Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Poll Turnover Time - August 26th 2013

Best JJ1 episode?

Turtle Terror	6 votes (15%)
Ballistic Bunny	10 votes (26%)
Rabbit's Revenge	3 votes (7%)
Gene Machine	3 votes (7%)
The Chase Is On	3 votes (7%)
The Final Clash	2 votes (5%)
Outta Dis World	4 votes (10%)
Turtle Soup	0 vote (0%)
Wild Wabbit	0 vote (0%)
Holiday Hare ('94)	3 votes (7%)
Holiday Hare ('95)	2 votes (5%)
Bonus Levels	2 votes (5%)
Total votes: 38

This poll change is long overdue, but then aren’t they all? Let’s talk about multiplayer levels! Some people like to upload single levels at a time, like “One Silver Penny” or “Employee of the Month.” Sometimes there’ll be two or three at a time. Other times you get a large pack, either drawing exclusively from one single gamemode or comprising a whole bunch of levels, some battle, some CTF, some maybe Jailbreak, whatever. The packs made a lot of sense before JJ2+‘s level list support, since they made it easier to host a server that kept people interested instead of restarting the same level over and over, especially if passwords were involved. But that’s not an issue anymore, since you can cycle from any level to any other level anytime you want, so are packs less important than they used to be? Or do you just like the convenience of getting a whole lot of levels to try out at once, as long as you’ve already bitten the bullet and decided to download a .zip anyhow? And how do you feel about multiple gamemodes in a single set? Talk about that here and answer the poll.

Note that this is specifically asking about what you like to download and hopefully then review ahaha who am I kidding nobody reviews anymore, not what you like to upload. If you love 20-level CTF packs but only ever upload single battle levels, vote for the pack option.

Retro Game Music Bundle moves on (EDITED) - August 13th 2013

Source: Retro Game Music Bundle

The Retro Game Music Bundle folks, who earlier this year released the JJ1 through JJ3 soundtracks commercially for the first time ever, have moved on to a new bundle, which suggests to me that they’re never going to fix the issues still present in said still-available soundtracks.

EDIT: soundofjw has shown up in the comments to dispute my misgivings! Awesome! You can follow updates here.

Level contest - August 10th 2013

Source: JJNet forums

EDIT: The deadline has been extended to September 5th.

From JJNET:

JJNet ladder season 8 is approaching and with it come as always changes to the mappool. This time, however, we are holding a contest where brand new levels can make it into the mappool. The best three maps (supposing there are three that meet our quality-standards) as selected by the admins will be added to the mappool on a temporary basis for the next season. As the season progresses, when a clan reaches 50 points, a vote will be held to determine whether those maps are to be kept in or removed from the mappool.

What are we looking for? Mostly the same things as in most level making contests.

These are the rules :

• We are looking for CTF levels (a contest for the multi-ladder might well be held at another time)
• The level must be playable in 1.23. (If you are going to convert the level from 1.24 afterwards, make sure you pick a tileset that works in 1.23 too.)
• Only new levels will be accepted. Edits of existing levels will not. If a level was started/finished before this contest began, it can however be entered if it was never officially published before.
• Only one entry per person. Collaborations are allowed, but they will count as a whole entry for each collaborator. This is meant to encourage people to focus all their effort on one level, rather than rush many. Quality over quantity.
• As long as the contest stays open, you are allowed to edit/fix/remake your entry as much as you want even after you have submitted it.
• Upload your level to Jazz2Online once you are finished, in order to make it easily available to everyone. Prefix the upload name with [JJnetS8].

Aside from the rules, there are some additional guidelines (if you don’t follow them you’re not likely to get very far):

• The level should be playable in both 2on2 and 3on3.
• The level should have at least decent eyecandy as usual. Most importantly there should be no distracting visual decorations.
• The level should be balanced. You do not need to make the level 100% symmetrical, but try to keep no team significantly advantaged over the other.
• All characters should be playable in the level (Lori too.) Flow differences between characters do not matter, but all characters should be able to reach all objects at least without needing to use tricks like walljumps.
• Try to make the level spacious enough so that there is room for players to dodge bullets for example, but still not too open, as that will increase “lag-dependency”, e.g. lots of long linear paths where players usually get “airhit” from afar (especially if the level contains a lot of seekers, thus avoid the use of Seeker Powerup.)
• For the same reason, add some slightly safer areas so that people have somewhere to hide for a second after they get airhits. However, don’t let the level become a campfest. Try to design base areas with thought.
• Originality is a nice bonus, but we are not looking for full gimmick-levels. Use of AngelScript is allowed, but again, try to not draw the gameplay too far from classic CTF.

You have exactly two weeks starting now on to finish and upload your entry. The contest will close on August 22.

This was posted on RabbitJournal on August 10th 2013. You can post, too!