Oddworld Q&A Part 2

Oddworld QA Part 2

In the second part of our Q&A with Lorne Lanning, we talk about working on Munch and the future of the series. GameSpot: Why didn't you use the hard drive with the game to help loading?

Lorne Lanning: In some ways we did. However, because of the nature of how the code evolved (from PC, to PS2, to Xbox) we inevitably had to live with some of the things that were deep in the code and not easily changed. We would have liked faster load times, and it would have been totally possible with the Xbox, but our code was a bit compromised on this front, which is one of the reasons we'll be building a completely fresh engine for our next title.

GS: Was Abe originally intended to have as large a part as he did?

LL: Pretty much, as it was always about cooperative gameplay.

GS: Gamespeak seems a bit scaled back in this installment. Why did you make that choice?

LL: Hmmm. Funny that it seems that way, as it's actually quite a bit amped up from the previous games. We made a choice to have a lot more voices, more variations of voices for each command, and a lot more reactions from the other characters, and of course more functionality.

GS: Is the Xbox the new home for the series?

LL: For at least the next three titles after Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.

GS: The lung subplot that runs through the story sequences isn't really resolved. Will that show up in the next game?

LL: It is resolved in a movie if you get the bad ending. It is semiresolved in a newspaper heading if you get the good ending.

GS: Where does the series go from here--creatively speaking?

LL: We've just created a new central character, and we are going to want to have some fun with him. We also want to create some new sensibilities for our universe to surprise the audience, and we also want to bring to life a lot of new species. Of course, it's also our major focus to truly exploit more of the power of the Xbox. But right now, we're all just trying to get some much-needed time off.