Keen 64: Unity (Release 8: Super Keen 64 Jumping II)

Here is where to post about the latest Commander Keen fangame or modification you've finished, a new website you've made, or another Keen-related creation.
Plasma Captain
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 336
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 18:46

Re: Keen 64: Unity (Release 7: Super Keen 64 Jumping)

Post by Plasma Captain »

The pogo camera is pretty much perfect now. It snaps harshly a bit upon landing from a long drop (when the camera tries to realign) but other than that, it looks really good and is far easier to control in my opinion.

I see now what you meant about adjusting the camera's z-level when Keen is jumping though. He jumps a lot higher than I'd expected and that combined with the closeness of the camera makes it really weird to see him sail up and out of view. My immediate instinct would just be to pull the camera up and back but that would probably go against your vision for the game. Maybe a floatier motion of the camera adjusting to his z motion instead of direct snapping could help, but it might also potentially cause other problems with viewing the game. I'm not really sure.

The Yorp expressions are great. :mortlol
User avatar
Lava89
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 1087
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 15:28

Keen 64: Release 8

Post by Lava89 »

Thanks for your awesome feedback, Plasma!

In this new release I've panned the camera out now whenever you switch to the new control scheme. I might mimic some of the newer "3rd person" games make the camera zoom out when you walk / run and zooms back in when the player stops, but when I tried that, it got kind of annoying-- so for now, it simply "snaps" to the outer camera view once you press "k", to give you more precision.

I also tried to get the pogo to follow the player more when you drop, but I'll gladly tweak it if there's still an issue (I'll admit that I spent more time trying to nail down the new jumping scheme, since it required the most work).

I'll admit that the pogo and new jumping scheme are still a bit rough around the edges, but I'll worry about polishing things once we've settled on an alternate control scheme that works for the community. :)

Also, just as a heads up, there's a glitch I need to fix when pogoing with the new jumping control scheme enabled and you drop the pogo in mid-air-- I didn't notice this until I had pretty much compiled everything.

Play via Browser, standalone Windows or standalone Linux.

Press "i" to see all of the different control schemes!

I've made no graphical updates for this release, so here is a preview of the level that will premiere in the "Tanks and Butlers and Gargs, Oh My!" Release (hopefully Release 10 or 11). It's an adaptation of "Level 3", where you obtain the battery.


Image



Image



Image


It's all still a work in progress (still have the upper levels to add) and I plan to add smaller peg-like platforms so you can ascend some of those purple platforms without a pogo stick.
Last edited by Lava89 on Sun Jul 09, 2017 18:14, edited 2 times in total.
Plasma Captain
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 336
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 18:46

Re: Keen 64: Unity (Release 8: Super Keen 64 Jumping II)

Post by Plasma Captain »

The pogo dropping is definitely better.

These are the settings I personally find optimal:

* Sensitivity: 100
* Pogo Locked: True
* Camera Locked: False
* Camera Look: Maybe I'm just a dummy ( :mort2 ), but I didn't figure out what this did.

I'm interested to know what settings others land on...

The next level looks really neat!
User avatar
DaVince
lazy/busy Keener
Posts: 1476
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 15:34
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Keen 64: Unity (Release 8: Super Keen 64 Jumping II)

Post by DaVince »

Hi, long time no see! I haven't visited in ages and was wondering if this project is still a thing now? :) I had a few thoughts on the latest version.

For one, since it's sometimes difficult to land exactly on the spot you wanted to land on, have you considered the idea of Keen slowly and subtly aiming and gravitating towards the nearest target below him? I believe this is a thing some of the 3D Mario games do to make it easier to land on enemies and platforms, and the nice thing is that as the player you never really notice, yet it improves general accuracy. Might be worth looking into.
I might mimic some of the newer "3rd person" games make the camera zoom out when you walk / run and zooms back in when the player stops
This is exactly what I was thinking when I was playing the game - once you start walking the default view isn't quite large enough to be able to look around.
but when I tried that, it got kind of annoying--
For sure this is tricky to implement well and takes a lot of experimentation. From what I've seen in Mario Odyssey, for example, is that it's good to leave the camera at its current zoom level once it had started zooming out, and only slowly and gradually go back to the original angle.

The most surprising thing about revisiting this game after 2 years is that there aren't any new levels whatsoever though! I thought by now you would have fixed the general design into place and started making levels.
Wow look at me I'm lurking
Post Reply