Rainbow Runner Appendix
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A Jazz Jackrabbit 2 tileset thing by Blade
Released 27 March 2023
.zip contents:
Rainbowrunner_appendix.j2lThe example single player level (built in 1.24+)
Rainbowrunner_appendix.j2tRainbow Runner Appendix tileset (built in 1.24+)
Rainbowrunner_appendix.txtThis file
Rainbowrunner_appendix_notes.pngSome general notes to help you get started
with Rainbow Runner Appendix
rainbow.xm"Rainbow Runner" by Norfair & Nighthawk
Rainbow Runner Appendix contents description:
This thing you downloaded is Rainbow Runner Appendix, a tileset thing for
Jazz Jackrabbit 2. It is, quite straightforwardly, a compilation of art
assets that I created for Rainbow Runner last year but ended up not
including in the final release of that tileset.
Rainbow Runner Appendix is not meant to be regarded as a standalone Blade
tileset. It is a curiosity of a tileset, a menagerie of seemingly random
unused Jazz Jackrabbit 2 level art. I made sure it's completely functional
and that it does not contain any art errors or overt masking bugs. Expect a
varying level of quality as most of the art was scrapped before I could
give them finishing brush strokes. Treat the tileset as a sort of an
amalgamation of a bonus feature, an art gallery, and an expansion pack.
The oddities of Rainbow Runner Appendix include many different sets for
layer 4 ground tiles, houses of cards with face cards featuring Jazz
Jackrabbit characters, a substantial expansion for the red-white poles of
the original Rainbow Runner, and a collection of tiles for a space-time
window into hyperspace (super heavily Star Control 2 inspired). A lot of
background features are included, such as an animation of a flying whale
and the somewhat versatile set of tiles for building sky castles in the
background layers.
Rainbow Runner Appendix uses the same palette as Rainbow Runner, with a
couple of extra colors placed in palette indices that were left unused in
Rainbow Runner.
Rainbow Runner Appendix tileset is packaged with an example single player
level that demonstrates most of the features of the tileset. The level is
not terribly long and for my own amusement I made the level somewhat
unhinged. The level is simply there to show you the ropes of the tileset.
Be sure to check the png image file for some visual tips on how to use
Rainbow Runner Appendix. There are a ton of connectivity tiles and some of
them can be a chore to locate. Also be prepared to arrive in the situation
where connecting two tiles will not be possible.
How we got here, to the readme of an appendix tileset:
Released in September 2022, it took me over eight months to create Rainbow
Runner. I topped a bunch of personal records with Rainbow Runner, including
the largest tileset I had done, longest development time, most animations
crammed into one tileset and most of all, the largest mess of a development
process.
I began drawing Rainbow Runner without a clear plan with some vague ideas I
wanted to chase. At first I envisioned Rainbow Runner as a happy,
colourful, and trippy tileset which would include all sorts of absurd
dreamscape type of things. This of course meant that everything and
anything was fair game to be included in the tileset and I went on several
long drawing sprees many of which ultimately concluded with scrapped art.
For example, I had lots of trouble figuring out the Rainbow Runner ground
tiles I like to call "blueground". I eventually figured blueground out, but
before that I tried at least about nine different ideas for the ground
tiles. Most of them are at your disposal in Rainbow Runner Appendix.
At one point of Rainbow Runner development process, to my utter amazement,
I realised that I was reaching the maximum tile count of 4096. This was the
moment I was required to really think what I wanted to achieve with Rainbow
Runner. One could say I had too much tileset in Rainbow Runner and I needed
to start scrapping all sorts of tileset features. Ultimately, I scrapped
the Jazz Jackrabbit characters, the tree, and the background sky castles
and I found this very painful. All of these features were supposed to be a
part of a sky castle environment but as soon as I realised that I could not
fit any castle tiles on layer 4 (if I couldn't have castle tiles on layer
4, I didn't want any on background layers) I had to admit to myself that
these tiles had no place in the current trajectory of Rainbow Runner.
Originally, I intended Rainbow Runner Appendix to be a simple thing with
only the tiles I had created in the spring of 2022. This would have meant
many obviously unfinished features with missing walls and such. Once I
started putting this release together, I could not help myself sprucing up
the tiles here and there. For this appendix tileset release, I vastly
expanded options for the grass platforms, houses of cards, the diagonal
red-white poles, and the sky castles. I hope the tileset proves to be fun
and useful for you!
Credits:
Rainbow Runner Appendix was created using the pixel art software suite Pro
Motion NG 8.0.2.
Rainbow Runner and Rainbow Runner Appendix are made by Sampo "Blade"
Vesanen. Rainbow Runner was developed between December 2021 and September
2022. Released at Jazz2Online on 15 September 2022. Rainbow Runner Appendix
was created in February and March 2023. Released at Jazz2Online on 27 March
2023.
You can contact me at Jazz2Online or by email at sampo.vesanen@gmail.com.
It took ages to create these Rainbow Runner tilesets. Keeping this in mind,
please remember to credit me if you choose to use the tileset or its parts
in your own Jazz Jackrabbit 2 project.
Thanks for playing, friend.
