I built art and design for around half the levels on the original Earthworm Jim for Genesis and Snes. The rest of the original team were Dave Perry, Nick Jones and Andy Astor on code. Steve Crow, like me on art and design. Tom Tanaka on design.
Our great animators, Mike Dietz, Ed Schofield and of course Doug Tennaple whose deliciously warped mine came up with all the great characters and world of Jim. Our good friend Tommy Tallarico on music and sound. On Jim 2 Mark Lorenzon joined Steve and myself in art/design.
A common question I get is would we all get together for another Jim game. A few years back there was an attempt to get us back together in an advisory role for a new game. Sadly that fell apart but it was fun to chat with the guys again. I'm not really an advisory type anyway and would have to get hands on. The ideas are still there. Maybe when we're all retired and bored.
Post any other questions to comments.
Big Bruty
Can you post some unreleased artwork, please? :)
ReplyDeleteEWJ fans all over the world was searching for years for some hi-res box-art, concept-art, HD-quality animation frames (Mike Dietz posted some, but that was not too much).
EWJ fandom is hungry for that suff! :)
Thanks for your great and inspiring work on first two EWJs and MDK!
From Belarus with love!
sign: Alex "LoOK" Lukyanovich.
Hi Nick,
ReplyDeleteI can't really think of anything specific to ask. I'm glad you guys have all stayed in touch though, it's lovely. :)
And since you're from England like me, is it difficult to find a good cup of tea over there? I've been to the USA twice, and the second time I couldn't find one nice cup of tea. Ironically, the best one was one Doug T made for me in his microwave lol.
@ loOK, I don't have any in game art but I probably have some old sketches of the work I was doing for the levels. Seeing as I just bought a new scanner I'll take a look for them. Maybe I should start an art page on the site for this and other games.
ReplyDelete@Lemm, When I arrived stateside the basic tea from the supermarket was truly horrible stuff, like their chocolate. I think it was only reallly used ice tea. Now you can get anything. Typically I pick Assam as a safe better. I also drink a lot of green and other Chinese teas. Being on the border of Chinatown with a Chinese/Amercian biz partner, Tea and noodles are an integral part of my life now.
ReplyDeleteCool. I like green tea every now and then too.
ReplyDeleteI hope they add PG Tips to that list. :)
Hey man that's because that ish is GOOD! You should thank me Nick. Our life is now more enriched you pasty Brit. Hahah
ReplyDeleteNick used to have an Eartworm Jim clay model that he made from those old days. I remember when I first saw it in the planet moon offices I silently flipped out. Sadly it was lost in the thralls of moving around and shutting down pm. Unfortunate
I have been a big fan of Earthworm Jim for a long time since I was like 5. My question is what was your fav part on working on the seris. Also do you know if they are going to release the Earthworm Jim Dvd in the U.S? As I understand they are making one in Austrla so I am hoping it will come here. Thanks so much and cheers.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite gameplay level was Peter Puppy because it was so tense and had a very different feel to the other levels.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character was Evil the Cat so I loved working on What the Heck level although it was tricky making that curvy level work with tiles.
The first game was my favorite of the series.
I liked hanging with the animators. Theirs brains are different. Probably banana shaped. Working with those guys added a dimension to my own work.
I didn't like making the Intestinal distress level in 1 night. Very nerve wracking.
I don't know anything about the DVD release. You should ping Doug on facebook.
Thanks for answer, Nick! Art page is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBTW my pal from Russia have a question about that scan from some vg magazine: http://cs4104.vkontakte.ru/u3743638/10494754/x_4ecdc94b.jpg
All what I know, that was some kind of competition with some "special level". Do you know anything about that?
Dear Mr. Bruty:
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I are big fans of Earthworm Jim. I was wondering if there was a funny story about the special edition level "Big Bruty" and/or how it came about?
@LoOK, no a competition level doesn't ring a bell.
ReplyDelete@Mikemewll. When Interplay wanted a Mega CD version of Jim it gave us a chance to fix a few things. Like putting in the game continue. Something I wish was in the original. But we still needed something extra to separate the new version. I had a bunch of level roughs left over from the original game, I picked one out that I thought would offer something new. I came up with the idea of Jim having to lure a giant beast out and use its momentum to propel him through the level. Ed Scholfield designed and animated the character and named him Big Bruty. The name stuck and as we're always having trouble naming levels we just used that. We didn't have a lot of development time. I thought the level came out ok. The mechanic was fine but could have been made more fun with play testing. Something we really didn't have on any of the games.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your answers Nick!
ReplyDeleteLast question! :)
Do you still remember names of those ingame enemies?
http://tennapel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11638
No, as minor characters I'm not sure they even had real names.
ReplyDeleteHello Mr. Bruty. I was wondering,what is your favorite design of Peter the Puppy? The white from the conceptual artwork,the pink from within the games, or the one with the clothing? Plus, I hope you don't mind, but I've done some fan art of Peter and Jim. Cause Peter's my favorite character
ReplyDeletehttp://spongefox.deviantart.com/gallery/11171651 - my peter puppy fan art.
http://spongefox.deviantart.com/gallery/25597454 - A Fan Character I've played around with.
Also, do you guys keep artwork you've done in folders,and do you have any favorite levels from Earthworm Jim 1 & 2?
am not sure if I am in the right place or not… but here it goes.
ReplyDeleteI am a HUGE fan of the Earthworm Jim video game for the Sega Genesis when it came out and had the game…conqured it. Then years later I found out about EWJ for the Playstation platform…but ever since it’s been like a snipe hunt to try and find EWJ for the Playstation. It’s been close to 10 years for me to try and find a “valid” copy (preferably original store packaging)
Could someone please help me in getting a copy of this awesome game?
Please contact me at lw.gordon1@gmail.com for any advice or referrals.
Thanks,
Larry G.
Hiya Nick, I've already spoken to you before when we did an interview for Unseen64 :) Are you still in possession of any rough sketches of levels that didn't make the cut or that changed over development for the Jim games? And LoOk Im not positive but I believe that Jim race thing is a screencap from one of those sega tv contests. I could be wrong though.
ReplyDeleteAnd an art page would be awesome!!
ReplyDelete@Fan Art, I liked the original white concept.
ReplyDeleteNo I'm not that organized in keep old sketches. I am digging through my old pads looking for interesting stuff to post. I plan on making a gallery page for such things but it will take a few weeks to get around to it. Rich and I are busy on a prototype.
I went to your links but couldn't see any artwork there.
@Larry, Sorry mate, we didn't have anything to do with the playstation title. Good luck in your hunt.
ReplyDelete@Unseen, just answered this in another comment. I will be making a gallery page and will post anything interesting I find there. My sketches are typically very rough and loose. I did most of my experimenting directly in the game.
ReplyDeleteHello Nick, I have four questions.
ReplyDeleteWho was the Windows 95 team and who came up with all of those ridiculous cheat codes (Like Hatman or the afro)? Was that the guys at Shiny?
Why was Lorenzo's Soil so different between consoles or completely absent from the PC version?
Can you give your opinion on the Earthworm Jim remake?
Did the Shiny team ever plan to do Earthworm Jim 3 and was it anything at all similar to the awful Earthworm Jim 3D that came out? I'm really not a fan of anything EWJ outside of the first two games which had a magic like no other (that show was dreaful as well).
I felt the HD version had ugly art in many cases (but some was quite faithful as well) and the new levels to be uninspired. The multiplayer levels were a nice surprise though. I'm upset at the missing secret level.
Hello...
ReplyDeleteDo you by any chance know in what programming language was Earthworm Jim for the Sega Genesis written?
Was it C or assembly?