00:03They created a world so unbelievably unique.
00:11Who would want to play that game?
00:12I mean, it takes itself way too seriously.
00:15With characters that are untraditional.
00:19They look like monsters, but they're not monsters.
00:24He's not a brainiac, he's not a jack-of-all-trades,
00:26he's not a master or anything, he's a goofbag.
00:30And ideas that are unconventional.
00:34It speaks about hope, it speaks about changing for the better,
00:37it speaks about not being beaten down by the big guy.
00:44I was not responsible for his flatulence.
00:47Is that a nice way to say it?
00:48That's nasty.
00:56Oddworld, Abe's Odyssey was just the beginning for Oddworld.
00:59Their innovative ideas helped change the face of video games forever.
01:03This is their story of vision, chances, and an adorable little character named Abe.
01:27I was really lucky. I came from parents that had money, and I had the perfect childhood.
01:38And I went to USC, and it was a dream childhood.
01:42My first memory of sitting in the back of a police car and watching the lights bounce off the houses.
01:47My mother married an ex-marine teamster.
01:51Nothing against teamsters, but I lived with them, so I have the right to say that.
01:55But what Lorne did have was a gift, and this gift meant everything.
01:59Art probably saved my life, because when I was in high school, I had just become a really bitter, negative,
02:06hostile person.
02:10Fate would then slowly begin merging these two lives together.
02:14While Sherry was working as an executive in computer animation, Lorne was earning his reputation as an accomplished art director.
02:20Then in 1991, while working at a special effects company, the businesswoman finally meets the artist.
02:26It was very clear that we were both really passionate about what we did.
02:30We both really wanted, you know, to create high standards.
02:35I thought that for the first time in Hollywood, I was meeting someone that was really direct.
02:44Sherry would cut right to the chase, so she would just go, no, that sucks, that's good, that's awful.
02:50Beyond their similarities lies something that fascinates Sherry.
02:54I wouldn't even know how to describe it, except to say that he truly, truly is an artist.
03:01That's really who Lorne is, he's an artist.
03:04They officially partner up, spending the next few years creating computer animation rides.
03:08But along the way, Lorne picks up a new passion and shares his true vision with Sherry.
03:12And he said, what we really need to do is we need to build video games.
03:18And I thought he was kidding.
03:19And I went, why would I want to build a video game?
03:22And she just wasn't making the connection.
03:24And I was going, it's an economic connection that we need to make the leap to, Sherry.
03:27See, here's the deal, this is the new medium.
03:31We could be the Cecil E. DeMille's of what's coming down the road.
03:35This is music videos in 1980.
03:41Thanks to Lorne's persistence, a healthy, brand new video game company is born.
03:46And its name is Oddworld.
03:48Sherry and Lorne pack up their lives, leave the comforts of Hollywood,
03:51and set up shop in sleepy San Luis Obispo.
03:54Let the games begin.
03:57All video games either had to be some sort of an established puzzle,
04:00established fighting game, established this and that.
04:02And there was a way to combine all these.
04:04Hello. Follow me. Okay.
04:06And still put out this intoxicating game, this little world that would draw you in.
04:10Scott isn't the only top talent intrigued by this unknown world.
04:14I realized the moment I walked in the door, I'll do whatever it takes
04:17so that I could become a part of this whole organization.
04:22So we have two leaders that didn't just say, hey, let's form a company because it sounds good.
04:26They had the background and the knowledge to say, here's what the images are going to look like.
04:31This is what the world's going to look like.
04:33And these images aren't typical.
04:36There are no superheroes or virtual babes.
04:40Instead, there's the bizarre, the peculiar, and the odd.
04:44And the title for this odd game is going to be Soulstorm.
04:49It's not your cliché science fiction type stuff.
04:54They look like monsters, but they're not monsters.
05:00What we always wanted was to create a character that people could really identify with.
05:06Not the character that we'd like to be, you know, the Superman.
05:09And that's exactly what they created. And his name?
05:13My name is Abe.
05:14Yes, Abe. The lovable, goofy character with stitches mysteriously sewn on his mouth.
05:20Abe's responsible for leading us through the game while simultaneously trying to save his own kind.
05:25Tough gig.
05:29He's not a brainiac. He's not a jack of all trades. He's not a master or anything. He's a goofbag.
05:34But he's indicative of a much greater world that's out there.
05:37So now that we know what he looks like, what does he sound like?
05:40Who better to ask than the man behind the voice, creator Loren Lanning?
05:45His voice had to be sort of the chump, you know, the guy you'd go, piss off, man.
05:50So he'd be like, well, why would we do that, you know?
05:55Now that we have our lead, let's get to the story.
05:58Abe's mission is to save his fellow Medocans from becoming brunch to the industrialists.
06:02But first, he must save himself.
06:06Get me out of here!
06:08Along the way, Abe's journey is filled with relentless struggles and battles.
06:12People are attracted to Abe. He doesn't have this killing blow.
06:16He doesn't have this garish suit. He doesn't have an ability to travel through time and he doesn't know it
06:22all.
06:23No, but what he does know is that he's stacked with a great marketing team.
06:28They're responsible for changing the game's title from Soulstorm to Oddworld, Abe's Odyssey.
06:38Oddworld's vision explodes onto the screen in the form of visually stunning CGI movies.
06:44I look at what our people create and I just can't believe it.
06:48I mean, I'm just as stunned as I could be.
06:51You look at the train in Abe's Exodus, that thing looks like it works.
06:56When they design something here, it looks like it works.
07:00You know, the first time we saw the movie, you hit the screen and match the game screen exactly.
07:05And you go, yes! You've never seen that before.
07:07Although Oddworld, Abe's Odyssey is essentially an action game,
07:11it's built upon many beliefs that inspire Sherry and Lorne,
07:13with subtle and delicate messages like environmentalism, mysticism, and anti-commercialism.
07:19Nobody wants to be preached to.
07:21You get up on a platform and tell people how the world should be, and they'll walk away.
07:25My name is Elf.
07:27But if you can grab their attention with irony and humor,
07:32then you've grabbed them.
07:35Now it's time to preview the game, and industry insiders are totally blown away.
07:40But Sherry and Lorne's concerns lie with gaming fans.
07:43How will they react to this very odd game?
07:46Get up!
07:47Who would want to play that game?
07:49I mean, it takes itself way too seriously.
07:51It's far too caught up in current events and the state of the problems with humanity.
07:56It's not what the culture that plays games is.
07:59We're going to live and die by our word.
08:01If the game fails, we will have no fingers to point to anybody but us.
08:06The concerns come to an abrupt halt when Oddworld Abe's Odyssey becomes a smash hit
08:11following its September 1997 release for PlayStation and PC.
08:14Our lovable little guy has been launched into stardom.
08:19Abe's the guy that, in our hearts, we identify with.
08:23He's the guy who we think we are.
08:25And because of that, that's why we care so much for him.
08:28Abe and his fellow inhabitants have beaten the odds
08:30and climbed to the top of the video game charts.
08:33When we come back, The Mystery of the Moon, The Hamburger No-No, and...
08:51Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning dominated the video game industry with Oddworld, Abe's Odyssey.
08:56The 1997 release won more than 40 major industry awards
09:00and sold more than 2 million units worldwide.
09:03Well, there's not much time to celebrate.
09:06Oddworld's publisher asks for the impossible.
09:08Compress the usual 2-year-plus production cycle
09:10and deliver a follow-up game in time for Christmas 98.
09:14Can Oddworld handle the pressure?
09:15It was hell, let me say. It was not fun.
09:18We did it in 9 months. We got it done on time because that's what you're supposed to do.
09:23Deliver on time.
09:24We just had to prevail and it was murder.
09:27With games to be made and deadlines to meet,
09:29the relentless businesswoman is adamant about providing a healthy work environment.
09:34I am absolutely a monster about the health thing.
09:38So if I see people coming in with junk food with a cheeseburger,
09:42I will actually take it and throw it away.
09:44Sherry said healthy people are basically good, alive workers.
09:50And so she fronts the money for vitamins every week and has fruit baskets.
09:56And then, you know, you'll pull a desk drawer and there'll be the donuts.
09:59But don't tell her I said that.
10:01She finds out.
10:03With little time to play, work progresses on the second Oddworld game,
10:07where some familiar inspirations are sneaking their way in.
10:10Basically, our games are about consumerism versus mysticism.
10:16We have to look at us as consumers and be responsible for that which we consume.
10:26Oh, thank you.
10:29But it speaks about hope.
10:31It speaks about changing for the better.
10:33It speaks about not being beaten down by the big guy.
10:35Some of these very personal messages stem from Lauren's very real life,
10:40like paying homage to the 12-step program.
10:42I started going to Alcoholics Anonymous.
10:45I probably shouldn't be saying this, but my father was a reformed alcoholic.
10:49And I used to visit my father on the weekends with my brother.
10:52And if we wanted to see Dad, you know, this is what he had to do.
10:55So we went too.
10:56I had my first brew.
10:58I have no idea the value that that had in my life because I think it's such an incredible organization.
11:03And I saw what it did for my father and saved his life and probably ours too.
11:09Against so many obstacles, Lauren and the other Oddworld inhabitants still manage to make the deadline.
11:15Oddworld, Abe's Exodus, is released in time for Christmas 98.
11:19And it's irresistible.
11:25And here's the lowdown.
11:28Abe must free the living Mudokons still enslaved by their captors,
11:31save the spirits of his dead Mudokon ancestors,
11:34and sabotage the evil cartel's businesses, including the Soulstorm Brewery.
11:39Got it?
11:40So what about the farts? Did they make it in?
11:42You know, it'll be funny. What if Abe possessed his fart?
11:46I mean, at that point we couldn't do anything but that.
11:53Abe's behind yet another Game 1 secret.
11:55When Abe broke out of Rupture Farms, that was one of the first things he saw was this moon.
12:00And as he put it, in the face of the moon was my paw.
12:03And he puts his hand up there and it links up and then his fate is really kicking in.
12:07But how did the paw get embedded in the moon?
12:09Well, like many movie mysteries, this one began in a not-so-mysterious way.
12:14It's all budget, right? What can you do and how much time and how much money?
12:17But what got edited out is those, as he was escaping,
12:20there was supposed to be a meteor storm hitting that moon,
12:23slowly forming this hand.
12:25So that it would imply that there's these greater forces that are really behind him.
12:31They're trying to send him symbols.
12:32Now that we know the secrets, here are some magical movie moments.
12:43I'm a fan of the movies as well. I mean, I'm just as stunned as I could be.
12:47And their enthusiasm proves to be historical,
12:50coming to life on screen in more than 22 minutes of many movies.
12:53In 1999, they compose an animated short film from their movie game footage
12:57and submit it for an Academy Award.
12:59Would Abe actually get a chance to meet Oscar?
13:02And if he did, what in the world would he say?
13:05So we decided, why not?
13:07Our computer graphics, our movies, our cinematics in our games really are quite cool.
13:14And so we decided, let's submit it.
13:17Abe doesn't win the Oscar.
13:21So he ditches a career in movies and shifts his interest to music,
13:26landing himself a lead role in a German dance band's video.
13:32This isn't something someone's going to watch once.
13:34It's going to be every time they click on the TV and sit back and go,
13:36oh, here is a new video. That's good.
13:38You kind of charge into it going, wow, this is something lots of people are going to see a lot
13:42of times.
13:42The video becomes a huge hit and Abe plants his spot as an international star.
13:50Coming up, Oddworld makes a decision that some fans say.
13:54I am strong!
13:57And Abe gets a sidekick.
13:59He's a belcher.
14:13By the year 2000,
14:16Oddworld Inhabitants produced two successful releases that sold more than 4 million units worldwide.
14:21Their collection of odd characters were embraced by gamers everywhere.
14:25We did our games on the PSX for Sony and they were great.
14:30They were really great supporters.
14:31We were very happy being with Sony.
14:35Yet that fall, Oddworld drops the bomb on their fans.
14:40Announcing they've agreed to create future versions of the Oddworld Quantology exclusively for Microsoft's upcoming Xbox.
14:48The Xbox is the content machine today.
14:52That machine is the machine that if creative minds are together, they can deliver better content on it.
14:58That's it.
15:00But fans are infuriated.
15:03When our fans found out that we had done that, we got more hate mail than you can even imagine.
15:09Somebody's really pissed off?
15:12Blasphemy it was.
15:13We had a feverish upswing.
15:16I go to the web and you can't help but read the web.
15:20And there'll be some people like, you know, talking crazy talk.
15:24I am totally screwed!
15:27And man, that hurt. That hurt.
15:30It means they care that much.
15:33People believe so much in that universe.
15:37Can you imagine touching a human being so much to the point where they so believed in that character?
15:45They so identified with the world that we created.
15:48They so believed that Abe wouldn't do that.
15:50Abe wouldn't go there.
15:52Abe wouldn't react that way.
15:54For Oddworld, the changes are monumental.
15:56The crispness was kind of chilling.
16:00To get right up on the screen and kind of look for jagged lines or look for a time delay.
16:04You have your face kind of on the screen.
16:07Abe's still there, you know?
16:09And your hair would fall out.
16:11Oddworld Munch's Odyssey, the third game from Oddworld, premieres along with the Xbox for Christmas 2001.
16:17My name is Munch.
16:18And Munch, the lonely yet ambitious Gabbitt, makes his debut appearance.
16:22He was the last one.
16:24So he really embodies sort of loneliness and loss.
16:29But he had to be distinguishable in a different way.
16:32And he goes, I can't find anybody.
16:35You know, when he'd say things like that, they'd just be like, oh, you know, and that's what we're trying
16:39to do.
16:39Hit the heart, hit the heart, but in a twisted world.
16:46You've got a monoped with two hands and this huge head, who's aquatic, and yet he's kind of a land
16:52animal too, and can speak, and he's got a radar on top of his head.
16:58You know, you have to feel for the guy.
17:01You've got to like the guy, or at least I like the guy.
17:03Hey, what's happening?
17:04Hello, Abe.
17:06Hey, Munch.
17:08He's a belcher.
17:11Great.
17:12We got our farter.
17:13And we got our belcher.
17:16Don't tell anyone.
17:18It is funny.
17:19I mean, Munch is funny.
17:21Munch is another clueless character.
17:24That pulls your heartstrings because he's the last of his kind.
17:30He's a Gabbitt.
17:43Oddworld tackles yet another taboo issue by allowing Munch to occasionally use a wheelchair as his mode of transportation.
17:50Let's take something that we have an association with, and let's change that.
17:54Let's look at that association, knock it apart, put Munch in it, and make it a power-up.
18:00It's the best way to get around given what he has.
18:03Nothing wrong with that.
18:04So, again, something for people to kind of look at and go, this guy's really cool.
18:08This guy's really goofy.
18:09This is fun.
18:10But not all of Munch's assists come from a set of wheels.
18:14He gains unnatural boosts of energy from power-ups.
18:20Oddworld's version of soft drinks.
18:22We go to a vending machine, we get caffeine.
18:24Well, when you go to a vending machine, they can run 50 times faster.
18:36And Lauren takes a well-deserved moment to reflect on the magic of Oddworld.
18:41I think when we got shadows to cast directionally, and the way that that looked in the lighting,
18:46and the way that that matched the characters, there were certain points, like when we'd be going through the testing,
18:50I'd be going over here.
18:52That looks good.
18:53That looks good.
18:54Okay, make it great.
18:56Blow people away.
18:57Okay.
18:59The game looks great.
19:02In spite of the protests, Oddworld fans remain loyal and follow Abe to Xbox.
19:07Picking up new fans along the way, Oddworld Munch's Odyssey becomes a worldwide hit.
19:14With three highly successful games, a string of awards, and fans around the globe,
19:18what will the Oddworld inhabitants come up with next?
19:21We'd like Oddworld to turn into a family event.
19:26It'll be like turning on The Simpsons.
19:27When you turn The Simpsons on, everyone sits down and watches.
19:30That's hilarious.
19:31Look!
19:33When you turn on Oddworld...
19:34Come on, Abe. We're right behind you.
19:36Right behind you, Abe.
19:38Okay. Here we go.
19:40It will be a family sitting on the couch and going,
19:43Oh, Mike, did you see that?
19:45Whoa! That's too high for me.
19:47That's hilarious.
19:50That's our future.
19:52Guys, that is sweet.
19:53A lot of, I think, what has to define Oddworld is creativity.
19:57And the day that it's not defining that for the public, I think we've got major issues.
20:02We have to see that we're getting stale before our audience does.
20:05Naked mud wrestling.
20:08No, I'm kidding.
20:10I don't know, because every time we see the production art that comes down the pipe,
20:14after a while we're like, wow, this is nutty. This is great. How are we going to do this?
20:18I have no idea. I need a coffee.
20:21And then we actually do it.
20:36They're going to be very surprised. Let me just say that. The next game that we're creating, I think, is
20:42going to be not what they expect.
20:44I probably shouldn't say any more about it but that.
20:50And what's coming, and what people are going to be playing, it's just going to blow them away.
20:55It transcends what they think is possible. And it's not that far around the corner.
21:13And we'll see you next time.
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