Oddworld: Hand of Odd announced for tablets; Munche's Oddysee HD revamp hitting PSN
Just Add Water's Stewart Gilray attended GameCityNight’s at Antenna in Nottingham last night confirming details on already announced Oddworld projects as well as making folks very pleased with the news that Munch’s Oddysee would be heading to PSN as an HD revamp.
First, we'll start with what we all already know about.
The developer had previously announced the HD remake of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath last year for PC and PSN, but confirmed the PS3 version would support 3D, Move, YouTube uploading, as well as a "feature X", whatever that may be. We'll have to wait and see on that one.
Gilray also chatted about Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee last night, confirming again that the game will be in HD and remain a 2D side-scroller with animated backgrounds. It too will land on PSN, but other platforms are to be announced at a later date.
The Oddboxx which is currently only available on PC will be hitting PSN and will include Munch’s Oddysee, Stranger’s Wrath, Abe’s Oddysee and the PSone Oddworld games, said Gilray at the event.
So, finally, what you have all be waiting for: an HD remake of Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee is coming to PSN and unannounced platforms. That's all the details that were given.
However, there is another Oddworld game coming called Hand of Odd, and it's a tablet game based on a "shelved" Oddworld real-time strategy game announced way back in 1998.
It features the usual Oddworld inhabitants like Mudokons and Glukkons, and the original design of the game will be modernized for iPad, Android tablets, Facebook, PC and Mac - platforms which are currently being "looked at" for the game by JAW.
"RTS games and Command & Conquer don't particularly do well today," Gilray told Eurogamer. "Why don't we look at it the other way round and say, 'What is today's equivalent?' I hate to say this, but it's the CityVilles and the FarmVilles. We're going to try and apply a bit of that mechanic and see where that takes us."
Calling the game "casual rather than more intense," Gilray said the game is still a ways off and a console release is unlikely.
"It works well with touchscreen interfaces or mouse control direct," he said. "On consoles, however, you get analogue sticks or your Move controller. While Move is good for certain kinds of gameplay and it's responsive compared to Kinect, it still isn't that intuitive.
"We've not had experience with Kinect yet, but playing the games already out there for that, it does seem at the moment it's got a lot of work to do before it catches up with that more direct, action kind of game.
"All the games that are out for it, you've got to do huge body movements to get involved in it, which is why it's fun. With this, there's a bit more thought involved, rather than flinging your body around a room, which is why we thought if we did direct control through touchscreen, you can put your finger on it, or with a mouse with PC or Mac, and just drag items."
Gilray said JAW is chatting with Sony about NGP at the moment, and will decide later whether Hand of Odd would be a good fit for it or not.
Hopefully soon, dates for all these Oddworld titles will be announced.