Exoddus still A Go Go
 

Thought I'd share this interview given the recent confirmation of JAW and Oddworld's split, and the subsequent tentatively concerning the state of Twice ze Flavour.

The full interview is here.

I was hoping pre-production would be shorter, but I have no idea how video game production works so I'm glad it's approaching actual development.

I also see they're outsourcing Exoddus too. I was hoping Lorne had built a dev team but they're taking bids on this one too.

I'm not surprised that Lorne is taking bids on it. I wasn't really expecting him to have a dev team at this point. Glad to know that Exoddus is still potentially on its way, but I guess it'll be safer to wait until more information is released about it.

Also, I didn't bother to read a single word of the interview aside from what's in the OP

For someone who supposedly loves his franchise to the point he'd rather it die than so much as tease to his fans the wider picture, he sure has no qualms putting the IP out to tender. Why not build a relationship with one small dedicated indie team?

Now we just need to know why JAW, a perfectly good company who's already proved they can handle Oddworld can't do Exoddus.

Now this is just some speculation but: Doesn't it seem OWI are just using the remakes as experiments to test indie companies? That's my impression. The company who does the best job gets to make future Oddworld titles. Which if that's the case, That only brings up further questions. Because; aside from bugs and a few problems with the PC port. JAW did an outstanding job with NnT...

I dunno. I really feel for Just Add Water. And I've got a feeling it's one of those "We'll never know" types of splits unfortunately.

Lorne will no doubt mention it in one way or another during an interview in the future. Until then it's a guessing game. At least it's good to know that this hasn't impacted the development of Exoddus HD much.

I do think the situation is pretty dodgy. NnT was a solid game coming from the size of the team it had working on it and there was no reason not to have them work on the Exoddus remake. I am happy that the remake is still going forward though. I wonder how much it'll differ from NnT what with being made by a different team?

Here is the issue, from the interview :

I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying JAW did such a grand job that Lorne shouldn't look to tender AEHD out. Nor am I saying he isn't within his rights, all I'm saying is that it goes against his message of integrity and his paternal anti corporate protection of the Oddworld IP. Of course there might have been some sort of issue between JAW and OWI. That is supposing the terms of contract for the production of NnT ever stipulated JAW would ever get to work on anything other than NnT though. Whatever the reason, I'm not entirely unhappy another, potentially superior company, could be contracted to develop AEHD and/or future products. After all they might prove to create something closer to my ideals of where the series should go...

Well, STM, didn't you know that words and behavior don't necessarily match ?

Stewart: We made the game... ok, where's the money?
Lorne: I don't believe in money. It's a construct made by big corporations to oppress the poor spiritual beings. I can give you a big hippy dippy hug, though.
Stewart: >:(

I was actually just about to post what vlam quoted. Here’s the full passage with some more details:

It sounds (to me) that OWI is looking for a larger studio to do Exoddus because of the bigger scope. Perhaps JAW thought they could do it but OWI thinks otherwise, and maybe that’s where things went sour?

That depends on whether OWI thinks NnT is as succesful as planned

I remember someone at JAW saying once that after NnT they're going to work on other projects before doing anything Oddworld again, and I'm pretty sure that was before release.

Maybe Lorne wanted to do Exoddus immediately after NnT while JAW wanted to work on their own stuff for a while, and that's why they split up?

Which I’m sure would have been discussed before working out the deal with JAW.

Seems like a very un-Lanning thing to do. But who knows, maybe he's a double-agent for the big corporations.

Remember when Lanning and Gilray had that keynote event, where they discussed a micro-business structure? It left a very positive impression on me, and I could see a long and profitable future between the two. It kind of sucks their relationship has gone the way of the Meech.

I distinctly remember another interview, shortly before New 'n' Tasty's initial release, where Lanning discussed his relationship with JAW. He said he was very docile about most of their decisions toward Oddworld, and that he was giving them the reins to do what they thought was best for the game. He went on to say, however, that once they started producing new content, then the teams would see his true, pedantic, perfectionist self, and they might not like him so much then. I guess JAW didn't want to tempt fate.

Who knows, perhaps JAW is the defecting party? They might have hit it big with New 'n' Tasty, probably collected a hefty payout, and are now more than content in parting ways to seek out new, profitable ventures that won't require a long-term investment without return. Anything is possible.

That is a supremely dull interview. Dear god, who cares about any of that shit? Also, whoever typed it out is terrible and needs to learn how to spell. The image of Lorne 'hot tubing' an iPad is going to stay with me for a good long while.

Hasn't impacted? If the split hadn't happened, they'd be working on it already.

JAW had like three people before Stranger HD came along. It expanded again for NnT. Team size wouldn't have been a significant factor.

One of the reasons I like Lorne so much is just how deep he tends to go in interviews. I mean I’m the sort of person who likes to go deep with reading about games that interest me so I’m probably in a minority here, but I love how Lorne goes into all these nuts and bolts and goes off in tangents on weird little subjects instead of just spinning out a canned PR reply. It feels like he’d be a cool dude to sit and talk shop for hours at a bar somewhere.

I agree about the proofreading though, geez.


It would depend on if JAW was willing to expand, then. There’s a whole bunch of factors as to why that might not be good for them to do.

Nate, "that shit" ? Sorry, but unfortunately, it's your typical Lanning's interview.

Manco, Lanning is a cool dude... Until you've got to work with him ?

I don't understand you guys : you all see that he is a big part of the problem before reaching to the conclusion that it must be EA or JAW's fault (and tomorrow another scapegoat).

Check yo'self, Lorne. You just got VLAM'D!

I can't recall anyone blaming JAW for this? We don't have enough information for that.

Jordan, for example, let's quote kjjcarpenter : "who knows, perhaps JAW is the defecting party ?"

Furthermore, do you really imagine Lanning saying : "it is my fault" ?

Yes, Jordan's post contains a violence of language that, frankly, just makes me uncomfortable, and I think we all need to send JAW a collective hug in the hopes it will soften his harsh words.

Man, what a dick.

As someone who's interviewed Lorne twice, I can tell you that there are good interviews and bad interviews. And the main differences are (a) asking questions on which he can give interesting answers (hint: minutia about differences between architecture of different types of RAM chips isn't interesting) and (b) editing his segues into a coherent flow of prose. This interviewer has done neither.


EDIT: Those rules can be said of any interview, really. Not just Lorne.

Maybe his goal is to make Lorne leave OWI? Like he made that guy leave the forums? I'm still not over that.

I'm merely being objective. We don't know who is to blame, so I was offering another stance.

Objectivity is for Communists, and emotional terrorists.

And spooky undersea cities.

Yes, when you interviewed him, it was really interesting because we actually learned some new things about Oddworld (unlike the majority of Lanning's interviews who are pointless).

FrustratedAssassin, get over it. Lanning couldn't - and shouldn't - care less of what being said here (it's naive to think otherwise). Moreover, what did you learn from Alex, except that "look, I know a lot of things about Oddworld, but I can't tell you a single thing" ?

Vlam made owi_alex leave the forums? when was this?