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Interview with Doug TenNapel

by Gelert

March 31st, 2013

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How utterly wonderful, and occasionally invaluable, modern day

technology can be . . . . . .

 

It was around about the midnight hour on an extremely chilly

31st of March, early Spring evening that, shivering in my inadequately

heated Welsh back-of-beyond little cottage, I happened to check my

mobile handset for any interesting news snippets or messages from

one of the equally insomniacal Adventurers who must be out there.

 

You can imagine my unbridled delight when, who should have dropped

me a line but the greatly talented, greatly famous, greatly, indeed VERY

greatly revered in old skool gaming circles, Mr Doug TenNapel, himself,

graphic novellist extraordinaire and creator of one of, if not THE, best

loved animated point and click Adventures of all time. Yes the brains and

talent behind The Neverhood was ... cough! cough! ... upon me so

to speak. In fact, had the midnight hour already been and gone, I would

have probably been rather cautious about the legitimacy of what would

have then been an almost out of the blue All Fool's Day

text communication.

 

But, no, this was no April Fool's spoof or prank. Here was I, up

until then fighting off the torporific influence of Mister Sandman

and who should contact me but 'the man' himself.

 

Had my wits been about me in my usual exemplary fashion, I'm sure

I could have probed the genius' brain even deeper for clues and

his still evolving concept ideas regarding his latest, new and very exciting,

project. As it was, I still I think managed to gain a little valuable insight

into his, and his team's plans for many an Adventurer's dream, a successor

to the wonderful Neverhood and Klaymen's exploits therein.

 

Anyway, on with the 'heads-up', as they say. This is what Doug had

to say about his forthcoming game.

 

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Hi ! Good to speak with you.

 

Hi Doug. Great to hear from you too. What's the latest news

regarding plans for your new and very exciting claymation project?

 

Well, we just had a 3 day binge of designing at my Colorado

Springs house. Ellis Goodson (Skullmonkeys), and Mark Lorenzen, artist

on the Earth Worm Jim games, Skullmonkeys and The Neverhood and

programmer of Lord of the Rings and The Sims, were there and we hit

it hard. We got most of the buildings figured out and also the

basic game rules.

 

[ AP note : Ellis Goodson is an accomplished illustrator and one of

the lead storyboard sketch artists on Skullmonkeys, Ratatouille,

BoomBots amongst other titles. Mark Lorenzen is also well

known for his work with Doug TenNapel (they were at college

together), and is an experienced and talented game designer. ]

 

Three days ! That's quite a session. It sounds as though things are

really moving apace. How close to the old and wonderful Neverhood

look and feel do you envisage it being ?

 

The traditionalists shouldn't be too disappointed. The new tech is

definitely helping us figure some difficult things out that in the old

days would just be instantly jettisoned from the game.

 

Are you going back to its roots and aiming to make something very

familiar to Neverhood fans or do you see it as a grasp-the-new-

technology-at-hand opportunity and therefore aim to make it look and

feel more modern day ? Weird questions perhaps, but us traditionalists

are very excited and yet also just wondering what delights you

clever chaps may have in store for us.  I promise any other future

questions I ever have for you will be a little easier on the palate. LOL !

 

The look and style of the game is all me, as The Neverhood was

in 95... but my tastes have evolved a bit, so the game will reflect

that too. In many ways, we're going back to the art that originally

inspired The Neverhood from my late 80s work. So I guess I've

progressed to the 80s now. Ha-ha !

 

This all sounds like excellent news, and I'm sure all Neverhood

fans will be licking their lips at the prospect of another

Neverhood-type Adventure. I know I've probably asked this,

but can you give us an idea of exactly how the gameplay will

feel to those of us with fond memories of Klaymen's adventures ?

 

Well, we're certainly not trying to copy the first game. We're

just freely repeating what worked and moving on from what didn't. It

will be an old school feeling point and click adventure, though

I think most fans will become fans of this work too. I got a lot of

flack for jumping off of Earth Worm Jim to create The Neverhood

and lost a lot of EWJ fans on Neverhood because of it. But this

is nowhere near the departure from Neverhood that Neverhood was

from EWJ, mostly because we're hitting the exact same genre with the

same stop motion technique and the same team.

 

That's excellent Doug. Thankyou ever so much for getting in

touch to share this latest news of your exciting new project. Before

you go though - and I realise I may be pushing my luck a bit as

I imagine you'll want to keep much of this under wraps until a

later date perhaps - but one of the things I'm dying to know, as

will I'm sure the vast majority of other Neverhood fans, is have you

and your team come to a decision on who will be doing the music

this time around ? Terry Scott Taylor is obviously the name on

my lips. Any thoughts as yet ?

 

Well, you're certainly right in that we'll be pretty hush hush

about everything until the Kickstarter launches. Then we'll be dumping a

lot of stuff out, and I mean finished stuff too ! But, yes, I can tell you

this . . . Terry Taylor will will be doing the music.

 

The news gets better and better . . . That's fabulous news indeed ! :)

 

All that remains is for me to say thankyou once again Doug. This

is one Neverhood fan who's level of eager anticipation has gone up

at least Ten(Napel) notches this chilly Welsh Spring evening. I can

promise you one thing in return . . . Everyone with fond memories of

Neverhood will be champing at the bit and we will all be following

developments with a very keen eye indeed.

 

 

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Neverhood's 'Successor'

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