| Type | Video game developer |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games, Films |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder(s) | Lorne Lanning Sherry McKenna Scott Easley |
| Headquarters | San Luis Obispo, California, United States |
| Key people | Lorne Lanning |
| Products | Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee, Stranger's Wrath |
| Website | Oddworld.com |
Oddworld Inhabitants Inc. is an American video game developer founded in 1994 by special-effects and computer-animation veterans Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning. The company is primarily known for the Oddworld Quintology, a series of award-winning video games about the fictional planet of Oddworld and its native creatures. The series debuted with Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee in 1997 and continued through Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath in 2005, which is currently the last new Oddworld title to be released.
Oddworld Inhabitants took a break from game development for a time following the release of Stranger's Wrath, even though it had already begun preliminary work on its next Oddworld title, "The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot". However, it remained an active, operating company during this period primarily through the development of a movie called Citizen Siege, but it was never released.[1][2]
Currently, the company has returned to the video game business, though so far its role has mostly been in guiding other developers in resurrecting the Oddworld franchise through both remastering and re-releasing existing titles and developing new ones.[3] On 16 July 2010, game developer "Just Add Water" announced that "multiple projects" for Oddworld were in progress across "several platforms".[4] In the March 2011 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Lorne Lanning confirmed that an HD remake of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is one of the games currently being developed by Just Add Water.[5]
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An April 2005 issue of Game Informer revealed a character named Fangus, a type of shepherd on Oddworld located in a region called Fangustan, watching over a flock of particularly demonic-looking sheep. Curiously, Oddworld Inhabitants did not confirm the existence of a new game, leading many to suspect it as an April Fool's joke). Still, the article briefly outlined the plot: Fangus is a shepherd who dutifully wards off predators, until one day, invaders arrive. Fangus is then forced to rise to the occasion, assuming the role of savior of all Oddworldian nations. Meanwhile, rabies slowly begins to turn him mad, and he must make haste in thwarting the invaders' plans before his mind is completely lost. A Mature rating (by the ESRB) was expected due to dark tones and themes throughout the game, and Majesco was expected to publish the game for the Xbox.
In the June 2009 issue of Game Informer, Lorne Lanning did officially speak about the game and revealed more concept art and story details. He also spoke about the possibility of distributing the game digitally, though there has yet to be any further news on the game or its potential release.
Plans to release a feature film titled Citizen Siege, as well as video games related to the property, were announced around the time of the release of Stranger's Wrath.[1] The movie was to follow the story of an expatriate living in a near-future Earth who has been repossessed because of credit rackets and is hunted by a mega corporation. According to Lorne Lanning in a September 2007 interview, an online game titled Wage Wars was expected to be the first of two games to help promote Citizen Siege. However, neither the Citizen Siege movie or the associated games were ever released, and the project is considered to be cancelled with no official plans to resurrect it.[6]
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