Lorne Lanning

Lorne Lanning

Lanning at the Moscone Center (2009)
Born (1964-03-20) March 20, 1964
Occupation Game designer, writer, voice actor
Known for Oddworld
Title Board Director at Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
Advisor to Academy of Art University President (San Francisco).
Advisor to the CGSociety Board.
Director on Advisory Board for Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

Lorne Lanning is an American game designer, director, writer and voice actor. He is also co-founder and president of the video game developer Oddworld Inhabitants. He is best known for creating the Oddworld series including the games Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath and Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!. He is currently working on the next Oddworld game titled Oddworld: Soulstorm, which is thought to be a remake of Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.

His creative vision in game design and property development at Oddworld Inhabitants has gained him worldwide recognition, including several documentaries and his character creations featured on the cover of Wired Magazine.[1]

Lanning claims he has always had a fascination with video games, stating that his father was an engineer for Coleco.[2]

Career

Initially studying photo-realism and commercial illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Lanning soon attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, where he graduated with a BFA in Character Animation.

Working as a Technical Director at TRW in Redondo Beach, California, Lanning later moved to Rhythm & Hues Studios in Hollywood, where he would later meet producer Sherry McKenna through his work. After McKenna joined Rhythm & Hues through Lanning, he later convinced her to co-found a video game development company with him.

Oddworld Inhabitants

Main article: Oddworld Inhabitants

In 1994, Lanning and McKenna co-founded Oddworld Inhabitants together in Los Osos, California, before later moving to San Luis Obispo, California. While at Oddworld Inhabitants, Lanning designed, scripted and voice acted all four of the studio's games, which earned the company widespread success and acclaim.[3]

Following several disputes with game developers, including companies such as Electronic Arts,[4] Lanning and McKenna shuttered Oddworld Inhabitants' game development studio in 2005[5] and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, with the goal of shaping Oddworld Inhabitants after a traditional Hollywood production company.

After leaving game development, Lanning and McKenna began work on animated movies, starting with a project named "Citizen Siege", and a tie-in videogame series named "Wage Wars".[6] Following difficulties in movie production, Lanning soon broke his hiatus from videogames when independent developer Just Add Water confirmed in 2010 it was working with Lanning and Oddworld Inhabitants to create a 2.5D remake of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee which eventually was released under the name Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty.[7][8]

In 2015, it was confirmed by JAW's CEO that the company will no longer be working on full-scale Oddworld projects. It was announced that in 2016 that Frima Studio is now the new developer supporting Oddworld in making new games. Their next game was announced at GDC 2016 with the title Oddworld: Soulstorm.

Games

Year Title Role Notes
1997 Abe's Oddysee Creator, director, writer, voice actor Published by GT Interactive
1998 Abe's Exoddus Creator, director, writer, voice actor Published by GT Interactive
2001 Munch's Oddysee Creator, director, writer, designer, voice actor Published by Microsoft Studios
2005 Stranger's Wrath Creative Director, writer, designer, voice actor Published by Electronic Arts
2011 Stranger's Wrath HD As in original Published by Oddworld Inhabitants
2012 Munch's Oddysee HD As in original Published by Oddworld Inhabitants
2014 Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty Original Creator, writer, voice actor for Abe, Sligs and Glukkons. Developed by Just Add Water

Publications

Featured in the following books:

Lanning has written the foreword to the following books:

References

  1. ↑ Wired: Front cover. March 2002 https://web.archive.org/web/20110427202836/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/full.html. Archived from the original on April 27, 2011. Retrieved 2013-03-12. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ Lanning, Lorne (September 6, 2000). "An interview with Lorne Lanning" (Interview). Interview with Robb Guido. Archived from the original on October 31, 2000. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  3. ↑ "About". Oddworld Inhabitants website. Retrieved 2013-03-14.
  4. ↑ "Oddworld: Spending $30m on games, not Ferraris and private jets". Games Industry International. October 1, 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-05.
  5. ↑ "Oddworld's Lanning Quits – Savages EA". Sprong. April 11, 2005. Retrieved 2013-02-05.
  6. ↑ Boyes, Emma (October 30, 2006). "Q&A: Oddworld's Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna". Gamespot. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  7. ↑ Willoughby, Shane (July 16, 2010). "It's Official. New Oddworld Games Are in Development". The Gaming Liberty.
  8. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley. "Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New N' Tasty! revealed at Eurogamer Expo". Eurogamer.
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