style. Watch, and then imagine a 7 or 8 armed Mudokon bending and cracking his limbs like that.

Perhaps you might be. O:
*Shameless Self-Promotion*

Just looking at that fight video makes me slightly nauseous. But on the other hand, it'd be extremely unique, though I do wonder how well it would translate into gameplay. And it'd look extraordinarily cool to see an 8 armed Mudokon swinging all 8 of his arms to punch multiple things at once.

That's really cool. Seriously.

Here's my concept art for Devine and the Blessed Dudes, or the Bovinophants, the Cow-Elephant villains of the game.

I'm pleased with how they turned out.

http://i.imgur.com/xaOgxAcl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/snyVQJRl.jpg

I like how they turned out. The Bovinphant definitely looks like it's from nightmares. In a good way, that is. I'd say to give Devine a much larger ponytail though, as from what it sounds like, is that Devine is very spiritually atoned. And Muds like that, show it in the length of their ponytail.

I agree, a larger ponytail would better suit a character such as himself, however the story is that he was a worker Mud or Scrub, and such it's likely that he was forced to have his ponytail cut short for safety reasons. (I remember Alf saying something about that, I think.)

Thanks for liking my concept art, Job McYossie and J_dude320! Thank you too, Job, for thinking that the Bovinophants are nightmarish in a good way. That means I'm right on track in creating suitably "Odd" villains.

As for the ponytail, I think I could have Devine get away with keeping it long. You see, the Bovinophants, even though they're kind of worse than the Glukkons, know next to nothing about the mystic nature of the Mudokons. Devine is the only Mudokon they've turned into an Icky Thingie worker. Not that has shown any hint of Mudokon mysticism from his behavior, because he doesn't know how to chant like other Mudokons or know about the bird portals. He has the potential to do so, but he truly is out of touch with his people's heritage from being the only Mudokon in Bovinophant territory. He learned the Fighting Yoga from another Icky Thingy, who was a Bovinophant but he had only two arms. I plan for the Icky Thingies to compose of only two armed Bovinophants, and all the different species introduced in Munch's Odyssey and Stranger's Wrath.

I think that the business associates of the Bovinophant "Blessed Dudes" should include the Glukkons, the Octigi, and the Gloktigi. The Vykkers would be the surgeons for the Bovinophants, and would get away with not being Icky for having a full 8 arms too.

I thought of a scene where the Bovinophants are contacted by their Glukkon business partners, with the Glukkons angrily asking where their shipment of expensive diamonds were supposed to come. The Bovinophant leaders then tell them about this "one Icky Thingie" who is causing a lot of trouble, shows the wanted poster of Devine to them and asks "I know these, um, Mudokons populate your part of Oddworld. Do know how to deal with them?" The Glukkons then scream, and start running away from the screen. The Bovinophants then say "Why would they be so afraid of an Icky Thingie?" "Perhaps they eat more there and leave a bigger mess then this one." "Oh. It's a shame those Glukkons never had the benefit of our supreme wisdom." The fact that the Bovinophants don't understand what makes the Mudokons so powerful makes them very foolish and self-satisfied, which makes breaking their limbs all the more fun. :D

.................................................................................................... ............


what

I'm confused, and not only because OANST posted in Fan Corner.

I think what he's trying to get across, is that the Bovin's have no clue as to how powerful a Mud can be, so has to ask Glukkon help.

Seeing him post here gave me my first orgasm in centuries.

But seriously, what.

What are you exactly "what"ing about? :fuzconf: