There's still lots they need to show off in final form. We haven't seen gameplay animations or GameSpeak for a long time.
Probably Golden Helmet (that's his GAF handle). He posts here, it's awesome.
Golden Helmet on this forum is Stewart Gilray, CEO of Just Add Water (Yorkshire, England developer) and Business Development Director of Oddworld Inhabitants!
Lorne Lanning's the original big boss man - Co-founder, Director, Designer, Writer, Voice Actor and probably other roles, of Oddworld Inhabitants.
So is this like the equivalent of the Stranger's Wrath HD port?
Stranger's Wrath HD was a fairly extensive
remaster with remade gameplay models and UI based off the high-end CG and concept materials for the Xbox game. But mostly it was touched-up, polished assets from the Xbox version.
Lots of the changes are
listed here.
New 'n' Tasty is a complete remake of Abe's Oddysee using the original as a level and art template but the game smooth-scrolls now, leading to a redesign of some gameplay systems. The original FMV cutscenes, which blended into the pre-rendered gameplay graphics in the original seem to be realtime rendered in 3D like the gameplay scenes now.
Some familiar names like David Hayter and Newton Faulkner are contributing new voices to Mudokons.
Michael Bross, composer for Munch and Stranger is updating the soundtrack:
http://www.oddworld.com/2014/03/dev-diary-michael-bross-composer-dream-job/
I’ve taken a different approach with this game mainly because it’s a sort of reboot of the original Abe’s Oddysee game but with today’s tech. The core game is still there in “New N Tasty” and along with that, much of the original music from that game. For the gameplay music itself, I did contribute to that, but it was mostly to create transitions for the original soundtrack.
My primary focus has been on cutscene work since new movies have been created along with re-timings and adds to the old movies.
The one issue that came up on this production is that most of the original music for the original Abe’s Oddysee cutscenes no longer exists in source form. The place it exists is in the mix with the [sound effects] and voice. There’s no way to separate this material once it’s been mixed together. This becomes a problem once movies are re-timed and new scenes are added.
So, what I’ve been doing is creating new music and then, in scenes where I’m able, fusing it with the original soundtrack when it is salvageable.
And I strongly suspect it's only been this expensive because they don't really have a leash to deal with. Whatever they've done, I commend them for. But when this started? It was a remaster. No fucking way it should've cost $5m.
It sounds like $2M for the new Just Add Water work and whoever else was contracted. $2-3M estimated for the box-loads of original Oddworld Inhabitants (San Luis Obispo) assets on CD's Lorne shipped over to JAW.
But it's Lorne Lanning and all publishers are part of a secret league of villainy so they're not going to release it at retail. We already know.
Oddworld Inhabitants' been treated badly by Microsoft and EA and Microsoft again so Lorne's stance on major publishers is quite understandable I think.
There was this recently:
Alex Ward (ex-Criterion) talks about the problems launching Need For Speed: MW Wii U
I remember how these little games started out being 4.99, then 9.99, then 14.99, now there's a company attempting that 30.
it's just way to high.
I don't know of anything that's been sold for $5-15 at launch with this remake's production values. I don't think you've looked into it properly.
So no platinum trophy then?
Don't see why not. Stranger and Munch's HD remasters had them and Abe's Oddysee is just as meaty a game.