Commander Keen in "Botafloria Is Out Of Flowers"

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 17:03

Thanks a lot. I had to think for a day straight before I made this weapon.

szemi · Post by **szemi** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 17:36

I see.

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 17:40

Benvolio wrote:looks good, very old-skool which of course is largely a good thing! nice looking weapon too.

Indeed, just looking at this screenshot brings me back to the early days of modding, in the best way possible. Really looking forward to this now.

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 17:46

Oh gosh, guys, I'm so glad you like it. I really need to whip up the flower sprites asap and make another level.

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 18:26

Yeah. The graphics and the level design kinda reminds me of a nes game somehow. Maybe nostalgic feeling. As for the gun, I once made almost exactly the same design, but without the cartridge in the upper left, which I would suggest you to remove because although it's logical to be there, it simply ruins the look of the whole gun and doesn't fit in such a small size. some random things

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 19:33

I'm actually kinda attached to the cartridge as it makes the gun seem "new sci-fi"-ish instead of steampunkish but I'll see what I can do. Seeing as all point items are animated, maybe I could also animate the liquid inside the cartridge. Hmm...
I'm a new keener and I have no idea what you mean by old school (I suppose you mean pre-2005/6 mods or so?), the mod does look different than any newer mods I've played but I just can't tell why. I'll try to keep this style though.

Some things I'm planning to do:
- Galaxy style alien base levels focusing on exploration, a tiny bit of backtracking and doors. Will need bridges and switches too, I hope I can get them working somehow.
- A very cool effect in certain levels that hasn't been done yet afaik, because eyecandy and earcandy is the only thing I can do. (Not levels!)
- Different level themes. Hey, why not, the story offers many possibilities and I can have as many tilesets as I want. So far there will 100% be grasslands, the aforementioned alien bases and probably caves or something.
- A cool secret level with a surprise or two.
- Galaxy style level graphics on the worldmap.

And much more but I don't wanna spoil a lot. I also used certain gameplay changing patches that don't really keep up the oldschool feel but I actually find them very cool and beneficial.

Benvolio · Post by **Benvolio** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 20:24

Nospike wrote:I'm actually kinda attached to the cartridge

I'd say stick with the cartridge, it makes the gun look more fun and original, like it's maybe fueled by some purple liquid in a tank or something.

A steampunk mod would be cool but perhaps this isn't the project for that style.

By old-skool, I guess I just mean it's not particularly far-fetched or outlandish, instead remniscent of earthlike games like Keen3, Mario, and Xkykeen3 (I'm not telling you to change your style but Xky said of that mod: " it really strikes me how powerful the color black can be. The only place I used black in Episode Dash was to outline Keen, sprites, and points..." and I note that you, like Xky, have not used much black in your backgrounds).

This does look exciting... feel free to not spoil too much of it here if you don't want to, you have whetted our appetites to last us a while, hopefuly not another year and a half!!

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 20:29

Seeing all these positive comments makes me WANT to finish the game soon.
I see what you mean now, and I've always liked earth-like levels with cyan backgrounds and whatnot. The first Vorticons game I've played was Keen 3 and I picked that one because of the background. Good to hear I'm not the only one who likes the atmosphere. It's actually really hard to make the levels somewhat interesting and fun to play even with dirt tiles like this. If it wasn't for the slope patch this level wouldn't exist.

I'd say stick with the cartridge, it makes the gun look more fun and original, like it's maybe fueled by some purple liquid in a tank or something.

Exactly, the cartridge is supposed to contain a purple liquid that powers the weapon. I guess I'll animate it since it won't require a lot of work and should look pretty good.

troublesomekeen · Post by **troublesomekeen** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 21:25

Hmm... Let's have a look. *clicks link* Wow! This really is interesting! Really liking the look of this. The grass is like frosting on a chocolate cake. Needs some random, worthless stuff in the mix of those speckled brown tiles to break in the monotony. Great work! This is exciting!

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 22:32

Good idea, I thought about making some rocks like the ones in Liero to make the tiles more diverse. I did my best to make them look like real dirt even though they are just brown with some dots, and it worked. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep you posted!
Also, tiny update: I just made some pretty decent tree tiles. Next step, tall grass.

Post by **Levellass** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:35

Aaah it's things like this that remind you that often less is more. getting a real yorphius vibe from this little ditty.

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:18

Yorphius was actually my primary source of inspiration when designing certain tiles, like the ladders. I'm probably going to start designing the next level today. What could I do in it, hmm...
Edit: Trees and rocks-in-the-dang-dirt added. Thanks for the feedback because now it looks much better.
Edit 2: Title screen level done.

GameBird · Post by **GameBird** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 5:41

Sweet! This still exists!

Nospike · Post by **Nospike** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:13

Glad you're still interested!

biffstudly · Post by **biffstudly** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:34

Nospike wrote:Good idea, I thought about making some rocks like the ones in Liero to make the tiles more diverse. I did my best to make them look like real dirt even though they are just brown with some dots, and it worked. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep you posted!
Also, tiny update: I just made some pretty decent tree tiles. Next step, tall grass.

Absolutely loving the look of this! (and I'm not usually one for K1-3 mods, honestly). I really hope you get this garg finished, dudesir.

And, the reason why I quoted that specific post to tell you this, well, this is what I do with ground tiles when I feel I need to add an extra flair other than... well, ground texturing:

reg size:

big size:

Sorry that the skull looks like crap, I just did a quickie paint thinger to demonsrate. Dinosaur/alien/anything bones in the ground add a nice little... uh... oomph to any tileset, imo anyways.

Keep up the good work!

(also, idk if that's even a proper size for a keen tile, but whatever.)

Public Commander Keen Forum

Commander Keen in "Botafloria Is Out Of Flowers"

Do you want the new raygun to have recoil?