Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee has been celebrated as one the greatest and most thought-provoking video game franchises of all time and for great reason. Released in 1997, the game series was far beyond its time, touching upon critical conversations and topics that still today are more ravenous than ever. The seemingly simple side-scrolling puzzle platformer at its core is a charming adventure but hidden underneath its charismatic coat hides the sharp and cruel edges of reality we face in the modern world.

A franchise with such DNA as this would take a lifetime to dissect with all its clever nuanced storytelling, so we got an understanding directly from the source. sabukaru teamed up with Luca Hamers, as part of an ongoing series with him, to speak to the maker himself, Lorne Lanning. Diving into both Luca’s realm of inspiration, as well as the expansive universe of Oddworld, we proudly present you with an exclusive conversation between Lanning, creator of Abe’s Oddysee, and Luca Hamers, owner of his eponymous brand, in this exploration of humanity, the grim reality of society, and the power of storytelling.

“It’s not every day that you get to meet your heroes. Today, however, is one of those days. As I sit in front of the black screen we all call home It dawns on me: “I’m about to have a conversation with Lorne Lanning!” Suddenly the black screen turns into a friendly face with a warm charisma and a smile: ‘Hello there Luca!’ ” – Luca Hamers

Being responsible for the creation of the Oddworld Universe, a science fiction quintology that changed story-telling and video games [and coincidentally our lives] forever, makes Lorne a legend at sabukaru and in Luca's sci-fi inspirational universe. Within Abe's Oddysee, we follow Abe along his deeply atmospheric [and at times grim] journey toward enlightenment and the salvation of his people. Abe starts off as an employee of the month in a meat processing plant, but whilst accidentally eavesdropping on a meeting of his superiors he gets to see beyond the veil of the industrial leaders.

To his horror, he finds out that the following meat product produced in the factory that he works at [also known as Rupture Farms] will consist of Mudokon meat; Abe’s very own species. Abe frantically escapes from the hyper-industrial complex he has called home for years and goes off into the wilderness. Here he is faced with ferocious predators that, to him, were nothing more than ingredients in the products of the Glukkon Cartel [the main antagonists of the game, and Abe's bosses]. It is here he reconnects with his ancestral, shamanic powers and sets out to free his brethren.

Within Oddworld there is an underlying theme of tyrannical, grim, morally bankrupt corporations such as these Rupture Farms pillaging nature whilst hiding behind whimsical pop-advertisement. When asked about this, Lorne answered with a kind face but wise and serious tone: “I think that it might be grim to teach our children that we cannot trust what we’re being told sometimes but it is infinitely more dangerous not to.” The Glukkons and their propaganda represent mega-corporations and the absurd disparity between their friendly image and backdoor dealings. Abe's saga is very much a story of realignment with nature; the lifting of the veil and realising you are the resource, not the consumer. “The coffee break was invented as a Fordist principle for the sake of productivity, not as a freedom for workers after all”.

Lorne’s mind is razor sharp; when he speaks about his motivation, message, and personal history you learn every fibre is intertwined into Abe's story and full of integrity. “Abe’s Oddysee is about finding out that you are the food” with the two discussing the world having two realities and that we only perceive the one that is presented to us by authorities. “My father worked for the military on secret projects at the time, on submarines to be exact. Because of this, he would be gone for covert projects for long stretches of time. My mother would keep all the newspapers from the days he would be away. When my father returned, he would read them and always chuckle. I would tell him that the funnies are in the back of the paper, but he would reply “They’re all the funnies'' and say that he had never seen a report and an actual event that were the same.”

When speaking to Lorne about the inspiration behind the antagonists in the game [the Sligs and Glukkons] he likens them to the false idols in the world. “Religious leaders that get arrested but preach caring ideals. These people act as our shepherds”. “I think that it might be Grim to teach our children that we cannot trust what we’re being told sometimes. It is, however, necessary.”

At the core of the eerie and hair-raising gameplay in the Oddworld games are its ferocious fauna, such as the ravenous Scrabs or the sinister Paramytes; predators that, much like our own animals on earth, would completely dominate us were it not for the hyper-industrial shell we’ve built around ourselves. Lorne had very specific demands for the creation of the creatures that would inhabit his world. “I wanted everything to look like it came from a mother, in order for it to really feel like it exists it needs to look like it could be birthed from somewhere. To design something like that we need to really dive deep into the evolutionary chain to create beings that are recognisable yet horrifying in equal measure.”

Years after playing the games, Luca explains how he went into a deep Oddworld rabbit hole and found out that Lorne actually voices some of the inhabitants of Oddworld. Lorne explained that his knack for accents, humorous inflections, and voice acting is a remnant of the neighbourhoods he grew up in. “The people that live in my local neighbourhood wore their accents as a badge of pride and ensured not to gentrify it.” The inspiration behind some of the eccentric voicework came from when Lorne would see people mockingly re-enact someone they had an argument with. “As soon as I would hear my mother exaggerate and act out what someone had said I knew I couldn’t believe a word of it”. “I learned reading and writing from Sesame Street not school”.

Using humour to deliver his message allows us to connect to the subject matter. “The puppeteers would do the voice, I thought why not do it the same way?”. Lorne Describes grabbing people out of the office who were gagging about with impressions and putting them in the recording studio in the dark to keep their nerves at bay. “Darkness can be a mask on its own and make us behave differently”. “We wanted a character X-factor”. The goal was to juxtapose the dark setting with more light-hearted voice acting. “If you want to deliver a good story and message it’s like fly fishing; you have to move the bait in a manner that will capture the attention of the audience.” His voice is not the only way in which Lorne makes a cameo in his own work. The Sci-fi master also divulged that Abe’s walking animation was inspired by the pacing Lorne would do around the building during the development of the games.

Lorne cares deeply about the message he transmits. Abe’s Story is one of connectedness through empathy, about saving those other than yourself. Abe himself is extremely vulnerable, unlike any of the superheroes and video game protagonists at large. “This was by design. We wanted to reward the player through empathy rather than violence. You can create much more complex relationships through allowing characters to communicate rather than shoot each other”.

Abe never carries a gun. His vulnerability makes us feel a sense of responsibility over him rather than placing ourselves in his shoes. We feel like we must protect him since we are defenceless against the brutal violence our environment looms over us. The only escape is the return to our roots, our people, and our spiritual side. There is a strong spiritual presence in Oddworld. Some of its locale and characters even feel shamanic. To illustrate that we feel much more than we think and are far deeper connected to one another he also tells Luca a story of his grandmother. “She had gone blind, but she could sense someone's emotions as soon as they stepped into the room”. “I think the mysteries of the world far outweigh what we think we know”.

To rounds things off, Luca’s and Lorne’s ended with a pressing question - “What made you realise that building worlds was important to you?”

“Building worlds allows for the creation of distant realities where we allow ourselves to suspend disbelief”. He expands on this by drawing upon a piece of knowledge bestowed upon him by a previous mentor. “Awe is created by distance. A nuclear explosion is horrifying upon impact but from afar it looks incredible”. Lorne is a master storyteller, passionate about his craft. The way in which he meticulously constructs his work to fine-tune every molecule for maximum immersion and impact is nothing short of incredible. “Other worlds allow us to look in the mirror, reflect and not be too preoccupied with ourselves”. Lorne describes that Abe is his vessel to tell a story of connectedness that resonated deeply within people to the extent that they would carry it within and cherish it for the rest of their lives.

The proof is in the pudding; people literally carry Abe’s story with them by engraving it on their skin. There has been an explosion of Oddworld fans tattooing different characters and alien symbols to commemorate the journey they took alongside Abe. “That is a wonder of manifestation”, Lorne answers when asked about this phenomenon. “We always wanted to create something that people really loved and felt was part of their identity. I would see biker gangs with Harley Davidson tattoos, and it always stuck in my mind”. “The games and stories I create are my way of sharing the answers I’ve found throughout life”. Imparting his learnings is something that Lorne is incredibly passionate about. As the discussion continued, he describes how his aim, at a later age, is to tattoo all the truths he has discovered about life, encrypted, onto his body. “There is a tattoo museum in Japan, I dream of one day having my skin exhibited there”.

Luca’s time with Lorne Lanning turned from a 30-minute interview to a 4-hour conversation. He is a special breed of creative, someone who has dedicated his whole life to the creation of an incredible world of imagination, that we can all lose ourselves in. As his genius work is revealed the Oddworld fans much like Luca live in anticipation of every release. It was an honour to have had the opportunity to listen to a worldcrafter of his calibre and to have met one of the undisputed masters of science fiction.

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Credits:
Interview and Text by Luca Hamers
Edited by Joe Goodwin