Characters

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee/Concept Art.

This page documents concept artwork related to the characters of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.

Characters#

Abe#

Abe's character was inspired by the plight of Third World country labourers (more specifically the diamond miners of South Africa)¹, who had their land and culture being ruthlessly harvested by industrial profiteers. He was first envisioned as an attractive heroic figure with a humanoid appearance but that aspect was dropped in favor of a more quirky, alienoid design. It was eventually decided that Abe should bear the appearance of a hopeless but yet optimistic individual, and it would reflect his character as an unlikely hero who would rebel against his masters and bring salvation to the downtrodden residents of his homeplanet.

During his conception, Abe's name had quite a rocky history, going through many iterations. "Abraham Lure" was the first name that was given to him and other ones followed as development went on such as "Abomen", "Aben", "Prophit", "Monkfish" and finally, "ABE". In the end, Abe and Abraham Lure were decided as his official names, with the latter being his full name, despite never being called that in the game and any future installments.²

Abe's last name, "Lure", was based on an early version of Abe, who was envisioned as a native fisherman living his life in the wild plains of Mudos with his pet Elum. As for his first name, "Abraham", Lorne Lanning had stated that Abe was named specifically after Abraham of the Old Testament due to both individuals sharing similar traits with each other, such as both being recognised as Messiahs from their people and putting an end to slavery. Another similarity was what Lorne believed to be the difficulty of identifying the true source of Abraham's discovery of monotheism, which draws parallels with Abe trying to find his purpose in life after his escape from RuptureFarms.

That said, I named Abe after Abraham of the Old Testament. In the Hebrew version, he was the father of monotheism, which we later learned was plagerized from the first true father of monotheism, King Tut's father. So nothing is what it appears, and the lies and distortions of history leave us with a lump of truth so distorted we can't find the original context any longer. Abe, in this case, was named such as a being that is trying to find out who he really is and what is it that he should really believe. He needed a slap down from fantasy land, where most people live, but in rising in awareness he transcends the old models. So i felt abe being such a pivitol figure in religious history (and massively misrepresented one) was a perfect place to start for our first hero.

— Lorne Lanning³

In addition, Abe's tattoos also went through some big changes. Instead of tattoos, Abe would initially wear a medallion known as the "Shadowlock Medallion" which was split up into 3 separate components. Each fragment had a different shape which represented their locations: the Desert (Scrabania), the Forest (Paramonia), and finally a Tropicial region which would have been inhabited by the Meeches. Well... if they weren't extinct that is.

Fun fact, the symbol of the Shadowlock Medallion is actually present in the final game, on some walls in the background of the Paramonian Temple. This was likely a mistake from the developers.

Concept art of the Shadowlock Medallion.	The Shadowlock Medallion broken up into small fragments.	The Shadowlock Medallion branded on Abe's hand.

Concept art and design documents suggest that the medallion would be used as a key item to open specific doors marked as "Shadowlock Doors", which would contain puzzles with elements involving... shadows! It is ultimately unknown whether the medallion would grant Abe the power to turn into Shrykull or if it had an entirely different function.

At some point it was planned that Abe would use weapons like a gun or a spear, the latter of which is shown in many concept pieces like those below. During early development, the staff wanted to give Abe a gun due to reason that most side-scrollers featured guns at the time, but Lorne Lanning was against this decision. A workaround was eventually found and it was decided that Sligs would possess weapons instead of Abe. This lead to the idea of Abe possessing enemies and thus the GameSpeak mechanic was born.

When we first made Abe, people who would see the game would be like 'Cool, but when do you get a gun? Side-scrollers need guns.' And so we would establish rules like 'Abe would never use a gun, but if players want that, how can we give that some kind of contextual sense?' And that's how we came up with possession. Same idea with the Stranger's live ammo.

— Lorne Lanning⁴

The audio puzzles of Loom by LucasArts, was another partial inspiration for the GameSpeak, according to Lorne.⁵

Glukkons#

Similar to how Abe was inspired by the exploitation of the working class, the Glukkons were created to showcase the darker side of globalization. While it's never directly made explicit in the game, the Glukkons were conceptualized as an evolutionary branch of of the Octigi family, a group of octopoid-like creatures native to Oddworld. Early drawings of the Glukkons depict them as ancient Lovecraftian beings or as followers of a religious cult. In addition, Glukkons were originally referred as "Ociti" or "Oldgers" and they were meant to be cousins of the Oktigi species.⁶

In regards to why Glukkons looked like priests, here's a little history lesson provided by Oddworld Inhabitants:

A long time ago, the Glukkons and the Mudokons were once highly respected and spiritual races that lived together in relative harmony. The Mudokons served as advisors to other war faring species, while the Glukkons themselves would spend their time studying and experimenting in the field of alchemy. One day, a moon appeared over Oddworld that had a crater in the shape of a Mudokon's handprint, which led the Mudokons to believe that they were the superior chosen race of the planet. The Glukkons became envious of this predicament and tried to disprove this theory through their alchemical practices, resulting in an undisclosed "disaster" that nearly wiped out the Glukkon race. This incident, combined with their incapability to challenge the Mudokons' beliefs, drove the Glukkons underground and became "Enclosurists", swearing to never gaze upon the sky again after the events that transpired. As time went on, the Glukkons gradually abandoned their mystical heritage and moved onto specializing in technology and the business industry, while the Mudokons continued to live in their tribal ways.⁷

Note: Whether or not this backstory was canon in the original Quintology storyline is unclear, as Lorne has once mentioned there was a scrapped cutscene about the moon with the handprint that plays out differently, contradicting that's been described above.

Slig#

Sligs were originally referred as "Order Guards"⁸, likely used as a placeholder name.

Slog#

Slogs were originally referred as "K9 Guards"⁹, likely used as a placeholder name.

Elum#

Originally, Elum was conceptualized wearing standard horse equipment like a bridle and a saddle strapped on his back with a small sleeping bag attached behind it. His skin color also used to be much lighter at first, with an orange shade for the back and ivory for his underbelly.

Big Face#

Concept artwork of Big Face the shaman.

Scrab#

Scrabs were originally referred as "Arachnid Sr", likely used as a placeholder name.

Paramite#

Paramites were originally referred as "Arachnid Jr", likely used as a placeholder name. Allegedly at some point, Paramites were planned to pick up and throw objects with their mouths.

Shrykull#

Concept artwork of the Mudokon deity, Shrykull.

The Shrink#

Concept artwork of the Shrink from the Guardian Angel FMV.

Scrapped Characters#

Meeches#

The Meeches were a species of wildlife creatures that were meant to appear in the game as enemies, similarly to the Scrabs and Paramites. According to Lorne Lanning, the first footage he saw of the game, involved a pack of 20 Meeches chasing after Abe, although no videos or screenshots of that were archived. Due to the disk's limited memory space, the Meeches ended up being cut from the final product and were deemed as extinct in the game's narrative.¹⁰

In a developer Q&A (in the form of roleplay), it was discussed the possibilty of the Meeches having their own temple in an tropical region that would act as an additional third trial for Abe to pass, in order to receive the power of the Shadowlock Mediallion, before that concept was scrapped.¹¹

Buzzards#

The Buzzards were a species of birds that had the head of a vulture and a small body with bat-like wings. According to the book The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants, the Buzzards were originally planned to appear in the desert lands of Scrabania, roaming around for prey to stuff their tiny stomachs.¹²

Giant Spiders#

Lorne Lanning wanted to include large monsters in the game but due to having difficulties with the engine rendering them, they were ultimately excluded. This arachnoid monstrosity was among one of these creatures. What area they would be in is unknown but one thing is certain: things wouldn't look pretty for our little Mudokon hero. Despite their absence from the final release, their presence can still be felt in the game albeit in the form of a different creature.

Froggers#

Froggers were a large amphibious creatures which would reside on various regions around Mudos. They had two large forearms with three toes each, four eyes and arthropod-like mandibles with a a sharp, piercing tongue. Artwork suggests that there were different colored variants of the Frogger and possibly different genders too. The creature's name is allegedly a placeholder as it never received an official one during its conceptual phase.¹³

The Frogger could apparently symbiote with other alienoid creatures and together they would team up in order to hunt down their prey. Meeches was one primary example. In one concept piece, the Frogger is depicted having a symbiotic relationship with a smaller unknown creature that rests on its back, functioning as an antenna as well as a smell sensor to detect any nearby threats.

Flying Sligs#

Flying Sligs which were first introduced in the "bonus game", Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, were initially planned to appear in the first installment as well. Artwork and some design documents depict pictures of a legless Slig strapped on a flying harness with wings that flapped rapidly, in order to keep the Slig elevated in the air. They were also equipped with a shotgun it seems. Flying Sligs were originally referred as "Order Guards: 1st Brigade".

Unseen Creatures At RuptureFarms#

According to Lorne Lanning, RuptureFarms was originally meant to showcase a bigger variety of animals that were held captive within the facility, both wild and domesticated types. And while it is not shown here, concept art of a cancelled film adaptation of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee confirms this statement, as it shows various kinds of creatures being bred within RuptureFarms. Such creatures for example are: a species of giant grub-like creatures, a domesticated cow-like species called "Sows", and an unseen species of hyena-like creatures called "Wyenas". Lorne also mentioned that the big rib cages seen on some of the factory's conveyor belts were initially supposed to represent those of Sows.¹⁴

Due to the nature of Abe's Oddysee being a game, money and time were limited, and as a result the Sows and other unseen creatures never made it into the final product.

References#