Making a new mod (or not...)

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entropicdecay
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Making a new mod (or not...)

Post by entropicdecay »

(I hope it's not too annoying of me to post this)

So I was thinking: to me, Keen 0 is a pretty bad mod. The level design is pretty bad in general, and the whole thing just has an aura of "n00b" to me. I'm trying not to be too self-deprecating about this, but the fact is that I'm just not proud of it and I don't really want it to be my only full mod. So I'm going to, at some point, make a new mod. I have been vaguely implying I might, on and off, for a while now...

But what I'm going to do, to ease myself back into things somewhat, is make what is essentially a Keen 0 levelpack with more patching and possibly some new graphics... it might well not have all that many levels, I'm not sure right now. I sort of considered trying to make a better version of the original Keen 0, but to me that feels like trying to change the past in a way, whereas this is a little more like making peace with it and kind of building on some elements of it.

I know it can be kind of annoying starting a thread about a project that hasn't really begun yet. Hopefully I'll have some screenshots or something like that soon. This hopefully won't take that long to make...
Last edited by entropicdecay on Mon Apr 28, 2008 21:40, edited 1 time in total.
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KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

Nice to hear you'll be making a new mod, I will too, eventually. I suggest keeping Keen 0 as it is, and concentrate on the new mod once its time. This both because I like K0 as it is, and because in my opinion there's not much point in bettering old work. But anyways, meanwhile the level pack sounds good. :)
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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entropicdecay
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Post by entropicdecay »

Yeah, there's not really much point trying to go back and improve something I made ages ago, rather it's better to try and work on something new. And here's some screenshots:

Image

This is from the in-progress world map, which is probably going to be fairly basic but hopefully less of a total cop-out than the one I put in the original Keen 0. To be honest, working with Keen 0 stuff now is kind of awkward, because I did a lot of things that screwed up a lot of it (editing the EXE file instead of patching was probably one of the stupidest...) and things like the superfluous trying-to-parody-nonsensical-religious-symbolism-in-video-games-and-anime-but-failing cross-shaped explosions of all the enemies etc. seem really dumb now, but I can't be bothered to change them because I dislike working with the graphics. Maybe my new 'proper' mod will actually be more of a level pack with patching, with the original Keen 1/2/3 graphics...

Image

From the also work in progress first level.
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entropicdecay
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Post by entropicdecay »

Actually, I really think it was a mistake to make this thread before I'd even really started with the mod... I really don't want to do this. I'm not enjoying trying to make it and I can't work with the Keen 0 graphics very well. And promising two mods, I really made a mistake here.

As pointless as it may be, I'm going to release this as a one-level mod without patches.

Link

Edit: And then I go and actually forget to include the Keen 1 EXE... oh man.
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KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

Heh, so what it's gonna be? A new mod but no Keen 0 level pack?
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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entropicdecay
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Post by entropicdecay »

I don't know. I'm not going to rule out the possibility of some new mod/levelpack, but I find myself wishing I hadn't said I definitely would make one either. Really I should have waited until I had some progress (or in this case until I had given up) before making a thread because right now I don't feel like making anything, and I feel like I've made a big mistake making this thread and saying I would do stuff only to give up almost immediately. It has not been one of my better ideas. I'm sorry.
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XkyRauh
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Post by XkyRauh »

Some comments, based only on the screenshots:

For the map screen, make sure you've got some sort of texture / context for the area the player is traversing. If you're going to keep it that cyan color, make sure either a) the ground in the levels is similarly cyan, or b) there are landmarks / detail tiles scattered about so that we don't feel like we're walking in the sky. :)

For the levels, maybe play with different visual variations on the diamond-block tiles. Maybe some with hatching around the corners, others with larger squares in their center... maybe even some with crumbling edges. :) Anything to break up the monotony.

Gonna download and play!

Edit: Yay! The ground matched the map floor, at first, in-level--that's awesome. :) My other comments still stand...

For what it's worth, you could go anywhere with this. It's your call whether to start something new or keep working.
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Post by KeenEmpire »

I like these colors. Although there's not much else I can say about it.
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