Oddworld: Abe's Origins is a crowdfunded art book published by Indie By Design. The book contains never before seen concept art from the Oddworld series, as well as brand new interviews with today's Oddworld Inhabitants team.
In addition to the book, the Kickstarter campaign offers an exclusive physical release of both Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus for PC.
The kickstarter campaign achieved its 100% funding mark (£50,000) within the first 48 hours, and would proceed to collect over £150,000 in pledges over the campaign's one month run time. Additional stretch goals were added, including a fold out map, art cards, more pages, the original soundtrack, and the addition of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath in the game collection.[1]
The printing process began by the end of June 2019, and the books were shipped by the end of December 2019.
The book[]
The Abe's Origins book serves as another artbook for the series similar to the old The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants: The First Ten Years 1994 - 2004 art book. It features more of a deeper look into the design process behind Abe and also a look into Oddworld itself. It complies some concept art present in the first artbook, but also a large amount previously unseen concept art dug up by Oddworld Inhabitants, some of which featured on their social media pages briefly before the books release.
The book begins with a foreword by Stace Harman & John Robertson who comment on their love for the character and their desire to explore the conception and creation of Abe, and what lead him to become one of gaming's most charming protagonists. The book then leads into a fairly comprehensive interview with Lorne Lanning, who discusses his history and the creation of Oddworld and Abe. This section also features full page illustrations of some of Oddworld's most notable characters and species such as the Glukkons, Munch, Vykkers, and, of course, Abe himself.
The book then moves onto more illustrations about Abe, complete with paragraphs talking through the design process for the character and the changes made to him throughout his journeys in the Oddworld series. There is also some minor breakdowns of key locations Abe visits in Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, such as Monsaic Lines and RuptureFarms, and a full two page spread on logo concepts for the first game.
After this the book moves into two distinct chapters, the first titled Free Oddworld discusses the natural environments and the many species who inhabit them, focusing sections on Mudokons, Gabbits, and the Steef. Key natural locations, such as Paramonia and Scrabania, are also discussed here, including concepts such as community and identity's for the many natural races.
The second major chapter titled Industrialized Oddworld centers around everything Industrial and features sections on the many Industrialists characters and areas in the series, including the Glukkons, Vykkers, and Sligs. Just like the free Oddworld chapter, this chapter then focuses on key locations for the industrial characters such as RuptureFarms, SoulStorm Brewery, and FeeCo Depot to name just a few. Due to the recentness of this artbook, brand new art from Oddworld: Soulstorm is also included in these sections marking their first print in an artbook publication.
The book then ends with a map of Mudos, a small thank you from the authors, and a complete list of benefactors who backed the book on Kickstarter or funded its creation.
Oddworld: Abe's Origins Game Collection[]
The game collection was an extra pledge option available exclusively through Kickstarter during the campaign, and was made in collaboration with Limited Run Games. This was a PC exclusive re-release of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.
The Game Collection contained:
Preview for the Game Collection Box
- DRM-free Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus original code on PC-DVD
- DVD case to match the cover of the book
- New Employee Handbook (physical booklet)
- Physical art cards x4
- OST of Abe's Oddysee on the disc
- High quality, big box PC packaging to house it all. They way they used to make 'em!
Backers of the Game & Book tier also received a selection of digital rewards:
- Download keys for Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus
- Download keys for Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee & Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
- Digital OST of Abe's Oddysee
- Digial PDF of the New Employee Handbook
- Digital art cards x4
The physical box design for the collection changed from the example shown above when it actually launched, taking on a styling that mirrored the design of the kickstarter version of the artbook. [2]
Kickstarter campaign[]
The Kickstarter campaign for the book launched on March 20, 2018 as was fully funded within 48 hours of the project launching. And during it's funding period hit all stretch goals established by Indie By Design.
These stretch goals provided the backers with High-res wallpapers, bookmarks featuring artwork from the series, digital versions of both Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath respectively, and the unique Kickstarter green dust jacket. A full breakdown of the updates on the project can be found on its Kickstarter page.
The printing process began by the end of June 2019, and the books were shipped to backers by the end of December 2019. While the campaign is long since finished, a standard version of the book can still be purchased directly from Indie By Designs webstore. This edition ships without the unique green dust jacket, the game collection and any of the art prints. The Indie By Design store also sells some of the bookmarks which were unlocked as stretch goals during the campaign, such as ones featuring Glukkons, environments, and sketches.
References[]
External links[]
- Oddworld: Abe's Origin Kickstarter Campaign
- Oddworld: Abe's Origin Indie By Design Shop
- Indie By Design Website
Gallery[]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||