The MrBlackPack - A NEW Keen 3 Level Pack

MrBlack · Post by **MrBlack** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:25

Bored of Keen 3? Sick of the same levels, where you have to jump into a room full of ninjas with nothing but a football helmet and the hopes you might reach a precious Ankh before being (ironically) kicked in the face? Tired of being forced to use God Mode to get a certain Yellow Key, or being forced to restart because not even God Mode gets you past the red bouncy ball blocking your path?

Then prepare for a NEW Keen 3. Same planet, 15 totally different levels, and plenty of new places to challenge your Keen skills. (Mortimer McMire was left untouched... mostly...)

The Vorticons are preparing for war - after all, Keen must die! Vorticons, Meeps, cringeworthy wallpaper, green dangly stuff in a can (rumour has it there's a factory for the stuff...) and plenty more, without the tediousness of... well, without the tediousness!... mostly... well it IS Keen after all...

http://www.bipship.com/db/uploads/Keen3 ... ckPack.zip

Thanks to the host of Bipship for the great upload resource ^^^

Levels are designed by me and my brother, two avid Keen fans.

And of course, please give as much feedback as possible. On anything at all. ESPECIALLY if there's a genuine error, like Keen starting in the middle of the level... it's happened a few times...

Enjoy! =]

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 16:07

Yay! I'll definitely check this out. Haven't been many new level packs for quite a while.

Hehe, I think I know what all three levels you're talking about are in the 'tired of ... ?' section.

Also, cool that someone's using my uploader.

Post by **tulip** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 21:10

Great news. I may wanna try to play them in clonekeen as soon as I got keen3 working there.

Mink · Post by **Mink** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 21:19

New level packs are always nice to see. I'll have to try this out.

Post by **KeenRush** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 16:18

Gentlemen, I salute you!

When a new-comer announces he has done some levels, I don't have my hopes up high -- the resuts are often mediocre. But these -- these are the best Keen 3 levels I've ever played, and not far from being the best Keen levels overall. Definitely in my top 3 of all time. I've played about 75% now and this level pack is just flawless.

Your style is dense, I love it. This is how Keen 3 should have been! If only iD had paid more attention to their levels... You guys use the tileset and all the possibilities Keen 3 has (ankhs (love the puzzles and runs!), moving platforms, etc) perfectly. A great Keen release to start the new year with.

gerstrong · Post by **gerstrong** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 18:33

Their also work nice in CloneKeenPlus, but on the map there are some tileset errors unfortunately.

I'll be looking for those errors. Your levels are very nice!

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:48

WOW.

Calling this a replacement of Keen 3 would be an insult to your levelpack.

Seriously, this is some GREAT work. There is no question that this is more playable and more attractive than the original Keen 3, and certainly creates a much more exciting atmosphere. You and your brother should attempt modding sometime!

MrBlack · Post by **MrBlack** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:45

Wow, thanks everyone for the great positive feedback! Glad to see people are enjoying it =D

I don't know what else to say, but I REALLY do appreciate your comments!

Quick question: What is CloneKeen/CloneKeenPlus?

And about modding, I'd love to mess around with enemies and such but my bro and I have no programming experience. Is it simple enough to get into or does it require a good amount of experience to mod Keen?

Post by **KeenRush** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:04

Some patching is easy, just copying lines from Keen: Modding forum into your patch file. Other kind requires knowledge of assembly language, inner workings of the engine, and the like. But know what, changing the enemy behaviour isn't required. Most mod have only very little changes to enemies' behaviour, if any at all. And small changes can make big differences, and things like how strong the enemy is, do you die by touching it, and the like, are easily changeable! Yeah, you two definitely should try your hand at modding. Are you good at graphics? In short, the only expertise modding basically takes is some ability to create new graphics and levels (which seems to be not difficult at all to you

).

Post by **tulip** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 14:57

I've done some mods, and I have no programming experience at all! If you have a problem or need a patch, just post over at keenmodding.org and we all are likely to help as good as we can, but don't worry, it really isn't that complicated.

Clonekeenplus: https://pckf.rigeltechnical.com/viewtopic.php?t=114

It is a neat program that runs keen in Windows, Linux and MacOS, and improves Graphics and Gameplay by some additional options. The project is still in work, but the author gerstrong is working day and night on this, it seems.

Post by **KeenRush** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 21:47

Finally had the time to tackle the last two levels... And consequently miss the last chance to do my homework.

What an irony, Billy ate my homework, so to speak. The changes in MM were quite amusing.

Overall, fantastic set of levels. Very inspiring. My favourite level was the place filled with water pools and pipes.

MrBlack · Post by **MrBlack** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 14:53

Ah thank you, the Sewer is the level I'm most proud of, I'd hoped you would enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it =]

Thanks also for the lowdown on modding! I may indeed try my hand at it sometime.

Allstories · Post by **Allstories** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 20:58

I am loving these levels so far. Definitely more fun than the original Keen 3.

Syllypryde · Post by **Syllypryde** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 20:59

Mr. Black: I noticed there is a castle on an island all by itself. It is level playable? If so, how do you reach it?

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 21:40

Hee hee, nice avatar allstories.

Syllypryde wrote:Mr. Black: I noticed there is a castle on an island all by itself. It is level playable? If so, how do you reach it?

... Messie?