Introduction
Hi all! While it's been available as an open beta for ages now, I'd like to officially announce the release of Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined.
Those of you who have been in the forum for a long time, like, a very long time, might remember me from when I was a kid by the alias Shocks(h)und, and would come up with a new fangame idea every week only to abandon it (and get quite angry if any other fangames had ideas even remotely similar). Well, I'm a lot older now, and thought I should fulfill that goal of making a Keen fangame at some point (there was also intent for it to serve as practice coding a platformer in MonoGame, but further experience since then has meant I'm probably not going to use MonoGame going forward for future projects).
And those of you who are familiar with the Lemmings community - yes, I'm the same namida who's an admin there and the developer of NeoLemmix, Loap, and the Lemmings Plus level pack series.
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Download Link
Download: https://nv.wtf/GalaxyReimagined_1.0.3.0.zip
Help/Manual is available here (also included in the download): https://www.nv.wtf/ckgrhelp/
1. Download and extract the Galaxy Reimagined ZIP
2. Double-click GalaxyReimagined.exe
That's it. You do not need to provide a copy of any Keen game, you do not use DOSBox, etc. It's a standalone game built for modern Windows PCs. If upgrading from an older version of the game, simply extract the new version over the top of it.
The binary is only available for Windows; however it should be possible to run on Linux by using WINE. It should also be possible to build from source for both Linux and Mac (possibly also Android and iOS, with additional work).
A note regarding difficulty selection: I highly recommend playing on Normal. That's the "as the developer intended" setting. Easy and Hard are there if you really want them, but do note that they're not nearly as thoroughly tested.
You can also watch my own playthrough of the game (on Normal) here. Recording this is a WIP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... o5PPsoQkj5
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The Story
Commander Keen had just returned from foiling the Vorticon attack on Earth, and settled into bed, when he heard suspicious noises outside his window.
Upon dragging himself to the window and pushing aside the curtains, Keen saw some strange creatures messing around in his clubhouse.
"Here we go again," Keen thought to himself, as he raced outside to take a closer look. By the time he got outside, the creatures had left and Keen could barely make out their spaceship in the distance, flying away. Spot, of course, was no help.
Worse, Keen noticed that much of his gear, so crucial to his heroic quests, was missing. His pogo stick, his raygun, all appeared to be missing. With no time to spare, Keen decided to chase these invaders armed only with the neural stunner on board his rocket.
Keen's fortunes only continued to worsen when, having forgotten to refuel after his last adventure, his Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket ran out of fuel and he was forced to make an emergency landing in the Shadowlands. Even worse, his stunner was defective.
Unequipped and with no fuel, all Keen could do was explore in the hope he'd find some help.
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About
Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined is a fangame based on a self-developed engine (using MonoGame as the underlying framework), and follows on from the Invasion of the Vorticons trilogy as an alternate continuity - although really, the plot is just an excuse to create some gameplay and levels.
Galaxy Reimagined takes place across three worlds - the Shadowlands, Fribbulus Xax, and the Shikadis' Omegamatic. While staying close to Goodbye Galaxy's gameplay in most ways, there are some features that set Galaxy Reimagined apart from the official games' gameplay:
- Levels are replayable - and sometimes, you'll need to come back to a level later in order to obtain everything in it. (In fact, while it is possible to beat the game without ever replaying a level, you'd likely need to already know the game well and plan your route carefully in order to do so.)
- Lives now function more like a health meter. Keen loses a life when he gets hit, but only dies if he runs out of lives (at which point he must exit the level, or restart it from the beginning / a checkpoint).
- Keen does not start the game with a pogo or neural stunner; Keen must find these in levels before he can use them. There's a few more items he can find that give him extra abilities too.
- There is no manual saving. The game autosaves whenever Keen enters or exits a level, as well as whenever Keen reaches a checkpoint.
- Enemies that took multiple shots to stun in the official games, generally are stunned with a single shot but only remain stunned temporarily. (There are exceptions.)
- Difficulty selection has effects beyond just the number of enemies that appear (detailed below).
- You can see an estimate of how difficult a level is before you play it - look at the number of stars it has under its name on the world map.
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Default Controls
Commander Keen: Galaxy Reimagined can be controlled with either a keyboard or a gamepad. Controls can be customized in the Settings menu, however the defaults are:
Keyboard
Arrow keys - Move
Ctrl - Jump
Alt - Pogo (must be obtained)
Space - Shoot (must be obtained)
Shift - Grappling hook (must be obtained)
Enter - Minimap (must be obtained)
Esc - Pause (also gives option to exit / restart level)
Gamepad (button labels are based on Xbox controller)
DPad or Left stick - Move
A - Jump
B - Pogo (must be obtained)
X - Shoot (must be obtained)
Y - Grappling hook (must be obtained)
Menu (Start) - Minimap (must be obtained)
View (Back / Select) - Pause (also gives option to exit / restart level)
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Help, which level should I go to?!
Part of the fun is exploring and figuring this out, but I realise some people might want some pointers, or at least to know when they'll get certain items.
The first thing - you might notice (unless you turned hints off in the settings) the colored ! icons above levels on the world map. These tell you that playing the level is currently useful in some way:
- A red exclamation mark means that the level blocks your path, or in other words, simply beating this level (without needing to collect any particular items etc in it) will unlock more levels.
- A green exclamation mark means that the level contains a gnosticene, battery or fuse. This will only show up if either (a) you currently need more of the thing it contains in order to make progress, or (b) you've completed the final level, at which point all remaining gnosticenes / etc will be marked.
- A blue exclamation mark means the level contains an item that grants Keen a new ability.
These icons will only show up if you're actually able to beat the level and obtain the relevant item. For example, the red exclamation mark on Bloogwaters Crossing will not show up if you don't have the pogo yet (as the level is impossible to beat without the pogo).
If that's not enough and you still want to be at least pointed in the right direction for the first few levels:
- You must play Slug Village first. No way around it.
- You can obtain the pogo stick in Lifewater Oasis, and once you've got that, the stunner in Pyramid of the Moon.
- You need to rescue two Gnosticenes in order to be able to travel to Fribbulus Xax.
- The Gnosticenes that can be rescued at this stage are in Hillville (possible and reasonable without the pogo), Crystalus (possible but insanely hard without the pogo), Sand Yego and Pyramid of the Sun (both only possible with the pogo).
- Bloogwaters Crossing cannot be completed without the pogo.
- You can get pretty far without the stunner if you really want to, though you will eventually need it in order to complete the game.
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Screenshots
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Differences between difficulty settings
General
- More enemies appear on higher difficulty settings. Unlike the official games, sometimes different enemies appear (eg. a Bloog may be replaced with a Blooguard on Hard).
- Keen begins levels with 6 lives and 6 ammo on Easy; 5 each on Normal; and 4 each on Hard.
- There are fewer checkpoints (and occasionally, their locations are changed) on higher difficulties.
- 1up / Ammo pickups give two extra lives / ammo respectively when playing on Easy, compared to only one on Normal or Hard.
- All enemies that can only be temporarily stunned, remain so for 25% longer when playing on Easy.
- A certian aspect of the final level is more generous on lower difficulty settings.
Keen 4 Enemies
- Berkeloids throw fireballs more often on higher difficulty settings; they don't throw them at all on Easy.
- Blue Birds fly slower on Easy.
- Dopefish swim slower on Easy.
- Mimrocks have a longer cooldown between steps on Easy.
- Skypests land more frequently on lower difficulty settings.
- Poison Slugs leave slime puddles less frequently on Easy.
- Sprites take longer to fire their shots on lower difficulties.
Keen 5 Enemies
- Little Amptons deal contact damage even when not on a pole when playing on Hard.
- Robo Reds fire less shots per barrage on lower difficulties.
- Shikadi only send sparks up or down a pole (instead of both at the same time) on Easy.
- A certain aspect of the Shikadi Master is more generous on Easy.
- Shockshunds are permanently stunned by a single shot on Easy or Normal; but only temporarily stunned on Hard.
- Slicestars require fewer shots to destroy on Easy.
- Voltefaces move slower on Easy.
Keen 6 Enemies
- Babobbas don't take breaks on Hard; on Easy, they're harmless while taking breaks.
- Bobbas fire shots every 3rd jump on Easy, every 2nd jump on Normal, and may fire (randomly) after either 1 or 2 jumps on Hard.
- Flects merely block, rather than reflect, shots from the front on Easy.
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Cheats
If you really want to use cheats...
To enable cheats: Press A-2-Enter (must be in-game, not in a menu screen; this can be either a level or a world map)
To enable dev cheats: First enable regular cheats, then press F10-A-3-Enter
(To activate cheats in versions prior to 1.0.2.0: Run the game with the command line parameter "-enable-cheats" for regular cheats only, or "-enable-dev-cheats" for regular and dev cheats.)
F10+A - Infinite ammo. Press again to disable; Keen's ammo will remain at 9 but will decrease when used.
F10+C - Checkpoint cheat. Gives an instant checkpoint. Do NOT use on the world map.
F10+D - Instant death. Kills Keen and sets his lives to zero. Do NOT use on the world map.
F10+E - End level. Finishes the current level and marks it as completed. Do NOT use on the world map.
F10+G - God mode. Keen cannot be killed. Press again to disable.
F10+I - Item cheat. Makes all collectibles (pogo, stunner, gnosticenes, etc) in the current level teleport to slightly in front of Keen.
F10+J - Jump cheat. Gives infinite jump height and allows jumping in midair. Press again to disable.
F10+K - Gem cheat. Gives one gem of each color plus a keycard.
F10+L - Infinite lives. Press again to disable; Keen's lives will remain at 9 but will decrease when hit.
F10+M - (Dev cheat) Map dump mode. Cycles through every level and saves an image of the level map (taking into account current progression and difficulty selection), including entities such as enemies.
F10+R - (Dev cheat) Record demo. Activates the next time you enter a level.
F10+S - (Dev cheat) Stats dump. Creates a CSV file with some stats about the levels.
F10+T - Tool cheat. Gives Keen all "powerup" items (pogo etc). WARNING, this cheat can permanently harm your save file. Also it only works when used in a level (not the world map).
F10+U - Unlock all secret levels. If used on the world map, doesn't take effect until you enter and exit a level.
F10+W - Warp cheat. I advise against warping directly to world map levels; warp to their respective BWB Megarocket levels instead. Level list here: https://www.nv.wtf/CKGRLevelList.txt
F10+X - (Dev cheat) Opens the tile properties editor.
F10+Y - Show tile solidity. Press again to disable.
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Source Code / Editing
The source code (written in C#) is available here: https://bitbucket.org/namida42/galaxyreimagined/
The source code is distributed under the MIT licence, not the GPL licence that most Keen-related open-source projects use. The most important difference is that this means derivative works are not obligated to also be open-source (but I do still encourage them to be). The MIT licence is GPL-compatible, so you can use Galaxy Reimagined's code (or portions thereof) in a GPL project.
The base folder of the repo contains a file "Editing Notes.txt" which contains some information on how to create and import custom levels using Tiled (a widely-used open-source tilemap editor available for multiple platforms). There is currently no documentation on the formats of data files, but they are all text-based and follow a similar structure (based on the NeoLemmix text-based data file structure) and should not be overly difficult to figure out; I'm also happy to answer any questions as they come up (either here or on Discord).
