Keen:Life Trilogy -- my concept for a mod trilogy

This is where you can post your Commander Keen related stories, artwork, or other stuff that is related to Commander Keen but otherwise doesn't belong in another forum.

Should this be made?

Yes!
8
67%
Don't bother
4
33%
 
Total votes: 12

KeenEmpire
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Post by KeenEmpire »

VikingBoyBilly wrote:Is Keen going to ever contemplate the millions of vorticon deaths that bloodied his hands?
I think this storyline has a lot of promise, being both dark and canon. It's also plausible that he couldn't simply revive Vorticons who had died prior to backup tech being researched. And if he ever finds out he had a 3-level path to victory that would have avoided the majority of deaths, well.

Such a mod would probably involve Braid-like mindscrewness. At some point, reliving some Keen 3 levels with neural stunner, reliving some Keen 4-6 with insanely OP weaponry, leaving smoke and ash in place of every level he finishes. Weird symbolism (though I guess that's more of a challenge without Braid's time-themed mechanics).

Backdrop against 2-3 levels showing what's happening in real life. The Vorticon VI events are one of the few things that might have realistically broken him. Perhaps he starts somewhere on Earth and decides to take out the old Megarocket for a last hoorah. Only via secret levels might he reach something even approaching a recovery, while otherwise the successfully completed story ends with him surviving but running away forever, much like the Doctor.
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Post by troublesomekeen »

In other news today, Winnie-the-Pooh is getting a new remake scheduled to come out next year, produced by Christopher Nolan. It's a new take on the beloved childhood story and by the looks of the trailer, it looks promising. Very dark, very gritty.. and quite tragic in many ways, seeing Pooh slowly deteriorate only to be resurrected as a horrible, psychotic stuffed bear. The really sad part is at the end of the movie, Christopher Robin has to destroy Pooh, who was once an innocent, silly old bear. It's really cool, too, because as Christopher Robin is growing up and has dealings with the villainous Pooh, Chris can see a reflection of himself in Pooh. Corrupt, faded, grim, ugly, stained by the passing of time, darkened by the loss of youthfulness. Wow. It's almost like I've seen the movie already.

We know what Commander Keen is like. We know what his attitude is. We've seen Ruin of Roib, too. Make whatever mod you want. Portray Keen how ever you wish. But a drinking, smoking, depressed, self-destructive Keen? That's entirely out of character. Sure, it's interesting to wonder what an adult Keen would be like, but based upon what we know of his early days, I think it is fairly plain to see that this little hero of the universe, a genius with a big imagination had a great adult life full of challenges and pitfalls, but also no small score of tremendous victories and stupendous achievements. Yes sir! I don't know of older Commander Keen still flies his BWB Megarocket anymore. It's likely he built something bigger and better later on.

Commander Keen isn't a tragedy. He's great! He figures things out and makes things work. He'll stop at nothing until his quest is done, no matter if he loses a bit of sleep. He's a quirky little guy, too. Despite his godly IQ, he knows he's not invincible. One look at the Shikadi for the first time had him shaking in his sneakers. But Keen? A good-for-nothing, crestfallen lout? Nonsense. He's a real go-getter. Anyways, that just my two cents. Carry on, keeners! And remember! Where you can't, Keen can!

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VikingBoyBilly
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

troublesomekeen wrote:In other news today, Winnie-the-Pooh is getting a new remake scheduled to come out next year, produced by Christopher Nolan. It's a new take on the beloved childhood story and by the looks of the trailer, it looks promising. Very dark, very gritty.. and quite tragic in many ways, seeing Pooh slowly deteriorate only to be resurrected as a horrible, psychotic stuffed bear. The really sad part is at the end of the movie, Christopher Robin has to destroy Pooh, who was once an innocent, silly old bear. It's really cool, too, because as Christopher Robin is growing up and has dealings with the villainous Pooh, Chris can see a reflection of himself in Pooh. Corrupt, faded, grim, ugly, stained by the passing of time, darkened by the loss of youthfulness. Wow. It's almost like I've seen the movie already.
This might sound like a stupid question, but I threw out television to stop getting distracted by this kind of news, so... is this real? :confused
I mean, I assume it's a joke naturally, but after what Tim Burtin did to Alice in Wonderland, I can believe this crap can really happen.
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Post by Plasma Captain »

troublesomekeen wrote:Commander Keen isn't a tragedy. He's great!... He's a real go-getter.
You know what? You're right. This kid commits genocide on an enslaved race, believes himself to have murdered another child, and happily goes on with his life without a second thought or an ounce of remorse. Truly, his mental disorder is not depression, but sociopathy.

Also, I think my favourite Pooh book was the one in which a bunch of escaped convicts end up in the woods, Pooh murders the crap out of them, and Christopher Robin calls him a silly old bear.

KeenEmpire, that... actually sounds rather interesting.
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Post by KeenEmpire »

VikingBoyBilly wrote:
troublesomekeen wrote:In other news today, Winnie-the-Pooh is getting a new remake scheduled to come out next year, produced by Christopher Nolan. It's a new take on the beloved childhood story and by the looks of the trailer, it looks promising. Very dark, very gritty.. and quite tragic in many ways, seeing Pooh slowly deteriorate only to be resurrected as a horrible, psychotic stuffed bear. The really sad part is at the end of the movie, Christopher Robin has to destroy Pooh, who was once an innocent, silly old bear. It's really cool, too, because as Christopher Robin is growing up and has dealings with the villainous Pooh, Chris can see a reflection of himself in Pooh. Corrupt, faded, grim, ugly, stained by the passing of time, darkened by the loss of youthfulness. Wow. It's almost like I've seen the movie already.
This might sound like a stupid question, but I threw out television to stop getting distracted by this kind of news, so... is this real? :confused
I mean, I assume it's a joke naturally, but after what Tim Burtin did to Alice in Wonderland, I can believe this crap can really happen.
You should watch Tin Man (it's actually pretty decent).
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Plasma Captain wrote:You know what? You're right. This kid commits genocide on an enslaved race, believes himself to have murdered another child, and happily goes on with his life without a second thought or an ounce of remorse. Truly, his mental disorder is not depression, but sociopathy.
Aw, nuts. What ever happened to the friendly stun setting? I guess that came later..
Vorticon King wrote:"Commander Keen, in honor of your meritorious
service in freeing us from the Grand Intellect's
mental chains,"
"I and the other Vorticons you haven't slaughtered
want to award you the Big V, our highest honor.
Ain't that just like an old Apogee Game?
Hey now. An eight year-old is not a sociopath if the bad guys in an imaginary universe populated with stuffed vorticons and vortininja toys get the stuffing zapped out of them during the progression of the story--if you know what I mean. Who feels remorse for the villain(s)? Oh wait. Mind control.

KeenRush, I think you should make a censored version of the Vorticon trilogy. I mean the version where no innocents die.
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Post by Plasma Captain »

In truth, I always got the feeling that Keen started using a stun gun in order to prevent that sort of thing from happening again, so I feel like he probably did think about what he'd done. Though he did seem pretty ready to kill Morty, and his reaction to discovering that he's alive was more along the lines of "Hey, I thought I killed that guy. What gives?"

By the way, I love the fact that you can learn that the Vorticons are innocent creatures being mind-controlled in the middle of the second game, and then choose whether you want to do the right thing (kill only when necessary) or continue to gun down everything in sight. It has no bearing on the end result, but that actually makes it more meaningful - there's no reward for playing morally. What are you going to do?
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Plasma Captain wrote:In truth, I always got the feeling that Keen started using a stun gun in order to prevent that sort of thing from happening again, so I feel like he probably did think about what he'd done.
I'm pretty sure the vorticons confistcated his guns and made it illegal for Keen to possess lethal weapons. Maybe that's just my headcanon and KeenQ reshaping reality.
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Post by KeenEmpire »

He still had the HyperPistol in Keen 3.5... or maybe that was all a dream.
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Post by Benvolio »

Veering back towards topic, KeenRush, I would love to see you make a mod or series with some sort of profound or left-field storyline. I think this is a start in that direction, but perhaps you need to step back a little bit and fixate the narrative on some kind of moral or philosophical question. Obviously this is easily written and difficult to give examples of, especially after a 13 hour work day. But I think it is something you could do in a similarly fascinating manner to the likes of Spleen and StupidBunny. Bearing in mind that Keen is almost entirely a graphical experience and, as such, a visual aesthetic is the prime way of conveying said profoundness.

I would leave the jaded, unfit, gone-to-seed middle-aged Keen to Bernie who pretty much has that covered.

Please be encouraged, not discouraged, by this thread.
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Post by Levack »

Story Ruins my picture of keen....just like the ruin of raob.

The unfinished BM keen mod didn't though...
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Post by Bernie »

face the truth. in older age, Keen has gone downhill and is a drunken wreck and around the age of 40 he ODs under a bridge at night while also trying to slit his wrists, with no one around to love him. that's what happens, end of story. face it.
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Post by MoffD »

Bernie wrote:face the truth. in older age, Keen has gone downhill and is a drunken wreck and around the age of 40 he ODs under a bridge at night while also trying to slit his wrists, with no one around to love him. that's what happens, end of story. face it.
*cough*Keen based on Tom Hall *cough*
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

There's a nasty stroke in his future, due to the massive energy demands of his astronomical IQ, but he'll be a happily married game designer. Unfortunately, he'll outgrow his brother's football helmet to the point he'll have to wear it on his fist.
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Post by KeenRush »

I'm still wrestling with that damned 'what to do next' question. It's about two years since my previous mod. I keep thinking about quitting -- I've done so all my modding career -- but I have so many ideas I'd like to do, and modding just is something I'd miss if I quit it altogether. It's just too cool and fascinating. But maybe this will be my last solo work. I'd like to start team-working mods because I don't want to do everything on my own all of the time and because there is so much talent out there. But that's not relevant right now. Right now I'm trying to decide how to work with this. I've sort of decided that I won't make this trilogy, that I'll make the middle episode. And perhaps I will leave all the story out, it starts to look like it might be better off that way. Or make the story lighter, possibly change the objective too, and get rid of the two possible paths and make it more traditional.

Ok, but what is known is that this mod will have a gargload of new tech that I think will be quite interesting to players. That is an aspect I can't wait to show you people.

Here is our hero in his present form:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pa4hufacwj8lg ... 1.png?dl=0
I didn't realize until much later that he looks a lot like Mario. :o
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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