Feature: Q&A With Earthworm Jim Creator Doug Tennapel

In today's Gamasutra morning feature, we have a chat with artist, animator, game designer, and Earthworm Jim creator Douglas Tennapel about transitioning character design between mediums, building a proper portfolio for game development, and the current state of our favorite space suit-bearing annelid. In the following extract, Tennapel elaborates on the high risks involved in developing games: "Yeah, well the bottom line is if selling games is the sole goal -- and frankly, I don't think any medium is more tied to the bottom line quite the way video games are -- video games are very difficult to develop. They have a very long gestation period. They are an enormous risk. They are expensive systems to deliver on when you're paying that kind of a royalty to a platform. Salaries are expensive, programmer salaries are outrageous and development costs are up and those are all things that give studios pause at taking risks. I mean, let's face it: to make a high quality, funny game doesn't seem that strange to me if it's part of someone's business plan. But again, the humor always comes second to gameplay, and it needs to. The problem is, just because it’s second doesn’t mean it needs to be last, or un-thought-of, or rounded out of the process or disrespected." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature for much more, including the most detailed explanation of Earthworm Jim's state of limbo on the Internet (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).