Que Pasa!

I just want to post links to the levels I recently released on J2O!

Accidental bioluminescence
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads...oluminescence/

Electric castle
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads...eyecandy-edit/

Jazz Test
http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/7319/jazz-test/

Later I can discuss other levels I made since starting JCS in 1998 or 1999 or so, some of which I still have :P

It would be hilarious to see your oldest level ever made.

I somewhat remember the layout of the first level I made. It used Fquist's 'J2LC Easter' tileset and the many pinball events I placed looked ugly on that one.. Sadly (or luckely, heh) those levels are long gone due to a Windows 98 crash followed by a HDD format.

Most of our first JCS attempts should be worthy of ending up as the Butt Ugly Level of the Week anyway.

My first level was a row of street tiles of Colon 1 with no background. I thought the effect of the blank background looked funny.

All my first levels(Which, incidentally, are the only levels I've ever finished) are all 100% safe and sound on a HDD which used to belong to my old Windows 98. I'll be sure to upload the most entertaining ones if I ever get around to finding the drive itself.

Anyway, about your levels, I will give some of them a go once I've got Jazz 2 installed and running Plus.

My first level was in Cheq, it was designed to be "just the front desk at a hotel" and a broken battle level with ammo hoarding.

My first level was destroyed by a scratch on a CD... I still have my second one on my HDD, though. Amazingly enough, it's playable and beatable, just extremely uninteresting

I guess I'm really special for my first level not being terrible. My first level was completed when I was 15, so I guess you'd expect for it to not be too shabby. I think why levelmakers first levels are usually terrible is that they create them when they are very young. When we are kids we don't understand why something is good, nor care about it looking good. I think when I was very young, JCS crashed every time I opened it.

Slightly off-topic: Good levelmaking is not practice in the traditional sense. It's about understanding gameplay theory, tilesets and creativity then applying it to levels. If you don't think about that, it's likely to come out bad or generic (mediocre). It's why I don't give new levelmakers higher ratings than usual. It's simply that my way of thinking is if you point out the flaws and think about them sooner, you can improve faster. It doesn't matter that it's bad, because you've learned from them.

People take judging skills too personally. I generally expect I'm going to be bad at doing something for the first time, but I don't feel bad for it. Too many people think that because you did something bad (or someone else said) means that you shouldn't try anymore. Sometimes you just don't realise flaws/what to improve on until it's pointed out. The defeatist mentality starts to really annoy me for a while.

About your levels....uuuuhh. Judging from the preview they don't look impressive (from an eyecandy and gameplay view), to be honest. And electric castle isn't yours (as you said) and looks like a very simple edit. I'll check them out properly sometime.

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.

Eyecandy remakes are OK, I love eyecandy! But do you also make tilesets, or have you ever tried making one?

I consider myself bad at graphics, as do so many people. But I'm trying my best to put on a little effort. More on that in the upcoming weeks or months.

Haha... I have tried making a tileset, but the only tileset I finished was simply a masked picture of Vida Guerra that was only for one joke level. But with that in mind, I should know the basic premise of how to make a tileset - it's just about using the JJ2 grid, compromising to find the right palette, and creating a functional mask that's been fully tested.

A good start for me would probably be to work on Let's Make a Tileset. I know there's are still unfinished LMAT projects, maybe I can help get one going again!

What really holds me back is I'm so inexperienced with any serious digital art programs. I have GIMP and Paint Shop Pro trial, I've only used them a few times. I intend to learn how to use them, practice with them and hopefully someday I can create a viable tileset. I suppose the other option is to draw a tileset by hand, but then I wouldn't have an available method of scanning it.

#Final Level Pack Pre>Release #Notes

swagglandica - whentherain.mp3 - ICJungE.j2t
woww - styles.xm - OWMist.j2t
krsff - Pitfall Camel.ogg - A_CarrFIXdayEDIT.j2t
ec - epica5.xm - Castube BETA 10 v4.j2t
cccoffee - CokeCast.mp3 - ICColon2F.j2t
tankbuddies - undetermined_feeling.xm - TDI Cutscreen.j2t