Desktop or Laptop? If Desktop I've got a less powerful rig but have been able to run it fine. The only pregame adjustment I did before hand was through the games launch screen - I set resolution to my native resolution.

Also, ATI has been horrible with drivers for Windows 8. If your Radeon card is a Sapphire Radeon card make sure to the get the latest driver from Sapphire's site and not AMD/ATI.

Also, since running Win 8 Catalyst has been crapping itself constantly. The last time it corrupted itself I removed it completely and just left Radeon's drivers in tact which solved a lot of issues for me.

I'm running on a desktop. I've tried updating the drivers (both ATI and MSI) it doesn't really seem to solve the issue. Removing the CCC and leaving the updated drivers isn't working out for me either.

So you don't get an error at all?

You always could try to run it in compatibility mode. Preferably as Windows XP SP2 or just Windows 7.

When i start the game it gets to the launcher where i'm able to configure my graphical settings. I've tried changing them to various combinations but nothing seems to work.

When i decide to press 'launch game' it starts a fullscreen windows and instantly crashes leaving me with a general windows pop-up saying: "JDLauncher.exe has stopped working."

Tried to run it in compatibility mode yet? Keep in mind to run the game in compatibility mode and not the launcher. To be sure, run both in compatibility mode.

If this doesn't work, contact the developers as I don't see them coming here a lot. probably never.

Yeah i've tried doing that aswell but unfortunately it doesn't work. I'll contact the developers. thanks!

im getting this problem as well how i contact the developers
????

I've contacted the developers at hello@hellogames.co.uk. I've also send the developers a reference to this thread so i hope they're looking at the issue right now.

Here yuou have all the fixes: http://www.hellogames.org/joe-danger-pc-support/