Public Commander Keen Forum

oh, hey nowheregirl. thanks for your interest in the project. that's really kind of you offering to contribute something verbal/text based to the mod. please remind me again in two weeks time to get back to you on that topic, as I unfortunately haven't have the time right now to work on FitF whatsoever. things are quite hectic these days, if you know what I mean... But I think we should get in touch soon and see if we can work something out.

in the meantime you could, if you like, make up a very short dialog between Keen & the Janitor (1-2 sentences each)... maybe something funny, probably with a pun. topic: "to meet at secret places"

Any updates on this project?

Syllypryde wrote: ↑Sat Feb 12, 2022 17:44 Any updates on this project?

Looks like Nisaba uploaded some demo footage recently:
https://vimeo.com/670235333
https://vimeo.com/670236999
This is looking really good! I'll admit, the new Keen sprite doesn't look as bad in motion, and I like the sort of Lovecraftian look those creatures have. I really hope we get to play this this year, because this is the mod I'm looking forward to the most right now!

EDIT: I notice the videos have been made private now. Sorry Nisaba, if I shared something you didn't want people to see yet.

no worries. it just must have slipped my attention that these videos were in public mode on the servers. I took them down again so as not to spoil too much just yet. The material was intended only for in-game testing anyhow. But I am glad that you seem to like the content. And thanks for your kind words. Feels always good to know that people care about the project.

As far as updates go, I have to admit that things just didn't came along for me last year. times were pretty tough and scope for creative work was unfortunately rather limited. It really isn't much left to do but hell, circumstance just don't allow me to make any promises at all. I wish I had better news for you, but it is what it is.

Why do you upload those videos, Nisaba? To show to a few others, like friends or those who are also working on the project? If the videos keep going into public mode (is it a glitch in the website?), maybe you should attach them to e-mails instead if you don't want your stuff potentially open to the public.

I hope things get better for you over there!

Valid question.
Uploading video snippets can have multiple purposes for me. Basically, it's about sharing internal material with contributors.
On the one hand, the purpose of the recordings can be to show bugs or to make understandable what is not quite clear with text alone. Image and or video material has proven to be quite helpful for collaboration.
But it can also serve as a representation to coordinate further steps, or to discuss whether certain designs also fit together harmoniously in-game. In other words, it's about getting a better idea of the big picture.

Sometimes such videos are also meant as teasers or as a little 'thank you'. The really impressive contributions I've received from forum members usually come without knowing the whole game. In the case of music, for example, I often describe my wishes on the text level, and possibly ask for detailed changes here and there. My team is very patient with me and thankfully trusts that my strong ideas will serve the project. The willingness to adapt to my wishes and demands is not a matter of course.

- Big big shoutouts to kvee, Kohntarkosz_ & eggs_box by the way. Your compositions rock!
- and without K1n9_Duk3 of course nothing would run at all. Insanely good guy!
- Since day one, Fleex has developed tools & scripts specifically for this mod.
- Fantastic graphic designs come from ProYorp & Pandakeen.
- Zilem, Plasma Captain, XkyRauh and DoomJedi are a great support in finding or tweaking sprites.
- When it comes to level design especially Dr.Colossus, The Shifted One, Tulip and of course Mr.M have influenced my output quite a bit.
- Nanomekia has written delicious text snippets and with Ceilick, I've tossed a thousand ideas back and forth. And of course the list goes on and on....
even though this project is huge I think that it's only fair that the team gets some more insights accordingly.

Why material is leaked from time to time is probably due to my lack of concentration. Actually these are not meant to be public links. But hey, mistakes can happen.
That some of you seem to follow my channel with interest, makes me happy of course. After all, your interest and involvement is what keeps me going. Thus, my mistakes then also have something good.

For example, here you can see an in-game test that represents an early phase of a new door mechanic. In theory, many solutions can be devised, but testing in practice reveals hurdles and bugs that still need to be addressed. Often times I bounce back and forth discoveries like that with the crew via the help of little GIF's or video snippets.

This is so great, please find the resolve to power this project through to completion Nisaba. Also it's amazing to see so many great contributors involved, people who aren't churning out mods these days yet can still get involved with something like this!

That door is something else. This is the type of innovation that would have fit in perfectly in the golden era of platforming, cut too short by Doom etc.

Not to be fishing for spoilers, but is the idea that both keys are needed to get through the door? It really has that jungle fantasy aesthetic, has me thinking of Indiana Jones.

Benvolio wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:24 This is so great, please find the resolve to power this project through to completion Nisaba. Also it's amazing to see so many great contributors involved, people who aren't churning out mods these days yet can still get involved with something like this!

That door is something else. This is the type of innovation that would have fit in perfectly in the golden era of platforming, cut too short by Doom etc.

Not to be fishing for spoilers, but is the idea that both keys are needed to get through the door? It really has that jungle fantasy aesthetic, has me thinking of Indiana Jones.

Thanks so much for the positive vibes! comments like yours keep me going

yep, you've guessed it right. Both keys are indeed needed to pass through. The final version works just like a charm, with of course a smoothed out animation. I think you'll like it. And yeah, the Indiana Jones trilogy is definitely an inspiration source, be it active or subconscious. I've always been a huge fan of Indy's adventures and I think it will be noticeable in-game quite a bit...

BTW, happy Mort-Day everybody
And to celebrate, I brought you a little something. It's been a while but I fortunately have found some minutes to swing the pixel brush. Pandakeen assisted me greatly in creating it and was a very big inspiration, not only in terms of design choices. Awesome dude when it comes to colour and shading! Shoutouts

This looks absolutely fantastic. Keep at it.

It would be great if these mushrooms were used in the game.

they will

I'm a bit late with this comment, but I just want to agree with the other people regarding the Commander Keen portrayal in the screenshot from 9th Oct 2021 (and in the screenshot above). To me, it looks totally off, like a little baby in a football helmet and oversized clothes. Playing as a baby-like character doesn't fit this game in my view. I would definitely keep the original sprite. If you really insist on using the new sprite, maybe you can just release an alternative version?

Nisaba wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:03 - Nanomekia has written delicious text snippets

By the way, I've been wondering, has anyone heard from nanomekia recently?

Maybe this is a bit off-topic, but I'm not really sure where to put this. nanomekia was super active on here for quite a while, and now they haven't been online in a year. A bit troubling when the last things they posted were about some potentially serious health concerns...

I had planned to share this much earlier. Well, you know how things are. Anyway, I really need to share with you Pandakeen's terrific work. So here's a insanely good design that I think is fucl rads, don't you think.
feedback welcome. just keep in mind that this is an intermediate result. the final version may be slightly different.