Oddworld: Soulstorm
Oddworld: Soulstorm is an upcoming game in the Oddworld series. It is said to be a re-imagining of the 1998 game Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, built on a new game engine and with a newly re-written story. Soulstorm will serve as a direct sequel to Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty and is currently expected to release in 2020.[1]
Development[edit]
A possible ground up remake of Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus was first mentioned in an interview with series creator Lorne Lanning on July 8th 2014 when he discussed the possibility of a ground up remake of Abe's Exoddus in a similar gameplay style to New 'n' Tasty.[2] Lorne Lanning was a guest and he discussed that the reamke of Abe's Exoddus was in the planning stages. [3]
Soulstorm was officially announced on March 14, 2016 during the GDC 2016, including a teaser page and a press release.[4] Oddworld Inhabitants reopened their own studio for the development of Soulstorm, aiming to develop most of the game in-house in conjunction with Canada based Frima Studio. The latter has an in-house animation and VFX department and is believed to be responsible for the game's cutscenes and high-res character modeling.
Other than Oddworld Inhabitants' main office in San Francisco, external contractors from New York City, San Diego, Vancouver, Quebec, the UK and Australia are also working on Soulstorm. Among these are England based Fat Kraken Studios[5] and Canada based Frima Studio.
By the end of 2015 Just Add Water announced that they would no longer be working with Oddworld Inhabitants on full-scale projects.[6] According to Lorne Lanning the distance between the two studios (OWI in the United States and JAW in the United Kingdom) would occasionally hinder the development process. A small number of team members who originally worked on New 'n' Tasty founded Fat Kraken Studios in November 2016. They have confirmed to be working on Soulstorm.
Gameplay[edit]
During EGX 2017 a very early mockup of the game's UI was shown to the public. Crafting and managing followers will be some of the main gameplay mechanics in Soulstorm. Abe will be able to pick up objects he finds and craft them into useful items. Bottles of flammable Soulstorm Brew combined with a lighter may be turned into an improvised Molotov cocktail, for example. Follower management can take on extreme forms, up to "all 300 followers on screen at once" according to Lorne Lanning.
On May 13th 2019, a new gameplay trailer of Oddworld: Soulstorm was released. According to series creator Lone Lanning, Soulstorm is going to be a 2.9D re-imagining of Abe's Exoddus and will have new game mehancics such as crafting. According to Lorne Lanning, crafting means Abe has an inventory now too, to store the things he creates, and he can share his creations with the followers he rescues, arming them for encounters ahead. There's a particularly eye-catching section in the demo involving an on-rails lift with enemies everywhere, you controlling a mounted gun while your followers lob explosives.[7]
Alternate Reality Game (ARG)[edit]
Almost directly after the announcement of Soulstorm, Oddworld Inhabitants started an ARG that required the fan community to find clues and solve puzzles in return for small pieces of Soulstorm's backstory. During the presentation at EGX Lorne Lanning showed the summary of the community's efforts in the form of a short teaser trailer, depicting the trial and testing process of Soulstorm Brew on Mudokon slaves.
Marketing[edit]
Soulstorm was officially announced on March 14, 2016 during the GDC 2016, including a teaser page and a press release. Oddworld Inhabitants reopened their own studio for the development of Soulstorm, aiming to develop most of the game in-house in conjunction with Canada based Frima Studio. The latter has an in-house animation and VFX department and is believed to be responsible for the game's cutscenes and high-res character modelling. In April 2019, Oddworld Inhabitants launched the Oddwall, a social media campaign to reveal more screenshots of Oddworld: Soulstorm.[8]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Oddworld: Soulstorm". Oddworld: Inhabitants. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (8 July 2014). "Oddworld New 'n' Tasty! preview and Lorne Lanning interview – 'we've become triple-A indie'". Metro UK. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ↑ "A Storm is Brewing - Abe's Exoddus Remake Planned". Oddworld Inhaibants. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ↑ "Introducing Oddworld: Soulstorm". Twitter. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ↑ "Fat Krakern Studios is working on Oddworld: Soulstorm".
- ↑ "That was 2014, Here Comes 2015!". Just Add Water (Dev LTD).
- ↑ Purchese, Robert. "Oddworld: Soulstorm - The Quintology is Back On!". Eurogamer. Eurogamer. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
- ↑ "The Oddwall". Oddworld Inhabitants Inc. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
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