Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This article was written out of pure frustration.
The last weeks more and more crap uploads were uploaded to J2O. Sorry if I hurt anyone with the word crap, but IMO it’s the truth. Most of them get a low rating or don’t even get reviewed. Almost all of those levels are made by “newbies”: it was probably the first thing they created with JCS. That’s why I’m giving you all some hints before you upload:
- At first, don’t upload 5 levels seperately after each other when they are of the same game type etc. When it are levels of the same game type you can also make a level pack fo it, and that will even boost your rating sometimes.
- When you have no 1.23 JJ2 and you want to upload a tileset, you could ask someone with 1.23 to compile it for you. This way more people will be able to download and use it. For levels, try to only use TSF when you have no other choice, for example when you don’t even have 1.23 :)
- Think about it when you want to upload something. Do you think “This is good enough, it might get a good rating and it’s finished” or do you think “It isn’t really good, but I’ll upload because everyone should play my levels.” or something? Then you better try to make it better or improve your JCS skills and make a new level.
- Don’t post edited version of other’s levels, like an edited version of the original “Battle1” level. Those levels aren’t even fully made by yourself and nobody will find them interesting.
- Don’t upload BETA or Demo versions unless they already include 4
finished levels or something (that means it’s a demo of a levelpack). If you want people to betatest your stuff, go to the JCF and post a request for Beta-testers. You’ll probably get some replies of people who want to help you. If you post it at the downlaods section you’ll more likely get flames.
- NEVER upload hotels unless you want to ruin your average rating and get replies wit the word “suck” in it. Hotels are mostly made for a clan and that way it isn’t interesting for people who aren’t in your clan. Another reason for this is that almost nobody likes hotels. On a side note, almost every clan dies after a week and the clans that don’t die are “professional” anough to don’t have hotels.
- Don’t post music unless it’s a remix of originl Jazz Jackrabbit music. J2O admins will delete files that are not associated with Jazz Jackrabbit. For uploading your own MODs you can go to a site like the MODarchive (http://www.modarchive.com)
- Only upload self-made stuff. If someone else can’t upload for some reason don’t upload his/her levels or tilesets on your own account, it will mess up your average rating and you can just ask the poor person for his/her password to upload it under his/her account.
- Don’t post a new version of something again unless it’s a really big update. Altough probably nobody will notice you re-uploaded a file, it will save some space. If you want your upload to be re-reviewed, just PM the reviewers and ask them to rewrite their review.
- Think of some original name for your pack/level/tileset/program/whatever. This may sound stupid, but an upload like “Killerbattle”, “Tileset pack”, “Bluebattle” or “RR Test 1” (Just some quick examples taken from the 20 last uploads on the moment) won’t get the attention of much reviewers and thus it won’t get much reviews.
- Write a good description and include the custom tilesets and music in the zip file. An authors description may help people to decide if they want to download or not and it gives you more information of the upload. Don’t put big advertisements in your author’s description.
- Make good stuff.
Hope this will help you a bit :) I may add some other things later.
Add: I changed the TSF thing ;)