During its production, "Gex" went through various development challenges due to schedule issues. Work on the game began in late 1993, with a development deadline of June 1994. The development team initially came up with six different worlds themed around varying TV channels, including a horror world and a science fiction world. Each world was given three distinct sets of art design that could be used to create unique levels; for instance, the horror world had a haunted house set, a graveyard set, and a "Mode 2" set for a vertically scrolling level. While working on the game, they found that developing game art for "Gex" was far harder than it had been with 16-bit video games, as the expanded 32-bit memory in combination with the storage capabilities of a compact disc meant that far more art could be made. With two artists working on the game's assets, a single in-game level took around two months to complete. Because Crystal Dynamics' two other 3DO games being developed at the time, "Crash N Burn" and "Total Eclipse", only required a small number of artists, Panasonic was hesitant in hiring additional artists to the game's development team, presuming it to be unnecessary. Because of this limited development team, the game took longer to produce than anticipated. Eventually, the company began bringing other artists in to work on designing characters, including Steve Kongsle (who had been working on "Crash N Burn" and designed Gex).