Public Commander Keen Forum

Hey hey! How's it going today? Good, no? Great!
So I had an idea today. There's a few really cool mods out there that have really cool concepts, like Birdman, Adventures in the BwB Megarocket, Mink's Puzzle Pack, and Dead in the Desert. (Not to say the other mods aren't cool.)
What about a 1-level Overworld mod? The idea is...
...A GIANT OVERWORLD! I mean like humongous. And it's filled with dangerous tiles, mazes, puzzles, and creatures that move around the Overworld killing Keens, much like in Mink's Puzzle Pack.
If I'm not mistaking, when Keen dies in the Overworld, he starts again at the entrance of the most recent level he completed. So within this giant Overworld would be various levels which would be used as Half-Way Marks, like in Donkey Kong Country. There could also be things to interact with, like talking to Imposter Keen in Dead in the Desert. All the creatures would have to have heavy patching so that they could function properly in the Overworld. And I'm not sure which Keen episode this would work (if it can work) best on. 4, 5 or 6?

Wouldn't it be cool if Keen could shoot his blaster while moving about the Overworld? I wonder if a patch like that is possible. The game would be like a overhead shooter! like... Jackel, or the second stage in Contra (NES). What do you think of this idea? Good? Bad? Not worth it? What are your thoughts or ideas? Tell me! I demand to know!

I really, REALLY like this idea. An overworld with just as many obstacles as a level would make any Keen mode 110% more awesome.

Yes, getting the patches is probably possible. The biggest things to remember are memory and other limitations. You could probably get the world map pretty big (I've already succeeded in making a much bigger world map than Keen 4's original), but once it gets too big you might run into problems with having a lot of sprites, lots of patches, a big music file, etc. And don't forget about tile limitations, both in how many unique tiles you can have and how many animated tiles you can have. You probably won't be able to get things quite as large as you want, but you should definetely try.

Perhaps it would be possible to patch in multiple levels that also act as world maps. Completing one world map (level) could unlock a patch through on the main map.

As for the Keen game, each one has its advantages and disadvantages. Ideally, it would be possible to patch in elements from all the different Keen games, but I haven't seen any succesful patches with this yet. Keen 6 is probably your best bet, but it all depends on what you want to do. Definetely think this one out a bit.

I see enemies in the overworld best being implemented as animated tiles. Sprites turn into level entrances on the world map. I'm not sure you can patch them out of that state, and if you did, you'd get weird behavior, like them 'falling' to the nearest wall to the south.

I had the idea of making a giant Keen maze, but the concept by itself didn't seem to have a lot of merit, so it never reached fruition.

Maybe this mod could have some maze elements?

VikingBoyBilly wrote:I see enemies in the overworld best being implemented as animated tiles. Sprites turn into level entrances on the world map. I'm not sure you can patch them out of that state, and if you did, you'd get weird behavior, like them 'falling' to the nearest wall to the south.

Keen:Galaxy level sprites are fortunately not as commandeered as Keen:Vorticon ones. For example, my first attempt at Keen 4 modding had some Bounders on the map along with some other random stuff. Also, I'm pretty sure Mink contributed to some level pack that had dangerous sprites on the map (and they were the most annoying thing ever). Sprites only turn in to level entrances if they start with some magical hex code (I think $FF).

Great! That's a lot of things to consider. I'll add this to my project queue. In addition to some sort of shooting capability, I think Overworld Keen would need to be able to flip switches -- something which, come to think of it, might be more important that shooting.