Idea: Machinima of Jazz 2

[Jerrythabest]

A friend of mine had a nice idea to make Jazz2 more known outside the community: Machinima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima) made in Jazz2. The Machinima series "Red vs Blue", made in Halo, gave the game a great boost and maybe we can do something like that with Jazz 2 too. If we can try to publish some on popular websites and hope they'll try Jazz (again). This way we may get the game much more active again. We got all the sprites, so we may be able to make something very nice, we could combine sprites to make new ones. With enough cooperation we can pull a lot of fun out of this too. We can even use sprites that have never been used before, like O+TWEEDLEO+

I hope you like the idea, I did.


Oh, and before I forget to mention: maybe Xfire will add us then.

[Dermo]

I would love to do this, Jerry but wouldn't this be more of a clan video type thing? Red vs Blue from Halo is hilarious, I will give them that. But if we could get all active RR members in a server and get everybody to cooperate, we could do something very similar.

[sonicnathan 1]

After reading what this is about I think this is a great idea! If this works imagine how many new people would find out about Jazz? Ya. This may bring Jazz back.

[Grytolle]

Let's not forget that it isn't gone

[Jerrythabest]

Yeah, I agree with Gry. Today we've been brainstorming a bit and there are a lot of funny things we could use. I think I'll just make a list and then post it here. But I'm sure it would help a lot if there is someone around here who can modify the stuff a bit (so we could put in things from other games, for example) and of course it would be awesome if there would be some people that can do the talking (we need people with good English for that ;p) but we could always fall back on chat lines, if needed. If you got any ideas, just collect them and then post a list some time, so we can put them all together in one list at once.

[kangaroo]

It doesn't matter how many "new" people find out about jazz considering how hard the game is to find. They'll ask where to get the game and all you can do is give them some obscure online shopping site. That won't encourage anyone at all. The only way to make jazz more popular is to get rid of this anti-piracy stance and just spread the free download links to everyone.

[Jerrythabest]

Well, on public boards I never give anyone the link but on MSN, in TSF and 1.20 servers and in real life I'm spreading the links too ;p You are right, it's a little bit pointless to tell people they shouldn't pirate since the full version game is nowhere to be found (most of these online shopping sites offer the OEM versions instead of the registered version). I doubt if that's legal too.

[Stijn]

The official stance of this site is not to allow links to illegal downloads, but what you do in person-to-person communication and on other sites is of course entirely your choice.

[Jerrythabest]

And that's exactly why I don't post links on forums ;)

hehe I got a nice idea: how about putting THE MAN in it: Borat ;p "Omg! What is this? It's like a 2D game! That's niiiiiiiiice! Wow! Bunnies! Maybe my sister is in here too!" ... etcetc ;p

[Dermo]

To be perfectly honest, I made my dad download Jazz Jackrabbit 2 1.00g off a newsgroup when he saw it. After playing it, I fell in love. So about 4 years ago, I saw a copy in stores, and begged, and pleaded for it, and my mom bought me a copy of 1.21. Then I saw TSF and I bought a copy. So actually I put money in Epic's pocket even though I downloaded a pirated copy of JJ2.

[DoubleGJ]

I have a feeling JJ2 isn't cameral enough

[Jerrythabest]

Its 2D, okay..., but still it's perfectly possible to make something nice of it.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

It sounds good to me. Give me a holler if you need help with video editing.

[Jerrythabest]

I will ;p

Is there any programmer nearby who could make some program to control the JJ2 camera? That would help a lot.

It should be possible to
-Fix the JJ2 camera at one point
-Load a txt file with a pos on each line and jump from one pos to another when some key is pressed

This way you don't need the camera to point at one character while they move, and when the characters warp or walk or fall off the screen it's easy to move the camera to the new position.

And it would be useful if there would be any way to hide (parts of) the JJ2 HUD, but I don't know if that's possible.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

-Load a txt file with a pos on each line and jump from one pos to another when some key is pressed

Should also have options for movement like scroll, flash in/out, that sorta stuff. OR, just scrolling and we can cut with other programs.

[Birdie]

I can program such a thing pretty fast.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Three cheers for Birdie! (Once its done.) Please do so. Then we can get this thing started!

[Birdie]

One thing is though, with all the sprites, and resources to do this without even running jj2, why even use jj2 to do this? ;d

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Ease of use for mass amounts of sprites.

[sonicnathan 1]

Man. I wish I could help. Probubly the only thing I could do is come up with ideas.

[Jerrythabest]

Well if we want to make a Machinima of normal length we'll need ideas...


It's best if we do most in Jazz2 as that's the easiest way. Just need to be able to control the camera. We can do effects like fading in external applications.

[Grytolle]

Cool and awesome. I'm available, should you need any assistance, birdie<3

[sonicnathan 1]

First of all how long are these Machinimas going to be?

[Dermo]

If you need a weird effect in a level than let me know. I could probably duplicate it pretty well. Like maybe have it played out so after talking for 40 seconds, a set of 30 bouncers falls from the sky or something like that i could do. So if you want some kind of weird effects that you believe are hard, then let me know. Also remember all of our resources we have here. Sprite Dynamite would be good if we wanted facial expressions and stuff to change on cue or whatever. Like if we want Jazz's eyes poping out of his head, make that the shoot animation, so when you press the fire button, his eye's come out of his head. Another good resources is the artists that we have in the Art Forum. We also have some other weird memory hacks and stuff like dynamic level editing via packets so when a player gets warped by an enemy's powers, you can have the player get warped. Or if there's an enemy ghost, use trigger zones so it could go trigger some scenery walls and stuff while on the other guy's screen (the guy who's recording it), it shows the ghost going through walls. Just remember what all we can do and we need to hit every resource we can.

Also TeamSpeak or whatever it's called that program where you join a chat server via a microphone would really help speed things up rather than trying to type them out on a chatroom or something.

[Jerrythabest]

First of all how long are these Machinimas going to be?I'd say 5-10 minutes each...


@drmoo: We have a lot of resources we can use, indeed. I'll remember to contact you if we need some weird effect ;) Sadly, my soundcard doesn't like microphones so I wouldn't be able to make use of that, but I'm a fast typer so I don't think it'll be that much of a problem


Birdie is already working on the camera control program and in a few minutes I go to the friend mentioned in post #1 to make up some nice scenes...

[Birdie]

Yay for Birdie :<!---->D

[Dermo]

WOOT! Go birdie!

Jerry: i'm a pretty fast typer too. Why not get a new sound card? I have about a dozen unused sound cards. If you lived here in the US I would send you one. Just pull an old computer out of the trash on your next trash day and steal the sound card out of it or something. I would love to be a part of this like be put on the red team or whatever.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

It's not just gonna be another Red vs Blue takeoff is it?

[Jerrythabest]

No, it's gonna be made up all by ourselves. If there is anything somehow similar to RvsB then that's just coincidence

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Oh good. I was getting worried.

[Dermo]

Are we going to sell DVD copies or something like Red vs Blue does? Cuz i think we should split the profit. 90% to drmoo 10% to everyone else to split up.

[FreeFull]

50% to Birdie, 15% for Drmoo if he does something and 35% to split up for the rest.

[Jerrythabest]

50% for me and my friend (without us there would be no machinima anwyay), 30% for Birdie (without him things would be harder) and 20% to split up for the rest who did something

[Grytolle]

100% to me because I'm awesome

[Dermo]

god i shouldn't have said that it changed the whole direction of this thread.

[Jerrythabest]

We'll just keep it Freeware Fun For Everyone for now

[FreeFull]

But we will prepare commercial plans, of course.

[Dermo]

we're not planning to honestly sell this though are we?

In America we have a channel called G4 TV for Gamers. When we get started on this then i'll send them an email asking to air our videos. They'll probably do it and this will boost popularity quite a bit. Just say the word and i'll send them an email mentioning this and asking if they'll do it.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

The word.

[Dermo]

Well I was thinking maybe more of when we get an episode done so I can send it to them as a sample or whatever. It has to be funny and good though. So don't quote anything out of the comedy cafe cuz it has to be funny.

[PyRRamid]

First of all - the game should be uploaded on a hosting site and available for everyone to download free. No prices, no buying!

If you want to earn money, you will loose players!

Mwaa

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Game? We're not talking about selling jj2.

[MasterJazz]

Not a bad idea....I hope...:P

[MasterJazz]

I tried to make something but NO CHANCE:confused:
please somebody help me with this problem sending an e-mail to briggy_herman2006@yahoo.com
or
sending here a message.
Thanks for attention:-)

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Wait, what's your problem? Are you saying that you can't send an e-mail through Jazz 2? Because you can't. Period.

[Dermo]

i'm going away for about 2 or 3 weeks but i'd still like to help if possible when I get back.

[Jerrythabest]

I'm going away on thursday for 2 weeks and when I come back I hope there are some pages with ideas. Also, I hope moderators can keep spammers like those guys above me from the thread.

Oh well, I'm still here and still making up stories... I'll make sure I got something to write stuff in when I'm gone, so that I can write down my ideas while being on the sunny, hot beach in the south of Egypt ;p

[Speeza]

I tried to make something but NO CHANCE:confused:
please somebody help me with this problem sending an e-mail to briggy_herman2006@yahoo.com
or
sending here a message.
Thanks for attention:-)

press T

woulden't fooruman movie , the one where hes playing ctf , count as a machinma , I don't really get what these are , but that would help get jazz2 more populer

[Jerrythabest]

A machinima is a small movie featuring the characters of a video game (and possibly some objects or effects or so from other games) which has been made entirely in the game (except for adding effects etc.).


I think everyone agrees on this character for Spaz:
-Really ADHD, always running around
-Talking extremely fast and stuttery (possibly needs subtitles ;p)
-Wants to do everything again and again but asks Jazz (or whoever is standing next to him) can I can I can I can III???
-Laughs a lot


And how about this character, with the caterpillar sprites:
-Talks like a hippie
-Ends all sentences with 'dude'
-Says things like "Hey dude! Let's not fight dude!" or "Totally heavy dude!"

[Speeza]

lol yeah ,he gives you some of his drugs , and you have to fight stoned.

lol have the queen in it , have something like jazz running down to her trying to tell her something , and hes like "look im trying to tell you something important...." "ahhhhhh" then ends up killing her :P

[Violet CLM]

A machinima is a small movie featuring the characters of a video game (and possibly some objects or effects or so from other games) which has been made entirely in the game (except for adding effects etc.).


I think everyone agrees on this character for Spaz:
-Really ADHD, always running around
-Talking extremely fast and stuttery (possibly needs subtitles ;p)
-Wants to do everything again and again but asks Jazz (or whoever is standing next to him) can I can I can I can III???
-Laughs a lot
We do? Because, um, that's really not what he's like in the JJ2 manual.

press T
...huh? He's asking for someone to send him an email or a private message, nothing about talking in JJ2...
EDIT: Oh, didn't see the title of the post. Okay, yes, you press T to chat in JJ2, or Shift+T for teamchat.

[Grytolle]

...huh? He's asking for someone to send him an email or a private message, nothing about talking in JJ2...Both of you are so wonderfully off<3

[ThunderPX]

Both of you are so wonderfully off<3

I tried understanding but all I got was that he had some vague problem and wanted help by email or PM, just like UV thought.

EDIT: Oh wait, posts have titles too.

[Jerrythabest]

May I point out that I've seen that post in various threads and that it's identical in all of them and doesn't have anything to do with the thread at all?


==> Spammer.

[Stijn]

...what post?

[ThunderPX]

...what post?

http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showpost.php?p=409608&postcount=44

[sonicnathan 1]

I got a seen in mind. I'm just brain storming.

Jazz and Spaz are sitting in the castle and there talking.

Jazz: Ok. So that's 1 large pepperoni pizza with no mushrooms. Right Spaz
Spaz: (Talks in a weird voice.) HAHA! Look! A dancing potato!
Jazz looks and hes watching a weird tv show.
Jazz: Ok........ I'll take that as a yes.
Jazz dials the number.
Pizza operator.: Hello! Pysic Pizza Tweedle speaking.
Jazz: WHAT! TWEEDLE! WERE HAVE YOU BEEN! You never appeared in Jazz 2. What have you been doing?
Tweedle: Well I got a stunt double to do my part so I could work in this pizza place. But he was to scared so he never appeared.
Jazz: WHAT?!? Next thing I'm going to here is that Blisy is working as Santa clause!
Tweedle: (Says in a studery voice) But he is.
Jazz: WHAT??!?!?! OK THAT"S IT! YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU LET DOWN WHEN YOU DIDN"T SHOW UP!...
Jazz continues to rant on. Lori comes into the room.
Lori: Um spaz who is jazz yelling at?
Spaz: Ummm. uhhh Tweedle I think. Ow the patato is dancing again!
Lori: But Tweedle is at the door with the pizza. So who is he yeling at?
Devan: Man. I go to a pizza pearler to get away from Jazz and he starts yelling at me anyway. ow dear.

End sceen

Now weed need new sprites for this but this is just an idea.

[cooba]

Jazz: Ok. So that's 1 large pepperoni pizza with no mushrooms. Right Spaz
Spaz: (Talks in a weird voice.) HAHA! Look! A dancing potato!
Jazz looks and hes watching a weird tv show.
Jazz: Ok........ I'll take that as a yes.
Jazz dials the number.
Pizza operator.: Hello! Pysic Pizza Tweedle speaking.
Jazz: WHAT! TWEEDLE! WERE HAVE YOU BEEN! You never appeared in Jazz 2. What have you been doing?
Tweedle: Well I got a stunt double to do my part so I could work in this pizza place. But he was to scared so he never appeared.
Jazz: WHAT?!? Next thing I'm going to here is that Blisy is working as Santa clause!
Tweedle: (Says in a studery voice) But he is.
Jazz: WHAT??!?!?! OK THAT"S IT! YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU LET DOWN WHEN YOU DIDN"T SHOW UP!...
Jazz continues to rant on. Lori comes into the room.
Lori: Um spaz who is jazz yelling at?
Spaz: Ummm. uhhh Tweedle I think. Ow the patato is dancing again!
Lori: But Tweedle is at the door with the pizza. So who is he yeling at?
Devan: Man. I go to a pizza pearler to get away from Jazz and he starts yelling at me anyway. ow dear.<img src="http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/greatstory.jpg" />

[sonicnathan 1]

Thanks

[Jerrythabest]

Hehe it actually made my smile ;) nice ending ;p this defenately goes into the ideas file ;p

[q4live]

Hey why the inactivity all of the sudden? I know there are some more ideas out there somewhere. And think up of characters and names, but stay in reality (only for a bit) so don't overdo it.

[Jerrythabest]

Note: he's the person mentioned in post #1 ;)

[Dermo]

If i'm going to send this to G4 (TV for gamers) which is a US channel and isn't air anywhere else, it'd be a bit confusing to put the Tweedle Boss in there since this game is so unpopular that nobody i've EVER MET has played this game and nobody would know much about it. Even if they had played the game, the Tweedle Boss is not at all mentioned in the game and therefore it would further confuse anybody who's played the game at all. The only people this episode would apply to is community members and that's not good. We need something like red vs blue type thing.

[q4live]

We need two bases where two teams are wich are at war against each other. We also need a map with a lot of places where there can be a battle. Also a third team wich remains secret in the begin and of wich the entrance is hidden. And of course easy to change in JCS so there would always be something new.

Ideas: two bases are of Jazz and Spaz, and units all look like those an third group Lori's.

Any other ideas? Please post them. Anyone (who can post).

[Jerrythabest]

If i'm going to send this to G4 (TV for gamers) which is a US channel and isn't air anywhere else, it'd be a bit confusing to put the Tweedle Boss in there since this game is so unpopular that nobody i've EVER MET has played this game and nobody would know much about it. Even if they had played the game, the Tweedle Boss is not at all mentioned in the game and therefore it would further confuse anybody who's played the game at all. The only people this episode would apply to is community members and that's not good. We need something like red vs blue type thing.

You have a point there. We're trying to make up stories with characters like Jazz, Spaz, Lori, Devan and Eva and have only smaller roles for enemies and end bosses, and IMHO the only one of them that may deserve a larger role is the queen boss, as she's the only one in any way related to the characters mentioned (for those who haven't thought of it: Eva is the princess, so the queen is her mother).

[Dermo]

Look i nevered cared too much about the story link of jj2. Think of it this way. Did Red vs Blue follow the story line to Halo at ALL? No.

EDIT: I wish I could find that (-) sonic comic it was really funny. They had robotnic's girl helper as a prostotute, tails was a pimp. It was really funny but I can't find it now.

[cooba]

Sounds like a Foo Movie except without the foo factor.

[Jerrythabest]

We mustn't remake Red vs Blue, we're making our own machinima, which could very well use the character links from the original story. Only problem may be the link bedween Lori and Spaz: sister or girlfriend? Lori appeared first back in 1.10o when she was still Spaz's girlfriend-to-be.

[cooba]

Let's omit Lori out of the plot completely ;)

[Jerrythabest]

What! NO! That's mean. She's part of the game!

[blurredd]

Derive humor by implying both could be true while never specifying which one is actually true.

[Dermo]

Let's NOT BASE THIS OFF THE JAZZ JACKRABBIT 2 STORY LINE, GUYS! Ok so maybe Lori is jazz's sister in the game. But who cares? We are FREE! WE ARE FREE PEOPLE WITH THIS! WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT! So if we wanted to make Lori jazz's girlfriend, then let it be done. I don't want this based on the story line because most our viewers will not know the story line and because of that we are free to do what we want!

[Violet CLM]

...if it's not based on the JJ2 storyline, then what's the <i>point</i>? We could take any sprites in the <i>world</i> and give them random names and characters. JJ2 characters necessitate JJ2 relationships. If viewers do not understand what's going on, then obviously that is a problem with the storytelling of the machinima.

[Jerrythabest]

We are not remaking the JJ story, we're just not changing how the characters are related to one another. So:

-Jazz and Spaz are brothers
-Jazz and Eva are man and wife
-Eva is a princess, so the queen is her mother
-Devan is their enemy

It's VERY important we don't mix up the characters as the machinima will be hard to understand if the relations are completely unclear. Lori may indeed be a nice exception, which may eventually pay back in a funny scene.

[q4live]

Lets try not to include boss characters, since it will be hard to control those. Try to only use Jazz, Spaz and Lori, since they are playable characters and easy to control.

[Sacrush]

Lets try not to include boss characters, since it will be hard to control those. Try to only use Jazz, Spaz and Lori, since they are playable characters and easy to control.

In most movies you aren't able to control any character, I could be wrong though.

[q4live]

A machinima is filmed in the game, so people must control the characters to make them do the things you want done. So actually all we do is control the characters, do the voices and the filming and the graphics we already have.

[DoubleGJ]

It would be best to not use the idea of two fighting teams, since that's just overdone. We could start off by random short joke scenes which would later evolve into a storyline, for example.

[q4live]

Hmm you can always make really short battles and short jokes around it. And it has to have a storyline in it from the beginning.

[Jerrythabest]

I agree with DoubleGJ. We'd better stick to easy funny jokes at the start and then, if we are getting the hang of it, we make something bigger.

Also I think we could perfectly use the queen boss as all she does is screaming and stomping anyway. We just have to say her text lines really 'screamy'. It's hard, but it's certainly possible to use her. But we'll have to adapt the scene to what she does instead of controlling her. And maybe JazzSD may allow us to replace the sprites of one playable character with a non-playable character.

[q4live]

Hmm I say we must vote for anything that goes in. Here are some exemples:

2 Teams: 0
NPC's (Non Playable Characters) usage: 0
Related to story: 0
Short Funny Jokes: 0

Say what you vote for and I'll note it in each post and if you have something else to vote on say it and I'll add it as well.
I will vote after a few votes have been done.

[Jerrythabest]

2 teams: nah
NPC usage: yeh
related to JJ story: nah
short funny jokes: initally, so yeh

pageclaim in the name of.. well, just pageclaim.

[q4live]

Ok i will just vote:

2 teams: 1 (me)
NPC's usage: 1
Related to story: 0
Short funny jokes: 1

Voted: q4live, Jerrythabest.
And don't forget, if there is something you want voted on, say it and i will include it.

[DoubleGJ]

2 teams: not necessary
NPC usage: hard, but worth it
Related to story: not necessary
Short funny jokes: yes

[Biohazard UOI]

Sweet idea. Let us follow my train of thought into the realm of the real...

If this is to be a serious project (which I would love), we should pay attention to some important thoughts before getting too carried away in the 'fun parts' of developing it:

<strong>1)</strong> It must be something that people outside of the current JJ2 world can <i>relate</i> to in order for it to be interesting (put on your marketing cap).
<strong>2)</strong> We must have commitment from contributors. Ambition and excitement are nice, but commitment is <i>necessary</i> for real achievements like this.
<strong>3)</strong> We must have the technical means to accomplish video and sound recording and editing, artistic drawing and effects, and other components.

My suggestions about these points:
<strong>1)</strong> Let's select a target audience first. What types of things can they relate to? Perhaps young teenage to college-age, mostly male, from any country, since they are also the target audience of JJ2.
<strong>2)</strong> We'll need video people, audio people, writers, artists, editors, and public relations people. There are plenty of American and British players who would be willing to volunteer their English audio (including myself).
<strong>3)</strong>For starters, I also have an unused, legal copy of <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp" target="_blank">Camtasia</a> (by TechSmith), a video screen-capture and editing software package. Also, I highly recommend <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">Audacity</a> for audio recording. It's free and effective :).

Other suggestions:
- Don't make a Red vs. Blue ripoff, even though it is a cool series. Ripoffs just never are quite as good. Original content is attractive.
- Keep the relationships and characters the same, but allow the plot to flow freely.
- Take special care to invent interesting plots, involving both physical and emotional conflict. If anyone is talented at storytelling or writing, this is you!
- Don't submit the work to any TV channels or places where it would be mass-publicized until it has had time to mature (at least wait until several fully-edited episodes that the community here enjoys are complete).
- Keep it FREE. After all, the goal is to widen and enrich the JJ2 community, not make money. If it really becomes successful someday, any incoming money would be in the form of advertisement or a third party, not the consumers. That's just the way online projects like this work.

Hopefully I don't sound too critical, because I don't mean to be. I just hope that this will take off with sound guidelines. It would be sweet if this becomes successful. I'd love to help out!

[q4live]

I say lets leave it easy:

- No NPC's, if we just stick to PC's (Playable Characters) we could easily make about a weekly or one every two weeks, with NPC's it'll take much longer and it would affect the gameplay, giving the illusion that NPC's are actually PC's.
- Not story related: viewers who don't know the game won't know what you are talking about, so a seperate story must be made.
- Short, random jokes are fine, as long as everyone will understand the jokes.
- If the game should gain populairity by it the best way is to show the gameplay with a nice own stroyline and in a funny way. The gameplay can only be shown through battles, but those battles can still be original.
- A site will be needed to support it, so people can find the episodes all in one place, and possibly a link to where you can download the game.
- At least one map would do for some time, but eventually a new map must be made with different layouts to be able to give it enough room to develop, and to prevent a monochrome view of the game.

Ok I think I've said enough long sentences by now. I hope this is the direction we are going, because it is possibly the best.

[Jerrythabest]

Sweet idea. Let us follow my train of thought into the realm of the real...

If this is to be a serious project (which I would love), we should pay attention to some important thoughts before getting too carried away in the 'fun parts' of developing it:

<strong>1)</strong> It must be something that people outside of the current JJ2 world can <i>relate</i> to in order for it to be interesting (put on your marketing cap).
<strong>2)</strong> We must have commitment from contributors. Ambition and excitement are nice, but commitment is <i>necessary</i> for real achievements like this.
<strong>3)</strong> We must have the technical means to accomplish video and sound recording and editing, artistic drawing and effects, and other components.

My suggestions about these points:
<strong>1)</strong> Let's select a target audience first. What types of things can they relate to? Perhaps young teenage to college-age, mostly male, from any country, since they are also the target audience of JJ2.
<strong>2)</strong> We'll need video people, audio people, writers, artists, editors, and public relations people. There are plenty of American and British players who would be willing to volunteer their English audio (including myself).
<strong>3)</strong>For starters, I also have an unused, legal copy of <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp" target="_blank">Camtasia</a> (by TechSmith), a video screen-capture and editing software package. Also, I highly recommend <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">Audacity</a> for audio recording. It's free and effective :).

Other suggestions:
- Don't make a Red vs. Blue ripoff, even though it is a cool series. Ripoffs just never are quite as good. Original content is attractive.
- Keep the relationships and characters the same, but allow the plot to flow freely.
- Take special care to invent interesting plots, involving both physical and emotional conflict. If anyone is talented at storytelling or writing, this is you!
- Don't submit the work to any TV channels or places where it would be mass-publicized until it has had time to mature (at least wait until several fully-edited episodes that the community here enjoys are complete).
- Keep it FREE. After all, the goal is to widen and enrich the JJ2 community, not make money. If it really becomes successful someday, any incoming money would be in the form of advertisement or a third party, not the consumers. That's just the way online projects like this work.

Hopefully I don't sound too critical, because I don't mean to be. I just hope that this will take off with sound guidelines. It would be sweet if this becomes successful. I'd love to help out!

I completely agree on every single point in that post. I'm not going to repeat them and say why I agree, just read my previous posts. Most interesting in your post is that it tells us we've got our first voice. :D




I say lets leave it easy:

- No NPC's, if we just stick to PC's (Playable Characters) we could easily make about a weekly or one every two weeks, with NPC's it'll take much longer and it would affect the gameplay, giving the illusion that NPC's are actually PC's.Although you have a point here I'm pretty sure only 3 characters will make a really sucky story. It may take more time to use NPC's, but the result will be a lot better IMHO. Releasing something with the same three characters every other week is more boring than releasing an episode where more effort has been put in every month.

- Not story related: viewers who don't know the game won't know what you are talking about, so a seperate story must be made.Agreed. Though once again we must not change the character relations.

- Short, random jokes are fine, as long as everyone will understand the jokes.True.

- If the game should gain populairity by it the best way is to show the gameplay with a nice own stroyline and in a funny way. The gameplay can only be shown through battles, but those battles can still be original.Not true; the game as far more than just battles. Members of LTP may stand up and start talking now.

- A site will be needed to support it, so people can find the episodes all in one place, and possibly a link to where you can download the game.I'm willing to sacrifice my time once more to make a website. It's something like a hobby. ;p

- At least one map would do for some time, but eventually a new map must be made with different layouts to be able to give it enough room to develop, and to prevent a monochrome view of the game.True. Glad we got JCS and plenty of people knowing how to use eyecandy. We can even have a different map each week but I wouldn't know why.

Ok I think I've said enough long sentences by now. I hope this is the direction we are going, because it is possibly the best.Never say your ideas are best, a combination of everyone's ideas will give the best result for everyone.

[q4live]

Come on, last post was 8 days ago, so I think I'm going to think up of a subject that will make it go again. Here are some ideas:

- The best characters would posibly be typical stereotypes. (1)
- Using PC's ould posibly be better than using NPC's, so it wuold be posible to make an weekly episode. (2)

These are meant as just phrases, not personal opinions, so if you agree on the first say something like this:

(1) aye

And disagree like this:

(1) nay

If you have something that can be added, copy the list and make it a three, or whatever number we are on.

[Biohazard UOI]

Btw, as far as removing the status bars from the screen, just crop the top and bottom off the video to make it more of a wide-screen proportion, which is good for movies anyways.

[Jerrythabest]

Doing that will make it even smaller than JJ2's maximum resolution of only 640x480 pixels.

And once again I'm saying it's far better to make one good episode each two or three weeks instead of a simple Jazz/Spaz dialogue every week. So (2) nay.

[Dermo]

Here's one of the stupidest and most obvoius ideas i've thought up yet:

We could not even use JJ2 at all! :O
All we would need to do is copy a few tiles into a Windows Movie Maker or Flash or something and pull the animations using SD and BAM! We got a video. Instead of prodding around Jazz Jackrabbit 2 using loads of triggers and destruct sceneries just pull the animations off of SD.

Note: To do character movements it would be highly recommended to pay attention to the character's transitions. In other words, when Jazz stops moving, he just doesn't suddenly STOP! He slows down to a walk or skids to a stop. So you would want to pay attention to animation transitions. The address for 1.23's character animation is 5A4F14 if i searched that right. I'm too lazy to figure out 1.24's so find that yourself!

Note2: This is a stupid idea I realize. I don't mean use flash for EVERY episode, just use it for certain parts of the episode when Jazz Jackrabbit 2 limits you on abilities.

Note3: I think you people are getting your hopes up way too high. Everybody's like "zOMG ppl are going to watch this is and join the community! We will be huge! WOOT!" But in reality this will probably be a fun little community activity, not a big major Blockbuster hit. Keep that in mind.

[Jerrythabest]

I agree on Note 3: one more reason not to put so much effort in this to have an all-new episode every week.


Also, did you finish your camera program yet, birdie?

[Odin]

We could not even use JJ2 at all! :O

That would defeat the purpose.

[Dermo]

LOL! I mean just use the sprites not the actual game.

[Odin]

LOL! I mean just use the sprites not the actual game.

Exactly. The idea of Machinima is to use game engines to create movies. Thus, ripping sprites from Jazz 2 and animating them in flash defeats the purpose of making a Jazz 2 Machinima.

[Jerrythabest]

Indeed. That doesn't keep us from using any tools to put special effects into the boring world/s of JJ2 ;p

[q4live]

Technically spoken, Making it in flash is a different subject than what this thread is about. Some things like resolution problems, can they be hacked so you can use a higher resolution? And wouldnt it be easier to use the game, since you don't have to use flash, flash doesnt sound as fun as machinima and flash takes WAYYYYY longer to make than machinima. Added that the longer the gap between episodes, the more viewers lose interest, so it's better to try it weekly, wich can be done better with machinima

[Jerrythabest]

Or two-weekly ^^

There is a way to hack JJ2's resolution, if we may believe certain people here, but only one single person on this whole community knows how and he's not saying how (probably because that would screw the game for those who don't know how)

[Odin]

Or two-weekly ^^

There is a way to hack JJ2's resolution, if we may believe certain people here, but only one single person on this whole community knows how and he's not saying how (probably because that would screw the game for those who don't know how)

I thought those screens were mock-ups.

[Dermo]

If we can resolution hack, could we use zoom effects? I have a bit of an idea. I don't mean a jerky zoom out but a slowly zoom out type effect.

[Jerrythabest]

Well you'll get a pixelled zooming effect or just a change of image dimensions. You'll need vector sprites for a smooth and lossless quality zooming functionality.


Most of those higher resolution screenshots are indeed 'fabricated', but it is said that someone (I believe but am <strike>entirely not</strike> not entirely sure it was Blur) can actually change the resolution to values higher than 640x480 (and thus make the visible area larger).

[Dermo]

Hmmm...interesting. Going back to flash, if we could take the level or whatever, if we could decompress it with zlib and make it into a...crap I can't think of the word for that type of image. An image that doesn't lose quality when zoomed out and back in. Well if we could make it into that type of image using zlib decompression, we could use flash to zoom out that way.

Also that would be an EXTREMELY interesting project. Get a GFX graphics artist to draw the sprites in vector format. That would be an interesting project but I won't talk about that here because I don't want to get everybody off topic right now.

[Birdie]

Well, it would have to lose quality when zoomed in and out, because it is a raster image (composed of pixels) not a vector image (made of math)

[Dermo]

If we convert it to 24 bit bitmap or something...

[Birdie]

No... 24bit bitmap is just a different color depth for a raster image.

[Dermo]

there's a way to convert so u can zoom out and back in without losing quality. I can't think of it right now though.

[Jerrythabest]

The only way is with vector images. Just take a look at TrueType fonts, they are made of vectors too. Try to type some letter in MS Word at size 1500 or so. You'll see perfectly smooth edges even though the letter (read: image) is zoomed in dramatically.


And btw, converting all the JJ2 sprites to vectors will be far too much work for this.

[Dermo]

i'm not a noob. i know what vector and raster/bitmaps are and what the difference is. i cant think of how to word what im trying to ask. it involves zlib which i know nothing about. can we take a decompressed zlib j2l file and zoom in to 640x480 without it pixelating or is that too far to zoom in to?

[Torkell]

Drmoo: zlib is a form of file-independent compression. I don't think it's what you're thinking of.

At the end of the day, if you take a bitmap and enlarge it ('zoom in') you can't pull the extra detail out of thin air. You either already have a higher-resolution version and fade between them (mipmapping), or you don't and hopefully use something like bicubic resampling to try to avoid pixelation.

As to the j2l file, I'm not sure what you mean by zooming in to 640x480. Bear in mind that the level described by the file could be any size, even a single tile.

[Birdie]

uh, I finally get what drmoo means, I think he means to extract the whole level, and turn it into a bitmap, so he can zoom from one place to another.

[q4live]

Please keep coming up with ideas, it's been 9 days since the last post (if you read this, 9 days less). If we don't keep the ideas running without someone needed to make it go again, there could be trouble for the whole idea.

[Jerrythabest]

You mean you want a constant stream of ideas while Birdie hasn't even finished his camera tool? I'm glad you got a new computer with a big hard drive then ;p ...as I expect some more ideas here again ;)

[Ninja 101]

The idea sounds really cool, but you'll have to come up with some hilarious storylines, like RvB has, or The Strangerhood.

[Jerrythabest]

So, what's the problem? You sound pessimistic.

[Ninja 101]

I, naturally am pessimistic.
it's where i'm from
(England)

[Dermo]

I'm optimistic!!!

[Ninja 101]

but are you old enough to be overly hating the govornment?

[q4live]

of course!

[Jerrythabest]

Gosh did you just answer that question? ...

[Ninja 101]

Who's you?

[Black Ninja]

Not sure why I never stumbled on this thread before.

Anyway, sounds like a good idea. The most important thing though is to get a team of writers who can make it funny and <i>original</i>. No one wants to see another machinima that's blatantly based on Red VS Blue.

[Dermo]

So uh are we just going to let this thread and idea die or are we going to continue planning?

[Jerrythabest]

Let's do the latter. I don't like death.

[q4live]

Ok we got 3 options here:
1. Make the thread die
2. Make it active again or
3. Think up of a fourth option.
I vote 2!

[Jerrythabest]

You've already done that now :lori:

[q4live]

Ehhh.... oh right. We need to come with new ideas I have some but I will wait with those till I hear some others so I can estimate the value of my own. (Somebody please explain what I just said I don't think it makes much sense)

[Jerrythabest]

Surprisingly, it does.

[Dermo]

Jazz: I'll sell you the flag.
Spaz: How much?
Jazz: 8 carrots?
Spaz: Oh really? Alright?
[Jazz leads Spaz into base with other surrounding Jazz's]
[Jazz lifts his gun]
Spaz: Hey aren't you going to sell my your flag?
Jazz: Nah too expensive...

-------

Spaz: [to Lori] I'll give you 10 carrots if you let me bight your breasts.
Lori: Eww! [Walks away, disgusted]
[next day]
Spaz: I'll give you 100 carrots if you let me bite your breasts.
[Lori thinks] Hmmm 100 carrots is a lot...
Lori: Alright...
[Spaz and Lori walk into dark area. Spaz starts fondling Lori. But doesn't bite her.]
[Spaz then starts to walk away]
Lori: Wait! Aren't you going to bite my breasts?
Spaz: Nah...too expensive
[Spaz walks away]

[Sonyk]

That was awful.

[Dermo]

lol

[Violet CLM]

I can't help but feel that JJ2 has actual coins in it somewhere...

[q4live]

If there is, or someone could create, a tool that could enable a player to use a boss it would be really usefull. This way you won't have to rely on random boss paterns to play (assuming we will use bosses in this, 3 different character types seems to be a little on the short side). Maybe even some way to use Tweedle that way (something like a mastermind or something). Also if it's possible to make the things that the characters do when you dont move them usable at will, to prevent them from saying something (Jazz) or shooting a UFO (Spaz) while having a conversation. Finally something that can record it easily and that can be edited at any time is something that we really need (nooooo, duh?).

Aside from that I feel that that some sort of quest could work, with bases maybe put in somewhere, and to use different colours for the different characters.

[Jerrythabest]

I can't help but feel that JJ2 has actual coins in it somewhere...

If I remember correctly I think I've even spotted a Gold one at some point!



We can also opt to use no tools and hacks at all (apart from JJ2+ and a screen recorder and the like, of course). That would make it a lot more challenging, and thus a lot more fun, to record the videos. Those people in Hollywood don't use monkeys in their movies just because they like monkeys in movies, y'know.

[q4live]

You could do that, since using a lot of different colours isn't a tool or a hack but it might get boring after a while. We can however use digital puppetry, which involves using the enemies and bosses in a right way and hoping AI performes well. I forgot that JJ2 is really easy to manipulate with JCS and the like.

Btw there are coins, both silver and gold in the game. Remember the places where you needed a number of coins for a bonus? And they are also in JCS.

[Violet CLM]

Btw there are coins, both silver and gold in the game. Remember the places where you needed a number of coins for a bonus? And they are also in JCS.
I... have no words.

Anyway, you can prevent idle animations by turning on capslock.

[Jerrythabest]

O! Didn't know that :o

That's pretty funny actually. It makes Jazz so focussed on running that he forgets he's idle ;p



Anyway, this coin stuff inspires me. Maybe a good story would be:
*someone* stole *something valuable* and s/he sells it and gets a lot of coins for it. Some coins stay behind at random places to be found by *others* and then a detective-like story developes ending with the big treasure to be found in *some kind of huge wonderful treasure room with lots of gems and coins*.

Now it's your turn to expand this idea and make it better ;)
(if this fails we could also just pick some stories from the War Tavern :/ )

[q4live]

Detective like doesn't really seem... Jazz like, know what I'm saying? More direct action is what the game is about, so it should be focused around that, but of course side-stories can also be other forms like that. Give me a week and I can think up of a story myself (I hope). Maybe the coins idea can involve a banana in some way...

[Jerrythabest]

as long as it is not used as a phone.

[Ninja]

i find the ideas in general presented in this thread to be idiotic. that's just my view, though.

[q4live]

Using things that seem normal in the game like the coins floating can give may provide with good jokes next to a serious story. Here's an example:

Jazz and Spaz walking through a cave...
Spaz: Oh look a coin
Jazz: Wait! Don't pick it up.
Spaz: Why?
Jazz: Don't you think a floating coin is somewhat suspicious?
Spaz: It's just a coin. What's the worst that can happen?
Spaz picks up the coin and the cave starts crumbling.
Spaz: Eh hehe.

I really wanna hear people's ideas about this whole case, so put your thinking caps on and let's start the race!

[Jerrythabest]

i find the ideas in general presented in this thread to be idiotic. that's just my view, though.

Maybe you could come up with something better. That's the whole purpose of this thread ;)

[TechnoPauluz]

Tip: Get out some ideas from the Wish Granted topic :rolleyes::p

[Dermo]

That was awful.

Well it got the thread going again...

i find the ideas in general presented in this thread to be idiotic. that's just my view, though.

Maybe you could come up with something better. That's the whole purpose of this thread ;)

Indeed. These bad ideas could lead to good ones.

[Jerrythabest]

Tip: Get out some ideas from the Wish Granted topic :rolleyes::p

Now, THIS was a great idea. We could just pick a bunch of whishes from there and play them in JJ2. Even without modification most of them are totally hilarious.

[TechnoPauluz]

Tnx :P

Some random idea:

J2O is going to be offline if you can't collect enough coins & sponsors to donate.:r

[Jerrythabest]

Hehe today I did the funniest test ever. I controlled four rabbits with the same keys. The program PPJoy helped me with that. If you'd ever need to do some kind of dance or other timed movement, this is perfect for it. :D

And q4life is currently posting a new thread about a custom game mode we've come up with while doing this. But that's offtopic :)

[q4live]

Jerry try reversing left and right for two characters and making them look the same, that way you can do a mirror joke.

[Jerrythabest]

Haha nice idea. I'll try that after school.

[q4live]

Ok people please come with some ideas again or this thread will die for about the 10th time.

[q4live]

Ok here is a sketch that is pretty easy to do in the game, with a little cutting and pasting and stuff:

[Jazz and Spaz are under fire by the enemy]
Jazz: What are we going to do about them?
Spaz: Uhm... hey look a cannon!
Jazz: Uh... shooy stuff at them?
Spaz: Oh shoot me! shoot me!
Jazz: Huh?
Spaz: Shoot me at the enemy with the cannon!
Jazz: You sure that is safe?
Spaz: Of course (not)!
Jazz: Well ok then.
[Spaz jumps into the cannon]
Spaz: Now light the fuse.
[Spaz shoots out of the cannon. Jazz then uses a flamethrower weapon to ignite the cannon. Spaz shoots out the cannon]
Jazz: how did he do that?
[small scene with hyperspace like background moving by real fast as Spaz does a kick attack]
[Spaz flying through a group of enemies killing them all]
Jazz: Wow it actually worked.
[Spaz kick flies through a wall behind Jazz]
Jazz: Where did you come from?
[Spaz shoots out of the cannon]
Jazz: Ok now this is getting too weird.
[another Spaz walks in from the other side and another from above]
Jazz: Were you all hiding in that cannon?!
All the Spaz: Hey look a cannon!

I don't think it really sounds funny here and a bit cliché but even something like that is easy to do without modification.

[Ranana_wace]

Can I please ask for a reason why its a bad idea from the people that voted that it was a bad idea?

[Dermo]

Why what was? There were a lot of bad ideas going around. Which one are you referring to?

Ok here is a sketch that is pretty easy to do in the game, with a little cutting and pasting and stuff:

[Jazz and Spaz are under fire by the enemy]
Jazz: What are we going to do about them?
Spaz: Uhm... hey look a cannon!
Jazz: Uh... shooy stuff at them?
Spaz: Oh shoot me! shoot me!
Jazz: Huh?
Spaz: Shoot me at the enemy with the cannon!
Jazz: You sure that is safe?
Spaz: Of course (not)!
Jazz: Well ok then.
[Spaz jumps into the cannon]
Spaz: Now light the fuse.
[Spaz shoots out of the cannon. Jazz then uses a flamethrower weapon to ignite the cannon. Spaz shoots out the cannon]
Jazz: how did he do that?
[small scene with hyperspace like background moving by real fast as Spaz does a kick attack]
[Spaz flying through a group of enemies killing them all]
Jazz: Wow it actually worked.
[Spaz kick flies through a wall behind Jazz]
Jazz: Where did you come from?
[Spaz shoots out of the cannon]
Jazz: Ok now this is getting too weird.
[another Spaz walks in from the other side and another from above]
Jazz: Were you all hiding in that cannon?!
All the Spaz: Hey look a cannon!

I don't think it really sounds funny here and a bit cliché but even something like that is easy to do without modification.

I like that one... Except the part when a bunch of spazs come out. That kind of ruins it.