Do you like my Keen output/work?

[Commander Spleen]

I'm always amazed by your graphics and creative engine tweaks, but your level designs always annoyed the hell out of me. Your more recent mods that make use of the infinite lives patch are much more enjoyable. Each level requires practice, and it's very tiring when you have to either restart the game every 5 attempts or return to the menu and reload. Some levels in Extinction I have probably played 40-50 times before completing them, but that wouldn't have happened without being able to just press one button to re-enter the level each time.

But also, after playing a lot of Commodore 64 platform games in recent years, I have a renewed appreciation for the relative consistency of the unforgiving precision required of your work in comparison to some of those old games employing wildly varying physics and pixel-perfect challenges. At least with Keen, the skills you learn in one mod can usually be transferred to the next.

Although it would still probably be beyond my skill without using save states, it would be good to see a re-release of Smile with an infinite lives patch.

Despite the frustrations they can cause me, your mods have nonetheless had a rather heavy influence on some of my own work. Not only in terms of DO NOT MAKE THE LEVELS THAT UNFORGIVING, but also through the very Vorticons-spirited environments you create and the neat minimalism of the graphics. Unfortunately, your tendency to actually complete a lot of mods hasn't quite rubbed off as much.

My least favourite part about your work is the amount of almost certainly awesome stuff you Shift-Deleted back in the early days.

(Also I bet KR is the reason for that one 'No' vote above.)

[KeenRush]

Haha, cheers Spleen.

It suffices to mention that I just played OrbKeen beta last week after a long time of not playing it -- it's still rocking after nearly 10 years. I'm waiting the final mod same as ever -- keep working and imagine the triumph of finally uploading the completed work online. (And the horror of starting a brand new mod. )

And actually, I haven't voted in this. Whereas before I would've been the no-voter I've mellowed. And yeah, it's sort of sad all that stuff is shift+del gone, but then again, it was part of the learning process.