What If
 

Stijn: I placed some relevant links here on top for the reader's convenience. The rest of the post remains unaltered.
Forum
Site

---

How much support would I get If I were to say that my indie game company have started making JJ3? hypotethically speaking ..

I've been reading the archives of this forum and I can see that the list of people who have wanted or "tryed" making this game is long.

And for some reson most of you think that making a game is some thing impossible to the normal human, this is not true one man can make a game it just takes time.

I saw that the problem with the old JJ3 game had problems with finding a publisher, this is not a problem at all you just got to know the right people.

We're not using Epic's Unreal engine so we won't have to pay a billion dollars to publish it.

Well this Isn't all hypotethically speaking, actualy nothing of it is, we have in fact started developing the game.

I don't know if theres already some one else trying to do the same, thought i dubt it.

Well anyways We're in need of your support, well we'll make the game with or with out your support of course, but it would be nice having the community with us on this.

So please back us up, I wasn't too sure about posting this thought but I feel that the people that loves Jazz the most should know.

Regards,
Erlend - ambesoftware

Wow. Uhh, I certainly didn't think JJ3 would come near release in my time.

Hang on, wouldn't you have to use different characters from Jazz, Spaz and Lori?

Have you considered that the Jazz Jackrabbit franchise/characters are intellectual property of Epic?

yes of course, I'm not asking for advise here. I'm asking your opinion, why would you think that we havent already tougth about that for our self. but thanks for your concern.. I guess .. sounded a bit hostile thought .. ^^

Well, given that you get all the legal issues sorted out, I'm sure you can request virtually anything from anyone here ;p

working on it , I just wanted to know if this would all be worth the effort ^^ .. I hope it is :P

Yeah theres a lot of jazz fans here and it would be well worth it , But keep some of the game Origanal please.

I'm a little confused by your business model. How would you expect to make money on this/why would you not be concerned with publisher difficulties?

Well, as long as Epic lets us, finding a willing publisher isn't a problem(if this was your question? )

I would make a proof-of-concept first to wow Epic with.
We've sent enough "Can I continue Jazz??/" emails to Epic which has annoyed them. Or at least Mark Rein and Tim Sweeny.

Well, what I asked you was exactly the reason for which we haven't considered making it ourselves I think; that the characters and franchise are someone else's property and that we can't use them for a new game without licensing it.

Also most of us don't really have the time to work on such a big project I think, as we're all busy with school et cetera. :)

I also doubt that when Epic gives us their blessing it would be easy to find a publisher. Publishers want to make profit; a bunch of high school kids (which most of us here are, I don't know about you) saying they're gonna make a sequel to a game that didn't sell very well in the first place without any financial backup or substantial portfolio (I guess ambesoftware's site would've shown something if you had actually releases something already) won't give them very much confidence in whether this project is gonna be finished or will sell well.

Perhaps you'd convince me if you gave a little more information on the team you're doing this with and your prior experience :). Also, you said you're not gonna use the Unreal engine, which one are you using then?

Hey, interesting thread.

If I may inquire, what kind of staff do you/would you have working on the game? You mentioned it being a one man project. How do you deal with art, design, etc? Do you have any sort of business model?

Questions like these may come over as hostile - I don't think many of us mean them so, and would love to see a project as you describe come off the ground and work, but with the information given it is not very easy to judge the prospects of such a project - and its support. Support needs trust, first. With proper information, you're much more likely to get the project off the ground.

Regarding publishers, I'm not sure, but I thought *Epic Games* actually helped in the problem of finding a publisher. You say finding a publisher is just about knowing the right people. That seems a simple answer to the problem - I'd think a huge company such as Epic wouldn't fail because they didn't know any people. The (US) unpopularity of JJ2 - and thus the possible lack of sales prospects for JJ3 - might be more of the problem.

Well, the guy sounds good-hearted, I'll give him that. But if you're going to write a letter to Epic asking permission to use the Jazz trio, make sure it's written well. No "please ^^" and smilies and whatnot. Make it sound as professional and flawless as you can.

Also, Jazz3D doesn't look or play like a terrible game, but no one showed interest in publishing it (or at least I think that's how it went..). Like Stijn said, what makes you think anyone is going to want to publish a sequel to a game that didn't do so hot the second time around?

I think this could work out more if the whole publishing and making money idea was thrown out. It would be much more approachable to just say, "Hey, we're making a freeware game, we don't want to screw up the plot and characters like JJGBA." You know.. For the fans, by the fans. Which is basically what half these kids have been attempting to do for years.

What you're asking is like a hamburger. You've got the buns, but where's the beef?

It's an old game, so there's always the option of buying rights (which isn't unheard of). Though I kind of suspect that if everyone donated money we'd only raise like 200 dollars.

Hi, would you mind giving us a brief list of games or other software projects you have worked on? How many titles have you completed and shipped?

Also, could you tell us a little more about this project? What is your timeline like, and where are you in it now? Are you making the design from scratch, or are you working off of the previously attempted Jazz3D by World Tree Games? What resources (money, personal, intellectual property, etc.) will you need and how much of that do you have so far?

We are interested in seeing a (good) new game in the Jazz Jackrabbit series. Because of this we are interested in the plausibility of your proposal.

A wise man once said the difficult is done at once the impossible just takes a bit longer. I'm sure you all are interested in seeing a good game here, and it will be. We're using the story form the old game (kidnapped family) but We're be adding alot of stuff like cutscenes and dialog between the characters and people in the game.

I tought if we could play the game with just jazz that it would give us the opportunity to meet the other charaters (spaz and lori ) and interact with them in the game.

I've also wanted to add the chapters in, with parodies of other : games ,films etc like jazz2.

The game play will be like in jazz2 with the left hook and the spining ears when you jump in mid air, and of course the air board.

But this is all open for discustion since we're still in the startup fase.

My staff, most of them are a mercenaries, they do what they're payed to and moves on.

As for the engine we're using the 3DGS A6 - Pro, its a realy good engine and cheap 899USD for the pro edition. A good game made with this engine would be for example "Axys - The battle agains the lies", "Sunset Down " "Glider" "Days of sail" "Stromberg" Google them, oh yeah and KABUS 22 http://www.kabus22.com/.

We have the concept art for Jazz ready, and the main movement is down(running, superRunning, shooting and jumping aswell as a cammera script that is much better than the one the old game had .) and the Modeler and animator is just waiting for my go to make Jazz.

Radium, I'm not asking for any money form the community, But Is there anyone that knows what the rights for the game would cost ? let me know.

As for other company projects, as I said It's an Indie Gamedevelopment company, but the rate of company projects have been low. We have mostly done work for other companys and made our money that way with no real care for the projects at hand, as long as I get my money for the scripting I do I'm happy, right? But this doesn't mean We don't know how to put together a great game.

I will give you a demo of the scripting and the gameplay when I get done with the movement code, so you can see for yourselfs.

I hope this awnsers some of you questions, keep asking.

Regards,
Erlend - ambesoftware

Hmm, why use Jazz's likeness? Why not just create a spiritual sequel? It's the hip thing to do, and you don't have to pay for the rights.

...use Skitch Possum.

I am still interested in hearing what titles you and your team members have worked on before. Who is working with you on this anyway? What are all of your roles? Also, how did you learn about Jazz Jackrabbit and what made you pick up this project?

(For screenshots of that Axys game, http://www.ag.ru/screenshots/axys_ad...ainst_the_lies. From what I understand, you're using 3D GameStudio for the game, right?)

I'd still be interested in the size of your staff and your solution of the publisher problem :)

This could be a weird question, but isn't using the quake 3 engine a possibility?
Spending 900 dollars on a game engine is quite a lot of money, especially if there is a very small chance that the game will ever be sold...

I'm not sure if you can freely use the Q3 engine for a commercial project, Xobim. I recall something being up with that, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I'm not sure if Epic would even want to sell the rights to Jazz. But if you can look and sound convincing enough (like Stijn said) they may just consider it. On the other hand, it would be a lot simpler to make a spiritual sequel like Strato mentioned.

The main problem with JJ2 was that the publishers simply didn't do their job right, thus a lack of advertising. Even though JJ2 just wasn't as well polished as JJ1, shorter and too easy in general, it probably would have done better if there had been better advertising (for example, in Europe the game did a lot better.) You could perhaps bring that up if you really want to use Jazz.

The Q3 engine source was released under the GPL license, so all derivative works should be released under the GPL license too, AFAIK; there would be no problem with selling a Q3-based game in stores, but the source code should be available for free too.

To make a grate game one must care for his project, and wan't it done. I do not care for "Skitch Possum".

As for what we have worked on, there's no mature titels, I can give you some titles but I'm not sure you would have heard any thing about them. The river bent project, I've done some scripting for Zelda - Sword of Power (fan game) and so on, And I could also mention our last project a Desert combat like game. I worked on that ntil the project manager and my best friend killed him self november last year.

Xobim, I allready own this engine and there's no additonally phublishing fee.

Keep asking, I'll be back tomorrow.

Regards,
Erlend - Ambesoftware

I can't find anything on the names you've given. Links would be helpful. I'm also still interested in the answers to other questions I've asked above. Thanks.

If it were published well... ^_^

hi
 

I've wouldn't know, I give them the scripts they give me money .. although, heres the one of the companys, that one behind the resort game: http://www.nordic-epitaph.com/.

As for the question about my roles, did you mean like what I do in our company? If that is the question: I'm a scripter.

I first played the game when my brother brought it home from one of he's trips Jazz Jackrabbit on a floppy disk (remember those?^^)(or 2 ) I could play for hours ^^ great game, played it on windows 95(the good times ^^).

How I got the idea.. well I was playing jazz2 on my laptop and I thought "this would be cool in 3D" I remembered seeing some thing like that surfing the nett a while back, and that it was canceled, sounds a bit simple but thats the truth^^.

That should cover your questions. Keep asking^^

Regards,
Erlend

Oh , I'm sorry I forgot.

Here's the thing for our publisher: I have a long list of possible publishers, the thing we need to do now is start sending mails, but this won't be done ntil I get a clear awnser form epic. (I can post a list if thats needed)^^

As for the team: we are 3 and We are looking for the fourth (a level designer).

Keep 'em commin'

Regards,
Erlend

Will th 3D version be FPS or TPS?

I'll LOVE you if there was a chance to make it into the style as Sonic Rush (3D modeled characters, and perhaps levels(!), but 2D levels.)

I'm not the biggest fan of 3D platformers D: I still play them but I like 2D more.

This sounds really nice either way, though.

I'm really interested in this and want to wish you good luck, I hope everything will works out.

The game will be will be TPS , and like Jazz2 in game play (just 3d)

and Olsen, We're disgusting the possibility of having a mini game with the big game, with classic game play. But you could all give your opinion and it will be taken into consideration.

Good to hear Sacrush.

Regards,
Erlend.

I'd ask the same questions as Monolith, as well as the following:

How much of your budget have you obtained capital for? What are your prospects for obtaining remaining capital?

You say that you've worked on projects for other companies. Do you and your colleagues have any experience of working together as a team? What experience does the team leader have in software project management?

The posts you have made here are inherently part of your PR. Why, then, does there seem to be little quality control over your PR? The quality of the language in your posts is substandard. If Epic Games were to allow the use of the Jazz Jackrabbit franchise, they would definitely demand more disciplined PR.

Might as well ask some questions while I'm add it.

Will the game be splitted into levels just like JJ2 or will it be one big world just like the cancelled JJ3?

Will it have familiar worlds and enemies that are seen in JJ2 and/or JJ1?

What about multiplayer? any plans for that?



This is all I can think of as for now, I hope to see something (Screenshots?)from this soon.

Will the 3D bonus levels return? ((((=

1/9/07
 

Alister,
since we haven't gotten any kind of permission form the Epic corporation, the big money haven't been invested. And looking for sponsors with no clarification form Epic would be stupid.

I will be honest and say: we do not have much experience working together.
But we are all nice people, I don't think that will be a problem.

As for the PR, you are free to join to get our PR sorted.
We would love to have you.

Sacrush,

It will be a combination between the original JJ3 game play and JJ2 platform jumping. But this is all up for debate.

There will be a multiplayer gamemode of course.

Xobim,

seeing as the game is in 3D, But we haven't really thought of bonus levels.

Regards,

Hmmm.... maybe if you could get a good lawyer to right it up...

One of the important things to remember is keep everything in the letter business, no small talk or anything like that.

Now it's time to look at things from a lawyers perspective (the evil kind who knowingly help murderers:

-A company of less than 100 people isn't worth investing in.
-In the near future we may find a way to squeeze more juice from the series.
-The fan base is what? 1000 people? That's baby peas.
-How many commercial games have they made? Let's see... Zero I think is right.
-Who's gonna publish it? We tried that, remember? And if our engine ain't good enough...

Now you see, these are all things you have to work with. A successful game sells more than 1 000 000 copies. Now even if people try it, there is probably enough prejudice against it for publishers to get queezy.

Now, I'm not trying to be mean. In fact, I'm hoping this thing gets going! But it's important to be realistic, not just optimistic.

Anyways, good luck guys! :)

Why is being realistic important? You state that as a fact, without gving any support for it :(

Okay, I give my vote that you add that kind of minigame, if you ever get the time. ;)

Is important to be realistic in what you do, but we ain't looking for any big time investors, so what you see as a problem here isn't realy an issue. We might be lookin for some sponsors but that is'nt to be delt with yet. But the people working on this game is getting there money.

Olsen
that makes at least 3 votes (including mine 4)^^

Regards,
Erlend