Keen Awards 2019: Nominations

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Grandy02
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Keen Awards 2019: Nominations

Post by Grandy02 »

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(Yorp trophy by Lava89)

A while ago, I created a KeenWiki article on the Keen Awards, which contains lists of all the winners. The event was held three times during the PCKF's early years to honour Keeners for the great stuff they create. There were no Keen Awards 2005 because "2005 sucked" (I don't think that's true, but whatever). Since then, there have been several unsuccessful attempts for new Keen Awards, which were usually intended to cover multiple years.

Many amazing things have been done in recent years, I think it would be cool to revive the annual Keen Awards. Works released in 2019 could be nominated, or something that received a major update in said year. The KeenWiki article contains links to the archived threads, you can see the whole process for the Keen Awards 2002 (nominations, polls, results).

I think it could work the same way again in early 2020. It's feasible as this board doesn't have hundreds of active members. The categories could be like this (only minor modifications):

EDIT: This is the list of nominees. Nominations ended on February 29. The polls can be found in the Other Keen Stuff forum. The voting will end on March 14, around 12:00 UTC.

1: Programming

1.1: Best Vorticon Mod (incl. level packs)
- The Mortrix by Quillax
- Planet of the Pandas by proYorp

1.2: Best Galaxy/Dreams Mod (ditto)
- Keenball by Levellass
- The Prisoner's Dilemma by Kohntarkosz_
- Atroxian Realm v.1.3 by Gridlock
- Bounty Hunting Brouhaha by Kohntarkosz_
- Keen Dreams 2: Another Helping of Veggies by Szemi

1.3: Best Fangame
- Super Mario in Marooned on Mars by Ryan Silberman
- Planet Cloudius IX by Roobar

1.4: Best Level (from any 2019 mod, level pack or fangame)
- Drawing (Secret Level 01) from Planet Cloudius IX by Roobar
- Cell Block Alpha (Level 01) from The Prisoner's Dilemma by Kohntarkosz_
- Level 13 from Planet of the Pandas by proYorp
- White Carrot Path (Level 13) from Keen Dreams 2: Another Helping of Veggies by Szemi

1.5: Best Tool
- Customized Screen Update Code by K1n9_Duk3
- KEENGINE's map editor, tileset editor and type info tools by K1n9_Duk3

2: Fan Art

2.1: Best Graphical Artwork (e.g. an individual piece of art or a series of comics)
- Commander Keen by Emyl-Eikenaar
- Redrawn Keen 1 sprites by aintnofuntime

2.2: Best Narrative (fanfic, story of a fangame/mod/comic etc.)
- The Prisoner's Dilemma by Kohntarkosz_
- Bounty Hunting Brouhaha by Kohntarkosz_
- The Commander by Dean Smyth

2.3: Best Music (e.g. an individual remix or the soundtrack of a work)
- "Ancient Ruins" by Ted Kerr 2017 from "Ancient Ruins" level in Planet Cloudius IX by Roobar
- "Almost Out of Breath" remix by kvee
- "Too Hot To Handle" remix by troublesomekeen
- "Goodbye summer, Hello winter 'Spooky' Remix" by Waterflame from "Guardian Post 1" level in Planet Cloudius IX by Roobar

2.4: Best Animation
:slug

2.5: Best Non-Computerized Art (pencil drawing, sculpture, cosplay etc.)
- Yorp and Garg cosplay by Computing History visitors
- Keen Meets Mario on Fribbulus Xax by Quillax

2.6: Best Gameplay Video (speedruns, playthroughs etc.)
- Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy playthrough by GHostLPs
- Paul's Gaming - Commander Keen mods playthroughs by Piece of Pie Software

3: Web

3.1: Best Website
- Sierra Death Generator by Foone
- Quillax Ship by Quillax

3.2: Best Online Entertainment (e.g. games with online support and browser games)
- Chocolate Keen in WebAssembly by James Mackenzie
- Commander Keen mods at Jimage by Commander Spleen

3.3: Online Community Service Recognition (for the hard-working admins, moderators and website owners)
- Malvineous
- Fleexy
- KeenRush

4: Miscellaneous

4.1: Keenest Person of the Year
- Grandy02
- Nisaba
- K1n9_Duk3
- Quillax

4.2: Really Keen Stuff (something great that came out of the blue)
- How to tackle the Standard Galactic Alphabet by Pixelmusement
- Discovering that the jump height in Keen 1-3 depends on the CPU speed and that all of the lolipops in Keen 1 Level 4 can be collected. (by NY00123)
- Finding the potential origin behind Keen's death animation from Keen 1-3 (by proYorp)

4.3: Most Promising Project
- The Crazy Komet by Awesome-Keener
- Foray in the Forest by Nisaba
- The Prisoner's Dilemma by Kohntarkosz_
- Keen 4 levels from WolfenDoom - Blade of Agony by the Realm667 team (incl. Tormentor667, DoomJedi, Ozymandias81, Afadoomer, Nisaba, Crimson)
- Commander Keen Remastered by Kajuby

4.4 Best Official Keen Product
- Commander Keen T-Shirt
- Nintendo Switch port of Keen Dreams
- Commander Keen mobile game

There were also one-shot categories. Nothing comes to mind for 2019, but for the Keen Awards 2020 (in case it happens), I'm thinking of something like "Best 30th Anniversary Tribute".

What's your opinion? If you have any suggestions (for example,if you think that the number of categories should be reduced), please post them. :)
Last edited by Grandy02 on Sat Mar 14, 2020 12:09, edited 17 times in total.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Roobar »

This is neat! I think there should also be a 5th category: "Best Keen playthrough" (or gameplay video), "Best Keen speedrun" and "Best Keen youtuber". Also, "Best new found Keen stuff" where "stuff" can be a new found glitch, or something revealed (like the John Romero Keen 7 video reveal) or something like the fact that Keen has been revived (Although that could be in a separate category "Worst thing happened to Keen"). I will reveal my nominations in a few days. In the meantime happy new year!
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Nisaba »

I nominate Customized Screen Update Code made by K1n9_Duk3 for category 1.3 Best Tool.
IMO his update code is a significant step-up for all galaxy mods.

Discussion thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6192


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =


Image

Link: https://deathgenerator.com/#keen4
Discussion Thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5288


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =


nominee for category 2.5 Best Non-Computerized Art:

Image

Link: https://twitter.com/computermuseum/stat ... 5381413890


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

2.4 Best Animation nominee:
Image

dabbing Shikadis made by Commander Spleen
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by DoomJedi »

"Best Keen speedrun"
No pacifist runs in the community? Would be cool to see as well.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Roobar »

DoomJedi wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 1:13
"Best Keen speedrun"
No pacifist runs in the community? Would be cool to see as well.
The only pacifist runs I know are made by Shikadi-Netzwerk, but they are in German https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxCQHa ... dmv4E-lfMQ So for such category I nominate him.

Also there could be awards for best keen galaxy level in a mod, best keen vorticons level in a mod and those two, but in levelpacks.

Also also there should be two categories for best mod instead of one: best vorticons mod and best galaxy mod. Maybe even 3 categories, if we consider Keen Dreams mods a non-galaxy category?
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Roobar wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 7:08Maybe even 3 categories, if we consider Keen Dreams mods a non-galaxy category?
That's a tough one. I would prefer adding Keen Dreams to the Galaxy group, since the core game engine is almost identical. The biggest difference is the menu system and the slightly altered gameplay mechanics (flower power instead of pogo and stunner). The former is purely cosmetical, the later could be changed via patches. A capable modder could add the stunner and the pogo into Dreams or remove them and add flower powers to Keen 4-6.

Besides, we only had one Keen Dreams mod in 2019 anyway. So it is the best Keen Dreams mod of the year by default. It is also the worst Keen Dreams mod of the year. An award is meaningless if there was no competition at all.

(Given what I wrote above, I'm glad that we actually had two fangames in 2019.) The nominees for best fangame are:
On a related note, we just entered a new decade, so what about handing out awards for "Best [insert category] of the decade (2010-2019)"?
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Benvolio »

Grandy02 wrote:There were no Keen Awards 2005 because "2005 sucked"
In Aug 2005, with reference to Benvolio, XkyRauh wrote:Hey, you know... I smell a nomination for Keenest Person of 2005 coming up... :-)
Still haven't recovered from the disappointment of cancelled Keen Awards 2005 :barf

I wonder if output of Keen content would uptick in response to a re-instated Keen Awards!
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Grandy02 »

Thank you for your replies so far, I'm very happy to read that you like the idea. :)

I've added some categories in the first post (therefore numbers in the first section changed). Vorticon and Galaxy/Dreams mods are separate now, there is also "Best Level" (from any 2019 mod, level pack or fangame) and "Best Gameplay Video" (speedruns, playthroughs etc.).
Of course, even more categories could be derived from those, but my fear is that so many categories might overcomplicate things, and there are already quite a few ones... Anyway, I also added the nominees to the list.
Roobar wrote: Tue Dec 31, 2019 15:26 Also, "Best new found Keen stuff" where "stuff" can be a new found glitch, or something revealed (like the John Romero Keen 7 video reveal) or something like the fact that Keen has been revived (Although that could be in a separate category "Worst thing happened to Keen").
Would it be okay to cover such things under "Really Keen Stuff"? For example, the Impossible Bullet Trick was the first winner in that category.
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 22:33 (Given what I wrote above, I'm glad that we actually had two fangames in 2019.) The nominees for best fangame are:
All right, since there are no other options I accept two nominations by one person for the same category in this case. ;)
Regarding "Best of the Decade", neat idea. :) But I would prefer to do that seperately for the reason stated above. Maybe even 2005 to 2018 polls for selected categories (at least mod and fangame) at some point in the future.
Benvolio wrote: Thu Jan 02, 2020 7:48 I wonder if output of Keen content would uptick in response to a re-instated Keen Awards!
That would be awesome. :D

I just hope that it gets done this time after 14 Award-less years.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Grandy02 »

Anyone else? Just nominate what you enjoyed in 2019. What was special that year? You can also nominate your own works (at least no one said something against it in the past). It started quite well, don't let this die, please. :begging

Not long ago, I added the 2003 award nominations thread, another good example. There was quite a bit of activity within less than two weeks. But of course, the Keen Awards had their own subforum and there was an announcement on the main page, so everyone took notice of it.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by proYorp »

I've been writing up a list of my own nominations, haven't gotten around to finishing it yet, I've really been meaning to.... :dead2

Also, am I tripping? I thought I saw Roobar already posted a whole list of good nominations including Ocflore before it was even announced to be done, but I don't see that post anymore.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Nisaba »

yeah, somehow a couple of posts vanished... strange...
gonna share a second list soon! promise!
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Nisaba »

ok, let's do this. my nominees for 2019:

1.1: Best Vorticon Mod: The Mortrix by Quillax
1.2: Best Galaxy/Dreams Mod: Keenball by Levellass

1.4: Best Level: Planet Cloudius IX - Secret Level by Roobar
1.5: Best Tool: Customized Screen Update Code by K1n9_Duk3

2.4: Best Animation: Dabbing Shikadi by Commander Spleen
2.5: Best Non-Computerized Art: Yorp and Garg cosplay

3.1: Best Website: Sierra Death Generator by Foone

4.1: Keenest Person of the Year: Detective Grandy02
4.2: Really Keen Stuff: How to tackle the Standard Galactic Alphabet
4.3: Most Promising Project: The Crazy Komet by Awesome-Keener
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by Roobar »

I deleted my list because no one was voting and I thought no one was interested in such a thing anyway. The other reason was because I thought more mods were released last year than they actually were. And the third reason was that someone that's not nominated or may not receive an award may feel upset or offended or something.

Anyway, despite all that, since there's some interest, I'll try to post my list again sometime probably.

Edit:

🏆 - 3 points
🥈 - 2 points
🥉 - 1 point

1: Programming
1.1: Best Vorticon Mod (incl. level packs)
🏆 The Mortrix by Quillax (the whole concept of the mod is really cool and well executed)

// Side note: there was also a mod called Sunstriker Mods "Fireblaze: Curse of the Dragonlords" by a member outside of this forum, which was cool, but it appears that the mod and the author have been removed from moddb.com. Also, I don't see this mod on keen wiki as well. Probably nobody added it back then when it was posted here.

1.2: Best Galaxy/Dreams Mod (ditto)
🏆 Commander Keen in "The Prisoner's Dilemma" by Kohntarkosz_ (beta's count right?)
🥈 Keen Dreams 2: Another Helping of Veggies by szemi (retro/nostalgic vibes)

1.3: Best Fangame
🏆 Planet Cloudius IX by me (voting for myself :dopefish ...)

// Side note: there's actually a third fan game released this year, but it's for Android. It is simply called Commander Keen by Joachim Skjævestad. I thought it would've been removed by now, but it's still in the store. The game's quality is questionable, but at least it got an on-line hi-score table. Maybe add it to keen wiki?

1.4: Best Level (from any 2019 mod, level pack or fangame)
🏆 "Cell Block Alpha" from "The Prisoner's Dilemma" by Kohntarkosz_ (the first level of this mod. Unfortunately, no screenshots from the level are available. The whole idea of prison break and execution is awesome, plus you can play it with two different characters with different abilities)
🥈 "White Carrot Path" (level 13) by szemi (the walking doors just keeps amusing me! Unfortunately, this mod does not have in-game screenshots either)
🥉 The Mortrix Level 03 by Quillax (a lot of cool designed levels overall in this mod, but that one stands out to me with that Mario theme that's going on)

// Side note: I don't know if Suburb Shenanigans counts since it got updated this year? Clearly there were a lot of cool levels in it as well.

1.5: Best Tool
🏆 KEENGINE's map editor/tileset editor/type info tools by K1n9_Duk3 (for obvious reasons; the tools I'm using for PCIX and other KEENGINE mods)
🥈 Customized Screen Update Code by K1n9_Duk3 (another excellent tool)

2: Fan Art
Now, this is a tricky one, but here goes:
2.1: Best Graphical Artwork (e.g. an individual piece of art or a series of comics)
🏆 Commander Keen by Emyl-Eikenaar
2.2: Best Narrative (fanfic, story of a fangame/mod/comic etc.)
🏆 Commander Keen in "The Prisoner's Dilemma" by Kohntarkosz_
2.3: Best Music (e.g. an individual remix or the soundtrack of a work)
Here I'm going to nominate tracks from my game since I know my game the best and I cannot decide for mods (I like Ocflore music the most in general, but it's a 2020 title)
🏆"Ancient Ruins" by Wofgang Ted Kerr 2017 from "Ancient Ruins" level
🥈"Goodby summer, Hello winter "Spooky" Remix by Waterflame, a remix of "Goodbye summer, Hello winter" by Fantomenk from "Guardian Post 1" level
🥉"Where's my pogo?" by Myrgharok from "Secret Level 04: Dude, where's my pogo?" level - adlib vibes!
2.4: Best Animation
🏆 Dabbing Shikadi by Commander Spleen
2.5: Best Non-Computerized Art (pencil drawing, sculpture, cosplay etc.) - I don't know.
2.6: Best Gameplay Video (speedruns, playthroughs etc.)
🏆 Commander Keen playthrough by GHostLPs (this guy is playing it for the first time)
🥈 Paul's Gaming - Commander Keen mods playthroughs by Piece of Pie Software (he puts some funny comments here and there)

3: Web
3.1: Best Website
🏆 Sierra Death Generator by Foone
🥈On-line Commander Keen 4 music player (I don't know who made this, who choose the songs and when, but the skin can be downloaded from here: https://t.co/tIV75zcFbw?amp=1)
3.2: Best Online Entertainment (e.g. games with online support and browser games)
🏆 http://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/chocolatekeen/

// Side note: Commander Spleen made mods running in web browser, but I think it's not something from this year and I don't know a link. Maybe you've updated it? I don't really know, but I'm curious to know. Fleexy as well had attempts at making something, but he probably abandoned it.

3.3: Forum Crew Recognition - I don't even know what this award is for.

4: Miscellaneous
4.1: Keenest Person of the Year
🏆 Grandy02 - That's a tricky one as a lot of members deserves it! But for his efforts in reviving old projects and constantly updating keen wiki, I think it's a well deserved award.
4.2: Really Keen Stuff (something great that came out of the blue) - Commander Keen by Bethesda :crazy
4.3: Most Promising Project
🏆 Foray in the Forest by Nisaba
🥈 Keen 3 in Galaxy style by Kayburt
🥉 Kohntarkosz_ next upcoming mod.

// Side note: I don't know if there are others active projects at the moment, really. Ceilick? Where is he? Anyone else?
Last edited by Roobar on Thu Feb 06, 2020 17:35, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by proYorp »

I get that last point. Also yeah, it feels like there were so many mods and things released last year but on paper it's like, less than 10 (which I guess is more than usual).

K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Wed Jan 01, 2020 22:33 On a related note, we just entered a new decade, so what about handing out awards for "Best [insert category] of the decade (2010-2019)"?
Haha, that would pit Battle of the Brains and Atroxian Realm against each other. Which is honestly a very interesting scenario and I really wonder which would come out on top in that, with the whole community voting. I don't even know if I'd be able to choose....
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Re: Keen Awards 2019

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Grandy02 wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 16:42 Anyone else? Just nominate what you enjoyed in 2019. What was special that year? You can also nominate your own works (at least no one said something against it in the past). It started quite well, don't let this die, please. :begging
Do these nominations automatically count as our votes or is this just about creating a pool of cadidates for now? At least for the categories 1.1 to 1.3 there really aren't that many possible candidates (that were released in 2019) and I am tempted to nominate alternatives even though I wouldn't necessarily want to vote for them.

Just to be clear, the following is not supposed to be my votes/nominations. I just wanted to gather some information and make it readily available for the people reading this thread.

These are the mods/levelpacks that were released 2019 or got an update:

1.1 Vorticons:
  • Planet of the Pandas (new)
  • Captainkeen's 3rd Levelpack (new)
  • The Mortrix (new)
1.2 Dreams/Galaxy:
  • Another Helping of Veggies (new)
  • Keenball (new)
  • Episode 58 - The Ruin of Roib (bugfix)
  • Keen 4 Ultimate Edition (new)
  • Buried in Oblivion (update)
  • Atroxian Realm (update)
  • Bounty Hunting Brouhaha (new)
  • Short Circuit Oracle (update)
  • Suburb Shenanigans (update)
This information was taken from the KeenWiki. Feel free to complain if I missed something.

The only two fangames released in 2019 that I know of are already listed in the first post.

1.5 Best Tool
uGrab wasn't actually released to the public in 2019, so I guess I can't nominate that, right? For all I know, only Nisaba and I had access to it in 2019...
I know that Abiathar got at least one update/bugfix in 2019 and so did ModId (at least the source code itself and the Linux build of ModId did, not sure if an updated Windows build exists).

3.3 Forum Crew Recognition
Fleexy is hosting the PCKF, Malvineous owns shikadi.net, where the KeenWiki is hosted. Nisaba and Grandy02 are pretty much constantly adding new things to the KeenWiki and levellass was updating tons and tons of patches on the KeenWiki last year.

I don't have any additional information regarding the remaining categories.
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