What Could Have Been / Oddworld

An early design of Abe

General

• The production company originally thought they were being pitched a movie series.
  • Ironically, there were actual plans for an Oddworld movie from the late 90's, as seen here.
• The Oddworld series was originally going to be 5 games long, each one focusing on a new main character. This changed after Oddworld Inhabitants decided to make a second game focusing on Abe before moving on to the next character.
• The post for Debut Queue and Always Chaotic Evil imply that either Abe's Exoddus and the canceled fifth game were meant to be about Squeek and Nod, or that Sligstorm was meant to close the franchise.
• Meeches were originally going to have been an enemy in the first game, with an early FMV of Abe getting chased by them. However, due to time constraints and low disc space, they were omitted and written as extinct.
• Abe was being developed as a DLC character for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale alongside Dart, but both were scrapped when the game's development was shut down, though fans (unsuccessfully) campaigned to have both be released.

Abe's Oddysee

Early designs of both the Sligs and Glukkons

• The Working Title for Abe's Oddysee was Soulstorm. While said title didn't stick, it was used for the brew that the Glukkons make in Exoddus, and, in an example of things coming full-circle, became the name for the latter game's remake.
• There was going to have been an FMV explaining the origin of the Mudokon Moon. A meteor shower would have struck the moon, leaving a crater in the shape of a Mudokon paw.
• Abe was originally going to have been a native Mudokon watching society grow industrial. Elum was also apparently going to play a bigger role as Abe's pet.
• There was originally an unused bad ending involving a timer that would release a poisonous gas until you get to the Boardroom and pull the lever to stop it. This can only be found in the demo disk beta.
• A version for the Sega Saturn was planned at one point, but never materialized.

Abe's Exoddus

An early concept sketch for a scrapped Mudokon zombie

• Abe's Exoddus was originally going to be a darker, deeper, and more sinister story, but due to time constraints forcing the team to make the game in nine months, Lorne Lanning wasn't able to alter his script in any meaningful way. Part of the reason why Oddworld: Soulstorm was developed is to tell the story as Lanning originally intended.
• There were other kinds of Mudokons that you would have saved such as Zombie Mudokons, half-dead Mudokons that you would have sent to their resting place to save and Super Slave Mudokons, super-buff Mudokons with knives that would have killed Abe on sight, but how you would have saved them is unknown. These were scrapped to make the game easier, although the final product was still Nintendo Hard.
• Lorne Lanning claims the current Abe-focused direction of the Oddworld Quintology was always his intention, even though he had been discussing Munch's Oddysee and Squeek's Oddysee before Abe's Oddysee was even released.

Munch's Oddysee

An early design of Munch

• Microsoft originally wanted Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee to be named "Abe and Munch's Fun Adventures" so the game might appeal to a family friendly audience. This obviously was shot down.
• Munch's Oddysee was going to be a MUCH bigger game, but limited time and not advanced enough technology prevented it from being so. This isn't even getting into the games put on hold while Soulstorm was in development, such as SligStorm and Hand of Odd.
• In early concept art, Munch was going to be in a wheel chair throughout the whole game due to getting his foot caught in a bear trap in the game's intro, but the idea was scrapped when the development team wanted him to have the ability to swim to set him apart from Abe. The wheel chair was used in the game as a power-up for Munch instead.
• Alf's Rehab and Tea from Abe's Exoddus was originally supposed to make an appearance, but it was eventually cut.
• There were three unused vending machines in Munch's Oddysee: Klimb (which did appear in a demo, giving the player the ability to walk up walls), Super Zap (which, as the name suggested, would have given Munch a stronger Zap), and Hurl (which would have presumably would have given the player a stronger throw).
• One early idea for Munch was to have him transform into a large Hulk-like creature every time Abe slapped him.
• Munch's Oddysee contains an Aborted Arc that would have been significant to the overall story of Oddworld. Abe would embarked on a quest to rescue Queen Sam, his mother and the Queen of the Mudokon species, who would have been kept at Vyykers Labs. There was supposed to be a cutscene of Munch meeting Queen Sam prior to his escape from Vykkers Labs. There would have also been a subplot of Molluck being held on trial by the Glukkon Queen, Lady Margaret, (who would have presumably served as the Big Bad and Greater-Scope Villain of Munch's Oddysee).
• Instead, the focus is on Abe rescuing Mudokon eggs laid by Queen Sam. Queen Sam appears as a cartoon caricature on the crates that the eggs are contained in.
• Lady Margaret is mentioned in the newspaper cutscenes of Munch's Oddysee, where they describe a Meaningful Background Event in which she has acquired lung cancer due to constant smoking, requiring Munch's lungs for survival. She is mentioned in the bad ending, where she is heard speaking on the phone with the Vykkers Humprey and Irwin, who have captured Munch and are preparing to extract his lungs from his body. If you think that's bad, horrifying early concept art for the bad ending◊ reveals that Munch would have literally been surgically attached lung-to-lung with Lady Margaret if she had appeared in the game, an even worse ending than the final games bad ending.
• Speaking of the bad ending, the original bad ending would have been much worse by having the Glukkons destroy the Gabbit and Mudokon moons, completely wiping out the Gabbit's legacy and, to an extent, the Mudokons' legacy as well.

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath

Early designs of Stranger

• Concept art shows the Stranger had a shield.
• Before using live ammo, the Stranger's crossbow originally shot regular bolts.
• There were some unused creatures for ammo. There was going to be a porcupine, which may have been a prototype for the upgraded Thud Slugs. There was also going to be a seed that grew into a plant monster that ensnares Outlaws. The Zapflies were originally going to have been caterpillars.
• There were plans for a sequel and spiritual sequels with similar gameplay to this game, but were scrapped when Oddworld Inhabitants was disbanded at the time.

Unreleased games

A fan mock-up for one of the scrapped Oddworld game.

• Oddworld: The Hand of Odd was planned to be a Real-Time Strategy online game, to be released after Munch's Oddysee.
• Slig Storm: A game centering around an albino slig who was born in a complex. It must escape to avoid infanticide.
• The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot: A planned third-person shooter with similar gameplay to Stranger's Wrath with an even darker plot compared to the other previous games. Said plot involved a Klot being imprisoned by catlike creatures that build factories to make and sell drugs; they force Klot to fight in gladiator battles for the entertainment of others, but then he gets rabies from one of the creatures he was battling. Originally intended to be the next game following Stranger's Wrath.
• Oddworld: Squeek's Oddysee Expected fourth game in the original pentalogy following the first three entries.
• Oddworld: Munch's Exoddus: Expected to be a bonus game based on Munch's Oddysee outside of the original pentalogy, in the same way that Abe's Exoddus was to Abe's Oddysee. It would have featured Munch traveling to a land named Ma'Spa to hatch the Gabbit eggs acquired from the original game. It is unknown whether or not the game was cancelled or halted.
• Oddworld: Slave Circus: A gladiator type of game in which the player could purchase and battle slaves.
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath 2: A possible sequel to Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.
• Stranger Arena: A competitive multi-player game using gameplay mechanics from Stranger's Wrath.

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