Public Commander Keen Forum

Bonevelous wrote:doohickys

Are you LGR??

But yes in all seriousness, this mobile game looks egregious and, frankly, I'm glad it's unavailable in my country.

I really wanted to give it a try, but it's still not available in the US.

I don't understand why they bothered to put so much money into an impressive-looking promotion at E3 if it wasn't even going to come out in this country.

Nintendo released Animal Crossing Pocket Camp in Australia a good, what, six months before the rest of the world to iron out bugs and see what people thought of it. Not sure how long it has been for Keen Mobile (very easy for me to find out, I know, but that's not the point) but I assume the end goal is a smooth release in other parts of the world.

They put so much money for a global release, of course. But they didn't expected a backlash.

The game was planned for release in the summer of 2019. And I believe it was almost done at the time of the announcement. What I think happened is that they saw the massive backlash from the fans. So what did they do? They decided to shut up and not communicate with the fans. A bad decision.

Then, they decided to delay the release thinking fans will calm down. And yeah, few months later, no one was talking about it anymore. Fans wanted to forget it's existence. That would've been the right decision, if in the meantime they remade the game to something actually good. But they didn't. They already poured some money into it and they decided to just postpone the release, which is another bad move.

Then, in November 2019, they figured it's time to release it, but in just a few countries. Just to "test" the waters and see what reception and reactions the game will get. The idea behind this being not bringing back the backlash all over again. Clearly someone in Bethesda still believed that they got a good game that will make money despite all that. And presenting it to people that are unaware of the franchise would prove that. Well, the release really didn't brought attention and nobody noticed mostly because it was never released in the US or Europe, that's true. But the few reviews and opinions from those who were able to download and play it proved the game is trash. And this should have taught them a lesson. But judging by their comments, lesson was never learned. They didn't step backward by acknowledging that they made some mistakes. Instead, they were acting like they are going to release it in this form whether people like it or not. Yet another bad decision.

But since the reception didn't went well, I think they postponed the global release. From that point onward they went silent. Whether they have finally realized that their game is trash or not, we don't know. Maybe they know it's not ready and that's why it's not released worldwide. Or maybe they have decided to actually make it good? Not likely... Fixed the bugs? Plausible. Or maybe they left it as is and abandon it? Who knows... They still don't want to answer questions from fans.

At this point, since it's not available worldwide and they're not communicating with fans, we should forget about it, until they decide to do something with it again. For now it's worthless digging much more into this topic.

amen!

Commander Keen mobile reboot canceled?

The Commander Keen page on their website is gone and you'll no longer be able to see it: https://www.gokeen.com

https://www.zenimaxonline.com/games

Their youtube videos are gone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtQjGPfkEe8

Their Keen Twitter is also gone.

Their google play store page, however, is still ongoing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... manderkeen

I'm honestly so stoked it's allegedly not going ahead that I'm making my first post here since signing up in 2007.

I feel a bit sorry for the staff who wasted time working on it, though.
Still unsure if it was a giant misstep made out of love, or if they were just trying to bank on nostalgia. Or both.

Just when I thought everything is over...

https://twitter.com/Freschism/status/12 ... 8059740160


A new hope?

We just need something that doesn't look like an insipid vector art children's cartoon, please.

Anything is better than ZeniMax handling it.

lol that's kinda tacky just tweeting "give us the license"

See ya, Commander Keen Mobile. You will not be missed.



Going back to Frederik Schreiber's tweet, I wouldn't mind seeing Commander Keen getting updated with more modern graphics, so long as it isn't M-rated. Commander Keen doesn't need to be edgy like ZeniMax was pushing it to be. It should be made by those who actually care about the source material.

Imagine the experimental possibilities of a current-gen Keen game; stuff like alternating camera angles, more creative secrets and Easter eggs, polygons, fluctuating gravity, multiple weapons and other gadgets, spherical level layouts (want a level on the surface of a tiny moon or asteroid, anyone?), and so on. It's unlikely, sure, but still very much possible. Most of these ideas have already been done by this very modding community on the comparatively primitive Galaxy and even Vorticon engines, so think of what they could pull off with a modern engine.

Personally I'd like to make a new Keen fangame which would represent the "next step" in 2D game engines from the Galaxy era. Id Software moved right from Keen to Wolfenstein, then to DOOM, completely skipping over any technical advancements that could have been made in 2D engines. I'd like to see a 2D engine that takes advantage of the extra power of early to mid-90's computers (386, 486) rather than late 80's (286), and can do amazing things..... especially with regards to gameplay, music, etc in addition to some extra graphical tricks. This could be a cross-platform thing, so you could run it on 90's hardware or your modern PC or iPhone if you really wanted to.

Modern vector art 2D games that look like bratty Cartoon Network shows drive me nuts, and the new Keen Mobile game having by all accounts terrible gameplay was the nail in the coffin.

I agree. There would be no need to overdo flashy technology but perhaps improved computing power under the hood could deliver a more up to date game experience. Cosmetically I would have envisaged Official TUIT as 2D, with tasteful 256 colour VGA, maybe still 2.5D (in the Galaxy sense of the word), maybe with some innovative mimics of 3D movement but without any true 3D graphics, and with tasteful use of parallax backgrounds. Music still synthesised by the sound card. But the improved RAM and disk space of the early mid 90s would have lended itself to more complex gameplay, the type of stuff hinted at in the "Fight For Justice" blurb. Perhaps some more detailed personality driven mid 90s style elements (like a less dark "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream") but retaining a free flowing platforming mechanic as the core of the gameplay. We have to remember there are limitations to the possibilities a platformer can offer and Keen, Cosmo and Duke already had most of them covered. Raw talent, backed by generous resources, is what would have yielded the ultimate platformer, which seems never to have happened due to the overwhelmingly rapid arrival and subsequent impact of DOOM. I guess the upside of the sorry impact on our franchise, is that our backstory is all the more interesting and complex as a result.

keenmaster486 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 17:31 Personally I'd like to make a new Keen fangame which would represent the "next step" in 2D game engines from the Galaxy era.

You've been working on it since 2016. Why don't you post some progress update?