Oddworld at 10

Ten years after the Oddworld series first appeared on the original PlayStation, Lorne Lanning still has big plans for his creation.

"We're in early stages on a feature film...pre-production stages...but it will still be a while," he told GamesIndustry.biz.

Starting on the PlayStation in 1997, the Oddworld universe jumped to the Xbox after a much-publicized split with Sony. It was last seen in 2005's Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath published by EA. While a hit with most critics, the game wasn't a financial success.

"It was a heartbreaker, but at the end of the day, you learn a lot of things. From things that go well, as well as from things that go bad," Lanning said.

"In hindsight, it was the catalyst to get us on the path we are on now, which is what I am referring to as Oddworld 2.0. It is a very different business model, with a much larger production capacity.

"There's not a whole lot I can reveal. We've got four projects that we are working on. I can't really get into them, except you know one of them is the film. I can say that another one is the television series, and we are using game technology on all of them."

Lanning is proud of the fact that they were able to secure and protect their creation, rather than leaving it to the mercy of other publishers.

"To sign another developer deal with publishers just basically meant having handcuffs on for the next couple years again. That wasn't where we wanted to go," he said.

Last year, Lanning and partner Sherry McKenna signed a development deal for a computer animated motion picture based upon another creation--Citizen Siege. But Lanning hasn't forgotten about Abe, Munch, and the rest.

"Oddworld is really, really close to our heart, which is why we chose never to sell it, and we have big plans for it.

"It may take longer than the fans would like, but I think they'll be happy as long as it is great stuff."

Lorne Lanning recently appeared at the VGXPO to 'debate' the issue of violence in videogames with Jack Thompson. The full interview with Lanning can be read here.