The reason I edited Electric Castle is that it has a great layout, but the fact that there's two random Jackrabbit 2 logos floating around for no reason ruined the level for me. So I thought I would rather play this level if those stupid logos were taken out.
I must have been 8 years old when I released my first level - KRSplat's Hideout. Interestingly, after I got a new PC this year, I didn't have the level at all, but I downloaded it from Salamander and quickly edited it to add textured background and the pit. I also edited it in 2006, but the earlier edit was more of a conceptual change than bug fixing.
When I first started mapping there were no pits and I didn't know how to use textured backgrounds. Plus on the left edge leaving no wall is a clear design flaw.
I think that the art of level building is a natural process. For me to improve, I would like to draw a sketch of the layout and eye candy on a blank piece of paper with colored pencils. From there I could use JCS with a plan on paper rather than just going in to tile spontaneously.
Some of my favorite levels of my own are Under Par Flags-- a 3-level CTF pack from 2003, Crumbling Walls-- a 2003 level for a contest by BlurredD and Fenced In, a.k.a. Sewer System-- a CTF level from maybe 2004-2005. Of those three, Crumbling Walls was broken because it was missing a warp target as well as a water tile that I was looking for but couldn't find. Fenced In just needed the music replaced because .669 files don't work in JJ2+.
Some of my favorite levels overall are BloodBunny's Lair, Swingin Jazz by the same author, Superconductor CTF by Stripe, Security Breach by BlurredD, Distopia by EvilMike - for CTF. Firstly, this shows I like popular CTF levels, but what's also interesting is how much these levels have actually changed since their original release. For example, the pepper spray power up is now a fireball power up in Disto. The bounce power in Swing now respawns, one of the earlier revisions for a JJ2 map pool level. Security Breach must have about 5+ official versions out now? In BBLAIR the new expiration dates on ammo from crates changes my strategy, instead of actually getting most of my ammo from the bouncers box left of the red base, my play style becomes more mobile in terms of having to use the whole level.
Some of my most recent levels, from 2011 on to 2013 where we are now and heading into year 14, are Trapaholics, Swamp Cabbage and Occupy Wallstreet. Trapaholics is a normal CTF level with music I enjoy and I wanted to add room for RF tricks and campy features like 2 fly carrots under the bases. The premise is to have 2 well-guarded base areas and battlegrounds in between them. My problem with Trapaholics is that using MEZ01 FOO as a tileset isn't gonna win any awards for looking pretty in a CTF level. That set is really streamlined for racing levels and jokes, in my humble opinion.
Swamp Cabbage is one of the first levels where I actually brainstormed until I got an idea for a level, and then started making it with an idea of what I wanted to do. Plus Sean and CrazyRabbit helped build it in JCS. During the process I decided to attempt making a multi-purpose level, like a level that's for CTF, battle or treasure with only one level file. But for this level, it was most popular as a battle level, but originally it started as a CTF level. What I learned there is that: A. Other people can make a terrible level look outstanding if they're good at making background layers and B. Evil carrot areas are what it's all about in this game, because ultimately everyone hunting down an enemy with the flag just wants to chase them to the carrot and make a timed headshot kill with electro blaster through the wall and hear them grumble about a carrot kill.
Occupy Wallstreet wasn't designed to be competitive. Similar to Swamp Cabbage (they were in a level pack) it's for treasure/ctf/battle. The design was just a long, flat plane with red base on the right above a pit, and blue base on the left next to a tall wall. And on top was a secret area where you could get powerups, float in the sky if you wanna, and grab a shield, but with MCE TNT bullets taking the shields so you could really only get the shield for a 1-2 second timespan over intervals of about 30 seconds. A few of the biggest fans or proponents of my levels are over the years, Wakeman who uploaded my early levels, Blacky and blur who give great reviews, JelZe who taught me that ratings dont matter, m0ti and JJB who actually dueled me in levels and both of then beat me in my own level. XD
I'm planning to release a pack next month on J2O of edited levels by other authors. So far, this is the contents of the pack:
swaggland - m0tiland with swag - edit of m0tiland by m0ti
woww - World of Wicked Wood - edit of Wicked Wood by Fawful
ff - Spejc tha final Frontier Falls - edit of Frontier Falls by Fawful
ec - Electric castle - edit of Electric castle by Sucer
cccoffee - Unconventional Coffee Cracco - edit of Unconventional Coffee by FireSword
tankbuddies - tank buddies - level idea by Yusuf and Richard
Basically these mostly just eyecandy edits, just for fun.
- motiland, I removed the rain from the foreground.
- Wicked Wood, I added an RF power up.
- Frontier Falls, I replaced the falling sky waterfall with a more realistic waterfall.
- Electric castle, I removed the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 logos from the background. I'm using music by Jakim from the original Dusk of Serenity by Ragnarok but saved in a different file format. The different files I've attempted to use are epica5.mo3, epica5.xm, epica5.mod.
- cccoffee, I changed the music, tileset and food.
Beta testers list:
- DogeS[WoW]
- ThunDer DraGon
- deth MAN
- Japie
- Angie VS
- WOOP
- sAlAmAnDeR DM
Soon I also want to start making a remake of krtrap, a cool little CTF level I made in 2011. It won't be the same as the 1st krtrap or the 2nd which has been abandoned.