Interview with Nick Stadler (soon)

[ShadowGPW]

Ofcourse you want to ask the lead artist of Jazz Jackrabbit 1 & 2 a question or two. Drop them down below and I will take a few of them in my list.

Also asking you to make some screenshots of the best costum tilesets the community created! Make shots and show!

[Violet CLM]

In the "Beach" tileset in Jazz Jackrabbit 2, there is a background layer that seems to show an ocean floor paved with flat stones, descending into a circular arena-type area, surrounded with flowy oceany bench structures. All the rest of the tiles and layers in Beach are much more natural (ship parts aside): was this graphic a leftover from the planned Atlantis tileset, pasted into Beach for the purpose of filling another background layer?

We have recognized the Jazz 2 tilesets "Carrotus" and "Dam Nation" as directly inspired from the Lion King SNES game, "Labrat" from Earthworm Jim, and the sewers of "Colon" from Comix Zone. Are there other such sources of inspiration we don't know about?

Given that Tubelectric in Jazz 1 was an abandoned munitions factory, where did the decision to make its background in Jazz 2 a series of speakers and other music-related machines come from?

We know that a few of the Jazz 2 tilesets underwent revision in development. Most of the changes were fairly minor, but Diamondus was redrawn completely. Was this your decision or did it come from someone else on the team? What prompted it?

Jazz Jackrabbit Advance reused a number of graphics from Jazz 2. What was your involvement in that?

Among the unused sprites in Jazz 2 is a boxing glove attached to a spring. Do you remember what this was for?

Two planets in the CD version of Jazz 1, Lagunicus and Exoticus, look very much as if they were originally one planet that was split in two. Is this correct? If so, why was this done, and were there other plans for the final planet of Episode C that Lagunicus replaced?

The first level of Scraparap, the eighth planet in JJ1, has some unused data near the bottom that looks like a partial level layout but whose tiles do not correspond to any of the existing blocksets. Were there abandoned planets in JJ1? What do you remember about them? What led to their getting the axe?

[DoubleGJ]

Any unreleased design sketches you still have and would care to show?

What's the light at the end of the demon-jaw-tunnel background in Jazz2 deep hell supposed to be?

Whose idea was it to make an Alice in Wonderland-based level in Jazz2?

What's your favorite sprite out of both games?

And what's your favorite tileset?

Which tileset took the most work or was the most challenging?

Also asking you to make some screenshots of the best costum tilesets the community created! Make shots and show!
An Agama set is mandatory. Other than that, I think a Blade set and Gus' mine set... I'll get to making those screenshots, hopefully.

[snzspeed]

What was the purpose of the construction sign / the corkscrew slides in jj2 castle tileset?

Also, what do you remember about the unfinished boss, tweedle?

[cooba]

Two years ago (Anniversary Bash 10), I asked the JJ2 devs for an interview, most agreed, none answered the questions sadly. Here's what I sent to Nick (feel free to dissent):

<hr />

The Jazz Jackrabbit 2 fanbase is widely renowned for its dedication. One may find it surprising that after twelve years there's still a considerably large amount of people playing the game, as opposed to franchises like Commander Keen which had their franchises grandly narrow down by time. Did you ever foresee JJ2 thriving 12 years later?

Why did the idea for an Atlantis level get scrapped, whereas the game had room for a typical dock/beach setting?

Some of the game's environments went through several revisions as well - the jungle levels and their continously recreated backgrounds come to mind. Is the developer team's indecisiveness a reason for the game being (sorry for putting it bluntly) incomplete?

Another questionable location is the setting from the four final levels. Whose idea was it to create TWO different kinds of Hell?

How were the enemies developed? There is an awful lot of things the enemies and even bosses could have been able to do that they do not actually do. (For example: What's with the unused animation of an 'angelized' Bubba boss? (http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/bubbafly.gif)) Did you just generate a lot of pictures and the coders used whatever they felt like, or were there more time issues?

Who is Chris and why is he a 'redneq'?

How do you feel about Jazz 2 lacking a properly finished sequel?

<hr />

I bet there's a ton of painful grammar errors there...

[Treylina]

Hmm...

How do you feel about Spaz being the most-used character online? Did you ever expect it would happen? After all, you originally created him as a joke...well, a way to take out your resentment on Jazz himself.

Who originally drew the art for JJ1 before you came in? And did you make any physical changes to Jazzes character design himself? I also wondered why he went from brown eyes to blue eyes in JJ2.

I also wonder if you animated Jazz and Spaz in JJ2, they seem to be more in your art style than Lori's sprites, who I suppose were animated by Noogy if I'm correct (that may be why she looks a little out of place compared to Jazz and Spaz in-game).

[ShadowGPW]

good good .. moar moar..

but where are the screenshots?? :D

[Pako]

What happened to the door and the Rocket Turtle?

Why didn't you animate a proper buttstomp instead of a regular stomp?

[CrimiClown]

Did Kurt Cobain really commit suicide or was he a victim of gang-related crimes?
(Yes this is something I would seriously want to ask Nick.)

[cooba]

How's life?

[Stijn]

2D sidescrollers is pretty much a dead genre, except on handhelds such as the Nintendo DS. What do you think of this?

Are you still in the videogames business?

[EvilMike]

I'd say sidescrollers aren't really dead now, compared to how they were 10 years ago (back then everyone wanted 3d gameplay because it was new). Unless you mean 2d as in sprite-based.

What happened to the door
I'm sure he knows exactly what was planned for that half-finished door sprite he drew in 1997.

[plunK]

-Purple Haze Maze is an obvious reference to Jimi Hendrix, are the potsmoking caterpillars with afros supposed to a representation of Jimi Hendrix Himself?

-Why does Lori have no unique cool special attack?

-Why does the bubba devil boss have the angelic death animation that was never used?

-Why have the difficult (relatively) and rather unique witch character in the demo but have her play no role in the real game?

-Why does Jazz 2 have almost no references or anything to the fact that he flys a spaceship from planet to planet, doesn't that seem like a major plot detail to have in the first game and not the second? (Most directly aimed at the chapters "Jazz in Time" and "Funky Monkey's" as it is known that Castle/Carrotus/Labrat are all on one planet and Medivo/Tubelectric/Diamondus are in the past.

[Stijn]

I think people should remember that Nick was a character artist and Man Who Does Graphics, not the game designer...

Also

-Purple Haze Maze is an obvious reference to Jimi Hendrix, are the potsmoking caterpillars with afros supposed to a representation of Jimi Hendrix Himself?
Best question ever

[DoubleGJ]

-Why does Lori have no unique cool special attack?
Nick had nothing to do with Lori. Get your facts straight.
-Why does Jazz 2 have almost no references or anything to the fact that he flys a spaceship from planet to planet, doesn't that seem like a major plot detail to have in the first game and not the second? (Most directly aimed at the chapters "Jazz in Time" and "Funky Monkey's" as it is known that Castle/Carrotus/Labrat are all on one planet and Medivo/Tubelectric/Diamondus are in the past.
what? THIS MAKES NO SENSE

[EvilMike]

Why does Jazz 2 have almost no references or anything to the fact that he flys a spaceship from planet to planet, doesn't that seem like a major plot detail to have in the first game and not the second?

You just don't understand the plot.

Story of jj2: jazz escapes from the castle, wanders through carrotus, and stumbled upon devan's secret lab. He then gets caught in a time machine and starts jumping around the past of carrotus. Eventually he winds up in the 1960s and buys shrooms from one of the caterpillars, then goes to the beach and takes all of them at once after he is attacked by a giant flying crab. His experiences cause him to have a bad trip which makes him flash back to the past, but then he eventually wakes up and he finds himself in some random jungle on some other part of carrotus. Also the jungle has a portal to hell inside it for no reason, and devan shell is conveniently chilling out inside it.

Story of TSF: in order to celebrate easter, lori teams up with jazz and spaz to go on a quest to murder everyone in a city. The only thing standing between them and victory is a haunted house.

Story of CC: you must save christmas from satan.

[sonicnathan 1]

You just don't understand the plot.

Story of jj2: jazz escapes from the castle, wanders through carrotus, and stumbled upon devan's secret lab. He then gets caught in a time machine and starts jumping around the past of carrotus. Eventually he winds up in the 1960s and buys shrooms from one of the caterpillars, then goes to the beach and takes all of them at once after he is attacked by a giant flying crab. His experiences cause him to have a bad trip which makes him flash back to the past, but then he eventually wakes up and he finds himself in some random jungle on some other part of carrotus. Also the jungle has a portal to hell inside it for no reason, and devan shell is conveniently chilling out inside it.

Story of TSF: in order to celebrate easter, lori teams up with jazz and spaz to go on a quest to murder everyone in a city. The only thing standing between them and victory is a haunted house.

Story of CC: you must save christmas from satan.

It's posts like that make me wish there was a rep button. Best story ever

[Violet CLM]

Noogy and I had these elaborate plans [for TSF] for a big
enveloping storyline that centered around the ending movie of JJ2, at the
wedding/party scene. We even had plans for a cool opening movie complete
with voiceovers! From there, Devon causes mayhem again, etc etc etc -- and
Jazz, Spaz and Lori save the day. I forget if Eva was kidnapped again, but
either way the 3 playable characters had a mission. It was never really
"finalized" though and was large omitted due to time commitments.
<b></b>

[EvilMike]

I always new southern england was up to no good.

[PurpleJazz]

Indeed, we're evil. >)

[CrimiClown]

signature quote
Don't you hate it when people take a dump on Saturday? I mean, they have ALL week to go out and stink up the streets and on SATURDAY, my only free day, they DARE to fill up these sewers with crap. God, I hate people like that.

...who's Nick Stadler by the way?

[FawFul]

Perhaps it's an idea to show some of the bash levels? show him that People became a lot better in JCSing then the original jj2-design was. for example Evilmikes SP episode :d. or an good (looking) MP level.

[plunK]

Nick had nothing to do with Lori. Get your facts straight.

what? THIS MAKES NO SENSE

Totally got ppl mixed up.....my bad. Ignore all questions but the Jimi Hendrix one. Ive wanted to know that for 10 years now.....

[Stijn]

love ysall

[ShadowGPW]

Perhaps it's an idea to show some of the bash levels? show him that People became a lot better in JCSing then the original jj2-design was. for example Evilmikes SP episode :d. or an good (looking) MP level.

CliffyB and Jeh made the levels, Nick made the art ;p

[[GpW]Urbs]

still... some of the levels nowadays really rock. not to mention how far the community has come with jjplus...
I love you guys!:)

[n00b]

Was there anything specific that prompted the character redesign of Jazz between JJ1 and JJ2?

Are you ever going to update your website?

Why didn't you animate a proper buttstomp instead of a regular stomp?
What kind of question is this.

[Obi1mcd]

How did you originally start designing video game graphics?

What programs did you use to make Jazz tilesets?

[FawFul]

CliffyB and Jeh made the levels, Nick made the art ;p

more reason to show, since he probably would like the looks of the levels. and all the new tilesets ;).

[Stijn]

What programs did you use to make Jazz tilesets?
J2W: Why did you decide to use Deluxe 2 Animator for the graphics?
Nick: It's actually the only animation program I've ever used extensively. It was actually a big challenge to learn how to draw with a mouse, since I've been drawing with pencils my whole life. The pixel became my enemy!
I dabbled with the Amiga version in college, nothing really worth speaking of. But with Jazz 1, I was kinda 'forced' into using the program. It wasn't really until near the end of the development of that game that I actually started to get the hang of it. (Unfortunately, now that I've gotten used it, its kinda become an obselete program. I'm gonna have to move onto something a little more sophisticated).

http://www.jazz2online.com/54/nick-stadler/

Also contains info that may answer some other questions asked here...

[ShadowGPW]

Still nobody bothered to make screenshots =/

[DodgeS]

15 best rated tilesets on J2O + Bonus ;)

Casualty Mines - Gus [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=14772)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5739/screenshots/2/

Heaven - Agama [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=1487)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/473/screenshots/1/

Egypt - Agama [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=1766)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/574/screenshots/1/

Swamps - Agama [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=2540)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/894/screenshots/1/

Mega Megatropolis - Disguise [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=6034)]
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7811/megamega.png

Desolation - BlurredD [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=12111)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5360/screenshots/2/

The Fortress of Forgotten Souls - Blade [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=12243)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/4986/screenshots/2/

Waste Treatment Facility - cooba [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=12311)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5704/screenshots/2/

Miracle of Sun - Galavant [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=8784)]
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1194/mos.png

Oasis - Blade [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=4899)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/1897/screenshots/1/

Traditional Japan - DodgeS [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=15691)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5772/screenshots/1/

Aftermath - LMAT [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=14681)]
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/598/aftee.png

Odyssey - BlurredD [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=5717)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5729/screenshots/2/

Sirius - Agama [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=1713)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/556/screenshots/1/

Gothic Cathedral - Galavant [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=12688)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5153/screenshots/1/

Top Secret - Overlord [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=2010)]
http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/9964/tsec.png

Pokljuka Heights - Gus [Preview (http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/previewfile.php?fileID=14865)]
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5568/screenshots/1/

[Stijn]

The Desolation screenshot doesn't really do it justice, but nice selection apart from that.

[Dermo]

Top Secret was one of the best IMO

[DodgeS]

You could ask Him for new tileset :D

[Pako]

What kind of question is this.

Not really sure

Everyone else already asked what I wanted to ask :x

[Troglobite]

You could ask Him for new tileset :D

This would be awesome, although unlikely. I guess it couldn't hurt to ask.

[Obi1mcd]

What has been your favorite game to work on?

[DodgeS]

What has been your favorite game to work on?

We do not want to know if it's not JJ2 :D

[ShadowGPW]

Ok guys thanks for the questions and screenshots. :D

Will submit them soonish! I'll keep you updated! :)

[cooba]

Screenshots, without J2O watermarks or player names:

<img src="http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/nickshot1.png" />

<img src="http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/nickshot2.png" />

<img src="http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/nickshot3.png" />

<img src="http://chaos.foxmage.com/cooba/nickshot4.png" />

[Obi1mcd]

We do not want to know if it's not JJ2 :D

Point taken =b

[Jgke]

Well... If we still can throw questions...

Would you want to take part of the LMAT: Beyonduary? (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=18703)

What's with the text (Anim set 26, animation 3) or the yellow orb animation? (Anim set 45)

[Shelly]

here's a question - why does having 50 on fastfire makes the chars go goofy

[Obi1mcd]

here's a question - why does having 50 on fastfire makes the chars go goofy

I don't think that's anything to do with him. It's been mentioned a few times, he did artwork and stuff.

[Speeza]

here's a question - why does having 50 on fastfire makes the chars go goofy

Because the gun becomes very uncontrollable, due to the speed.

[Jgke]

Should we also ask that does he know any other people than those evil companies that have their hands on the source?

[Stijn]

Oh, shut up about the source already

[Jgke]

Oh, shut up about the source already

Never!

[Marijn]

I believe a little part of the reason this forum still excist, is because the source is not open. Not every modable game or game with source life on like Quake does...

[Obi1mcd]

I dunno. I mean, if we had the source we could make "1.25" (I know JJ2+ is pretty much that), and do all sorts of other stuff, but... The game's popular (maybe not the right term) as it is. Sort of like Marijn just said. Who needs 1.25, we have JJ2+.

Anyways, on-topic, when exactly is this interview? I'm looking forward to reading some of the answers to these. =]

EDIT: Erm, oops...

[Treylina]

Who needs 1.24, we have JJ2+.
Were you meant to say 1.25 there?

Or if you really meant that, then who needs 1.23+, we have 1.24+.
-brick'd-

[Another Jazz 2 fan]

*necro-bump to follow-up on a very important question...*

Did this interview ever get posted? I, for one, would be interested in reading it. ;-)

[PurpleJazz]

*necro-bump to follow-up on a very important question...*

Did this interview ever get posted? I, for one, would be interested in reading it. ;-)

Yes (http://www.jazz2online.com/news/679/interview-with-jazz-jackrabbit-artist-nick-stadler/)