Oddworld

"On a very practical level, we were striving for a deeper and more engaging sense of story and emotional character development for games. We brought character development, production design, animation, and effects from the film industry. We wanted to feel like you were playing not just a challenge, but someone’s fate – someone that you had to be responsible for. On a more philosophical level, I wanted to take the most pop of pop culture, and convert it into meaningful modern day myths that would have great appeal to a wider audience. We also believed that people could find more empowering messages through gaming. So we targeted the anti-hero as our main character. Abe wasn’t the muscle-bound superhero that you wanted to be – he was the rather pathetic chump that you actually are. It was about rendering the journey out of the more powerless beings that we see ourselves as and at the place we most typically are, which is at the bottom of the global corporate food chain."

"It was film that was the key inspiration, but from games the most fun I personally had, aside from pure racing and arcade-style games, was the great early side-scrollers like Prince of Persia, Out of This World and Flashback. I loved those games, but most importantly those games made me feel like I was controlling a lifeform more than a piece of art in some challenge contest."

"I think the game served a lot of people who wanted to see deeper and more developed characters in games that had more real world relevance to them. I believed, and still do, that the audience wants richer entertainment than they are currently getting. I also hear a lot of people in the business claim the game inspired them to want to start making games. But I have to say the most intangible rewards were the heart-breaking and inspiring fan mails from people whose lives the game so deeply affected. It’s uncanny the impact the game had on some people, but it was why I personally wanted to make the games."

"Ravi: You said you had a story at that time. When Oddworld’s Abe’s Oddysee first came out it was praised at the time for its universe, its story and its approach to storytelling itself. What served as the inspirations of that universe? How did you start to create it and how did you melt it into something that would become Abe’s Oddysee?"

"Damn Wolvark scum."

"Now that’s how you get ‘em."

"I gotta bag Jo Mamma. Hehehe."

"Lorne Lanning as Stranger, Blisterz Booty, Sekto, Olden Stuff, Grubbs"

"Michael Bross as Clakkerz"

"You know what’s in a Mudokon Pop?"

"There’s a lot of eggs in that can."

"We gotta get those eggs outta here."

"Everybody listen!"

"You know, whenever I leave a mean place like that, it blows up!"

"One time there were lots of us, but that was all before there was any webs. However, some are caught in the moving "webs" trying in vain to break free. Now, I can't find anybody. My name is Munch and I've been singin' for em ever since. But nobody sings back... until last night. My loneliness was over. I'd found somebody! Then it happened. It wasn't a Gabbit! It wasn't a Gabbit at all! Who could do such a thing? Well, I was about to find out."

"That’s it? That’s the big message?"

"The Fuzzles got their own plan."

"Come on, Abe. What are you doing? I need that Gabbiar."

"Lorne Lanning as Abe, Munch"

"Michael Bross"

"This is Necrum. Long ago, the Mudokons brought their dead here. That was before the Glukkons started stealing our bones. They used Mudokon slaves ot do it. Blind ones that couldn’t see. The Glukkons didn’t want anyone to know what they were digging up and no one ever did. Not until the spirits of those bones paid me a visit."

"Oops. I forgot he was blind. Help me rescue the rest of them."

"I have been through this before. Back when I got the power to shut down RuptureFarms. That’s when I first saw the creatures of Oddworld as they used to be, before we chopped them up into tasty treats. We have forgotten our past and now it was costing us our future… and even our souls."

"It ain’t my fault! It’s that Abe guy! First RuptureFarms, now Necrum Mines! There ain’t no bones anywhere! No bones, no brew! I am totally screwed! My career is over! Ohohoho, and it’s all that blue bastard’s fault!"