How much would you pay for a new Keen?

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How much would you pay for a new episode of Commander Keen?

A pirate's life for me! (Nothing regardless of RRP.)
0
No votes
$0 (Ad supported is fine.)
1
3%
$1 - $5
1
3%
$6 - $10
2
7%
$11 - $15
3
10%
$16 - $25
9
31%
$26 - $50
3
10%
$51+ (And Tom Hall can have my first born child.)
10
34%
 
Total votes: 29

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Scarlet
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Post by Scarlet »

Keening_Product wrote:
Scarlet wrote:But they will not be making a new keen game in DOS graphics. No chance.
Oh ye of little faith! Why not? MANY indie games have experimented with different graphical restrictions, so why should a new Keen not stick with the look that made it famous?!

Would you play the game if it had similar graphics?
Well, if a commercial company was making something, then they would have to make something that would sell on the market. Dos like stuff just doesn't sell I think?
Similar graphics would mean pixely dos-ish graphics. I just can't imagine them doing that.


In my opinion, if in some scenario some commercial company (any company) made a new keen series it would mean a few things. 1) 3-Dish graphics. I think that is fair to say? And then 2)... the end of our community, as they can't have commercial stuff being made while fans make (perhaps better) mods. It would hurt their profits...

The thing is that I can't imagine keen being something other than it is. This here is the keen spirit... I mean hey maybe they might make something down the line. I hope not, but if they do I personally have a hard time imagining that same spirit being kept, as so many other games lost that original spirit...

Sorry if my post sounds a bit pessimistic.
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Spikenexus
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Post by Spikenexus »

My first thought would be to spend however much the game costs, but having thought about it a bit more, it depends.

I preordered the collectors' edition Duke Nukem Forever, with the mini statue, poker cards/chips, bottle opener cap and a few other things without even knowing anything about the actual game because 1) I loved Duke 1 - 3D and wanted to own the fourth game in that 'official' series, and 2) I'm a sucker for bonus real-life physical items that I can touch and put on display somewhere. As disappointing as the actual game was, I still think the bonus stuff was pretty cool and I don't regret paying for the game plus extra to get all of those bonus things.

If there were to be a new Commander Keen game that came with some bonus real-life actual things, I'd snap it up even if it was a bit expensive (certainly more than $51). If the bonus things were something really special (say, A Commander Keen equivalent of the Sonic Generations Collectors Edition: http://sega-memories.blogspot.com.au/20 ... ition.html) I'd probably be willing to pay far too much.


If it was just a new game by itself, in the same style of and a similar length to the old games, I'd eventually buy it regardless but would probably be comfortable paying around $20 - $25 for a physical copy. If it were a console game delivered via download, I think $10 - $15 would be the comfort limit, and no more than $10 for an iOS/Android game.

If the game were a successful 'modernization' of Keen (in my imagination would look something like a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Ratchet and Clank, or perhaps even Donkey Kong Country Returns) I'd easily pay more than $51, probably around $80 - $90 (which is close to the standard price for a new release PS3/X360 game in Australia).[/quote]
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Lava89
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Post by Lava89 »

I would pay from $10 to $30, depending on the quality of the game's assets and how true it is to the source material (in spirit anyways...doesn't have to be a nearly identical remake)....pre-order bonuses would make me more likely to not wait till the game goes down in price.
Scarlet wrote:Well, if a commercial company was making something, then they would have to make something that would sell on the market. Dos like stuff just doesn't sell I think?
This seems to be commonly assumed, but I think its a fallacy. Steam wouldn't put older games on its channel if there wasn't some kind of demand and GOG originally built its entire service on the demand of older games.
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Scarlet
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Post by Scarlet »

Lava89 wrote:
Scarlet wrote:Well, if a commercial company was making something, then they would have to make something that would sell on the market. Dos like stuff just doesn't sell I think?
This seems to be commonly assumed, but I think its a fallacy. Steam wouldn't put older games on its channel if there wasn't some kind of demand and GOG originally built its entire service on the demand of older games.
The key thing there is that they are old games, not new games...
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Lava89
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Post by Lava89 »

Ah ok. Well for new games done in a retro style the first game I can think of at the top of my head is Minecraft, which to me is very reminsicent of DOS games in look (for example, its blocky user interface). Plus, if you're just talking about retro games in general, Megaman 9 is an entire game done in a completely retro console style (a console game that dates back even earlier than most DOS games).

EDIT: That's not to say that DOS games or even DOS style games sell like hot cakes (well they might if there were more willing companies to put money towards them). I just think that there's a bigger market for retro \ DOS games than what a good number of people commonly assume.
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CthulhuToo
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Post by CthulhuToo »

New Keen game? To quote a Futurama-inspired meme: "Shut up and take my money!"
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Personally I'd be willing to pay somewhere around $80, or 1200 CZK. That's around the price of a physical copy of a brand new blockbuster game. The Keen games are perfect, they have humor, good music, cool graphics, awesome gameplay and incredible atmosphere. I'd certainly love a new Keen game and would play it to death.
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fantomx11
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Post by fantomx11 »

Lava89 wrote:Ah ok. Well for new games done in a retro style the first game I can think of at the top of my head is Minecraft, which to me is very reminsicent of DOS games in look (for example, its blocky user interface). Plus, if you're just talking about retro games in general, Megaman 9 is an entire game done in a completely retro console style (a console game that dates back even earlier than most DOS games).
Yes, I was going to mention Megaman 9 and the next one in the series Megaman 10. They were both done using the Megaman 2 engine. Which, unlike later games in the Megaman series, did not include a charge shot or the ability to slide (this is relevant because the game designers decided to use gameplay that was inferior than was available). Even so, the games were successes. Probably, at least partially due to the distribution medium, price (iirc, it was $5-10 to buy the basic game and then there was additional DLC available as well), but I think nostalgia had something to do with it as well.

Does that mean that a new Keen game that was designed to run on a DOS platform, or limited itself to the EGA palette would be commercially viable? It's possible. The Keen games were easily the most polished platformers I played on the PC when I was young, but, unlike Megaman, there has not been a new entry in the series for 20 years, and the fanbase is very limited compared to Megaman. There isn't nearly as much brand recognition of Keen as there is of Megaman.

Personally, limiting it to the EGA palette is one sacred cow I'm pretty ambivalent about (probably because I don't see the graphics as being anything close to what makes it Keen). Practically every other series that has been through multiple video game eras have had updated graphics at least once. Many of them are more successful now than they were then, and the idea that "It can't be Keen if it isn't exactly like the original games" is one I do not really understand or even see why it is an issue at all.

The overall cartoony style, gameplay, musical style (although it'd be nice to have some higher quality than adlilb music, the style of the music fits Keen too well to change, imo), and humor can certainly translate to a more modern graphic engine without ruining the game because those, at least to me, are what makes Keen "Keen". The gameplay could even be changed and still create a successful game (see Mario 64 vs the 2D Marios).
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chrissifniotis
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Post by chrissifniotis »

There are a lot of good points in this argument, the poll and the question seems so trivial at this point. Personally I'd pay whatever the price would be, my vote was more based on the possible price itself.

Scarlet has some good points about a possible official game; the thing about keen is it's more a classic now. It actually has an image as being part of early to mid 90's retro game style. Personally I can see any new keen game in the style of Goodbye Galaxy more than anything else; I've been keeping an eye on Steam's GreenLight submissions and a significant fraction of them are in a similar style of retro side-scrolling gameplay. If anything there is at least some sort of a revival of the retro game style.

But whatever the future brings I'll buy it and give it a whirl. Which reminds me to get the 7-9 mods at some stage.
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

By the way... I really, really hope they'd preserve Keen's white skin. :lol
Boreas249
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Post by Boreas249 »

$9001

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

Seriously though... I'd love a new Keen, but it had better be good.

I hate the direction the gaming industry has been going lately, so I'm a bit iffy about stuff like this.
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Post by chrissifniotis »

Nospike wrote:By the way... I really, really hope they'd preserve Keen's white skin. :lol
Oh I'm sure they would. I saw pictures of CKGC and I didn't like keen with that tan. :O
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

chrissifniotis wrote:
Nospike wrote:By the way... I really, really hope they'd preserve Keen's white skin. :lol
Oh I'm sure they would. I saw pictures of CKGC and I didn't like keen with that tan. :O
I actually played that crap, aside from looking terrible it played terrible too.
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Roobar
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Post by Roobar »

chrissifniotis wrote:
Nospike wrote:By the way... I really, really hope they'd preserve Keen's white skin. :lol
Oh I'm sure they would. I saw pictures of CKGC and I didn't like keen with that tan. :O
But that was due to the limited colors of GBC that is capable of, not a developer fault. Only if they waited for GameBoy Advance to make Keen for it, it would be looking much, much better and Keen would have been bigger success and keen fans pleased... :(.

But anyway, if you manage to make the skin color right, it looks better and the white version will start to look like a ghost. http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/443 ... 63872n.png http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1250 ... bypogo.png
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

I hate the direction the gaming industry has been going lately, so I'm a bit iffy about stuff like this.
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