Commander Keen: Monky Business

[CommanderSpleen]

PCKB Thread.

LevelLord... better send your brother a jacket--that place is gonna be pretty darn cold in a moment.

Yep. Hell's finally frozen over. And with that event comes...

Commander Keen: Monky Business
Episode One: An Essence of Mayhem
BETA!

O_o

WOOHOO!

[edit - fixed link]
http://jimsoftlair.tripod.com/keen/sple ... bkbeta.zip
(Copy link into Address bar to make it work.)

You know the drill--extract somewhere, then run ORBKEEN.BAT.

Go fetch!

Keep me posted on any problems!

BTW, notice that this topic's index is 315... ominous, eh?

>Commander Spleen

[KeenRush]

Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah! Woah!
Woah! Woah!
Woah!

W00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!!!1

Me will play NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!

[CaptainKeen]

you sun of a bitch how dear you steal my ice cannon idea!!!!! GAAAAAARG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[XkyRauh]

Ooh--that's awesome. You've got a mind-bending amount of checkerboarding going on in there... I really like it. The map screen is great--I really really appreciate how the levels on the map look like the levels in the game. Sparkles, colors, everything. Impressive! I'll admit it's taken me some time to learn what is and isn't harmful/helpful/etc, but I'm getting the hang of it, and everything is fun so far. I've got 3 game overs so far, but I've seen a few of the levels and I'm having fun. Your Garg replacement made me stop and stare for at least a minute.

If I had to give you any advice on how to improve that, I'd say to consider doing consistent shading--that is to say, when the Garg faces left, the shine is on his upper right side... when he faces right, the shine should stay on the upper right. But don't sweat over it--they look great the way they are. From a level-design standpoint, I'm a little irritated with the abundance of doors, but the size of the levels themselves is tight and feels good--also, I haven't played the whole thing yet.

This is a powerful first showing, Spleen. Looking forward to the full release. :-D

--Xky

[KeenRush]

Woah, this is really droolable. My mouth is (literally) constantly watering when I play your mod.
It's all perfect; starting from the title screens to the help screens. I love that font, it's so nice!
The game is wonderful piece of modding! So colourful, surprising, interesting mazes, puzzles etc.. :) I really like the way ice cannon puts Keen to some bottle of essence or whatever. I really like the collectiables.
Awesome job Spleen, can't wait to see the final version!
Also, I haven't finished it totally yet, I'm in the last one now I think.
BTW, may I add it to my Keen site?

Edit: Also, tag, you're it. :P Heheh.

[levellord]

Insanity, cool graphics, spleenishness and Keen all wrapped up in a fresh burrito.

[Ilsoap]

I've only played for five minutes so far, and I'm still on the first level, but I'd have to second everything Xky said. A big learning curve, figuring out what is harmful and what isn't, but great sprites, especially the garg replacement. I truly was not expecting to see something as cool as that was.

[grelphy]

Nice. I like the style, the incredible clutter (but that's a good thing!) of the levels, and the sheer, insane cruelty of the level design. I must admit, I've never seen evil like this in anyone's levels but my own. It's a different style of evil, too; you seem to tend more towards perfect (or at least very good) timing rather than sheer monolithic "baddy" sequences, though there's plenty of them, too. The graphics are excellent (I thought I could draw?), and the sprites well done. BIG garg replacements, but it works well with your style of level design.

A couple of minor notes: many of your hazards (think: spinning spike ball) really don't look that hazardous. Try sharpening those spikes a bit. There was also a bit of an excess of vort-replacements in some areas. My style (waiting til they jump, then blasting them from a safe perch) takes waay too long with two or three. Also, many level elements (exit doors) were somewhat obscure in look and feel. If you make HTML documentation, include screenshots of every major element in the levels so people aren't lost.

The "Gateway" levels R0XOR3D! That is a type of level that is not seen nearly enough in Keen. My strategizing brain cells are still sore.

All in all, this is an excellent beta; it even works well as a standalone, complete mod. Nice job, Spleen.

[KeenRush]

Ah, agree. Those gateway levels were amazing. :) Also, I liked a lot of that first puzzle level (was it 2nd?), where were those doors and you had to get keys and open the doors in correct sequence or you won't get all the goodies. :)

[adurdin]

My style (waiting til they jump, then blasting them from a safe perch) takes waay too long with two or three

Then change your style :)

[CommanderSpleen]

Captain Keen: you sun of a bitch how dear you steal my ice cannon idea!!!!! GAAAAAARG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pah. I've been planning to use that idea since this post back in October 2003. =(:p)-

Xky: I'll admit it's taken me some time to learn what is and isn't harmful/helpful/etc

Hmm... I think Victor did warn me about that. I always figured it was apparent enough just on the basis that the tiles that kill Keen animate and the rest don't. I'll work on making death-dealership more apparent in future.

Xky: If I had to give you any advice on how to improve that, I'd say to consider doing consistent shading--that is to say, when the Garg faces left, the shine is on his upper right side...

=(8o)- Ack! I can't believe I let something like that slip! I'm a stickler for consistent shading. I'll definitely fix that.

It's likely the enemies will be redrawn for the full release. There's a lot that can be improved (for instance, the blue Garthurian monks look a bit too flat, and the general hovering sparkles, IMKO, aren't up to scratch).

Xky: I'm a little irritated with the abundance of doors

Yeah, I did put alot of door puzzles in. There'll be a lot more puzzle variety in future. The problem is, whenever there's a significant area of a level that can be accessed with minimal challenge, or if it looks too empty, I'm tempted to add an extra challenge that makes it necessary to go somewhere else first, or add more points, respectively. My levels need more... emptiness, I guess.

KeenRush: BTW, may I add it to my Keen site?

Go right ahead. But I want my title screen stamped on your front page, and COMMANDER SPLEEN'S SITE emblazoned across all the images on the site. Alternatively, you can just go ahead anyway, but that's less fun.

grelphy: If you make HTML documentation, include screenshots of every major element in the levels so people aren't lost.

I was originally throwing around the idea of creating some form of encyclopedia to go with this mod. The idea is still there, but I haven't given a whole lot of thought to it for many months. It would probably be in the form of Keen's wristwatch, and would offer a lot of background information on Garthuria, the inhabitants, what all the collectible stuff and backgrounds do, and so on. Perhaps I can find a way to make it unlock certain information based on which levels have been passed or something.

Grelphy: The "Gateway" levels R0XOR3D! That is a type of level that is not seen nearly enough in Keen. My strategizing brain cells are still sore.

Haha. That would have to have been my favourite level to make (And I've played it through so many times I can get all the lives without thinking). It's probably the only one I didn't touch after initially making it. Just be thankful I didn't leave the arrow maze in... man, that was a mess.

Cheers for the comments, y'all.

>Commander Spleen

[KeenRush]

Enough talking; back to moddin' Spleen. *mortlol*

[Ilsoap]

What was interesting was the very last level, that looked like a huge flagpole on the world map. That level, of course, was a ripoff of one of the Keen1 levels, but I can remember when I used to find that level so hard. Now, compared to Spleen's levels, it was so easy! :)

The item maze level reminded me a great deal of a Megaman III level, "Gemini Man". I don't know if you've played it, Spleen, but you'll know what I mean if you ever do. I'd like to know what all of the items actually do when I collect them, but it was a lot of fun (except for a few difficult jumps that required pogo precision).

Oh, you might want to check out a few Tileinfo problems, though. On the world map, there's a black square near the bottom that is solid, not background. And in the first level (I think it was the first level) there are thin green pipes connecting things; most of them are background, but an L-shaped corner pipe is Ice... you'll want to fix that, too (it made me slide into my doom).