Keen Awards 2025: Nominations

[Dave216]

Your nomination is written in plural, yet you linked to only one piece. Did you intend to include the other piece Symphony made as well, or do you want to just nominate the one you put on your post? Just making sure.

Oh, yes, my mistake. I meant to share her post, not just a single image. I'd nominate both of them.

[DoomJedi]

Demos can also be nominated.

Thanks, good to know.

[Dave216]

I would like to nominate DoomJedi's Bomberkeen, but which category would it fall into? Fangame, I assume? Or "Really Keen Stuff"? Are fangames a strict 'recreating the Keen engine in a different engine' sort of thing? Since this is more a "Dyna Blaster mod" that's Keen themed. I am guessing not, but I am not sure. Still, I think it's very cool and would like to nominate it for whatever category suits it best.

Edit: Oh, great. Now my brain is registering the fact it's presented as Fangame/Other Mod

[DoomJedi]

I would like to nominate DoomJedi's Bomberkeen

Thank you so much! This is a product of love on my part, and it's great to be appreciated (and again big thanks for K1n9_Duk3 for all the coding enhancements of this).
As currently no updates are planned and being fully playable, it can be treated as a "release".

Since this is more a "Dyna Blaster mod" that's Keen themed

To be more...strict, it's not a mod of "Dyna Blaster" game but is a different engine, but it's BomberKeen gameplay/reskin of a sort. I don't think it has to be a Keen-like platformer to be counted as Keen fangame. It's a game, by a Keen fan for Keen fans, it's clearly Keen themed and features Keen - it's a Keen fangame LOL

Now my brain is registering the fact it's presented as Fangame/Other Mod

Yes, this is how it's set in Keen wiki so I hope it settles it (?)
https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/BomberKeen

[Snortimer]

For either "Most Promising Project" or "Best Update to a Mod" (if it gets released in 2025), I'd like to nominate Gridlock's update to The Alphamatic.
viewtopic.php?p=113047#p113047

For "Best Work of the Hiatus" (2005-2018), I'd like to nominate:
Dead in the Desert (2009)
NetKeen (2011)
Episode 58 - The Ruin of Roib (2013)
The Terror from Outer Space (2013)
*Keen Meets the Meats (2015)
*Atroxian Realm (2016)
Bug-fixed Keen 3 (2016)
*The Alphamatic (2017)

Basically, all the mods from this period that I especially enjoyed. Although I have a feeling that "Atroxian Realm" will win handily... well, or "NetKeen".
As for whether to split up this category, I dunno, maybe? I wouldn't mind either way. Might make it more interesting. If you decide to split it at the decade mark ("missed 2000s", "missed 2010s"), if would be easy enough to recategorize the existing nominations. Or, since it's 14 years, you could split it into 7 years each: 2005-2011, 2012-2018.

I might make more nominations later on. If I do, should I update this post or make a new post? (Or both?)

EDIT: Those marked with * may not be eligible; see discussion below.

[SodiumtheGlitcher]

For either "Most Promising Project" or "Best Update to a Mod" (if it gets released in 2025), I'd like to nominate Gridlock's update to The Alphamatic.
viewtopic.php?p=113047#p113047

For "Best Work of the Hiatus" (2005-2018), I'd like to nominate:
Dead in the Desert (2009)
NetKeen (2011)
Episode 58 - The Ruin of Roib (2013)
The Terror from Outer Space (2013)
Keen Meets the Meats (2015)
Atroxian Realm (2016)
Bug-fixed Keen 3 (2016)
The Alphamatic (2017)

Basically, all the mods from this period that I especially enjoyed. Although I have a feeling that "Atroxian Realm" will win handily... well, or "NetKeen".
As for whether to split up this category, I dunno, maybe? I wouldn't mind either way. Might make it more interesting. If you decide to split it at the decade mark ("missed 2000s", "missed 2010s"), if would be easy enough to recategorize the existing nominations. Or, since it's 14 years, you could split it into 7 years each: 2005-2011, 2012-2018.

I might make more nominations later on. If I do, should I update this post or make a new post? (Or both?)

Atroxian Realm was nominated in 2019 for update 1.3, so I don't think it should count. Also, if you're nominating the Alphamatic update, it feels a little weird to nominate the original as well. I'm not the judge, so those are just my opinions.

[Snortimer]

Atroxian Realm was nominated in 2019 for update 1.3, so I don't think it should count. Also, if you're nominating the Alphamatic update, it feels a little weird to nominate the original as well. I'm not the judge, so those are just my opinions.

Perhaps you're right. I do see that Atroxian Realm was not only nominated, but won in 2019. Do you think it should be limited to mods that haven't received an update since then that could have been nominated, or are in the process of getting one? That would disqualify not only "Alphamatic" but "Keen Meets the Meats" as well (to be fair, when first released the latter, for all its brilliance, had major bugs that were only fixed years later by someone else. E.g. Easy mode was not even accessible unless you never saved the game).

By the way, looking back at earlier Keen Awards, I really like the "Poll Results" thread in 2019, in which you could see at a glance not only the winners but how popular the different nominations were. Could that be brought back please? Or perhaps the results can be displayed that way in the "Winners" thread.

[hairmonster12]

If it’s okay I’d like to nominate the one and only Tom Hall for 4-1 Keenest Person Of the Year, because he’s been active in the Keen Discord answering fan questions and giving insight into Keen’s development and ID Software history which is way cool to see!

[troublesomekeen]

Hello again,
For more 2.6: Best Gameplay Video
I'd like to nominate hairmonster12 for the Ruin of Roib series. Although started in 2017, the big finale was very recent (and technically the majority of the episodes were done this year).
playlist

I'd also like to nominate Thunder rail Productions for the big Battle of the Brains finale of this month also:
playlist

Lastly I'd like to nominate CapnClever for the Keen8 Glitchless run of last month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FemIOvziq3w
I admire the hydro levels especially
and the dispatching of the boss

[TheBigV]

I'd like to nominate something for 4.3: Most Promising Project: Doom in Commander Keen 1 by me.

[NY00123]

As 2025 is approaching its very end in some time zones and it's already 2026 in other time zones:

From what I've seen, self-nominations are allowed, so I guess it's the time now (as part of a team).
It might not exactly be a Commander Keen game or the usual Keen mod, but it's still based on Keen Dreams and 4-6's codebase.

BioMenace Remastered

I'm not even sure which categories to add it to. Leaving it to the rest of the audience for now.

While there isn't a proper credits list currently found by me online, you shall find the credits via the remaster's menu.

More nominations follow.

Online Community Service Recognition / Best Website
- Fleexy (The PCKF)
- Malvineous (The Keen and Modding Wikis)

Keenest Person of the Year
- lethal-guitar: Main person behind BioMenace Remastered, and more-or-less the project's sole programmer.
- K1n9_Duk3.
- I also agree about Tom Hall's nomination, for obvious reasons.

Really Keen Stuff / Most Promising Project
Reconstructed Commander Keen 1-3 Source Code by K1n9_Duk3

[DoomJedi]

So....were there 2025 awards already?

People might want to know if they won or not

[SodiumtheGlitcher]

The Keen Awards voting often comes out in mid-late February, and the results often around Keen Day. Quillax seems to have gone inactive, however, having last posted in August 2025, so pretty much everything about the Keen Awards has stalled indefinitely.

[Quillax]

Hi,

Apologies for being inactive for so long. The Keen Awards really shouldn't have stalled up to this point. I updated the list of nominations. Everything posted here should've been added, with a couple exceptions that I'll address below. I plan to make my own nominations pretty soon.

Would it upset anyone if the deadline for nominations is March 4? That'd give us a week left to nominate stuff, and if voting started right away at that point and then ended on March 14, it would be 10 days for voting. Personally, I'd like to get this whole thing ceremony wrapped up in time for Keen Day, as that's usually when lots of Keen stuff comes out (including stuff that is or could be nominated for Most Promising Project).

It might not exactly be a Commander Keen game or the usual Keen mod, but it's still based on Keen Dreams and 4-6's codebase.

BioMenace Remastered

I'm not even sure which categories to add it to. Leaving it to the rest of the audience for now.

I left this one out, along with your nomination of lethal-guitar for Keenest Person of the Year (who seems to only have done Bio Menace-related stuff in 2025 from what I've seen). While it's true that Bio Menace is based on the Dreams/Galaxy code, and if made today as a freeware download it would probably be considered a source code mod, I think the fact that it was originally a commercial release may be enough to consider it too far removed from Keen. I don't know if the original creator really wanted the game to be connected to Keen (a few cameos notwithstanding), he might have just licensed the engine to make development easier. If more games had licensed the Galaxy engine back in the day, similar to how the Doom engine was used in many games, would those be considered as related to Keen? I don't know, I guess I wouldn't be entirely opposed to the idea of nominating something Bio Menace-related for Keen Awards, but I'd like to see what others think.

I'll respond to some of the other questions later. (And maybe I'll give some more thought to the whole Bio Menace thing.)

[Quillax]

My nominations:

1.1: Best Vorticon Mod

• The Lost Martian Cities by Vortlike

1.2: Best Galaxy/Dreams Mod

• O-Mega-Matic by SodiumtheGlitcher and Keen Community

1.4: Best Vorticon Level

• London Tantalus Center (Level 04) from Inside the Vorticon Hyve by Vortlike
• Cairo Tantalus Center (Level 06) from Inside the Vorticon Hyve by Vortlike
• Moscow Tantalus Center (Level 15) from Inside the Vorticon Hyve by Vortlike
• Washington Tantalus Center (Level 16) from Inside the Vorticon Hyve by Vortlike

1.5: Best Galaxy/Dreams Level

• Defense Tunnel Aqaxz (Level 05) by SodiumtheGlitcher from O-Mega-Matic
• Tunnel Cranmore (Level 07) by Dave216 from O-Mega-Matic
• Defense Tunnel Putzl (Level 09) by DarkAle from O-Mega-Matic
• Maze of Madness (Level 10) by DarkAle from O-Mega-Matic
• Binary Circuits (Level 24) from The Alphamatic v3.0 beta by Gridlock

1.7: Best Tool

• GalaxyView v2.0 by K1n9_Duk3
• IMF Processor alpha v0.001 by K1n9_Duk3

1.8: Best Update to a Mod

• Keen Dreams Gold Edition Christmas Eve update by szemi

2.5: Best Non-Computerized Art

• Defender Of The Universe by Soul Monster
• Skating O'er the Ice by Quillax

3.1: Best Website

• KeenWiki by Malvineous

4.1: Keenest Person of the Year

• Vortlike (has a lot of enthusiasm for Vorticons modding, did a lot to explore what's possible with the Vorticons engine)
• SodiumtheGlitcher (very active newcomer, hosted a Keen 5 community levelpack, beta-tested v2.0 of FitF, provided feedback for The Alphmatic v3.0)

4.2: Really Keen Stuff

• Keen 1-3 modding tutorial by Vortlike

4.3: Most Promising Project

• Get My Stuff by Vortlike

4.4: Best Work of the Hiatus

• Battle of the Brains (2011) by Ceilick, Mink, and Tulip
• Fall Up (2010) by KeenRush (there are so many cool KeenRush mods to choose from during this hiatus, but if I had to choose one, I feel that this one is the most innovative)
• Bananasauros (2010) by VikingBoyBilly
• The Banana Mod (2013) by Herry Jerry
• Clouds Unseen (2010) by StupidBunny
• MrBlackPack v4 (2012) by MrBlack
• Suburb Shenanigans (2018) by Bubbatom
• Mink's Puzzle Pack (2010) by Mink
• Save Spot! (2014) by Grandy02
• The Mystery of Isis II (2012) by Geoff