[WIP] Commander Keen remake

Looks pretty cool! I have some criticism if you want

Is that overhead view between levels just to reach new levels or are there some gameplay elements too? if it's just to reach the next level I'd say it's a bit too much but I don' know for sure yet.

The controls are great, except for that small pause before jumping. If it's a conscious design choice then nevermind me, but if the idea is to make a more fluid platformer I would suggest getting rid of it.

The backgrounds look a tad intrusive. The first time I laid eyes on the level it was very difficult to tell what was on my plane and I could interact with from the background. Parallax from moving helps me tell things apart though.

 

Thanks for the criticism! Very well put, I appreciate it.

The first screen is the Map. It's where you travel from level to level. I did it in the style of Mario Galaxy just to see if I could, haha. The whole idea of this project is to recreate the DOS game Commander Keen, so the stuff like the map and jump mechanics are pulled straight from the original. So it's not really my intention to create a modern, fluid platformer with jump responsiveness like Rayman Legends. As far as the background elements, I do need a better system to differentiate the foreground from the background. Some kind of focal blur would be good, but I'm not sure on how to approach that.

 

Any news on that great game ?

 

Yessir, still steadily working on getting in new levels and items. I finished up the teddy bear and a couple of keycards today:

 

wow this is looking awesome. i first played it when it was just the black and white level, and it is really coming along. the world map is pretty sweet too.

 

Any news ?

 

This looks amazing. Please upload a build again. I'm a huge Keen fan and would love to have a play with this.

 

New Build:http://josephmcarney.com/test/KeenTest37.html
Linux: http://josephmcarney.com/test/KeenTest37.tar.gz



So I have the Vorticon in and ready to test. I think he dies after 2 shots right now instead of 4. I'm also not completely sold on the electrical field around him, but I wanted a way for the Vort to kill Keen that was more convincing than the old video trope of "touch me and die". Any suggestions would be appreciated! :dead

 

Good progress.
The second level is pretty small and fast, the third is good , about the boss it seems i fired at him and it was remaining it's aura power only and door was still closed after i got books items ?

 

Looks great, some slick animations. I love the way the menu opens up/closes when you press space.

I just finished reading "masters of doom", have you read that? I bet Tom Hall would love to see Keen being remade.

The controls are a bit unintuitive, using C and X on the keyboard are a bit awkward. Tried using my 360 controller, also found that using "B" to jump felt a bit off.

 

This is fantastic... Keep it up!

I wasn't able to play the build....is there one up to play?

 

This is so good!

You bet. He actually did a kickstarter for a spiritual successor. Sadly it failed. He also dug up the old Commander Keen source (for 4-6 I think) and it's going to be open source soon.

 

Haven't looked at this in a while. Man you made amazing progress!
Can't wait to see more.

PS: Make an IndieDB page

 

I've finished up the project and filed it in the finished works forum. Thanks for the feedback!

 

The jumps are lot better now.