Oddworld: Abe's oddysee

Oddworld was a game franchise that I remember from when I was young. I would play this game on my playstation 1. when looking at the game mechanics, they seem very similar to new arcade games such as machinarium which, as it stands is the genre of game that we will be producing. The game was a great success when it was created and was credited to be 'a platform game for people who are tired of platform games'. (gamespot)

I have chose to research this game even though it is quite dated now because the game mechanics and general ideas are similar to what we are trying to create. The game is very simple which I believe is its best quality. For a game this old it is visually stunning and I believe I can learn a lot from looking at it in detail.

Abe's Oddysee was set in a bleak, futuristic factory environment. This is similar to the theme that we will be using however it will be represented in a different way. Considering the game was made in 1997 it is still visually pleasing.

Abe was a slave in the meat-procesing plant. The character is an alien which even to todays standards looks rather original. The basic narrative for this game is that the factory uses Abe's kind to create a new food. Abe finds this out and tries to escape the factory taking as many of his kind as possible. This s quite an original concept for a game even though the basic premise of escaping an environment and trying to take your friends wit you is a generic concept.

When considering the enemies, there are four different kinds. Each type of enemy has different characteristics which must be understood to defeat them. The player must adapt their playing style to fit the enemy. For example the parasites can be distracted if the player throws meat for them to eat. The game developers referred to the creature AI as A.L.I.V.E. (Alive Lifeforms In a Virtual Environment). These different character traits makes the gameplay more exciting and helps create a realistic game world.

The colours in the game change to create variety in the environment. This was necessary to keep the game exciting without changing the bleak theme. The image above shows sepia tones with the characters in silhouette which creates an amazing aesthetic considering this is a ps1 game.

The sounds in the game are interesting if not a little too simplistic. There seems to be an engine room noise throughout the game creating a sense of reality in the game world. The character makes disapproving noises if he trips or bumps into other characters which I think is a nice touch. The sound plays a large part of this game but it is subtle so the player will often not notice it is there unless they look for it.

Even to todays standards the game mechanics are simple but effective. The game could easily be represented tomorrow as an IOS game and not be laughed at as a pitch. The game consists of puzzles that interact within the environment such as switches and traps to get from point A and B which is a similar concept that we have for our game.