Trivia / Oddworld

• Acting for Two: around 80% of all of the characters are voiced by Lorne Lanning, the co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants.
• Acclaimed Flop: ''Stranger's Wrath," which despite having good reviews, fell victim to Invisible Advertising.
• Creator Backlash: Lorne Lanning regretted the final version of Munch's Oddysee.
• Creator's Favorite: Stranger is without a doubt Lorne Lanning's favorite character to create and voice.
• Development Hell:
  • The planned remake for Abe's Exoddus, Soulstorm, was announced close to the release of New 'n' Tasty. That was back in 2014. However, when the latter ended up being released to incredibly mixed reception, talk of Soulstorm practically vanished, presumably so that Just Add Water could address the myriad complaints fans had with New 'n' Tasty, and has since had its release date pushed back multiple times. Despite scant updates on its progress and the COVID-19 Pandemic complicating things further, it was released in Spring 2021 as announced.
  • Plans for other odd world games were in the cards back in the late 90s early 2000s that were confirmed still in the works such as:
    • Oddworld: The Hand of Odd. A real-time strategy game planned to be online. It is said to be free-to-play with optional extras that may be purchased. It has since been revived as plans for its development have been announced.
    • SligStorm. It would have followed the story of an albino Slig who was born in a complex it must escape. On 9 May 2011, an Oddworld Inhabitants representative released a list of FAQ answers in relation to future games, confirming Sligstorm will be worked on.
    • The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot. Originally intended to be the next game following Stranger's Wrath. In the 9 May 2011 FAQ, an Oddworld Inhabitants representative confirmed Fangus Klot is in future plans.
    • Oddworld: Squeek's Oddysee. Expected third game in the original pentalogy following the first two entries Abe's Oddysee and Munch's Oddysee. In the 9 May 2011 FAQ, an Oddworld Inhabitants representative confirmed Squeek's Oddysee is on the cards.
    • Oddworld: Munch's Exoddus. Expected to be a bonus game based on Munch's Oddysee outside of the original pentalogy.
    • Oddworld: Slave Circus. a possible future "gladiator"-type Oddworld title, in which the player could purchase and battle slaves. Announced that the game is in the coffer and there may be some light for it down the road.
    • A sequel to Stranger's Wrath.
    • and Stranger Arena. A competitive multi-player game using gameplay mechanics from Stranger's Wrath.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The publishers wanted to give Abe a gun but Lorne Lanning was arguing with the developers to avoid that from happening until he came up with a workaround by letting Abe use sligs as guns. This is one of the reasons why Abe has a possession ability.
  • The reason Abe lost a finger between the first and second games. (And by executive, we mean the Yakuza, who claimed to have the Japanese equivalent of a copyright on any characters with four fingers. Seriously).
  • The publishers wanted to rush out a second game because Oddworld was their only success during a slump. Not wanting to compromise their vision for their true second game, Oddworld Inhabitants agreed to develop Abe's Exodus as a bonus game as a stop-gap.
  • Also why Oddworld initially left the business. While trying to find a publisher to host their newest game, they noticed that their potential partners kept wanting to renegotiate their contract. According to what they said in a GameInformer interview, this would have led to a cycle of Oddworld not getting paid while they jumped through hoops to please their partners. Not wanting any part in this, they simply called it off and closed up.
• Franchise Killer: Stranger's Wrath was in no way a bad game. In fact, a lot of fans agreed that it was a fantastic addition to the franchise. Unfortunately, the poor sales due to poor marketing and the resulting slews of cancelled titles meant that Stranger's Wrath was responsible in kicking the entire Oddworld franchise into a near-death coma for almost a decade.
• Promoted Fanboy: Just Add Water, the team currently in charge of rebooting the franchise, is largely made up of dedicated fans of the original Oddworld games.
• Schedule Slip: The Golden Ending of Abe’s Exoddus said that Munch’s Oddysee would be released in 2000. It ended up being released in 2001.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: The supposedly planned game "Nod's Oddysee" was confirmed to be a hoax by Word of God.
• Vaporware: Several projects were announced and went unreleased: The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot, Oddworld: Squeek's Oddysee, Oddworld: Munch's Exoddus, online RTS Oddworld: The Hand of Odd, Oddworld: Slave Circus, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath 2, SligStorm, and Stranger Arena.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page
• Write What You Know: Lorne Lanning based the games on his experiences seeing the homeless crisis in America up close. Especially how people were starving and scrounging for scraps while living next to a waste processing plant where perfectly edible food was being destroyed.