My idea is to make a trilogy of mods, all focused on Commander Keen's life. While I've had some serious ideas in my mods before (killing Keen, portraying him as a remorseless psycho, etc.) all that is kind of naive. The focus of this trilogy is more real concerns. You might wonder why I can't just make something happy and in Keen spirit. I just want to make my next mods mean something more. That's all. I want there to be a message. I'm not aiming these to young players who don't know sh-t about anything. I'm aiming these to people of my age, approaching 30s, or older. I've come to realize I'm not that young anymore. So why shouldn't my mod stories be more mature?
These are not titled yet, but these should give some insight.
Episode 1
Mortimer McMire and Princess Lindsey become an item, so to speak. Mortimer no longer wants the Universe to be destroyed. But he is presently entrapped by his own machinery, which he designed so that Keen would 99.99% surely fail to stop his plans. But now his plans must be stopped, and he himself can't help, since he's imprisoned by his devices. As is Lindsey. Can Keen summon the courage to save the Universe at the cost of losing his true love to his worst enemy? (Note: Yes, I know that an eight-year old might not think in such terms or concepts, but this is Keen we're talking about, his high IQ allowing him some more insight into his own emotions.
)Episode 2
Heavily drinking, heavily weighing, working a menial job, most of his IQ gone, 30-year old Billy Blaze doesn't see further than the weekend. Working at one of the wildest Xablon processing units, he is a nihilist and totally numb. Something happens, however, and he is jolted awake a bit. He has to make a choice: Save the plant and be rewarded heavily (McMire Industries is known to be generous to those who are loyal) or take a different path and save his co-worker, the 'humanliest looking gal in sector 5', Sue. Wealth (and Sue's demise) or possibly a new love (and no ca$h)?
Episode 3
Alone in his crumbling and barely floating space mansion, Billy Blaze, 108, feels his mind crumbling and his body weakening. He receives a plea from the Princess, whose voice he has not heard in decades and decades. In the flickering hologram, she looks not a day older than 40. Mortimer is near dying. Lindsey knows Keen has been awarded life-extending potion (or something, I haven't sorted all this garg out yet) for his invaluable services to the Council, and the Gnosticene Ancients never forget, even if they might look like it. Could Keen, who Lindsey knows hasn't accepted the gift, pass it over to Mortimer, in case he doesn't need it? Will Keen spend the last moments of his life (he feels it in his bones that he is dying soon) in trying to extend Mortimer's life? (For some reason the potion is lost and a difficult journey must be made.) Is the old grudge now forgotten? (Notice that this episode is the same whether Keen saved Sue or not, if so, she is dead by now, if he got rich, he has spent it all.)
I don't know. Now when I wrote these down it feels like a gigantic, useless task. I don't know what to do. But what do you think?
yeah, I don't know why it's that way. For some reason I just see it that his life is too good and therefore it must come crashing down. I see his passion for justice fading, cynicism settling in, fight -- and through that adventure -- stopping, then nothing but turning his addiction from sugar to liquor because it's more self-destructive. He becomes vile: he has to consider between wealth and saving someone's life. As for relationship dramas, to me that sounds like some sort of pitiful and irrational behaviour. Yes, these mods are simple-minded in these choices, but they're deep choices in their own way, and the drama is not the kind one might see in ordinary world: Keen is not acting to revenge Mortimer for 'stealing' his love, etc. The mod is about letting personal feelings go for greater good (the Universe's future). The end of that mod is something that begins his corruption, the realization that for him it's not enough that everyone else is happy. It's an interesting topic, the way fans see these aspects of Keen, how do they picture him as an adult, etc. I like your vision, I've never thought that -- which explains a lot, no doubt; in my case my imagination is closely connected to near suicidal states of depression. I can't imagine life that is good throughout and progressing all the while. These concepts don't exist to me.
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Here's what I was meant to make as my own post: