Hi everyone! I will allow myself to make some kind of a contest in here. It's all about finding the rarest tilesets there are and make an interesting use of it.

There are 3 categories of making use of the tileset:

1. Building a level using the found rare tileset.
   
   Interesting tiles placement in an example level. It may be a full level, single player, battle etc., but if someone doesn't have time and energy for all that he may just build a something really small, just to show his idea of using the tileset. Originality counts.
   
2. Modification of the tileset.
   
   Basically speaking, building a new tileset using all of the main tiles from the rare tileset. You can skip some ugly, unnecessary tiles, but the main theme should be kept. You can add as much as you want, but it should in some way fit the original theme of the tileset.
   
3. Redrawing of the tileset.
   
   You are constructing a completely new tileset, everything made by yourself, but based on the original found tileset. It would be something like JJ2 version of Diamondus is to the original JJ1 diamondus tileset.

The tilesets don't have to come from Jazz2online. They don't even have to be finished, if you will find some scratches of never finished tileset - that's fine.

The example levels should be made for all 3 categories. Even if it would be 20x15 tiles - that's perfectly fine. The levels are NOT about the gameplay AT ALL! Everything is simply about the interesting ideas of using the tileset. Making it pop out, look really awesome, even if the tileset by itself looks crappy.

I'm not setting right now any dead lines, any dates... Just because I don't know if someone will join this contest anyways... But I think it is a good idea to knock out the monotony of the overused tilesets. There are some tilesets that were used thousands of times, and there are some which don't even have a single level using them. Sure, there are better tilesets and worse ones. There is no wonder that Agama's 4 tilesets availible on J2O are used so heavily, because they are so pretty. Official tilesets are used so heavily that, even though they are pretty, they starting to get terrible. And there are also some tilesets not so pretty, but for some reason used very heavily, like Top Secret III (god, I hate that tileset! ).

I will give some examples of rare tilesets that I found:

• Slimeset by Skulg
  an example of a beautiful, and yet, rare tileset.
• School V3
  very interesting tileset. The only level I've seen using that tileset was the example level included with the tileset
• Planet X
  not that beautiful but very interesting
• KrypeV2
  very weird tileset, which doesn't even have masks, but I'm sure it could get an interesting use.

You can also contribute by just placing what u've found. It's always nice to see some fresh tilesets.

In.

In (probably.)

This is a really cool idea! I'm not gonna promise I will enter, since that never went well before, but I have a tileset laying around that would be perfect for this...

Thirty minutes later: I'm having trouble deciding which obscure tileset should I use

A thing I like to say, it's not how often a tileset is used, but how you use it. Desolation is commonly used, but its versatility allows to create a lot of unique looking levels.

Of course, there are plenty of commonly used tilesets with levels that look the same, due to the creator not caring about how it'll stand out. Or the tileset has already been taken to its limits. Many test levelmakers don't give a shit about the eyecandy, so that's why 95% of top secret levels end up looking the same.

I think top secret doesn't look too bad, but it's nothing really impressive either. It's used a lot, because it's the least ugly tileset that's good for tests. I admit the 8x8 background sucks though. Ugly colour loss and doesn't work properly as textured. I consider that School V3 looks worse than top secret.

Not all tilesets are commonly used for the same reason. It comes down to ease of use, what it offers for the level and (ofc) how it looks. Mystic isles is fairly popular due to ease of use, yet looks mediocre.

Some decent looking tilesets are rarely used, due to being far too limited. Please, whenever you make a tileset, consider user friendliness, what else that could be done with it, the backgrounds, and what events fit with the theme. Slimeset may look decent but it's seriously lacking in a lot of things. You'd be taking to it to its limits the moment you use it adequately.

Also, what is krype? Typo much? Something you found in your cache? Because searching gives no results whatsoever.
EDIT: Nvm, SE sent me it. Reminds me of my first tileset that was cancelled, due to how much I improved since then and lack of inspiration.

Being evil aside, I've wanted to remake a couple of tilesets with good themes (rare and fairly commonly used), but redrawing everything from scratch. I called it the Realms Remastered project. It's something I had in mind for a long time, but the way I draw tiles is cumbersome. They usually look good (and much better than the original), but hard to tile.

I don't know if I'd participate in this. If I did, it would involve remaking a tileset or working more on my current remakes. And I'm really unreliable. Sure, I wouldn't need to completely finish it, but I need a minimum.

Aren't you a killjoy...

In. Not sure whether I'll redraw one or not. I think I actually have an old finished one somewhere of my own that I never released.

I'm happy to see already some people interested.

I forgot to mention the LMAT projects from this forum. I've seen sooo much goooood work unfinished. That's just a shame, but it could perfectly be used for this contest.

Originally Posted by Treylina

A thing I like to say, it's not how often a tileset is used, but how you use it. Desolation is commonly used, but its versatility allows to create a lot of unique looking levels.

Of course, there are plenty of commonly used tilesets with levels that look the same, due to the creator not caring about how it'll stand out. Or the tileset has already been taken to its limits. Many test levelmakers don't give a shit about the eyecandy, so that's why 95% of top secret levels end up looking the same.

I think top secret doesn't look too bad, but it's nothing really impressive either. It's used a lot, because it's the least ugly tileset that's good for tests. I admit the 8x8 background sucks though. Ugly colour loss and doesn't work properly as textured. I consider that School V3 looks worse than top secret.

Not all tilesets are commonly used for the same reason. It comes down to ease of use, what it offers for the level and (ofc) how it looks. Mystic isles is fairly popular due to ease of use, yet looks mediocre.

In my opinion Top Secret is used so heavily mainly because it's extremely easy to use. And it's easy because mostly there are just some basic one-color shapes... And a lot of tilesets are hard to use for a reason too - because they present much more complex & beautiful graphics (like Agama's Egypt or Swamp). If someone choses a tileset just because it's easy to use... That means that he's not really trying.

Also, there are tons of tilesets that are good, but are TSF and for that reason they are not used, sometimes at all.

Originally Posted by Treylina

Some decent looking tilesets are rarely used, due to being far too limited.

I don't think there is any law stopping anyone from modifying (in this case: extending em with the things that are needed for the level) the existing tilesets.

Originally Posted by Treylina

Please, whenever you make a tileset, consider user friendliness, what else that could be done with it, the backgrounds, and what events fit with the theme. Slimeset may look decent but it's seriously lacking in a lot of things. You'd be taking to it to its limits the moment you use it adequately.

That's a good point, it surely needs to be taken into consideration when we are going to grade the categories #2 & #3.

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

I'm happy to see already some people interested.

I forgot to mention the LMAT projects from this forum. I've seen sooo much goooood work unfinished. That's just a shame, but it could perfectly be used for this contest.

In my opinion Top Secret is used so heavily mainly because it's extremely easy to use. And it's easy because mostly there are just some basic one-color shapes... And a lot of tilesets are hard to use for a reason too - because they present much more complex & beautiful graphics (like Agama's Egypt or Swamp). If someone choses a tileset just because it's easy to use... That means that he's not really trying.

Also, there are tons of tilesets that are good, but are TSF and for that reason they are not used, sometimes at all.

I don't think there is any law stopping anyone from modifying (in this case: extending em with the things that are needed for the level) the existing tilesets.

Yeah, top secret is used a lot because of ease of use too. Most of the time it's ever used, is in tests though. I can count the amount of times it's used otherwise.

Some may be more concerned about ease of use in tilesets, because they consider gameplay more important, and just want to get on with making it. That or they just hate using harder to use tilesets.

The majority of the active JJ2 community appears to be bad, or reluctant at pixel art. Also, they may be concerned about needing permission to edit existing tilesets.

LMAT appears to be a lot more dead these days since the dedicated tileset makers have moved onto something else, and the ameteurs had given up. I'll work back on it sometime.

The sheer majority of tilesets I've seen that are TSF have some kind of glaring flaw. Mostly because they either look mediocre, or are too limited (god knows why these ones are TSF). And besides, they could easily be converted these days. Not only that, 1.23 plus now supports loading TSF tilesets.

I worked more on my remake. Hopefully when it's finished it'll be just as good as the Agama tilesets (if not, better). I might post a preview of it sometime, and some of my old cancelled crap maybe (it may belong on another thread).

Nominating Max Payne 3 Is Here.

Originally Posted by minmay

Nominating Max Payne 3 Is Here.

That reminds me of Bad Boys II

What's the policy on unreleased stuff like ETs Planet v3?

EM told me it would be immoral to make a level with it, but that was years and years ago.

I'm in.

I'll be editing an old version of a tileset I made, mostly adding necessities and fixing palette issues. Then build a single player level with it.

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

KrypeV2
very weird tileset, which doesn't even have masks, but I'm sure it could get an interesting use.

I used to work on a level with this tileset, maybe I could dig this up and finish/rework it for the contest.

So, 3 months after the process of V1, I decided to start with a new version. With much better looking tiles and hopefully made more with tiling in mind. Well, I actually started V2 a year and half ago. But I had took along break from it due to frustration from poor tiling skills. Now I'm working on it again. The name of the tileset is prior to change. I thought of calling it Mystic Ruins instead, but then some might think it's a Sonic based tileset when it's not. Maybe Island Ruins? Here's a preview:



The stone sticking out bothers me. It looks like it's glued on rather than sticking out from the soil. Can anyone give any advice?

However, I'm not sure if this post belongs to this thread. I don't know if this remake warrants a title of obscure/rare/unpopular since Natures ruins and Mystic isle were relatively used.

Such posts might be better suited to the seen some of the levels will never gon on j2o
thread.

Originally Posted by Stijn

Such posts might be better suited to the seen some of the levels will never gon on j2o
thread.

I tend not to check old unstickied threads since it can be considered necroposting (I don't care what anyone says, I consider it very awkward most of the time). I moved everything about my old cancelled tilesets to there, though.

I nominate Townsville

good luck

I personally believe that tilesets like Max Payne 3 or Bad Boys II are NOT what we want here... The same applies to some of the tilesets I've found after my research, like "Ash"... Simply because just taking some photos / graphics or Pokemons and pasting them into a tileset doesn't really make a tileset... Tilesets like that contain just ripped graphics from some movies, which is extremely lame IMHO. Maybe Krype sux super badly, but at least it has some real tiles. You can use your imagination to construct with them a level, not being stuck with huge ripped photos that can't find any other use than just being a photo...

I found some DOPE ones by the way... Like Cheq 3 and Slimy Land!

BTW: how do you search tilesets like THAT????? I would like to type just any tileset that comes into my mind and see where it was used. How do I do that?

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

I personally believe that tilesets like Max Payne 3 or Bad Boys II are NOT what we want here... The same applies to some of the tilesets I've found after my research, like "Ash"... Simply because just taking some photos / graphics or Pokemons and pasting them into a tileset doesn't really make a tileset... Tilesets like that contain just ripped graphics from some movies, which is extremely lame IMHO. Maybe Krype sux super badly, but at least it has some real tiles. You can use your imagination to construct with them a level, not being stuck with huge ripped photos that can't find any other use than just being a photo...

I found some DOPE ones by the way... Like Cheq 3 and Slimy Land!

Gee...the joke of posting crappy tilesets sure went over your head.

Cheq3 is pretty cool, though lacks any sort of real theme. I consider it a novelty set. Getting it to work well appears to be complicated though. I may use it one day.

However, I dislike slimy land due to its ugly pallette, and the paper-thin tree cylinder trunk..things. It also has a lot of duplicate tiles.

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

BTW: how do you search tilesets like THAT????? I would like to type just any tileset that comes into my mind and see where it was used. How do I do that?

First you find one upload where a tileset was used, most usually the original upload, e.g. Slimy Land. Find the "File contents" list and click on the .j2t filename. This will open a preview window, and at the bottom you'll see a link "More downloads containing this file."

Hustar 3

I'm currently making a level with this tileset. Despite getting a little more attention after Stijn reuploaded 1.23 versions of all of the Waz tilesets, a quick J2O search will reveal that no one has actually ever released a level using this tileset other than the creator himself. Whilst it isn't stellar by any means, it's still one of the better nature tilesets out there due to its solid theme and surprising flexibility; even if doesn't seem that way at a first glance.

Thanks Violet, and PurpleJazz: GOOD CATCH!

Oh, yes please, someone!

(I applaud longer if you pick one of the first two.)

Challenge accepted, Jerrythabest.
(I'll probably regret this later XD)

While I have always kind of sucked at level making, I have a TON of unfinished/not really ever used tilesets that my buddy ViperMM made years and years ago I could throw those in for whomever wants to use them.

Can you throw them here? So everyone who would be interested in doing something with them (especially if it's for the contest) could just grab it. Life could be easier like that.

Also... I will make a rule, which should be quite obvious: GIVE CREDIT to the author of the tileset (whether it's finished or unfinished).

Used couple of times, but I just discovered THAT. And I'm pretty stoked.

So, I found metropo.j2t, which doesn't look too bad apart from the poorly edited epic sign. It's only been used properly once, and used minimally for a cutscene. In an other upload, the tileset was included but not actually used (I checked). However it does fall on the flat or pillowy side.

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

Used couple of times, but I just discovered THAT. And I'm pretty stoked.

Aside from awful color reduction, it looks to be an old yet usable sci-fi themed set. That sun and comet thing do look pretty on a starry black background. It feels nostalgic too..

Originally Posted by Treylina

So, I found metropo.j2t, which doesn't look too bad apart from the poorly edited epic sign. It's only been used properly once, and used minimally for a cutscene. In an other upload, the tileset was included but not actually used (I checked). However it does fall on the flat or pillowy side.

I haven't seen this set in action myself, but judging from the picture I do like the statue drawings, the signs and funny messages, and the rabbit behind a PC in one of the window tiles. I'd consider it of good quality and obscure enough to justify a modern level made with it.

Oh, and I'm still in this contest. Time is a little scarce, been spending effort on making a WordPress theme for a friend. Though my next Photoshop session will sure finish the old set I'm editing. Then I still need to make a level with it as it's probably too obscure for anyone else to use. But then again, most sets that don't stand out in any way are only used by their creators.

I should probably point out that my "Challenge accepted" was actually serious, and I am working on a level using one of those Win95 tilesets. I'm still trying stuff, but this might actually be a pretty good level once it's done.

And good luck everyone, this should be fun!

Originally Posted by Treylina

So, I found metropo.j2t, which doesn't look too bad apart from the poorly edited epic sign. It's only been used properly once, and used minimally for a cutscene. In an other upload, the tileset was included but not actually used (I checked). However it does fall on the flat or pillowy side.

I've seen that tileset somewhere. It's definitely interesting.

Originally Posted by Slaz

Oh, and I'm still in this contest. Time is a little scarce, been spending effort on making a WordPress theme for a friend. Though my next Photoshop session will sure finish the old set I'm editing. Then I still need to make a level with it as it's probably too obscure for anyone else to use. But then again, most sets that don't stand out in any way are only used by their creators.

NO EXCUSES!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Robo4900

I should probably point out that my "Challenge accepted" was actually serious, and I am working on a level using one of those Win95 tilesets. I'm still trying stuff, but this might actually be a pretty good level once it's done.

I don't know why would you do that to yourself and to us. Windows tielsets are obscure indeed, that's why I won't tell you not to use them, but maybe think about your tileset choice more before starting. Like I mentioned before regarding the tilesets from movies (like Bad Boys II etc.) - this type of tileset isn't really an artwork coming from the creator of the tileset. It's just SCREENSHOT -> PASTE -> MAKE A TILESET... Apart from the fact that this kind of tiles are very limited (since they consist of graphics that weren't made for a game - you can pretty much just select all the tiles where the photo is or the window from Windows and paste it into a level... Using parts of photo as a single tile will just look ugly, except for some parts which by luck will somehow tile) it doesn't really promote the artwork of this community... The main idea was to promote artists of J2O who put some effort to create their own tiles, which didn't get too much attention.

We can also look at the credit tilesets (the ones with just letters and a background) as obscure tilesets. Most of them probably are, because they were built only for one custom episode. But what can you do with letters? How exciting is that? And what is original about it? I would stick to tilesets with actual tiles, not with just some randomly copied stuff.

BESIDES, I don't know WHY so many people in here are picking the dumbest tilesets there are... Especially that there are sooo many obscure but yet interesting and nice tilesets. Check out my post below, the sets I found, some of them really ROCK! And there are at least 50 times more sets like this to be found...

Originally Posted by Robo4900

And good luck everyone, this should be fun!

Thx, you too!



By they way, I was doing some research again...

A lot of times when I find an obscure tileset it is a garbage (like THIS) but it's interesting to see all that work. There are TONS of different tilesets...

THIS is really nice, and used only by an author once...

ALKAJAZZ - nice, used only twice by an author.

AMAZON RUINS - somehow, I don't know how, it has very strong JJ1 feel. It's very simple but yet very interesting and used only once as an example level by an author.

THIS very obscure, that's for sure. But not sure how creative can you get with a tileset like this. It's way too poor.

Now THIS is more like it to have some potential for interesting use, but THIS even more - version 2 of the first tileset of the same author. Aqua Base, I definitely love the name!


WTH?

THIS is very simple but has something in it. It comes with 3 very good SP levels, but apart from them no one ever used it. I believe just like all the other author's uploads (THIS ORBITUS-LIKE is actually pretty good, but THIS on the other hand is pretty bad).

PRISON ISLAND never used? Are you kidding me? It's far from perfect, but it's very interesting, very developed, you can find tons of interesting uses for that... Again, the same author has some interesting stuff that no one ever used. THIS looks nice, although going all the way to number 60 in destructive blox is ultra rad... Now THIS REMAKE OF SONIC TILESET is just awesome! And again, NEVER used... WTH?

THIS I don't know... It looks like the main tiles use some generic textures from PhotoShop. The figures are interesting but what can you do with that many figures in a game? Another story? BORING... This is a computer game, God damn it! Not a TV show / cartoon...

CANNIBAL LAND!

OK, that's it for now!

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

PRISON ISLAND never used? Are you kidding me? It's far from perfect, but it's very interesting, very developed, you can find tons of interesting uses for that... Again, the same author has some interesting stuff that no one ever used. THIS looks nice, although going all the way to number 60 in destructive blox is ultra rad... Now THIS REMAKE OF SONIC TILESET is just awesome! And again, NEVER used... WTH?

*shudders*

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

BESIDES, I don't know WHY so many people in here are picking the dumbest tilesets there are...

THIS I don't know... It looks like the main tiles use some generic textures from PhotoShop. The figures are interesting but what can you do with that many figures in a game? Another story? BORING... This is a computer game, God damn it! Not a TV show / cartoon...

This is you.

Also, you'd be suprised how often NPCs get used in SP. It's more interesting than just using Eva or the typical enemies as an NPC. Though I'm still not huge a fan of the tileset, it feels like the textures clash with the rest of the flat look.

Originally Posted by Obi1mcd

*shudders*

Still the better entries out of the others.

I'm suprised he didn't mention Sparks Factory.

Geez...cannibal land is hideous.

Well, if I find another tileset that I think could work well, I'll go for it, but so far, the tilesets in this thread have been... Limited...

EDIT: Okay, a couple of tilesets have jumped out at me.

I have found my tileset quite some time ago. Working on my entry now .

Originally Posted by Treylina

This is you..[/SIZE]

Was the part where you mentioned something about your better-than-Agama's tileset also a joke?
Seriously I'd like to see some finished new & good tilesets.


Anyways, I found something awesome:
WOW! not used even a single time... Not even by it's author. There is also a much smaller, 1.23 version.

Also, quite interesting: a collection of one user's tilesets. Waz... Never heard of him. I believe most of them can be categorized as obscure.

Originally Posted by incandescentembers

Also, quite interesting: a collection of one user's tilesets. Waz... Never heard of him. I believe most of them can be categorized as obscure.

Yes, it's a shame they're not used more. On the other hand, some are actually quite hard to use... for example, Hustar 3 looks excellent, but once you use it for a level it quickly becomes apparent it's missing more or less essential stuff like 45° slopes.

Still, there's others in there that are unjustly neglected... That said, the one tileset I was talking about in my earlier post in this thread is actually based on Waz's sets.