[24] Described as "mysticism versus consumerism with a mega dose of twisted humor,"[25] the story represented beliefs deep and personal to creator Lorne Lanning—that "great art reflects back on us not necessarily what we want to see, but what we need to face.

"[27] And this anti-capitalist view infused the deeper meaning of Abe's Oddysee as the socio-economic element of the story was set amongst the lower class "slaving away in unsafe conditions, unwillingly bending to the will of corporate suits... to earn a few bucks for a day's worth of grueling, often unrewarding work"[28] The protagonist fighting back against his oppressors, the Glukkons, represented Lanning's desire for people in the real world to fight back against the "abominable behavior of the world's most greedy multi-national corporations,"[28] characterised by "caricatures of CEOs, all power-suits and cigars.

To use that in a form of entertainment could "very likely end up in legal battles with a vociferous pressure group" who likened the insult to that of Nazis making Jews wear the yellow badge during World War II.

Abe is sent on a quest by his deceased ancestors to destroy the mega factories that produce Soulstorm Brew—a product made from the bones of dead mudokons, and rescue 300 of his kind, discovering an even deeper connection to his spiritual past along the way.

[47] As for the increase in humor and its "cartoony" style, Lanning explained that Microsoft thought of the Oddworld franchise as its Super Mario Bros..[20] Gilray revealed the failure of Munch left the team heartbroken.

[78] Lanning said they wanted to go in a direction different from Disney's adult humor by combining animation with darker stories like Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, and The Lord of the Rings[42] It was also described as "1984 (sic) for the 21st century".

And then the financial crash caused a lot of financing troubles in the United States.When the studio decided to make the Citizen Siege film, they had a $40–60 million budget[13] and were given the green light as an R-rated CG animated feature, they went into the early stages of development.

So the risk being undertaken by the developers with each project is considerably less, because they only need to sell 50,000 units for them to break even and stay in business, as opposed to the one million required in the first week of sales and a 5× or 10× return overall when using money provided by a major publisher.

[62] This lower sales requirement affords them the ability to experiment with their games in a way that wasn't possible when the budgets were in excess of ten million dollars, because a failure does not mean the end of the business as it did during the Stranger's Wrath era when they took a risk aiming for perfection using untried concepts without a history of user feedback to guide them.

[91] Their growth might be small, but being that their products are crowd-financed by the audience buying the games, there is no need to appease investors that have brought no value beyond their own cash, or answer to a board that wants to implement policies the studio doesn't agree with, which "is what drives most of the pressure and most of the distractions".

[68] Under the agreement between Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water that eliminates the traditional distribution models, "most of the money that the gamer is spending will come right back to the developer,"[98] meaning the majority of profits made after sales recoup production costs goes directly into making more games, not enriching the owners.

[111] Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water decided to use 3D technology while "staying true to that platforming nature on the controls level"[83] and only if they could maintain the same experience players had with the original,[111] to satisfy the fans of 2D games in a way that Lanning termed "neo-stalgia".

[122] On 20 February 2013, Sony's launch of the PlayStation 4 at its See The Future conference included a slide littered with logos of development studios currently working on projects for the upcoming console, one of them being Just Add Water's.

[134] While not confirming what games would be on the hardware, the company explained that the PS4 Pro complemented their "design ethos for Oddworld: Soulstorm, allowing the ability to turn up the dials on visual fidelity, lighting and physically based rendering.

[100] On the other hand, Sony was one of the "forward thinking players in the gaming space [that] had been paying attention and providing means to get their models and policies closer" to the "wider buffet" and away from the "outdated, tired ways of the console wars of the dark ages.

[100] Lanning sees this buffet of choice, and the affordable price points, as how this generation will finally gain back control over what they consume from the publishers, retailers and platform holders, rather than just accepting what they're given, and that any company standing in their way will emerge without much credibility.

"[21] And he found that video games were the perfect medium for combining the philosophies and realities he's observed in the world with the tools and technologies he loves, allowing him to repackage that content into a viable story for an audience with a meaningful message about what is really going on in the world—the Clif Bar instead of the potato chips.

And that was the birth of really the thinking of Oddworld.Lanning has always believed that society is "under the umbrella of massively deceptive campaigns to keep people ignorant, in fear, and unknowingly supportive of truly evil policies," and the dark humor possible in video games was his way of illustrating that truth.

[21] Lanning's original plan was for Oddworld Inhabitants to be a "colossal transmedia endeavour, born of a visionary sense that interactive and non-interactive entertainment would at some point converge, assisted by evolving digital communications.

He saw iconic creations like Star Wars, Disney and Pixar, that became "pied pipers of the most popular characters with noble causes, as a general practice... just becoming the brands on the worst quality health products for new generations... that are being pushed by the largest companies" and marketed with misinformation about its unhealthiness[43] Instead, Lanning wanted to create characters of high moral integrity and use them to enforce a new licensing model which involved only licensing to companies that use better practices for its employees and for the environment, because "for creators, some things are more important than money".

But we really are still looking at a medium that's just capable of completely kicking ass over all other mediums.Lanning still believes that video games are suffering what has plagued all entertainment industries—an "unbalanced ratio of Britney Spears-class" content versus deeper "Pink Floyd-like" complexity.

"[121] But he hopes the 21st century will continue the trend that storytellers like Shakespeare, Pink Floyd and his inspirations Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and HG Wells have used to "create deeper more meaningful and relevant content that reflects the challenging issues happening in the world around them today".

As a result, the big budget triple-A titles are least likely to risk their profits by releasing content with deeper meaning instead of with tried and true methods of success, because they work in an environment of "investment versus returns" dictated by the publishers providing the money they need to make the game.

[158] But Lanning believes that the documentary filmmaking industry shows an evolving appetite for reflecting relevant truths that leave audiences with more lasting impressions and value to their lives, hence his method of Trojan Horse pop.

Great content lasts the test of time, big pop for the moment evaporates from the history books more quickly.In this new era of the video game industry, Oddworld Inhabitants was able to use social networking to find a new audience and listen to them.

When Lanning first entered the industry with Abe's Oddysee in the mid 90s, developers could only rely on focus groups and market research for feedback; they would only see review scores after release; and stores would not give them information on who was buying their games.

[166] When YouTube introduced a new Content ID system in December 2013 allowing holders of copyright material to flag content they had not approved to be published on the service, such as Let's Plays, commercial trailers, and screen shots, Oddworld Inhabitants issued a statement on their own website informing fans that they give "explicit permission to anyone on the service to broadcast using Oddworld games" without fear of being issued a copyright claim, because "nothing makes us happier than to see you guys enjoying our games, and it's something we encourage wholeheartedly.

[21] The games have found success a second time on the digital landscape, due in small part to the guerrilla marketing possible with today's media, but more importantly because of the brand recognition that came from nurturing their original audience in the late 90s, which Lanning believes has them fortunately ahead of the indie developers pack.

In order to raise the money to fund the rest of the Quintology, Just Add Water began by porting the studio's first two titles to new consoles and producing high definition remasters of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath.

The story is set in a rural land resembling Afghanistan[44] far from the continent of Mudos where the first four Oddworld games were based, inspired by the "United States propaganda approach" of pretending to free the region, but really wanting to "rob it and slaughter it and leave it as rubble".