A quick update

Hello Jazzers!

My Castle of Cadavers tileset has progressed very much during the last month. The screenshot you see below in the previous entry is, I am proud to announce, very obsolete! I will actually soon start having space problems, since about 600 tiles out of 1010 maximum are already used. The dungeon part that the screenshot shows is already very enjoyable and playable, but lacks the primary eye-candy. Many of the essential tiles are done however.

When I started this blog, I said I would be writing to this blog in real-time, meaning that if I made something to the progressing tileset, I'd say it here. This has not come to reality unfortunately. However, I have made diary entries to a text file, that's here on my computer ^^. In addition to these texts I have captured screenshots from according development phases. They are fun to examine!

From the back row: "To the point already, Blade!" Yes, very well :) Soon I will be start adding these diary entries to this blog, and you will be having the excitement of reading what has been really happening in the tileset creation during this summer and the fall. There are two primary reasons why I didn't do this real-time. 1. I was lazy. 2. Most importantly, I was not so excited about releasing very unfinished screenshots of the tilesets. They could have parts that do not make it to the final release and would make people angry or some other unwanted mood. This would also interfere to my vision of the upcoming tileset since people would like to give their opinions on the tileset. This is not always bad thing, you guys have given me a lot of advice during these years in the great JJ2 community. The base of the tileset is a hallowed thing that I need to do by myself :) Now that the tileset is well on the way, and know that this is going to be released, I can show the screenshots and my thoughts more openly.

Yes, that's all folks for this time.

P.S.: Mike, I am waiting for another entry in your blog! ;)

Blade begins

This entry launches the one and only Blade blog. Welcome aboard people! :)

First some answers. I do not thoroughly know who will read this blog over the time, and I won't assume that you readers know who is this guy Blade.

I am Blade, a character from Finland. Years ago, in 1998, I received a birthday present of my life. It was the PC platformer game Jazz Jackrabbit 2. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Jackrabbit_2), sequel of the widely known classic computer game Jazz Jackrabbit. JJ2 offers its players a chance to make their own levels to the game and create new environments (tilesets) by drawing them for example with the modest painting program Microsoft Paint. I believe I started experimenting with JJ2 levels and tilesets because I felt the original levels didn't match with the outstanding graphical quality of the original tilesets. Epic MegaGames pretty much wasted all the superior 2D graphics because of rushed level design. In addition, the single player campaign is finished in few hours. Things led to another, and here I am, planning my 14th tileset, codename Castle of Cadavers :)

The reason this blog was created comes here. I feel the need of documenting the whole Castle of Cadavers creation process. Firstly, I feel like owing this to you JJ2 community guys because of the countless silent months I've been having over the years. Also, there has been very little information on the previous tilesets, and I would like to write the stuff to paper (or similar :) ). With this blog I intend to:

1. Record the planning and drawing phases of the upcoming 14th JJ2 tileset.
2. Tell about the problems and slowdowns I know I will encounter :)
3. List a lot of points of interest
4. Show many pictures of the coming tileset.

However, this blog is not all about Castle Of Cadavers. I plan to go through also my old tilesets one by one, and tell many interesting things about them you haven't even imagined before. One upcoming topic will be the Blade tilesets before the Aztec set (It's actually my third tileset! ;) )

Unfortunately I have some bad news to tell. I won't be updating this blog very often this spring. I must concentrate on the economy studies I have and the test in June will decide lots of things about my future. This is the reason this Blade really begins some time after 19th of June, 2007.

Stay on the same channel, maybe I still have some quick additions to the blog before June ;) Jazz Jackrabbit 2 forever!