Jazz2Online news for March 2012
Jazz Jackrabbit joining Epic @ PAX East - March 30th 2012
Source: http://epicgames.com/community/2012/03/pax-easter-egg-hunt/
From Epic Games:
Because PAX East falls on Easter weekend, Jazz Jackrabbit (our Epic Easter bunny) is bringing his basket of special Easter eggs to the event! If you’re heading to PAX East this year look for the Epic Easter eggs hidden around the convention center to find Gears of War 3 DLC codes, HeroClix and other prizes!
Jazz will be tweeting hints and pictures through the Epic Games Twitter (@epicgames) so be sure to follow us to find out where they will be! Happy egg hunting!
This was posted on RabbitJournal on March 30th 2012. You can post, too!
No, seriously, Epic's not making a new Jazz Jackrabbit - March 26th 2012
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.
Jazz not up for licensing - March 18th 2012
Source: Dobermann Software
Doing a little more digging on Dobermann’s game, I found this post. It looks like Dobermann contacted Epic Games about licensing Jazz for his windows phone application, and received the following response (back in November):
I admire your enthusiasm. Unfortunately the Jazz Jackrabbit license is not available. I am afraid we cannot license the JJ IP to you for this project.
Have fun reading into “not available.” If nothing else, looks like we won’t be seeing a sequel to JJA.
Dobermann Software's Jazz Jackrabbit fangame (UPDATED) - March 18th 2012
Source: Dobermann Software
(We’re a little late on this one — it was released on March 14th. Sorry. There wasn’t exactly much fanfare with the release.)
You may have heard of a fangame called “Halo Zero,” a 2D reinterpretation of the Halo series. Its creators, Dobermann Software, have released a second game, specifically a remake of the shareware episode of Jazz Jackrabbit 1. You can check out its official webpage, or else download it yourself. Note that this is a Windows Phone application, so you’ll need either a Windows Phone or an emulator.
Based on the screenshots, this game is not using the original data, or at least not the level files, since the level layouts are slightly altered. The graphics look right, however, with the status bar from the bottom transformed into a sort of ad hoc HUD.
Since Halo Zero is not associated in any way with Bungie or Microsoft, and nothing is said on the webpage, it seems safe to assume that this is purely a fangame and bears no connection to Epic or any of Epic’s future plans. UPDATE: Epic declined to license it. The page’s text suggests that it is a sort of tech demo for Dobermann Software’s intentions to focus on Windows Phone development in the future. Dobermann provides a forum for discussion of the demo.
Note that this demo has no known relationship to OpenJazz, which does use the original data.
UPDATE: I got the emulator to work and have posted a brief overview of the game and the installation process (for people without windows phones) in the comments.
JJ2 Launcher by DJazz - March 14th 2012
Source: JCF thread
DJazz strikes again, and this time he’s cooked an application allowing you to join JJ2 servers with a single click on a link:
With it you can join JJ2 servers from any website, email or chat conversation. All that’s required is a jj2:// link and JJ2 URI Launcher.
Setup information available on the SGIP page.