No, seriously, Epic's not making a new Jazz Jackrabbit
- Posted:
- 26 Mar 2012 at 20:28
- Source:
- Up at Noon
This honestly shouldn’t be surprising news, and it’s certainly not happy news, but a few of you took my last post in the least plausible direction, so I suppose I should post this too. CliffyB just got interviewed today on something called “Up at Noon,” and I’ll let him do the talking:
We don’t have the time and bandwidth for [a Jazz Jackrabbit reboot], man. And my gut is telling me if we ever did it, it would sell, like, a hundred thousand copies. And those hundred thousand people would love it and would just think it’s amazing. And we’d be like “wow, we just spent a year on that, okay, that sucks.” Right? It’d be a labor of love, right? And the chances of screwing it up are very, very huge. It’s a complicated problem. But, y’know, I do miss the bunny, so you never know.
Now, I know some of you are going to focus on that last sentence, and that’s your right, but seriously. Epic making a brand new game is not in the cards. If there’s anything we should be trying to make happen right now, it’s getting Jazz sold through Steam or GOG or something like that. You know, something that makes them money while requiring next to no effort on their part.
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Aliens have invaded earth
Well, you could play the iOS Jazz stick shooter demo, I guess?
You made me kind of worried about transparency of my sarcasm. I just hope I’m not considered part of the “few of you” here.
“the chances of screwing it up are very, very huge” would be in reference to Game Titan?
And it’s a totally valid point to be skeptical about reviving an old franchise in a changed market, either developed inhouse or outsourced.
Games like Duke Nukem Forever have proven that adding a mediocre game to a legendary franchise mercilesly ‘downgrades’ the franchise as a whole (even though I personally enjoyed DNF).
We consider JJA a spin-off and even as that it didn’t do the original 2 games any good (again, I enjoyed JJA). Imagine what a screwed up ‘Jazz Jackrabbit 3’ would be able to accomplish. :O
This is pretty much what I imagined Cliffy to say about reviving the series. He does care about Jazz but after the financial screwup jj2 caused (If I recall), it would be hard to say that they could successfully revive it again.
As much as some people might bite my arse for saying this, but I think the series should aim towards an older audience. Not that I’d want it all dull and serious though. Besides a lot of the fanbase has grown up now.
There’s also reguarding the gameplay, but I think sidescrolling games can be successful, they’d need to make it more challenging and have more innovative features. Games can get well known for their sheer difficulty. Blah, where am I going here.
I think that the best thing to happen would be a GOG/Steam release of both games(Or at least the first one). Let’s hope for one soon! :D (Crosses fingers)
(This post was longer, but it was based on the above comment, which I misread)
Aww. : ) I feel that a new Jazz Jackrabbit will be best several years from now. The original game and Jazz2 really didn’t fit any other games’ standards, they were their own worlds. : ) The more years pass the more ideas will come to anyone who would create the next game, and game engine technology will continue to improve. :)
Whoa, it’s RockyR. I guess news stuff is good.
Hey there RockyRaccoon. :D
We/They could use Kickstarter. Like they did for Double Fine Adventure (raised $3.3 million in donations) and Wasteland 2.
No publishers wanted to make Wasteland 2. They didn’t think it would sell much. So the developers went on Kickstarter, asked for donations so they could make the game, and have received around $1.7 million dollars in around 2 weeks so far.
More info here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2
Maybe we ourselves could ask to buy the IP to open source it to the community, and raise the money through Kickstarter.
If you’re serious enough it might be possible.
Guys i just a few month ago started a petition to for Epic Games and Jazz Jackrabbit (starting to be serious just yesterday) . I even got Alexander Brandon onto the train and he’s probably gonna help spread the word.
You can sign and read more about it here http://www.change.org/petitions/epic-games-give-us-a-new-jazz-jackrabbit-game
Help spread the word and sign it.
- Lan/Multiplayer, Coop/PVP
- Cross playing
- Create and share maps
- 2D platforming/shooting action
How good would that not be? COME ON PEOPLE, SIGN AND SHARE IT AS MUC HAS YOU CAN!
Kickstarter also is a good idea, i’m going to make a thread about this.
rizefall: putting aside that what you’re proposing as a game design is basically exactly the same thing as Jazz 2, I don’t think your petition is going to do much good. If you look at the quote in this news post, you’ll see CliffyB’s issue is that he doesn’t anticipate a game selling more than a hundred thousand copies. If you can get several hundred thousand signatures on a petition, that’s one thing, but only 39 petitions on change.org have ever gotten even one hundred thousand. Anything short of that, and you’ve hardly disproved Cliffy’s point that it would appeal only to a relatively small group of passionate fans. They need money to make things happen, so kickstarter is a better bet at least when judging between those two options.
It’s just an example of features and yet again, no games today offer that for a game anyway.
I agree kickstarter would be awesome, i just dont know how it all works.
I agree with people who say Kickstarter is the best bet if the JJ franchise is to be revived; remember in this world money talks.
Alternatively, a volunteer/semi-professional group could ditch the JJ IP, and create a 2D side-scroller of their own, JJ2-style?
PS
Question: when will the Anniversary Bash take place?
FSHero: The community has tried on multiple occasions to make a 2D side-scroller on its own, and each time it has failed. At first there was Skitch Possum. 2003-2005 (latter years included somewhat charitably) had Mechaius. Now there’s this thing, which may or may be continuing progress somewhere other than the JCF, who knows.
The bash is tentatively scheduled for the 6th, but dates aren’t definite yet so no announcement has been made.
Well, the ‘hey coders’ project is still going slightly outside the jcf, but very slowly. Not to mention that it isn’t all that much like jj2 anyway.
http://www.change.org/petitions/epic-games-give-us-a-new-jazz-jackrabbit-game
disappointment that Cliff does not want to create a new game Jazz Jackrabbit
Someone should tell Epic that if they hire EvilMike as a gameplay and level designer there’s no way anything will go wrong.
Someone should tell Epic that if they hire Violet CLM and Disguise to do tilesets, there’s no way everything won’t go right.
You don’t have the time and bandwidth?
Yuji Naka had the time and bandwidth to do 100 sonic games and you don’t have the time and bandwidth to make just 33 new Jazz Jackrabbit game?
Hey Guys,
Since Epic is not making a new Jazz Jackrabbit I was like why should’t we make one ourselfs.
I’m currently working on a new Jazz for my study as Game-designer with a new look and new 16 bit music.
If any of you guys is interested I can keep you up to date in a PM about the progress i’m making! :-)
Interesting, feel free to post some info on the forums.