Recently I was given the opportunity to visit Oddworld Inhabitants Studios in California, USA. This is the first in a series on inside the Oddworld Studios.

"Welcome to Oddworld", producer Geri said as she opened the door to the Oddworld Inhabitants studios. Those words will stick in my head always... or at least for a very long time. I can still remember the way she said it, and my feelings of anticipation as I was about to enter the place that many Oddworld fans would only ever dream of.

And what wonder did I see as I passed through the door. At first glance all I noticed was all the Oddworld pictures everywhere, on the walls and behind the reception desk. On closer inspection these were found to be the many awards that Oddworld has won through industry and gaming press. I commented on the fact that it would have been great to have an Oscar included.

From there we moved onto the recreation area. Like all employees, Oddworld's Inhabitants need a little bit of relaxation sometime... and a place to eat lunch... well unless they are like me and eat at their desks because they are very busy... which being Oddworld is probably more than likely the case! The recreation area was lined with framed magazine covers featuring Abe and more recently Munch. Three huge backlit posters were on the far wall, life-size cardboard cut-outs of Abe were standing around. And in the center of it all was a billiard table. As one Inhabitant told me... "Lorne's pride and joy". By the end of my time there, a "gold and purple" Christmas tree would stand in the corner.

Hallways lined with concept art followed... both art we have all seen and some unfamiliar. Some of the original production statues of Abe, a Scrab, a Paramite and more. But to the hallways I would return at a later time, for now it was time to meet with some of the Inhabitants themselves.

"Alf's Rehab and Tea" Crew: Or Alf's helpers, these are the folks that help Alf answer all those questions!

The Programming Department: These are the guys who write all the coding to enable the games to run correctly on our systems. Working in the computer industry myself, one could tell these were programmers... dedicated to their work no matter what deadlines they had to make. Although luckily all of Oddworld is like that!

The Game Design Department: Here I met Paul who does the designer diaries for GameSpot. He showed me how the cameras are implemented into a level. I also got my first "glimpse" of Munch in action when I met one of the level designers, Jessica.

The Realtime Department: Dubbed as "Happy Land" by Oddworld, this group of hard working, but fun inhabitants are the ones who make the character movements possible. Here I met Marquise, who is featured on this months' Inhabitants interview, who has been with Oddworld for 3 years. I spent some time with Sean who showed me how the characters were animated and given the look and expressions that we see in the games/movies.

The CG Department: Here I was able to see the evolvement of character designs into computer format. Matt showed me the development of one of the new Munch's Oddysee characters, while Scott demonstrated how Abe's basic movements were implemented.

This was only the beginning...