Wow, this is a flashback.
... Well, while I'm here, I might as well drop in a thing or two.
I've been working on this on and off for a long time, but I should probably debut some of my findings here for some people to enjoy; I've trawled through some old Jazz 3 design docs that leaked a while back, and discovered a lot of interesting stuff.
The earliest Jazz 3 design doc in the leak is from June 1998, a mere month after the initial release of Jazz 2.
There was a full plot outline in the July 1998 doc:
Quote:
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Devan Shell has come up with a masterful, if flawed plan (or perhaps someone else does this to him unknown to him at first) to create more than one of himself. Naturally, once he created another of himself, he could take the typical cartoon concept of horror and remorse and fear what had transpired, desiring to 'right' what was created. (Using this, Devan could be a secret character available to play after completion of the game.) Once the created duplicate was made, it decided the best way to continue was to make another of itself, and so on. This takes time and money, which ultimately ran out. So the duplicates - good friends at first - decide to head off and cause trouble on their own. Realizing that they are evil, they decide also not to stay faithful to the others, and each start plotting to their own destruction. While most focus on destroying the rabbits, a few figure they'll destroy their clones and just generally cause chaos as well. Which is the real Devan? He's the one hiding around, maybe in disguise, who just figures he'll blow the universe up and destroy whatever he can, then take a very long vacation afterward to take over some other planet.
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This plot would probably make a really fun Jazz 2 SP pack. But anyway, onward...
I don't think that initial plot was particularly well-liked by the team; in fact, I think there was a lot of trouble getting together a coherent plot for the game. Here's a second plotline they came up with, from January 1999. Please note that at this stage, Lori was intended to be a love interest for Spaz; she was the yellow bunny we see in the cutscene at the end of Jazz 2.
Quote:
With Devan Shell crushed, his plan to go back in time and destroy Jazz’s parents defeated, Jazz Jackrabbit and his brother Spaz returned to Carrotus for a grand celebration. With the time machine ruined and Devan’s minions scattered into hiding, nothing but Jazz’s stepmother remained to oppose his marriage to Eva Earlong and crowning as King of all the land.
However, being King brought with it many responsibilities which Jazz slowly learning, but also it was downright dull and tedious from the easy-going lifestyle he was used to. Nevertheless, he became a good King in time.
Meanwhile, his brother Spaz was promoted to Captain of the Guard. An entire army trained in wacky fighting techniques fell under his command. At the same time he finally persuaded Lori (basically irritated her to death) to finally go out on a date with him, and the two have been happily, er, arguing since.
Eva saw to it that Jazz became a good father as well, as the two basically, er... went at it like rabbits. They happily raised numerous bunnies; their children the pride of Carrotus. With no turtles left to be dealt with, their family has inspired Carrotus to gala parties thrown in their honor.
Tonight we find the many elite and royal families of the land gathered at castle Carrotus, with Jazz trying to sneak off to the computer in the secret dungeon to play his new game, Jazz 3...
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Later, they came up with the more familiar plot we've come to understand as "The plot of Jazz 3", here from the February 2000 design doc:
Quote:
Jazz Jackrabbit’s children have been stolen by the evil and annoyingly tenacious Devan Shell! Devan has taken his six children and created an alternate reality using the power of their dreams, so Jazz and the rest of Carrotus will never be able to find him, thus ensuring his rule over the real world.
Jazz must venture to find his six children, destroy the dream generators that keep them captive, and flush Devan Shell out of his hiding place in orbit around Carrotus before destroying him utterly and winning the game.
Throughout the game as Jazz rescues more children and citizens, more parts of the world open up, however as the dream generator system becomes more unstable, more unusual and bizarre places become realized...
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I've said this a few times on the Discord server, but I am putting all this info together into some sensible manner, and plan on making a thread laying out exactly what Jazz 3 was on track to become. With lockdown, it's not like I'll be short on time spent in front of my PC, after all.
I've already got a pretty much complete guide to every single level in the available builds of Jazz 3. In fact, there's actually a lot of interesting things in the long-known-about original leak that people just don't know. There's one particular area which is a fully-built puzzle, which I've never seen talked about to any extent.
I'll see if I can organise enough to start a thread on this in the coming weeks.
