Oddworld Questions & Answers VIII

[Wil]

Isn't there an option to start a kickstarter campaign for it or something? I would love some limited edition Oddworld stuff as well.

Crowdfunding is another thing we've spent a lot of time investigating. The conclusion we've drawn is that we don't want to expend the attention it would take to maintain a campaign on something relatively insignificant. And of course we'd all love merch, but it's not what's going to carry the biggest crowdfunding appeal.

Do you mean the manufacturing infrastructure or the distribution infrastructure? If the latter, maybe take a look at what Telltale do: they sell digital copies through a whole bunch of services, plus both digital and physical copies (and merch) through their website.

That's the goal, not the solution. We need the storage, the handling, the packaging and shipping, and all of that is ridiculously expensive. We don't have the space or the time to do it ourselves.

[STM]

I have a spare room?

[Manco]

Make a super-limited edition run and charge lots of money for it to offset the production cost.

Speaking of merch, you guys looked at services like Shapeways? If you already have the 3D files lying around, seems like it could be a simple way of producing some collectible figurines or something.

[Bullet Magnet]

Shapeways is awesome. Modelling conversions revolutionised.

[Wil]

I'm in a typy mood.

This is interesting. If the muds don't know any better and think they have a decent life, why oh why would they choose to follow Abe and jump trough his bird portal? Even more so after the events at Rupture Farms and the Magog propaganda about Abe being a terrorist. If the muds really think they are doing a good job you'd think they would actually try to stop him from getting to his goals.

Mudokons are naïve and trusting enough that they'll follow the instructions of someone coming up to them with a smile and a kind tone of voice. They also know in a non-conscious way that there's something wrong with being in RuptureFarms. And maybe there's something utterly irresistible about Bird Portals that makes Mudokons want to hurl themselves through them.

But we did have some fun thinking about exactly that question. We thought about having the Mudokons obey Abe out of fear ("Better do what he says!"), or even changing the gameplay so that you have to chase them into the portals. But at the end of the day, we're remaking an existing game with limited time and financial freedom to deviate much from the original, so there's none of that in the final scripts.

It's interesting that some story treatments for Abe have RuptureFarms warning Mudokons to ignore and report him because he's carrying a dangerous disease.

Aren't Meetles the large transport ships Lulu uses to get to Vykers Labs?

No. Meetles are massive beetles. The clue's in the name. Industrially brutalise them and you get a Mug, the origin of Wil's former username.

There are multiple forms of Meetles, depending on (if you're Native) what you feed them or (if you're Civilized) how you cut them up. As best I can tell, the blimps evolved out of the idea of stitching and sewing Meetle bits into dirigibles. And hey, maybe that's what the fabrics are actually made of.

Hey does anyone think the meeches was a scraped idea or was it just for show in AO

Definitely. There were originally going to be four temples, including the Meech temple.

Or for that matter, why it is monsaic "lines". The only line in sight is the two-dimensional surface upon which you walk upon in the game.

Monsaic Lines is an ancient observatory. It's used for measuring the angles and harmonies of celestial bodies. Specifically the name 'Lines' might be taken from the Nazca Lines.

Other than the brief description given in 'The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants', is there any other information on Ma'Spa?

Fun fact: Sekto Springs was originally going to have been built on top of Ma'Spa, just as its conceptual predecessor, a Vykkers dam, would have been in Munch's Exoddus.

[Bullet Magnet]

You cannot leave it at "four temples".

[STM]

^ What was the third temple! OwO

I can sweeten the deal to find out~

[Slog Bait]

I seriously only thought there were going to be three but the Meech temple was scrapped

Now I'm really curious, too.

[Manco]

Maybe Monsaic Lines?

[Slog Bait]

Does that count as a temple?

[Manco]

Iunno, there’s dudes worshipping and stuff.

[Nate]

There are multiple forms of Meetles, depending on (if you're Native) what you feed them or (if you're Civilized) how you cut them up. As best I can tell, the blimps evolved out of the idea of stitching and sewing Meetle bits into dirigibles. And hey, maybe that's what the fabrics are actually made of.

When you say blimp/dirigble, do you mean the Vykkers blimp, or the native blimps in this video? Surely the natives wouldn't do anything cruel to the Meetles?

Fun fact: Sekto Springs was originally going to have been built on top of Ma'Spa, just as its conceptual predecessor, a Vykkers dam, would have been in Munch's Exoddus.

Has that now been retconned out?

[STM]

It's not necessarily cruel is it? If they kill them and use their hides? Native Americans had a 'harmonic' existence with nature but they still speared bison and used their skin to build their tents.

[Wil]

When you say blimp/dirigble, do you mean the Vykkers blimp, or the native blimps in this video? Surely the natives wouldn't do anything cruel to the Meetles?

I mean, the Civilized forces would have cut them apart and used their pieces to build flying vessels. The Mudokons turned Meetle grubs into those flying balloons by feeding them beans. The whole concept was later consolidated into feeding the creatures, so the industrialists would have gotten their balloons by feeding them chilli.

Has that now been retconned out?

There's room for maneuverability. I think the idea was that Sekto was lying about the water: it wasn't spring water, it was river water. But if we wanted to say that Ma'Spa was just behind that dam, we could do that. It would make the liberation of Ma'Spa rather unceremonious, though.

It's not necessarily cruel is it? If they kill them and use their hides? Native Americans had a 'harmonic' existence with nature but they still speared bison and used their skin to build their tents.

Absolutely, but for gameplay purposes you want to present the two forces as polar as opposite: absolute empathy against absolute barbarity. Video games make them both fun.

You cannot leave it at "four temples".

I can! In fact the creatures themselves were in the very early stages of design at the point, so there's no answer to the question of "What was the fourth creature?" more than "Some scribblings with features that went into the other creatures' designs." The environments that each creature would inhabit kept changing, too. There was a point when 'Arachnid Sr.' was going to be an ice inhabitant and 'Arachnid Jr.' was the desert dweller. But at that point they weren't Scrabs and Paramites as we would recognize them today.

[Scrabaniac]

Seeing abe in an icey realm with thin ice to sneak over and sligs in polar type coats would have been so cool!

[Bullet Magnet]

I invented the Oddworld ice land when I was a teenager. The continent of Arctos, home of various monsters such as the snow paramite Paramitus maritimus and the other stuff that I didn't think of but was much better.

[Slog Bait]

What, no land made entirely of active volcanoes? Deserts are not sufficient enough to contrast icy realms! I desire more rivers and lakes of lava to get dangerously close to and somehow not burn to death because game logic

[Wil]

The volcano and/or jungle environment was for Meeches.

[Wil]

The volcano and/or jungle environment was for Meeches.

[Slog Bait]

I

actually saw that one coming

Hmm.

[Manco]

The one thing missing from the games industry is super-realistic lava.

Like, really gloopy, bubbling, flowing lava, glowing red hot surrounded by heat haze. Lava in games is always too flat and static, it’s just a floor reskin.

I think about this too often.

[MeechMunchie]

I thought Meeches were supposed to be savannah pack-hunters. Hence the ostrich physique.

[Wil]

Nothing's set in stone until you see it in an official release. These in particular are such early and embryonic ideas that there's no need to try and subsume them into canon.

[Bullet Magnet]

Everyone! To the fan-corner-mobile!

[abe is now!]

Question: why are blind mudokons all grey? lol

[AvengingGibbons]

Question: why are blind mudokons all grey? lol

All the years they've spent working underground in the mines means their skin hasn't seen any sun, so they have no healthy green tan... or maybe some other explanation.

[abe is now!]

And what about those working in the FeeCo Depot, Bonewerkz or SoulStorm Brewery?

[Varrok]

What are you, racist?!

[Jordan]

And what about those working in the FeeCo Depot, Bonewerkz or SoulStorm Brewery?

while not extreme as a case as the ones working in the mines, they may still have been kept indoors for the majority of their life. that, and for gameplay reasons.

[Phylum]

Yeah, while there may be canonical reasons for them being discoloured this largely comes down to gameplay. It's like Abe being such a different colour to the other muds in AO/AE.