Public Commander Keen Forum

It is a bit tricky. I suppose color variations, as you said, are one thing you could try. Changing the entire shade is good for differentiation, but I don't think that it would look good given the bright environmental art style. I guess you could try changing an individual color, adding some dithering, or adding some additional pixels of a new color.

The other suggestion I might have is trying a dark gray outline for the background (mushrooms? Not quite sure what the correct term is). I think it's possible that gray outlines wouldn't contrast too much with other black outlines in your foreground art.

I had another suggestion while looking closer at this image. You could try making the bottom of these beanstalks blend into the ground. Instead of a black outline at the bottom, I think it might look good if you remove the outline and make it match the brown or green ground color below.

yeah, you are right. I've already discussed this with a couple of guys some days ago and XkyRauh came up with a pretty neat solution for this:


this also fits in with the root scheme you can see underground.
so, I think I'll go with something like this.

I'm absolutely delighted to see that there is still work being done on this.
All the new material I see since the last time I lurked around looks incredible!
I unfortunately lost my old work so I can't go back and finish it (I hope you still have the level).
Keep up the good work!

Just recently I included your level design proposal. And it fits in perfectly. You had some great puzzle ideas and a good feeling for space. Thanks again for sharing! Let me send you a pm with a screenshot of the current version real quick.

Can't wait for this, this is gonna be amazing

this just keeps looking better and better .. ps welcome back to me after a 4 yr hiatus

a little update for you guys

Haha. I guess a lot of techniques that are used in painting are also applied to pixel art.

I wonder what would happen if one followed along with a Bob Ross guide but used pixel art instead of physical paint. I kinda want to try that sometime lol.

The game looks amazing. I love varied sceneries in different levels, that's what I loved about "Ruin of Roib", "Underworld Ultimate", "Atroxian Realm", and also other platformers such as "Zool", "Lollypop", "Fire & Ice: Cool Coyote", "Trolls", "Oscar", "Prehistorik", "Hocus Pocus"...

thanks for your kind words! appreciated.
here's another sneak peak for your enjoyment:

Looks like a coral reef...

This looks fantastic, I love how it breaks the tile grid look to a more natural flow...

so now it's xky keen mod? with the keen 59 tileset?

Nowhere Girl wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 16:54 Looks like a coral reef...

It sure is. I'm happy you could identify it as such.

DoomJedi wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 19:22 This looks fantastic, I love how it breaks the tile grid look to a more natural flow...

thanks! I'm glad you like it
yeah, I try to think beyond the classic 16x16 tile logic, in an effort to make more 'realistic' environments. therefore colour is also key

Roobar wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 5:29 so now it's xky keen mod? with the keen 59 tileset?

it's everything...
on a more serious note. This game follows a couple of principles. One of which is to make use of or recycle abandoned stuff created by the community. FitF itself is a project started by Mr.M back in the day and got lost due to a harddrive crash. With that in mind it just makes sense to pick XkyKeen as our main avatar. and there is so many other high quality things made by the community that have never seen the light of day or got lost along the way. For instance I'll feature a fine creature created by DoomJedi that never got used in any other mod. And Plasma Captains spiky Bounder like seen in some screenshots. Or just remember your crushed RoboRed interpretation...

And on the other hand FitF will of course celebrate some elements of other mods that influenced my creative thinking along the way. But if you take a closer look you will notice that these aren't just simple ripoffs but reinterpretations of the source material. So yeah, you will most likely find references every now and then. But I can promise you that each and every level will have character and come with unique ideas that haven't been seen before. Quality and an essential recognition factor always come first in my creative development process.
I think, I hope, you will like the output. At least I'm making all this with the community in mind...

cool, but honestly, I prefer the old school keen skin