Other people to help with 2.5 commander keen (unity engine)

Yamaha_ERG121 · Post by **Yamaha_ERG121** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 18:25

Hi all, (first of all sorry i've crossposted this, but in the other section i trought it wasn't in the right place after all).

Yes i know this is my very first post on this forum. However... I am a commander keen for a long time now, (I've also read here but never registered) Commander keen was one of the first (and most memorable) games i've ever played.

First of all i will tell something about myself:

I'm a 24 year old girl from the Netherlands...And was very young when i played my first commander keen game, probably 6 years old or something. So that is a long time ago....

But to come to the reason why i registred at this very moment on these boards:
I am studying game design now and in my time off i am trying to make a Commander keen game. (Not a remake of a old game, a new one) I am going to make in Unity3D, based on a 2.5D gameplay. (So the models will be 3D but it will have a sidescroll look. (Like the commander keen games we are used too).

My insprition for this project came (more or less) from this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Hn1Xhy ... r_embedded
(This game is exacly created by one person).

This is a sonic game created in Unity3D, and since sonic never have bin made with 3d models i think this really workes, and this has really great gameplay. There is also another project started by fans to create sonic 2 HD. These guys are making awesome games, and they don't work in the game industy!

This is the 2D engine i am going to use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf7q1wKgkUU (it runs smootly usually, the framedrops are because of youtube).

For commander keen I already have some ideas and worked out some early models for the game. (If interested i can share some. PM me or send or let me know here) But that's about it.... because at this stage i am stuggeling to get keen's gameplay right. ( I am not a good programmer at all, i am exacly a designer).

I was very curious if there might be people around here who are interested in helping create such a game... People from the sonic community can do this, so my trought was why not here? Why should the commander keen community not be able to create such a game.

This is why i registred here finally because it would be really great to make it with other commander keen fans. (people in my own envirorment aren't really fans or don't even know commander keen).

This will mean:

Help to think about gameplay
Help to create music(!), models, textures, leveldesign(this mean levels) etc. But also think about new enemies... new worlds for keen to explore.

I would be really.. really happy if someone who has program skills would help me. Because at this point it's the most needed...

Remember it's just a fan game... i am not going to try to sell it or anything like it. But that doesn't mean i don't want to make something kickass from it. It would be great if someone has experience in something.. if not you can always help with your troughts and suggestions!

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 18:42

Do I have to be nice? REALLY?

[/foob] Alright, alright...

Welcome to the forums and stuff. This does sound promising but I'm not sure if there is anyone here who has the time/skills to help you out. As you probably know already some of our users (the most skilled programmers I'd say) are working on the Commander Genius engine. Still, you might be able to find someone who can be interested in helping you out. Specifically, I remember an old game, Project Shadowland, and as far as I know the author wanted to do something similar to your idea. Maybe you should try to contact him.

And aye, posting screenshots of what you have done so far would help indeed.

Have a nice day.

Remember it's just a fan game... i am not going to try to sell it or anything like it. But that doesn't mean i don't want to make something kickass from it. It would be great if someone has experience in something.. if not you can always help with your troughts and suggestions!

I'm going to do the last thing then I guess since I'm no artist/programmer. But do you already have a plot/setting in mind? I had an old one I sent to Ceilick some time ago, perhaps you could get use from it. Since I lost the original one I'll try to re-elaborate it later.

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 19:23

That's very interesting Yamaha_ERG121! You've taken the right direction by choosing Unity, especially now, when the 3rd version is out. I was investigating this program recently. It seems that it is much popular in the indie community and some sweet games are using it (or are in production). With Unity, you can import directly 3d models and animations from many 3d content creators such as Blender or 3DSM, which is a good thing because if you need, you can import some Keen models. Maybe Lava89 can help.

Good things take time, so take yours and let's see what will come out.

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 20:34

Either way, the plot revolved about Commander Keen receiving a S.O.S. message from his arch nemesis himself: Mortimer McMire. Mortimer claims he has been captured by some rogue aliens who stole his universal toaster cannon and intend to use it for their own goals. Keen then decides to go to the aliens planet to rescue Mortimer who is the only one able to reprogram the Universal Toaster Cannon. But just as keen defeated the aliens, it turned out that they were not evil and merely imprisoned mortimer to prevent him from doing damage to the universe. Mortimer, now free, takes control of an army of robots that had also been captured by the aliens and decides to terminate keen. Who will prevail?

That's it, I guess. Feel free to edit it as much as you like, in case you want to use it.

Post by **tulip** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 22:12

Nice, sounds like a promising idea. Yeah, as the others said Lava89 can probably help, Laz is the other guy that made Project Shadowlands, and DSL got outstanding 3D skills too.
I myself don't know how to create 3D models sadly.

You shouldn't have problems to find music composers on these boards.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 22:17

Welcome to the PCKF! Another Dutch user here.

I can do music, but currently I am A) too busy to help and B) already making music for another Keen project called Commander Genius (look it up!). Feel free to use any of my songs made for Commander Genius though, if you like (see http://davince.tengudev.com/music/proje ... derGenius/).

If this gets off the ground I could maybe do a few things in a few weeks (I'll have some free time then).

Yamaha_ERG121 · Post by **Yamaha_ERG121** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 21:50

Hi all and thanks to all for all the replies!

I understand it must be strange if someone is just showing up and this is the first reply on this board... excuses for that! I mean this is a whole community and you people probably know one and other good. It wasn't meant as some kind of invasion or something like that.. so sorry. But i guess this is the only place where you would exacly find other keen-lovers.

I have no ideas yet for a story or anything.. thank you all for the suggestions, because some of the parts i've read here already are better for sure then i had in mind. I would have chosen for a whole new planet with other enemies for keen to explore, ofcourse under the lead of Mortimer McMire but that's about it.

I've started modelling some things that would be needed anyhow (The ship, keep's helmet, some parts of his chest). It's a little bit on trial and error because if haven't tested the keen model in the unity engine yet.

I am not at home right know, tomorrow i will upload some pictures of the models i have at this point.

ckGeoff · Post by **ckGeoff** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 23:38

Hi,

Someone already mentioned Project Shadowlands, but here's the link, you should check it out because it sounds like what you're trying to achieve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsK_SCZ6uAs

And for some commentary and concept art (including 3D models):

http://www.nzcgi.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=1254

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:15

Too bad laz84 didn't updated his youtube channel for months.

ZidaneA · Post by **ZidaneA** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:16

I can help with music too. Have provided music for Dead In The Desert, Battle of the Brains, Keen 64 and Commander Genius.

Haven't done anything Keen related in a very long time so... yeah you get it

DHeadshot · Post by **DHeadshot** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:02

Remember it's just a fan game...

Might it be worth speaking to K1n9_Duk3 then, given the nature of both your project and KEENGINE as Fan-game platforms?

K1n9_Duk3 · Post by **K1n9_Duk3** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 13:44

I don't know anything about this Unity engine, but I'm sure making a game with it will be very different compared to making a game with KEENGINE.

Yamaha_ERG121 · Post by **Yamaha_ERG121** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 17:04

wiivn wrote:Too bad laz84 didn't updated his youtube channel for months.

That indeed really is too bad!
His project is looking awesome, really!
I specially love the commander keen model, it's great. Even the fanart on the website is great and very stylish. Sometimes when i search for commander keen models (in 3D) on Google i ofter see commander keen looking more realistic (like an actual human) then in a comic kind of way..

The style of shadowlands would be in the direction i would go for too.. (But it takes a lot of time to model and animate in 3D). So it will take some to finish the model. I want to keep things as commander keen like as i can, but in 3D.

About KEENgine, is that the engine the commander keen games are runnig on? Unity is probably very different but can be used with c+ and it has a own javascript version.

This weekend someone with more program skills will probably help me to write some code for it. In the meanwhile i try working on the model i want to bring up a prototype or something up soon as possible so i can make it more clear which will be more the direction of the game. His head probably has to be done over again because i have faces that look a bit off on rendering now...

Is the helmet for now.. it looks way to shiney now so don't mind the texture. Now it's basically a stripe (Will need a bump too maybe and scrathes).

Is the ship, idea was flying the landing gear is in, standing would be out. Don't mind the background... I was curious what it would look like in a universe. Keens universe will be looking different later, less realistic more cartoony. Texture isn't accurate yet, ( I experimented a bit with it adding stripes on the ship). It needs some more changes... definatly

Level selection will be a top down like in the old games, but my idea was to place the camera above keen (and a little back) so you would be able to see where keen moves.

thx again all for all your responses and suggestions!
Everyone who would help to make music that would be great because i sure suck at it

edit: i'm sorry about the size of the images.. i trought they would be smaller..

[/img] >:

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 17:32

That......... That is great. Really looking good so far, although that's not... a lot of stuff. I really hope this will be continued.

Post by **tulip** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 17:46

Indeed, looks great. And don't worry about the image size, it's just right not to stretch anything (at least on my resolution).