Here are a couple of poster type things along with explanations for the first two Oddworld games.
For these, I basically wanted to create images that could represent these games, the images, and even the themes. Because of the small canvas, I found this hard. I've also gone for a part black and white, part sepia/old style effect on the images, because I think they look much more gritty and dark. With the normal colours (without hue changes, darkening etc), I think it would get a different tone to what I wanted, and I wanted Abe to look in jeopardy, and against the odds.
So heres the one for Abe's Oddysee. This one I did in just two sittings, and I havn't really left it time over days for edits, so I'll probably want to make changes in the coming days.
Okay. For this, my original plan was to get across the idea of slavery, of a boss that appeared all powerful and yet pure evil to his slaves, and for Abe to still be the slave - he isn't yet experienced, mystical, etc. He's still just a klutz who doesn't know what he's doing, hence his fearful image. I think I failed in my attempt to symbolise slavery, I've only got RuptureFarms there and it requires some background knowledge to understand it. I did debate with myself whether to put one of the mining images from an Abes Exoddus FMV into it instead - aiming for a row of mudokons in slavery. I also debated about whether to put an iamge of slavery from the opening movie to Abe's Oddysee, but I felt the RuptureFarms image was more strong and focused. The moon is a very symbolic obviously to Abe's story, it shows he is the saviour of his race, and makes him rise above Molluck, hence it's high position on the canvas. I also wanted Shrykull to feature, but there wasn't room without making it overly cluttered, plus I think the moon is symbolic enough. I also went for the four fingered Abe moon, because I preferred it and the entire thing is essentially amde up of screengrabs from my DVD - where he has the original four fingers
Next, is Abe's Exoddus. I spent longer on this one, and have edited parts of it most days for quite a while, adding and changing bits to make it more balanced, though I think it still has problems (as does the AO one, but you can point them out, I won't.
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Okay, the bottom is a pile of bones, symbolises the beginning of Abe's new quest and the Three Weirdos and all that stuff. It's also a triangular pile pointing up to Abe which handily draws attention to him. There's a bottle of Soulstorm Brew in the bottom corner, this is the cause of much of the plot for the story, it's causing all this distress, and of course, SoulStorm Brew is very symbolic. It is the substance, created by exploiting mudokons and their remains, and used to re-exploit mudokons and convince them to enter slavery.
Now, I thought this story got away from the slavery a bit, and went more into how mudokons were being exploited in other ways. For example, their dead bones are excavated and used in drinks, and they are tortured for their tears - for a similar reason. This is exploitation, but it's not slavery, and though slavery is still prominent, it's not the focal point as in Abes Oddysee.
Abe looks somewhat confused, unsure, but his radiance shows he now has power and inner strength which can be unlocked to help his brethren. I have a very strong image on the sides, of mudokons being tortured for their tears. This shows how much the mudokon race is being exploited and generally injured by the glukkons.
I chose the Brewmaster because he seems the most important glukkon to me. He is the biggest threat to mudokon-hood and is quite maniacal as he watches mudokons get tortured. He is also obviously the final enemy of the game and thus the final and most focal goal. Destroying the SoulStorm Brewery and the Brewmaster also prevents the other exploitation seen in the game - the bones being dug up in Necrum etc.
I might also add that the Soulstorm bottle was really really hard to get. I had to pause it (on my DVD) JUST as it fell from the dispenser and before the mudokon swooped in to pick it up with it's annoying green hand - thats in the AE FMV when they all get drunk and Abe leaves 'em.
I think that's it. I didn't go into what makes these not so good, so please, feel free to comment and criticise these pictures.
Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus Montage Posters
