Questions for Oddworld.

Both Stewart Gilray (CEO of JAW) and Lorne Lanning are willing to answer a few questions for us, as Stranger's Wrath HD for Vita is due for release very soon.

Does anyone have any questions we can put to them?

What was the biggest challenge in bringing the title to Vita?
Have you found interesting ways of making use of the rear touch panel?

Cheers Syrok :D

Just one. Why the hell did Oddworld stop doing the brilliant 2D games? They would be a brilliant fit if someone had the time to rework the original low poly art assets and rejig them for modern tablets and portable gaming machines.

TBH I hated Stranger's Wrath, the world needs less FPS games (even very stylish alt-western ones), but it could seriously do with a lot more very tightly produced 2D platform puzzlers.

Was gonna note that the original is being done up in HD but apparently it's in 2.5D

(Though I'd say most HD 2D sprite-based games end up looking like your typical cheap Flash game. 2D just looks better in low-res)

Couple of ideas - I'd be interested to know what Lorne Lanning in particular thinks of the opportunities offered by (a) development for iOS/Android and (b) Kickstarter and whether he thinks they're a genuine alternative to the more traditional publisher-led development. Reason being that the Oddworld games are a good example of the sort of game that's not always understood by major publishers but are loved by players (I have my own experience of this because it's exactly what we always experienced with TimeSplitters too).

I'd also be interested to hear their take on the conflicts between story/interactivity and the recent trend towards decreasing amounts of interactivity in strongly story-led games (e.g. The Walking Dead, Heavy Rain). The Oddworld games always managed to strongly deliver on both fronts but it seems like developers aren't trying to do this very often anymore.

Only very rough ideas, mind.

Regarding Stranger's Wrath, I really liked it actually. It was only a passable FPS but the characterisation and story really made it stand out. It was quite pretty in places as I remember too. Certainly, I would rather see a Stranger's Wrath sequel than further updates to any of the vast sea of military FPS games that are out there these days.