Meet a few of the geniuses behind the fantastic realism of Oddworld. Developers Sean Miller, Rob Brown, Mark Ahlin, Ivan Power, Rajeev Nattam, and Assistant Producer Christopher Leonard work (and sometimes live) in the Real Time Department at Oddworld. They create and model the appearance and movement of Abe, Munch, and the rest of the characters and their environments. And though their stardom is eminent, they allowed us a peek into the mysteries behind the magic.
You can tell just by looking at this group that working at Oddworld is fun. They joke and tease each other, are quick to smile and have that twinkle in their eyes that says they haven't quite grown up yet. And why should they? Their work is making a game. (Don't you wish you had their job?) Here is where imagination is sketched, modeled, rendered, and tweaked to perfection. There's an enthusiasm about the work: it's about bringing make-believe to life. But what really counts to them is doing the best they can. "You have to be passionate about the work you do," Leonard explains. "The people are here because they want to make the best games possible."
But with the Xbox, the team could dedicate 3,400 polygons just to Abe alone. The Real Time Department leapt on that awesome power (insert their maniacal laughter here), and it shows!
"We could get so much more sound, gameplay, models, [and] textures," says Brown. "It opened up a lot of freedom for us," Ahlin agrees. "We're not close to maxing out what the Xbox is capable of. Everyone here is really excited about the next game…"
But the changes in Munch's Oddysee are already incredible. "We were able to get more characters on screen at once," Miller comments, "and that really helped flesh out the world and made you feel like you were in a place that really exists. There was a lot of push for detail and capturing really subtle shading." Oddworld today is more odd than ever.
To give you a sneak peak, the Real Time Department let us know what their favorite levels were:
Sean Miller
"Vykkers Lab and the Fuzzle Testing levels, because I can play it with my daughter, and she LOVES saving fuzzles."
Rob Brown
"I enjoy Meep herder village. It is one of the best levels at telling a story and building it around a puzzle. It's a lot of fun to play."
Mark Ahlin
"I'm going to go with Splinterz. Why? Because it's the only thing that survived from the original design and it stayed intact pretty well, considering. It's a survivor."
Ivan Power
"My favorite is the "flub fuels scrub pens" level, because of the cooperation between Abe and Munch needed to finish it. There is plenty of action/shooting which I enjoy."
Rajeev Nattam
"The first Vykker's lab level (Operating Room)... because it looks so cool and is nicely put together gameplay-wise."
And the Real Time Department let us in on this little secret: One of their developers (who shall remain nameless) found out that there was enough memory to put a movie in the level of the game he was working on. The team was thrilled to discover they could add this sort of ambience. They were so excited that it became an inter-office competition: How much cool "hidden" stuff could you cram into a level? Of course they wouldn't tell us where to find those tidbits, or how many there are. That's up to you!
"There are certain parts of [the game] that look better than we even imagined," says Miller." We were able to get an enormous amount of detailed characters with deforming geometry in very large, and complex environments. For example, in one level you get chased by Scrabs through canyons filled with mines as the Glukkons try to convert a native windmill site into a brewery. In that one level, there are Mudokons, Sligs, hundreds of trees and large buildings throughout this huge exterior level. Having that amount of power and memory for texture and geometry allowed us to push the epic feel of our story within the gameplay." Leonard agrees: "We're really looking forward to hearing what people think."
