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Just Add Water Resurrects Oddworld: Hand Of Odd

by Annette Gonzalez on Apr 29, 2011 at 08:03 AM

Hand of Odd was an Oddworld spinoff announced back in 1998 and subsequently canceled just one year later. According to Eurogamer, Just Add Water is bringing back the Oddworld-inspired RTS game.

The team at Just Add Water intends to redesign original plans and make Hand of Odd more "casual rather than more intense."

"RTS games and Command & Conquer don't particularly do well today," JAW's Stewart Gilray told Eurogamer. "Why don't we look at it the other way round and say, 'What is today's equivalent?' I hate to say this, but it's the CityVilles and the FarmVilles. We're going to try and apply a bit of that mechanic and see where that takes us."

Platforms are TBD, but the team is looking into iPad, Android tablets, Facebook, PC, and Mac. There are plans to talk to Sony about a possible release on NGP as well. Will it appear on home consoles? Unlikely.

"It works well with touchscreen interfaces or mouse control direct. On consoles, however, you get analog sticks or your Move controller. While Move is good for certain kinds of gameplay and it's responsive compared to Kinect, it still isn't that intuitive," Gilray said. "We've not had experience with Kinect yet, but playing the games already out there for that, it does seem at the moment it's got a lot of work to do before it catches up with that more direct, action kind of game. All the games that are out for it, you've got to do huge body movements to get involved in it, which is why it's fun. With this, there's a bit more thought involved, rather than flinging your body around a room, which is why we thought if we did direct control through touchscreen, you can put your finger on it, or with a mouse with PC or Mac, and just drag items."

Oddworld: Hand of Odd is slated to release next year.