Tomb Rabbit 2

[Kejero]

La di da, big title:

Tomb Rabbit 2
UNFINISHED RELEASE

For those who remember: a long, long time ago I started working on the sequel to Tomb Rabbit (http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=272), but private life, professional life, and other projects have prevented me from ever finishing it. It unfortunately also looks like the future isn't going to be much more Jackrabbit-friendly for me, so, after kindly being reminded to Tomb Rabbit 2 by "that guy I might remember as Flash from the old days" ;) , I decided to release Tomb Rabbit 2 in its current, UNFINISHED state. More info can be found on jazz2online, and in the readme document that comes with the package.

You can find Tomb Rabbit 2 at http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=4979

Any bug reports, complaints, general comments... welcome here or by email or by pm, or whatever :)

Hope you enjoy it!

[White Rabbit]

Well, I'll be a son of a doe. :O Downloading right now.

EDIT: Just finished it. 1391850 points and 30 lives. I'll review it shortly.

[Stijn]

Ha! My e-mail paid off ;)

I'll certainly check this out later today when I have time.

[Raven aka StL]

Tomb Rabbit was easily my favorite SP release back in the day.
This is truly great news, just... too bad you couldn't finish it.

And what WR said, exactly.

[EvilMike]

Good to see it's out, even if unfinished. I just finished playing it and I have to say it has some very creative level design, although it does suffer from its unfinished state. While the levels you uploaded are fairly complete, they do seem to lack polish a bit, and have some odd traits (such as no ammo in the first half of the pack). Still the best episode I've played in a while though.

[Cpp]

Nice. I didn't believe this would ever get released, but here it is! Looking forward to play.

[Unhit]

gj stijn :D ill check it out asap

[Bboy Type7]

Haha, Jazz and Tomb Raider haha. Fun idea. Thanks for the release.

[KRSplat]

:0 This came as a surprise. I'm excited to play it.

[DoubleGJ]

2008 starts out rather awesome

appears I can't keep it up with checking out everything!

[n00b]

Well looks like my hopes of O Brother winning featured download this month are wonderfully soiled.

[Violet CLM]

That was the most ever thing ever ever. I have never been less happy to see the JJ2 ending movie rather than another level.

[Stijn]

What Violet said.

[cooba]

Wow. The levels are like seven years old and they impressed me like nothing did.

My head = boom :<!>(

[Unhit]

While i highly enjoyed playing it, especially the elevator scene, i don't think the pack is as great as most said so far. It's certainly fun, but due to the lack of all kinds of pickups except coins and very very few ammo, the levels just feel really empty to me. I still enjoyed playing it though (and it might be some good inspiration for fupack 8D), and I'd recommend everyone to download it, but i'm sad that you won't finish this work :(

[EvilMike]

What really makes it is the fact that it's all tilesets custom-made for the pack, which allows the authour greater creative control over the design of the levels.

I agree with what unhit said though. It's a great pack, but does feel like its missing a bit. Personally I think the #1 thing that is really missed is a plotline of any sort. It would have been nice to have a story to bring everything together and give the player some motivation. Even if the unfinished stuff was replaced with text cutscenes between the levels that would have been better.

[Violet CLM]

Huh, I didn't get the feeling of emptiness at all. It just felt there were coins EVERYWHERE. The lack of ammo wasn't a big deal either, but then I rarely use too much in any pack, just for a few trick shots here and there, and the amount provided was pretty much what I use.

[CrimiClown]

Promising. I'll take a look.

[Kejero]

Thanks for the feedback and the reviews so far! :)

I'll address a few of the issues mentioned here and in the reviews in this thread...

Being a big supporter of good stories backing up games, I agree it's a pity that any story is missing in this release. Obviously, as with many other things missing, this was not intended, and there is actually quite a bit of story behind every level. But I decided to exclude the story because not only would it have been a lot of text simply telling you what you were missing in this "unfinished release", but who knows if some time in the future I am able to continue work on this little pack. It's unlikely, but as Fievel once sang, "never say never". For which reason I'd prefer not to give anything away ;)

There would indeed have been more tile enemies in other levels (although I would like to mention that besides in the training level, the snakes in the first jungle level can bite too! ;) ). The pacman was one too, and although it is fully "functional", the level I made with it was simply horrible.

The wonky star block segment in the elevator tileset, as Violet mentioned, was of course a temporary solution. I agree it's absolutely out of place in the level, but then I figured it'd be stupid not to include that level because of a few unfinished touches.

All music was made by me, and all levels would have had there own soundtracks, although I agree picking the Jazz2 jungle music for all three jungle levels as temporary music was a poor decision.

The train level is definitely one of the levels I looked most forward to to create, and the "moving vehicle" design -- and the design of the entire level -- have actually long been written down ;) Ahh, but then there are many planned levels I would've loved to have made, the Illusion Palace... the Frozen Whirlpool... the Final Battle..... Could someone give me one million euros, so I could quit my day job and just spend three months fulltime working on them? That should do it, really! :D

There are pieces of artifact to collect, only none of the levels where you actually collect one is present in the pack. The collected artifacts would have appeared in the border as in TR1.

I am aware that the box puzzle in the training level is flawed. Anyone with a bit of Jazz2 experience can walk right through it. It was definitely on the todo list for redesign. But I'm not sure which second rock puzzle needs work too, Violet?

So what about the tombs and the original Tomb Rabbit atmosphere? There were definitely tombs planned that would take you straight back to the TR1 experience, but as I started development very soon after TR1's release, I was very tired of making tombs, so I decided at that point to put a lot more variation into TR2, and I started working on some non-tomb levels first. And then real life kicks in and suddenly no tombs are getting built ever again... ;)

Hey, that reminds me! I've only recently found out about Gus' "mini makeover". I had no idea! It was really fun to watch what Gus had done with it, thanks a lot! :) Which also made me wonder if anyone actually ever used one of the TR1 tilesets in their own levels? I'm really curious to see what people have done with it, if anything at all. So if anyone could point me to some downloads, I'd greatly appreciate it! :)

Then the coins. I've always found collecting fruit in Jazz2 a bit pointless. Other than the occasional sugar rush, there is really not much point in picking them up. In any game I play, I like the things I collect to have a point, and not just be there to keep the environment alive and myself busy. So I decided to screw the fruit, and came up with the coins. If Mario and Wario are happy with coins, I figured Jazz and Spaz wouldn't mind either.

The two HQ levels (ventilation system and elevator shafts) where two of the first levels built for the pack, and as such their design differs slightly from the other levels. In fact, the elevator level (made in 2001) is a rebuild from a level I made in 1999, when I'd just started experimenting with MS Paint (http://users.skynet.be/kejero/tombrabbit2/other/elevator.jpg) and custom tilesets.
Most of the levels were made between 2001 and 2003. The island level was the last to be finished (somewhere summer 2003). As you can see in the screenshot section at the Tomb Rabbit 2 website (http://users.skynet.be/kejero/tombrabbit2), most of the tilesets have had a few little improvements (changing the sky color in the island level was a great decision, don't you think? ;) ).
I'd posted some new screenshots in January 2004, but actually they were older than the ones posted in May 2003 :p Not that I hadn't done anything since then, but progress was extremely slow and I had rejected most of it.

The colored block-switches are indeed heavily featured in most of the levels. Although they would have appeared in most other levels as well, these levels would not have focused so much on them, as each level was planned with it's own design and concepts.

Monkeys were planned in the fourth jungle level.
Just thought I'd mention that too :p

I love the fact that White Rabbit was able to play the beginning of the Elevator Perils level at the right pace -- I tried to get the timing between level and soundtrack just right, and I'm thrilled to hear that it actually worked for at least one player :D

The lack of ammo is also intentional. The fact that later (unreleased) levels involved collecting specific ammo is one reason. Another reason is that the focus of Tomb Rabbit is on figuring out each level, and not so much on shooting stuff. Further into the game some more action based levels were planned though, and they would have involved more baddies, and more ammo... ;)

Ok, now, someone, give me that million :p

[Unhit]

You're right that picking up the food is rather "useless", but imo it adds a lot to the atmosphere of a level. Simply because it's animated objects :p. And well, what's the use of the coins? It's not like you're running out of lives right now ;P
I'd really appreciate if you could find the time to continue, especially with some tomb levels. I loved them. "I heard the helicopter leave above me...now I was on my own" :')

[Superjazz]

As far as I played it, it was exciting. The gameplay was slightly different apart from TR original, but still just as entertaining, if not even more. The gameplay wasn't either that hard at all from the begin, unlike TR I again.

Nice work, Kej.

[Violet CLM]

I am aware that the box puzzle in the training level is flawed. Anyone with a bit of Jazz2 experience can walk right through it. It was definitely on the todo list for redesign. But I'm not sure which second rock puzzle needs work too, Violet?
143,135; TR2Level09.j2l.

Hey, that reminds me! I've only recently found out about Gus' "mini makeover". I had no idea! It was really fun to watch what Gus had done with it, thanks a lot! :) Which also made me wonder if anyone actually ever used one of the TR1 tilesets in their own levels? I'm really curious to see what people have done with it, if anything at all. So if anyone could point me to some downloads, I'd greatly appreciate it! :)
Use the J2O Search Downloads function and type in Egypt_Cave.j2t or Egypt_Light.j2t.

[White Rabbit]

If you align yourself correctly, you can fit yourself into the purple sloped corner and have just enough space for a functional buttstomp.

[Kejero]

Ooh, thanks Unknown Rabbit. I never thought of that!

...I do suppose you guys mean that you can cheat this puzzle by buttstomping inside the little gap?
If so, I've already fixed it! Only 99 people who downloaded TR2 before today will ever be able to cheat that puzzle ever again! Muhaha!

(Ehm... Unless there's another way?)

Edit: Ok, so I did figure correctly :) Thanks White Rabbit! (what's with all these Rabbits here?)

[n00b]

Ok, so I did figure correctly :) Thanks White Rabbit! (what's with all these Rabbits here?)

http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/images/themes/j2oTheme/j2o_logo.gif