JETT's out!
Ahhh.... that feels *so* great to say.
With last week's debut of JETT on Steam and with the release of Given Time, we're feeling well satisfied. Our 1000 year interstellar dev trip has run its course, and now a distinct and newly-complete videogame vision is widely available, forevermore.
To those of you who have embarked, deployed, adapted, persevered and/or arisen with us - thanks so much.
This is an odd, ambitious, multi-faceted project. It has been a labor of love for all involved, and so it's very heartening to hear from those of you for whom this thing resonates. It's a thrill to think that people will be discovering JETT for years to come, now that it's out in the wyld. It's our fond hope that it might someday earn cult classic status.
On that topic, hey: if you're enjoying your time in the world of JETT, and if you are so moved, please do lend us hand with a positive Steam review and/or leave a good word someplace, and thanks if you do.
As of this writing we're a week out from January 31st, so here's a round-up of some post-launch news and press, including JETT folks on the Noclip podcast, some positive Given Time coverage on Rock Paper Shotgun and an 8/10 review in Edge Magazine, as well as a recent article featuring Looking Glass alum and JETT Squad 1.0 lynchpin Randy Smith, plus some details about JETT Squad Thursday evening livestreams in February, and QA housekeeping including an update on the turbulence some of you may have experienced this weekend, and even a SHODAN cameo (!).
Phew, that's quite the bundle!
So, ready to stumble reverently onwards?
JETT DEV X NOCLIP PODCAST
We've been chatting with Noclip lately, and a recent JETT dev conversation has been published as a podcast.
From @noclip on Twitter:
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BONUS PODCAST - We talk to the developers of JETT about their decade long journey creating the original Far Shore campaign, and last week's release of Given Time."
If you like game design talk, this is for you!
🔊 Listen: https://noclippodcast.libsyn.com/the-decade-long-creative-development-of-jett
📺 WATCH: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5U4YhmsRezA
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It was a treat to get together and chat with Danny about JETT's unusual dev path, and its satisfying completion with Given Time's release.
About Noclip: Noclip does a weekly podcast with dev chat bonus episodes, but they're primarily a videogame documentary outfit, headed up the ever amiable Danny O'Dwyer. You can find well-crafted and well-informed documentaries on everything from Thief and System Shock, to all things Half Life, with excursions into the smaller-team space with docs about System Era's Astroneer and Supergiant's Hades. Anyways, Noclip's YouTube channel is excellent and worth exploring.
ROCK PAPER SHOTGUN x JETT: GIVEN TIME
Some good words about Given Time from this direction, worth a read!
Thanks to Jeremy Peel and Rock Paper Shotgun for shedding some light on JETT and Given Time!
ROCK PAPER SHOTGUN x RANDY SMITH - A JETT SQUAD ALL-STAR
Also on Rock Paper Shotgun, and also from Jeremy Peel, comes this recent profile of Randy Smith.
Thief developer Randy Smith says "immersion is totally incompatible with ego"
Jeremy's article covers Randy's career from Thief, back in the Looking Glass days, with some discussion about immersive sims, and the article includes a mention of Tiger Style's Waking Mars, and Randy's contributions to JETT.
Randy came into JETT's orbit initially as a design contributor from mid-2017, helping us here and there, before plugging in full-time in mid-2019, bringing a wealth of production experience and design chops, and becoming a JETT Squad lynchpin through some fairly complex stages of production, up until The Far Shore deployed in late 2021.
I think Randy's design contributions to the project really come through in Given Time, where ecosystem-puzzling and free-roaming gameplay come into focus, and where players are given time to soak in a world that reveals JETT's immersive sim aspirations.
As The Far Shore deployed, Randy passed the torch design-wise to his understudy, dev powerhouse Zack Wheeler, whose name you will encounter again at bottom of this post.
^ Randy Smith is @wavesallday_ on Twitter, and he's presently cooking up a fresh new videogame.
It's thanks to Randy that fellow Looking Glass alum Terri Brosius climbed aboard JETT Squad in 2020, plugging into Priscilla Snow's work on JETT's choral and spoken language (detailed in a recent squad profile), and adding capacity to the dialogue-shaping and story-editing efforts, alongside myself, Randy and Nick Suttner.
Terri, who voiced SHODAN in the System Shock series, also voices Misha in JETT. Misha, as some of you may know, is the level-headed and determined commander of Mei and Isao's scout unit. She is tasked by Space Program Overseer Jao to direct the investigation of Tor's solemn cone -- the source of the hymnwave -- from her perch on the command deck of Ground Control, atop Scout's Prospect.
JETT: GIVEN TIME IS AN EDGE 8/10
It was a delight to see JETT: Given Time get a warm welcome from Edge magazine's Chris Schilling in the March 2023 issue's 8/10 review.
“...this generous and welcoming expansion is deserving of any time given over to it."
The snippets above go a long way towards describing the new campaign. For the full review, and a whole lot more besides, with great coverage on the world of videogames, all beautifully laid out, seek out Edge magazine in print and digitally.
Fun fact: Both JETT: The Far Shore's 2021 release and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP's 2012 PC release scored 8/10 with Edge magazine. That's a pretty decent run, particularly given how unorthodox these designs have been. Feels pretty good!
QA HOUSEKEEPING + WEEKEND TURBULENCE
Some intrepid jett scouts may have experienced turbulence over the weekend, as we pushed out some hotfixes. Apologies for that. Regrettable.
Patrick at Pine Scented has been on the case, addressing a handful of the more prominent issues in a recent build, and he and Richard Flanagan are on duty, responding to tickets, finding remaining wrinkles, ironing them out, and surfacing patch notes.
We'd like to pass along a big thank you to all jett scouts and community members who have been helping us along in the discussion threads, you've been great.
SPARK WISPS WITH JETT DEVS THIS THURSDAY
On January 31st we kicked off JETT's jubilee, getting together for a launch livestream with a range of JETT Squad folks playing The Far Shore and cracking into Given Time. This is now archived here.
As JETT's February 2023 'Jubilee!' enters its second week, there's more in store.
On Thursday February 9th from 830pm to 1030pm ET, join Given Time design contributor Richard Flanagan aka @phosfiend and Given Time design/dev/QA powerhouse Zack Wheeler aka @tankooni for the next instalment in their Given Time Debut Playthrough.
Subsequent Given Time streams are scheduled for Thursday February 16 and Thursday February 23rd, kicking off 8:30pm ET.
Come along and spark some wisps, shoot the breeze, see what JETT: Given Time has on offer, and surface any Qs in the chat.
Oh, and you're playing along, take note: on February 9th they'll be starting in the free-roaming mid-section of Given Time, poking at puzzles, getting in and out of JETT dev rabbit holes. There's a (very) low risk of narrative spoilers, so not to worry, you can join in even if you haven't cracked into The Far Shore.
They'll be streaming right here on JETT's Steam page. It should be a fun laidback time. A few other JETT Squad folks will be around, and may stop by the stream.
Until then - stay sharp, scouts, and go gather them wisps!
c
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https://youtu.be/1a12KAlwnJ8
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