Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

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CvH_9000
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Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by CvH_9000 »

Hello everyone, I'm new here! I finished a fangame, made in Clickteam Fusion 2.5. Or rather, a remake of an old fangame.
It started out as a test on how to make a "Keen like" platformer within CTF2.5, but soon grew into a full fledged remake of Keen 2000.
I tried to stay close to the charm of the original fangame, while also trying to replicate the "Goodbye, Galaxy!" style of gameplay as close as possible.
Download Link here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/sjjigo5m ... D.zip/file

And here are some screenshots:
Image Image Image

I hope that you'll enjoy what I made. And if there's any feedback, I'd like to hear!
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Benvolio »

Hey CvH_9000, welcome! And thanks for posting this cool game! I'd never heard of Clickteam before. But it comes from Boulogne-Billancourt; I stayed there once so that's cool!

Anyway you've implemented a lot of cool Keenish stuff here. I never actually played Keen 2000, I must remedy this some day. But your game definitely has some of that old style fangame charm, but at a more well executed standard. Of course it runs natively on whatever windows version Microsoft are currently spoonfeeding me (joking, it's windows 10. I think). Which is nice. Disorientating not to be able to alt-enter out of it like when playing in Dosbox but I can deal with that.

A few things I like a lot:
- static background image à la Duke Nukem 1, I always was a fan of that look and wondered how it would work in a 2.5d Galaxy setting and... now I know.
- the humour that went into this including your new sprites
- the high scores screen is a cool implementation of the concept originally seen in Galaxy games

Not much that I dislike (please distinguish glitches from dislikes)
- no way (as far as I can tell) to exit to title or dos (sic) from in-game. Found myself having to die 5 times just to get back to title

And in terms of glitches or problems with gameplay
- jump physics are reasonable but not perfect. Perhaps my advice would be to set aside trying to precisely mimic Keen Galaxy, and focus on eliminating aspects of jumping that cause undeserved player deaths
- keen sort of drifts pixel by pixel some of the time for short distances
- screen height exceeds my widescreen laptop aspect ratio. I'm sure it looks splendid on a nice old fashioned CRT monitor but I'm missing the top and bottom of the screen. Shame, as you've implemented the teal borders of which I am a fan.
- the game seems to ask one's name twice and record one's score as two spots on the high scores table rather than just one.

But altogether a fun project and a worthy debut offering on the Keen forum!
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Roobar
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Roobar »

I have played Keen 2000, but that was a loooong time ago. In terms of gameplay, It really looks close to what I remember. But I also have to say that I don't have fond memories of the original. What you find charming, I thought it was crap. If you've made this from scratch, you've managed to recreate the crappy gameplay quite well. I get those early 2000s vibes. But you polished it with better graphics and manageable speed. Still can't get my head around it though. It's cool and bad at the same time. It's mind boggling and frustrating. The question is: why? But then again, why not! Cool little game and great at recreating it. Quite a hard one as well, but I guess passwords would help.
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Tormentor667 »

Very nice that someone touches this old gem - I played it in my youth and found it kinda cool as it was the only real mod that felt a little bit like an original Commander Keen game to me. A few things that I've noticed so far:
  • Ledge climbing is missing
  • Stunner projectile is too fast and not well-timed
  • Please add widescreen support and remove the thick borders left and right
  • Keen seems to have different sizes when moving or standing, why not using the original sprite set from Galaxy?
  • I hit "B" and Keen starts to scream and not close his mouth again
  • When diving, Keen can speed up like a ferrari, that's certainly strange
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Quillax
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Quillax »

Hey, what a surprise! Welcome to PCKF, CvH_9000!

I haven't tried this yet, but it looks like it'll be a lot of fun! The original Keen 2000 is one of my favorite fangames; I always have quite a blast playing it! That old-school fangame charm is so endearing and it can be a bit funny! (Seriously, a giant chicken for a boss fight!? That spews eggs all over the place!?!?) :lol It looks like there's some nice new graphics here!

It's nice to see that people still remember this classic! Also good to see that Keen fangames aren't totally dead! :)
Benvolio wrote: Sun Feb 20, 2022 15:30 Hey CvH_9000, welcome! And thanks for posting this cool game! I'd never heard of Clickteam before. But it comes from Boulogne-Billancourt; I stayed there once so that's cool!
Fun fact: Clickteam made a lot of the game-making programs people used to make those old Keen fangames, including the original Keen 2000! Although, Wikipedia claims that Klik & Play -- the program Keen 2000 was made with -- was originally created by Europress, but it's still listed under the list of Clickteam products.
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Nisaba »

Hey CvH_9000, and welcome to the forums,

I never was a big fan of Keen 2000. the more exciting it seems to me that other people like yourself do find something appealing in this very game. your implementation definitely allows it to run it under a Linux based system which I appreciate (with a fair bit of help by wineHQ, I have to admit).

like Benvolio already mentioned, this game has a very unique charm. the physics feel... how should I put it... rather interesting. I wish I could climb poles with such high speed, as Keen does here.

I assume that you've spend quite some time and effort to put everything together, didn't you. do you plan on updating some of the feedback posted here by other members?
I'd also be interested to know what particularly appeals to you about the originals, and when you first came into contact with the fangame.
out now (link) : Image
CvH_9000
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by CvH_9000 »

Thanks for the feedback on this everybody!
I'll try and work those things out in an update to this.

To start off with a couple of answers:
- screen height exceeds my widescreen laptop aspect ratio. I'm sure it looks splendid on a nice old fashioned CRT monitor but I'm missing the top and bottom of the screen. Shame, as you've implemented the teal borders of which I am a fan.
I found out that it might have something to do with the way Windows handles zooming in it's display properties. As in: Anything above 100% cuts off parts of the screen from the top and bottom. I think this might be fixable, but need to find out how to properly do that.
- the game seems to ask one's name twice and record one's score as two spots on the high scores table rather than just one.
Redid the highscore table, so it shouldn't do that anymore. Kinda strange that it did that :confused. Now I need to find a way so it won't ask for a highscore everytime the Highscore screen shows after waiting at the titlescreen.
- no way (as far as I can tell) to exit to title or dos (sic) from in-game. Found myself having to die 5 times just to get back to title
That was something I genuinly never tought of implementing. But now that you've mentioned it, yeah that's kinda annoying that isn't possible. I'll make a simple menu you can access during gameplay to return to the title screen, or quit the game.
- Ledge climbing is missing
I couldn't get it to work properly earlier on, and never continued work on that. I can try to make it work out somehow.
Stunner projectile is too fast and not well-timed
This should be an easy fix. I can just adjust the speed of the projectile.
Keen seems to have different sizes when moving or standing, why not using the original sprite set from Galaxy?
I've tried to make it similar to the original Keen 2000 sprites, but maybe using the original Galaxy sprite sheet would be a better idea after all.
When diving, Keen can speed up like a ferrari, that's certainly strange
Oof, that's something that shouldn't happen. Thought I limited his max speed, like how I did it with the hoverboard. But looking at it now, I forgot to apply that speed limit, whoops :o
I'd also be interested to know what particularly appeals to you about the originals, and when you first came into contact with the fangame.
Funny story, Keen 2000 was one of the first fangames I downloaded through the internet. I came across it while looking up cheats and secrets for the original Keen games. And later on, I discovered the existence of The Games Factory, which got me into contact with the Clickteam line of products. Figuring out that The Games Factory opened the included .gam files of most fangames gave me the needed kickstart to making my own fangames (and attempts at original games.) This must have been around 2003-2004 I guess?
I also thought that Keen 2000 was an official iD game for a while, due to my lack of English reading comprehension. I was around 10 at the time :o
So that's why Keen 2000 has such a soft spot for me. And it's kind of a shame that I lost most of my old Keen fangames. But I could try an recreate one from memory.

Sorry for the insanely long post btw! I'll keep you guys updated when the new version is close to completion :D
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Quillax »

CvH_9000 wrote: Mon Feb 28, 2022 11:17 Redid the highscore table, so it shouldn't do that anymore. Kinda strange that it did that :confused. Now I need to find a way so it won't ask for a highscore everytime the Highscore screen shows after waiting at the titlescreen.
In The Games Factory, the high scores object has an option in its setup called "Check on start of frame". This makes it so that the object asks for a name once it spawns, and is ticked by default. If you turn it off, you can still make the high scores object ask for a high score anytime via the event editor. As I said earlier, though, that's how it is in The Games Factory. Since I never used Clickteam Fusion 2.5, I don't know how much has changed there, but my advice might still be helpful in one way or another.
CvH_9000 wrote: Mon Feb 28, 2022 11:17 I've tried to make it similar to the original Keen 2000 sprites, but maybe using the original Galaxy sprite sheet would be a better idea after all.
I kinda like the unique sprites; it gives the game a bit of a unique identity. It also lets the player know that they're playing a Keen fangame, not the original Galaxy games or mods. I know some people here tend to associate a playable character's sprites with the physics of the game it came from. So like, when people see the original Keen sprites from Keens 4-6, they expect Keen to move just the same way he does in those games. Personally, though, I don't have a problem with the same sprites being used in different games with different physics. That's probably thanks to the lots of fangames I've played over the years.
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by Snortimer »

Quillax wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 8:43That old-school fangame charm is so endearing and it can be a bit funny! (Seriously, a giant chicken for a boss fight!? That spews eggs all over the place!?!?) :lol
I suspect that this was an inside joke inspired by a certain "Dr. Oeuf" who used to visit the Keen forums and post new topics consisting solely of the word "OEUF" repeated hundreds of times (it means "egg" in French).
Member since at least 1998 with... ah... some long absences. I was even a moderator at one point. I'll probably keep coming back here and there as long as this place still exists.
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Re: Commander Keen 2000 - Remake [Version 1.0]

Post by NY00123 »

ok, that's the first forum post I'm having here since 2023, for which I'd had exactly one post back in August. Doing so a bit before Keen Day looks like a good chance.

So, it's been a while since I gave the remake a try. It has a passwords.txt file which was last updated on September 30 2022, according to the timestamp. I do recall it being a good way of trying to make a remake; Partially closer to Keen 4-6 in feeling, but still aiming to not feel exactly like 4-6 in terms of engine behaviors, physics and more.

From what I remember, I got stuck in what was probably the last level and didn't know what to do there.

That's it for now. It's indeed a belated response, but good work on going through this recreation attempt!
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