Remakes, new games, and unfinished projects
With Abe’s Oddysee New ‘N’ Tasty, the remake of the classic Oddworld title coming out later this year, Just Add Water reveals what’s next for the rejuvenated franchise. Remakes, games brought back from the dead, and entirely new titles may all be on the cards, revealed Stewart Gilray, Just Add Water’s CEO, in an interview with VG24/7.
The studio recently created a poll to discover what fans wanted them to do, with options ranging from remaking other Oddworld games, to working on the long-lost titles The Hand of Odd, Squeek’s Oddysee, and The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot.
Gilray explained the purpose of the poll. “It wasn’t just a case of gathering info that will gather dust in a drawer, we already have a rough plan for the next couple of years, but we wanted to make sure we weren’t just wasting time making something that nobody wanted, so we just wanted to give ourselves some confidence.” And the results surprised them.
It was a remake of Abe’s Exoddus, in my humble opinion the greatest game in the series, that got folks’ juices flowing the heaviest, followed by a brand new game, then the unfinished titles. “We were a little surprised that Squeek’s Oddysee wasn’t higher up the result,” Gilray confessed. “We knew Exoddus would be pretty high up there, but to see it where it ended up was nice.”
It turns out that the studio has a lot to work with, as the original Hand of Odd design document is in their possession, along with a working version of Fangus for the original Xbox. They’ve also got the source code for both of Abe’s adventures. “We’ve got the source code to both Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus. However, [we] don’t have final PSone code for Oddysee, and no PC code, but we have final PC code for Exoddus, and no PSone code. So we’ve got a mix,” Gilray revealed.
So it looked like Exoddus is the next step, but Oddworld Inhabitants’ Lorne Lanning, the series’ creator has plenty of “crazy ideas,” and with complete control over the IP, the two studios could really take the franchise in any direction. It’s exciting stuff, to be sure. Check out the full interview for more information on the remake and the future of Oddworld.
What’s next for Oddworld? Just Add Water speaks [VG24/7]
