Stewart Gilray Interview

[TB321]

Hi guys, I'm Tom Bennett, a video games blogger from Leeds in the UK, and I've just very recently joined the Oddworld Forums - so hey all'ya!

I've just posted a piece on my blog which contains an interview with Stewart Gilray of Just Add Water along with my impressions of the E3 demo. Ever since I played Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus all those years ago, I've been a huge fan of the Oddworld series, and it was a dream to go and see the JAW offices and talk to Stewart about himself, Just Add Water and, of course, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty. A friend of mine suggested that I post the interview on this forum for other Oddworld oddballs (like me) to read, so, without further ado, "Follow me!"

http://wp.me/p4E0Ie-75

[Scrabaniac]

Welcome to the forums

[TB321]

Cheers Scrabaniac! I wish I'd joined the forums sooner, this is everything an Oddworld fan could need! Thanks for the welcome!

[Holy Sock]

I know the cynics will say "get to the bloody interview, already" but I'm enjoying the read.

[TB321]

Haha! Cheers Holy Sock

[Scrabaniac]

That was a good read i'm excited to see this mysterious slig which pays homage to something, as well as the mudokon voice Stewart can't find in the game :P

[TB321]

Aw cheers for reading Scrabaniac, I massively appreciate it! Yeah me too, I can't wait to get my hands on the game and find them as well

[Mr. Molluck]

Hi guys, I'm Tom Bennett, a video games blogger from Leeds in the UK, and I've just very recently joined the Oddworld Forums - so hey all'ya!

I've just posted a piece on my blog which contains an interview with Stewart Gilray of Just Add Water along with my impressions of the E3 demo. Ever since I played Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus all those years ago, I've been a huge fan of the Oddworld series, and it was a dream to go and see the JAW offices and talk to Stewart about himself, Just Add Water and, of course, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty. A friend of mine suggested that I post the interview on this forum for other Oddworld oddballs (like me) to read, so, without further ado, "Follow me!"

http://wp.me/p4E0Ie-75

This is a great first post. Welcome, and beware the Sligs, Slogs, and Scrabs!

[Holy Sock]

Ha. Stew talks about OWF a little bit.

TB: I see, and it’s like a motion sensor is it?

SG: Yeah kind of, so we’ve had to do that because of the problem with the camera, but the nice thing is that the view distance is the same from the original game. It’s just that we’ve had to visualise it now because we haven’t got the added bonus of having the flipscreen where you can just go offscreen and reset everything again. Things like that we’ve had to do, but it’s not… I don’t think it’s going to be alien, in fact people have told me that die-hard fans of the Oddworld Inhabitants forums, have gone “I don’t like this!” and then, scrolling down, you see four posts later “Actually, I get that now” and then after that the next five posts “Yeah that’s fine now”. They kind of argue themselves into liking it, but at first they are like “Noooo what have you done!” Pitchforks at dawn! Calm down, you know!

It’s been alright actually – if those guys get it, and if people who remember the original game do too, then that’s good.

Also, there's a really interesting tidbit on the lack of Stranger's Wrath HD on the Wii U.

We were going to release the Wii U version of Stranger’s Wrath first and then do the Abe games afterwards, but Nintendo advised us against that because you might get people who don’t know what Abe’s Oddysee is, or what New ‘n’ Tasty is, and they might just play Stranger, see a new Oddworld title coming out and think “Oh I don’t want that because I didn’t like Stranger, I don’t want to play FPS games”, and not realise that they’re entirely different genres. So they’ve advised us, for example, to do New ‘n’ Tasty first and do Stranger’s Wrath afterwards, because of that perception.

[TB321]

This is a great first post. Welcome, and beware the Sligs, Slogs, and Scrabs!

Cheers for the welcome Mr. Molluck, and thank you so much! (Notices Sligs, Slogs and Scrabs) Arrrrrgh! (Runs off).

Ha. Stew talks about OWF a little bit.



Also, there's a really interesting tidbit on the lack of Stranger's Wrath HD on the Wii U.

Thanks for reading the piece Holy Sock Glad it was interesting

[Holy Sock]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

TB: Perfect!

SG: We’re doing another Oddworld project sometime later this year/next year and that guy’s doing a big character in that for us. I sent him the concept documents and stuff and he just went “Yeah I’m there, signed up”. Cool! Really? Yay!

[Mr. Molluck]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Perhaps we might see a certain rabies-infected farmer? or the Glukkon Queen?

Or Stranger 2 (if there is one)? Sekto survived the first game, so him coming back wouldn't be a surprise, but it'd be cool.

[TB321]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Yeah, intriguing - any ideas on who it might be Holy Sock?

Perhaps we might see a certain rabies-infected farmer? or the Glukkon Queen?

Or Stranger 2 (if there is one)? Sekto survived the first game, so him coming back wouldn't be a surprise, but it'd be cool.

Glukkon queen/Slig queen would be a fantastic inclusion, great shout Mr. Molluck

[MeechMunchie]

TB: Check! Talking about Mudokons and stuff, are there any new Slig variants, because Exoddus had the flying ones, Munch had the Big Bro Sligs, have you got any special ones in New ‘n’ Tasty?

SG: There’s no Big Bros, there’s no flying ones, there is a special Slig somewhere, and again I don’t know where he is – I can’t even tell you because I don’t know where he is. The guys in the office will talk about it and I’ll say “Where is it?” and they’ll be like “Ah I’m not telling you” (annoyed grumbling). I think die-hard fans will recognise him as soon as they see it, but there you go.

£5 says it's the SligStorm albino

[TB321]

£5 says it's the SligStorm albino

Oh nice! Sounds like a good guess to me

[Holy Sock]

So they won't be working on Exoddu for at least 3-6 months after release. And it looks as if the New n Tasty money will almost exclusively be going into Oddworld projects?

[MeechMunchie]

Hopefully they'll port Munch HD in the interregnum.

[V_O_T]

Hey, I'm not fussed. So long as oddworld is in the future of gaming, I am beyond satisfied. JAW has just been so awesome about it all too.

[Holy Sock]

Hopefully they'll port Munch HD in the interregnum.

Stew said that's the plan.

[TB321]

Hopefully they'll port Munch HD in the interregnum.

Yeah that would be cool

Hey, I'm not fussed. So long as oddworld is in the future of gaming, I am beyond satisfied. JAW has just been so awesome about it all too.

Couldn't have said it better myself, I'm absolutely desperate to get my hands on New 'n' Tasty now haha!

Stew said that's the plan.

Groovy

[Holy Sock]

MOD EDIT: Holy Sock was replying to a post that's now been deleted, wherein TB321 had multiposted and people were offering advice on how to fix it.

No problem. This was actually the most interesting interview, about the series, I've read in a while.

[TB321]

No problem. This was actually the most interesting interview, about the series, I've read in a while.

Wow - thank you so much!

I'm really pleased you like it! It was a real pleasure to interview Stewart, and seeing the team working away in the office was really inspiring too. Like I say, Oddysee and Exoddus were massive milestones for me as a young sunlight-deprived 8 year old gamer, and it was incredibly hard for me to hold back my inner Oddworld fanboy whilst we were talking about the game and seeing it in action