I've already contacted Epic, and they're not at all interested in selling the rights to Jazz, which I guess means they at least have some faith in his future. Unfortunately, in order to use the characters, Epic would own the game, and, as has been stated, we would be unable to do open source. Any kind of direct relation to Jazz is out of the question.

Most definitely 2D. Mixing 2D scenery with 3D objects would be possible, but maybe not the most efficient. We'll be using Direct3D, which does merge 2D and 3D graphics, but I'll have to look more into what happens when you try to use both at the same time. If all else fails, we could use rendered sprites of 3D objects.

I'm kind of leaning toward agreeing with those that have suggested not even trying to stay within the Jazz universe.

Anyway, I've been busy the past couple weeks, working to make some money so I can actually pay for this thing. =) In the mean time, keep brainstorming. I'm seeing a lot of good ideas.

-Nag