Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Dave216
Vortininja
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 15:37
Location: Croatia

Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Dave216 »

Well, this is a short montage of a work in progress. I am 90% done but would love to hear some feedback. :begging
Probably some levels and world map are going to look slightly different but, yeah.. this is mostly it.
Features my music, artwork and level design. Enemies also have different behavior and there will be no underwater levels(I hate them ever so much)

Anyway, here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3jMeQWC21Q

Also, don't burn me on a cross if I posted this in a wrong Forum section :)
User avatar
DoomJedi
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 888
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:22
Location: Israel

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by DoomJedi »

Wow, when did this come from? :)

Looks cool and interesting, very nice effort.
User avatar
Pandakeen
Vortininja
Posts: 160
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:54
Location: pckf,
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Pandakeen »

Looks very unique, can't wait to try this out!
Benvolio
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 976
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 12:43
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Benvolio »

This looks so cool. So colourful and varied. Full of different atmospheres and moods.. a bit of Musical Keen here, a bit of Oracle Janitor there. Really excited to play this... though I'm daunted by that long row of doorways
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Nisaba »

Wow! What a surprise. I didn't expect to see a finished product.
But first, welcome to the forums, Dave216. You are not by chance a secret double of a certain forum member, are you?

Anyway, your teaser material looks very very tempting. You are definitely following your own and authentic style. This world feels very dark & gloomy. I like the light wisps of fog in that one scene. And the nightlight sky looks magical, almost enchanted. Overall, the colors are very well chosen. The EGA colorshift towards purple works convincingly well.

As for the sprites, I recognized some movement patterns, while others seem to have new features to me. So I was wondering if you patch classically, or if you work with source code?

All in all a really promising project that follows its own style. I'm highly curious about further updates! The video definitely makes you want more.

If 90% are already done, what do you still have to work on?



Image . Image

Image . Image .

Image
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
DarkAle
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 318
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2017 17:40
Location: Coral Hideout
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by DarkAle »

Finally a new mod! From what I have seen and what you have said it looks really great: new behaviors for the enemies, I am curious about them. Plus the graphics are wonderful, especially that background with fog. Can't wait to try it!
Commander Keen in... Robot Apocalypse!
Episode 13: The Ultra Omegamatic viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6802
Episode 14: Secret of the Sorcerer viewtopic.php?t=13031
Ceilick
The Dude
Posts: 1670
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 20:10
Location: Seattle

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Ceilick »

Awesome to see a new mod in the works, and nearly complete as well! It's a bit difficult to provide feedback on much outside of the art based on the video, but here we go:

Cool Red Dwarf reference :lol

The graphics in this are a strange mismatch of styles: recolored graphics, what I think I recognize from other games (I may be wrong), and what I take to be your original work. This is most obvious in the usage of the color black; some tiles and characters incorporate a lot of black, thick black outlines, and black as a texture color, whereas other graphics have thin black outlines and no black in their textures (most obvious in some of the wood structures, and what looks like a dirt platform set?). The end result is, well, messy (not necessarily a bad thing) and combined with the color scheme (outside the brown and grey areas) a very psychedelic experience.

If you want a graphical suggestion, it would be to unify the graphical style with the color black. All those wooden or dirt tiles that only utilize brown and dark grey--throw is some black for texture. The brown, dark grey and yellow platform top--throw in some speckles of black. I think you can get away with having some backgrounds without black, it's the foreground pieces where I believe it's most necessary.

Re level design, hard to comment, but one area looks excessively dangerous at 0:34, and I the long hallway full of doors at 0:17 looks really ugly and like a nightmare to deal with, even though the scene corresponds well with the music in this montage.
User avatar
Dave216
Vortininja
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 15:37
Location: Croatia

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Dave216 »

Thank you. It feels really rewarding hearing positive feedback. I am new here, yes. I tried modding a few years back and it seemed too difficult. Then I tried again a couple of months back, and I got the hang of it.

I patch classically - just browsing for cool patches, and copying them in my patch note. I am currently finishing last few levels, testing and overall replaying levels to see if I can add more details. I am also drawing artwork for the final end screen slideshow. I can't say when it's going to be finished but overall, it's just ironing out all the details before releasing it.

Levels are also overall longer and somehow more complex so it can be a hassle to see if there are any game-breaking or section skipping parts.

I've also requested a patch for Dopefish, which is now unusable since there are no water levels and it crashes when colliding with regular Keen. If there is a patch for it, I can't seem to find it. It would be kind of a bummer to have an unused enemy. I know Atroxian Realm has Atroxus as dopefish replacement, but I don't know whether I can use someone else's project's patches.
User avatar
Dave216
Vortininja
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 15:37
Location: Croatia

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Dave216 »

RD is awesome show, had to put it in the game :)
I know game looks a little messy when it comes to color mixing, especially in foregrounds department. I had a general idea on how the world should look, and I wanted it to have a unique setting and feel, but when you're working with a limited color palette, it can get frustrating when drawing tiles. I went with more darker tone, so I drew darker tiles and backgrounds which sometimes look chaotic together. Colors sometimes clash.

Most of the tiles I drawn myself, except for the re-colored rock texture, and maybe a few others I kept from the original game.
I'll definitely redraw some of the ugly foreground some time later.

The hallway shouldn't be as frustrating as it looks :)
As for why it looks ugly, eh...don't know what to do much about that.
User avatar
Fleexy
Tool Smith
Posts: 1432
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:21
Location: Abiathar C&C

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Fleexy »

Wow, this is really cool! All the new content and style is very impressive. Definitely looking forward to the release.

And thank you for not having a water level. :lol Sorry I didn't notice your other patch request until now - hopefully my attempt at it does what you need.
Nowhere Girl
Vortininja
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2021 14:29
Location: Poland

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Nowhere Girl »

Great graphics. I love very detailed Galaxy Keen games, such as "Atroxian Realm", "Operation Orcflore", "Terror from Outer Space", "Ruin of Roib", "Underworld Ultimate"... of the original games, I liked Keen 5 best. I generally enjoy EGA graphics a lot, I have also played a lot of EGA adventure games. I don't like very primitive early EGA (example: "King's Quest 1" original), but I greatly enjoy later EGA games such as Sierra's SCI0 games, "Loom", the rare EGA version of "Monkey Island 1"...
User avatar
Nisaba
Janitress
Posts: 1597
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2016 23:34
Location: The Outpost
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Nisaba »

Dave216 wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 20:17 [...] I know Atroxian Realm has Atroxus as dopefish replacement [...]
Oh, I think there may be a misunderstanding here, which may be due to the wiki not being entirely precise in its information. Atroxian Realm originally started as a patch project. That's what the replacement details you can find on the wiki page refer to. However, the final version of this game is a source code based mod. This means that there is no patch file whatsoever from which you could download the Atroxus patches.

However, it is possible to access the older demo versions. These are equipped with patch files for Atroxus.
Dave216 wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 20:17 [...] but I don't know whether I can use someone else's project's patches.
Sure, why not. As long as you give credit [EDIT: and ask permission first], I don't see a problem.
Last edited by Nisaba on Thu Jul 21, 2022 18:09, edited 2 times in total.
out now (link) : Image
User avatar
Syllypryde
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 1025
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 18:33
Location: Michigan
Contact:

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Syllypryde »

Dave216 wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 20:17 .........I've also requested a patch for Dopefish, which is now unusable since there are no water levels and it crashes when colliding with regular Keen. If there is a patch for it, I can't seem to find it. It would be kind of a bummer to have an unused enemy. I know Atroxian Realm has Atroxus as dopefish replacement, but I don't know whether I can use someone else's project's patches.
Just as long as you ask permission first and give credit, I don't see any reason why they would say no.
.niarb ym fo
snoitulovnoc eht tuaba
selbbarcs ssensuoicsnoc
rehgih a ekil smees
User avatar
Dave216
Vortininja
Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2022 15:37
Location: Croatia

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Dave216 »

Hey Ceilick, it seems I cannot message you privately( sent and outbox displays "no messages",if you received them already but the display is not showing, I apologise for spamming you)


I've found some patches in your Keen 7 I could use(mostly for council members required and a few others) and are not found anywhere else on the wiki as far as I can tell
I would credit you of course, if you permit.
"I don’t care what model it was! No vacuum cleaner should give a human being a double polaroid!"
Ceilick
The Dude
Posts: 1670
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 20:10
Location: Seattle

Re: Commander Keen - Aurora Bliss (Keen 4 Mod)

Post by Ceilick »

Absolutely feel free to utilize the patch files from my mods! If you want to give credit, any patches from Keen 7 that cannot be found on the Keen Wiki or Modding forum are probably written by Levellass.
Post Reply