Oddworld Stranger: Wrath of the Wild

[Borman]

Im new here, but hopefully not breaking any rules. I just wanted to drop by one of the more active Oddworld forums and let people know that I wrote up a nice article on a prototype of Stranger's Wrath that was using the previously unknown name Stranger: Wrath of the Wild. Im hoping to add more information over the coming weeks, but it would be great if you stopped by and checked it out!

http://ptoponline.com/?p=1373

[Varrok]

I can't believe it. Grubbs were even MORE annoying in this prototype.

[Wil]

Awesome find. Good work with your snooping, keep it up.

[Jordan]

For a second I thought this was going to be a really bad SW fanfic... interesting stuff anyway. I had no idea this kind of stuff was out there for Stranger's Wrath.

[Nate]

That is fascinating and mildly worrying.

Any idea why some objects were occassionally flashing red?

[STM]

Man, that title screen, the logo I mean, is really cool.

[DarkHoodness]

That logo does look good, it's a shame it didn't end up being used.

Still, that was an interesting read, and also to see an early version of SW with the subtle differences and cut props... It's a game that's come a long way. Good work.

[Nepsotic]

There are other Oddworld forums?

[Borman]

That is fascinating and mildly worrying.

Any idea why some objects were occassionally flashing red?

Im fairly certain it is a debugging feature. Ive only figure out how to really control a small portion of it really hah.

There are other Oddworld forums?

Sure, but few actually have people on them hah!

Awesome find. Good work with your snooping, keep it up.

Thanks! Im always curious what kind of backup setup the developers had going on, so anytime someone isn't under an NDA and can chime in (either here or via PM, or email for that matter), I appreciate it hah.


My understanding is that there should be a more full debug menu. Of course there is the issue of the actual debug XBE not working properly, but I still havent had time to investigate further.

If you guys want to start pointing out differences that you notice, I will gladly give credit on the site as there is no way that Ill notice all that many of them!

[Wil]

Any idea why some objects were occassionally flashing red?

My first thought would be a shader bug, but I can't think why it would be triggered like that. And Stranger doesn't have much in the way of shaders anyway, so *shrug*.

I remember this title being put to fans in OddChat to judge our reactions. That was so long ago.

Hehe.

Wrath of the Wil

[Borman]

My first thought would be a shader bug, but I can't think why it would be triggered like that. And Stranger doesn't have much in the way of shaders anyway, so *shrug*.

I remember this title being put to fans in OddChat to judge our reactions. That was so long ago.

Hehe.

Wrath of the Wil

It seems to have been considered heavily enough for them to make a title screen out of it Hah. I still think it's a debugging feature of some sort, or a glitch related to use of the debugging tools, since it really doesn't happen until I've been hitting buttons. (Back button + others enable the debugging that I've found thus far).

[Phylum]

That title and UI looks like the ultimate stereotype of early 2000s action-platformers.

[DarkHoodness]

@Phylum: I think that's allowed, given that it was originally an early 2000s action platformer of a sort... Heheh.

If you guys want to start pointing out differences that you notice, I will gladly give credit on the site as there is no way that Ill notice all that many of them!

That build is late in development, but there's four I've noticed without looking hard:

1) There's the early models for the live ammo and crossbow, of course (which look... interesting). And the UI icons representing the ammo are different.

2) As Varrok noticed, Grubb voices sound different (and yeah, more annoying).

3) The Clakker's wagon trains (seen during the first bounty mission for the first town) have different models, looking like they simply put wheels under a wooden town building and stuck a cab and engine on the front. In the retail they look like low-riding caravans that are towed by a tractor-type thing.

4) The scene after the de-pantsing FMV has Stranger knock an Outlaw into a fire. In the retail, the Outlaw runs out of the fire while burning and causes an exploding barrel to detonate immediately after the player gains control of Stranger. In this beta, the outlaw disappears in the fire and the barrels detonate spontaneously some time after the player gains control.

[Varrok]

This "YAAY IT'S A STEEF YAAY, YAAY IT'S A STEEF YAAY, YAAY IT'S A STEEF YAAY" (page 7, 4th minute of the movie) will haunt me for the rest of the week

[Wil]

Here you can see part of a removed cut-scene. That broken bridge on the way to Filthy Hands Floyd was originally intact right up until Stranger got there.



Looks like this is Unkle Turkey-Toes. He's the gatekeeper on the way to Filthy Hands Floyd, but he's terrified of Bolamites. You have to catch them before he'll open the gate for you.

3) The Clakker's wagon trains (seen during the first bounty mission for the first town) have different models, looking like they simply put wheels under a wooden town building and stuck a cab and engine on the front. In the retail they look like low-riding caravans that are towed by a tractor-type thing.

Going purely by concept art and not any insider info, this looks like a remnant of the unexplored idea that Clakker colonists travel in vehicles that are basically buildings on wheels. Their towns crop up wherever their vehicles break down.

http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...ture.php?/857/
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...ture.php?/895/

[Borman]

Awesome stuff guys Will get to adding it here shortly. I wanted to apologize for having to split up the content into multiple pages, it's certainly not for money purposes (since I lose money hah), but rather performance issues and not having the time nor the money to address them right now, plus transitioning to new backend stuff and frontend means there are more problems than usual hah.

[DarkHoodness]

Going purely by concept art and not any insider info, this looks like a remnant of the unexplored idea that Clakker colonists travel in vehicles that are basically buildings on wheels. Their towns crop up wherever their vehicles break down.

Ah, so that's why. Shame that idea was shelved, it looked like a nice quirk which would've given the Clakkers a little more depth to them.

[Crashpunk]

Nice find. I'm loving that logo.

[Xavier]

Nice find, I find this kind of insights fascinating.

[El Dango AGAIN]

The logo is neat, but I can see why they changed it. Using a dragon head for the S combined with an exotic font like that immediately makes me think of the far east, which clashes wildly with the game's western theme.

[Varrok]

That's exactly what I thought. I believe OWI thought the same

[Wil]

Grubb culture is an amalgam of Middle Eastern and Far Eastern beliefs and aethetics. Stranger, being a Man with No Name type, is obviously derived from Japanese culture albeit not directly. The Boat itself is basically a Chinese dragon. Granted, these elements were not as evident in the final game as they were through development, but they're definitely there.

[El Dango AGAIN]

I thought the Grubbs were mostly based on Native Americans, and Stranger was simply based on Clint Eastwood (or Blondie, to be precise). Never paid much attention to the boat.

[OANST]

Stranger, being a Man with No Name type, is obviously derived from Japanese culture albeit not directly.

WoF would be so proud of you. The rest of us, however, may have a hard time believing that quiet stoicism is something that belongs to Japan, therefor supplanting the actually obvious American West culture that inspired the character.

[MeechMunchie]

Actual Western frontier culture is absolutely its own thing. Bandits, drought, wagon trains, Injuns, cowboys, saloons, all of it. But a lot of the romanticised potrayal seen in cinema, not so much. Half the time it's just a foreign story with a more marketable setting. The Magnificent Seven is famously a lift of The Seven Samurai, but it doesn't stop there.

A Fistful of Dollars was directly adapted from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. The film's protagonist, an unconventional ronin played by Toshiro Mifune, bears a resemblance to Eastwood's character: both are quiet, gruff, eccentric strangers with a strong but unorthodox sense of justice and extraordinary proficiency with a particular weapon.

Like Eastwood's character, Mifune's ronin is nameless. When pressed, he gives a pseudonym. The convention of hiding the character's arms from view is shared as well, with Mifune's character typically wearing his arms inside his kimono, leaving the sleeves empty. Prior to signing on to Fistful, Eastwood had seen Kurosawa's film and was impressed by the character.

And for the record, there's a wandering, nameless ronin in pretty much every Japanese folk story. The same cannot be said for Westerns. This doesn't mean the archtype is exclusive to Japan, it just means anyone worth their salt who tries to create such a character will ineveitably pick up a book of Japanese folklore during their research.

If America had an unstable feudal system governed by cowboys before 1185, which I really hope it did, you can claim to have invented the archtype.

[Wil]

Ok, I used the word 'obviously' in an arogant way. The character type's history isn't inherantly clear at all. But...

The rest of us, however, may have a hard time believing that quiet stoicism is something that belongs to Japan

Wow.

[Michael]

I thought the Grubbs were mostly based on Native Americans, and Stranger was simply based on Clint Eastwood (or Blondie, to be precise). Never paid much attention to the boat.

I believe Mudokons are more prominently based on Native Americans. The plight of the Grubbs seems far more focused on fishing for one thing, which (please correct me if I'm wrong) I think ancient Japanese culture is more renowned for? The architecture is different and their battle armour looks slightly samurai-like too.

[El Dango AGAIN]

So the western people are in the east and the eastern people are in the west?

[MeechMunchie]

It's a fantasy. As Wil said, OWI aren't restricted to using one fictional race to represent one real one.

For instance, the Mudokon manipulation via Soulstorm brew is a parody of how American Indians* were manipulated with alcohol, but their enslavement by the Magog Cartel is a reference to the enslavement of South Africans by diamond cartels, while the whole prophetic escape plot has "JEWS" written all over it.

*They're not actually "native" as such, but that's another discussion.

[OANST]

I'm well aware that some westerns made in the sixties and seventies were lifted from Samurai films. I love Yojimbo, which was remade literally scene by scene to become A Fistful of Dollars. But the movie genre existed weeeeeell before that began happening, pretty much from the dawn of film, and the lone gunman characters were always hugely popular within the genre. Also, those traveling desperadoes actually existed in the period. Also also, the old west basically did run on a feudal system.