Last update: June 03, 2:49pm
(+10:00)
Spleen's Land
Of Keen
Announcements
Archive
Random Stuff
Planned/Suggested Projects
Downloads
Wacky Stuff
(new)
Current Projects
Monky Business (Ep. 1)
Archive
Keen Community Mod
Before
confused chaos ensues, let's get one thing straight:
CrazyJim is CrazyJiMMIII is JiMMIII is Jim is G'im is Commander Spleen is
Stephen J. Currie.
Each of these names, among others, may be used interchangeably to refer to the owner of
this site.
That said...
G'im is an avid Keener, and has
been for over ten years. In August of 2003, after discovering a wonderful land of
other Keeners, and seeing the amazing things they were coming up with, he
simply had to jump in and give modding a try.
As such, this website has been constructed to keep the world up to date on
the goings on of G'im's projects. As time has progressed, it has begun to
grow into a conglomeration of Commander Spleen's general Keen related stuff.
Enjoy,
>Commander Spleen
Announcements (Archive)
01.06.04
6.5 Months!!
Where did that
time go!? Well, over the past week or two I've been omnitasking my way
through a few projects. A nice pile of ideas built up for Monky Business
which have since been modded in, and the final details of my secret project
'Operation: Coffee Break' are coming together; no new screens for CK:MB, and
no download for O:CB as yet--this update's just to refresh the site a bit.
So, what is new? A bunch of ideas sheets from CK:MB, and a Monky
drawing, for starters, along with a few new links to Keen stuff I've been
involved in this year. Enjoy.
The community has evolved significantly this year, most markedly through the
release of Modkeen 2.0--enabling modification of CK4-6 (not Dreams as yet,
despite
KeenRush's little April Fool's prank >:' ).
Keen Minibeast
My 1GHz puter (referred to
here and ... somewhere else I can't locate at present) has been
Keenomaticised.
A Stray Sketch
This was something I drew early last year when I was messing around with
ideas for a 3D Keen game.
Level
Design
Xky poses a few questions about balancing out a level.
Graphical Talk
K:Mers discuss what makes for memorable graphics.
TUIT: Your Name Here
"What would you name Keens 7-9 in the TUIT trilogy?" Need I say more?
Operation: Coffee Break
My secret project.
References:
Sound Creation
Sprite Movement
Victor4k's Taunt
It'll be released When It's Done™.
Chain Story II
We're at it again. Watch the lunacy and Bjorking madness ensue!
ModKeen 2.0!
The most tasty release this year besides
Keen
Null! Certainly making my life easier when it comes to O:CB ;).
Colour Theory
This subject seems to be quite a popular one of late. And indeed a useful
one to be discussing.
Chain Story
RoboBlue decided to start a chain story on the PCKB. It's bordering on
insanity, but not quite there yet.
(update Dec13) Ok... it's gone beyond insane. This is one wacky story.
01.06.04
It's finished! Read it
here!
Ice
Launchers
We at Keen: Modding attempt to find novel ways to use the Ice Launchers in
Keen1.
Atmosphere
Level
Design Technique
K:Mers attempt to unravel the mysteries of good mod design.
60 Years
An intriguing discussion on the PCKB about where the community (and the
world in general) will be 60 years from now.
What The Universe Is Toast Should Be Like
I was exploring the PCKB the other day and suddenly decided I should write
down some ideas I had regarding a new Keen engine. Imagination running
overtime lately (hell, I've even been playing Invisible Holographic 3D Tic
Tac Toe, Battleships, and Chess-With-A-Second-Layer-Of-Pawns against people
lately).
The Map That Could Have Been (And
May Yet Be)
This is a scanned image of the Keen6y map I began working on when first
trying to put together ideas for a Keen1 mod. It could be interesting for a
future mod... maybe when I start work on Isometric Keen or something.
Keen5 GIF Font
In creating Victor's Clapstatic Keen, I needed a red version of the Keen4
font (which I found on the Keen Vault)... so I went through and changed all
the characters in Photoshop from blue to red. Here's the final product for
anyone who needs it.
"Cave Assectatorem Ductoris Alacris" Latin-SGA Front Yard Sign
(Beware the Commander Keen Fan!)
Woo! Thanks Mr. Durdin!
Flexible Platform Engine
Using the Global Array
extension for TGF (soon to be ported to Dynamic Array 2), Spleen managed to
form the early stages of the Spleengine.
Download Demonstration
Bean-With-Bacon Mega
Shooter
A side-scrolling
shoot-em-up featuring Keen's interstellar mode of transportation.
It seems I've post-empted Xtraverse's idea:
Online BWB Game
I shall nonetheless endeavour to produce my own twist on the theme.
Isometric Keen
Based in TGF. First
steps toward a Keen engine described
here. Scheduled after BWBMS.
Keen Community Mod
Combining the creative
forces of the Keen community to create a Keen mod.
Official discussion area is
located at Andrew Durdin's
Keen: Modding
forum.
Join in the amusement!
So far it sounds like we're using the Keen3 engine and sending Keen back to
Gnosticus IV, between the Shadowlands and the city area. Keen4ish graphics
shall abound, and we're doing the best we can to push the limits of the game
engine (some pretty classy patching developments have taken place over the
past week).
29.09.03 Well, much more has happened since the above was written. We're now
creating a Trilogy, beginning just to the East of the Shadowlands,
continuing through an underground Gravitium-type-substance (allowing
manipulation of gravity and time, as well as having a consciousness of its
own) mine, then into the floating city housing the Oracle.
It's gonna be an absolutely incredible mod, and I certainly can't wait to
play it!
22.11.03 Progress continues to crawl along. A couple of new takes on the
map, some general discussion about various aspects of the game... but that's
about it.
01.06.04
Current Project (Archived
Information)
Commander Keen: Monky Business
Episode 1: An Essence of Mayhem
This project
is a mod for Commander Keen 1, and is G'im's first official Commander Keen
mod.
Story (updated 08.12.03)
Commander Keen is
sent on a mission to retrieve a number of artifacts stolen from a world
known as Dinu, on which live a race of orb-like energy beings who call
themselves Dinu'u. The survival of the Dinu'u is dependent upon the Essence
Delimiter Flux, a machine that manufactures 'essence', an ethereal substance
of which the Dinu'u are composed. Without the stolen artifacts, the machine
cannot operate.
A society of zealous monks known
as Garthurians, driven by religious beliefs instilled in their planet over
the past few millennia by a megalomaniacal Shikadi who calls himself Hector,
are responsible for the disappearance of the Flux components. In addition,
entire continents of Dinu'u population have been captured so that their
essence can be extracted.
The artifacts and captured Dinu'u have been hidden away on Garthuria, a
world shrouded in mystery, said to be the origin of many of the most
infamous crimes recorded in intergalactic history.
Security is tight, but Keen discovers he can disguise himself as one of the
lower monks and not be noticed as easily. The more advanced Garthurians will still see
through this disguise, of course, so Keen will still need to be careful.
These beings are powerful, and have terrorised the galaxy for much of the
current age. But never before have they matched wits with...
COMMANDER KEEN
Defender of the Galaxy
In his disguised ship, the Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, Keen dispenses
galactic justice with an essence-charged hand.
o~o
June 01, 2004, 2:24pm (Repair
conducted June 03, 2004)
No new screens today,
but I've added in some scans of my ideas sheets that have built up over the
course of this year, along with some from last year I hadn't scanned.
FIXED: Monky Battle
Bits & Pieces:
01 02
03 04
05 06
07 08
09 10
o~o
December 13, 2003, 2:30am
After some intensive play testing by Monty (Mr. E. Leg) and Victor, it was
finally decided that the levels I was creating were far too insanely
unplayable. The traps I was creating were too cramped for what they really
were, and without enough of a break in between--the player was either always
on his toes, or forever without them. So, I've evoled my technique, and I'm
glad to say that the levels feel like they're flowing much better. The traps
are still very similar, but I've allowed space and tried to minimise traps
that require perfect timing on a consistent basis.
I'm very happy with the way the map is working out. The shards (keycards)
proved a problem initially, as with the 'Keep Keycards After Level Exit'
patch, Keen still keeps any keycards collected up until his death. So I've
adopted an unlikely idea suggested by Xky on the Keen:Modding forum, namely
placing all the keys and all the doors in the level at the start. I'm
surprised at how well the game still flows with this wacky security measure
in place. It will hopefully not be necessary in the final release, though,
as the patch will likely be modified yet.
The way my original levels were going, I decided I needed to put in a bonus
level for the player to visit every now and then when the frustration became
too much (yes, I would have killed me too). But the in-level teleporter that
leads back to the world map kept crashing the game due to a conflict with
the map-doors patch. Fortunately, I managed to improvise and created a
really neat solution--bonus level doorways. It's more or less a matter of
taking a few steps, walking through a doorthat takes the 'Trippy Shard', and
exiting off the other side of the screen (no visible exit door). This means
that Keen has to sacrifice his beloved Trippy Shard in order to continue on
the map. In these levels, though, are alternate paths which can lead to
extra lives. The demo will feature three or four of these. It's incredible
how they maintain the flow of gameplay.
I've got a rather amusing title screen design now, too (possibly the most
brilliant idea that's ever hit me in the head). Whether it will turn up in
the demo or if you'll have to wait until the full release I'm not sure as
yet, though. And I'm not giving anything away about it yet.
Man, it feels great to be back in the flow again. I'd keep going all
morning, but I've pledged myself to helping out my grandma on here computer
and then disappearing into Victor's lounge room for some insane
projector-style X-Box Halo playage with some other JimSoftians. I'll be back
with some trippy new stuff soon!
Oh, the evilness... >:)
I may include levels like this every now and then... optional, of course.
It's incredible the adrenaline rush while trying to get through those
perfect-timing traps. >:)
o~o
December 08, 2003, 1:20am
Woo. This has been a
satisfyingly exhausting week. The enemies are complete, map-Keen now has his
monk robe, there's a semi-transparent levitate effect in place, the ice
launcher problem is solved, the Most Essential list is in place, and I have
even more diabolical plans in mind for the rest of the mod. I've trashed the
idea of Keen4+ style level graphics, as I can do a hell of a lot more with
the Keen1-3 approach. Similarly trashed are the ground tiles shown last
update. They started to make me nauseous, so I reverted to the original
starry rock version. Though, looking back on the screens from my previous
update, it seems I handled them quite well in that one level... so I may yet
reintroduce them.
Victor put together a working title screen the other day, too. Though I
won't use it as is, it certainly helps define what I want to do with the
title.
I'm definitely liking the new 'levitate' (pogo) effect (dark grey opacity
silhouette), and the essence conversion launchers, turning Keen into a 16x16
sprite, are entirely satisfying and offer even more freedom when it comes to
designing traps (it's amazing where you can go when you're only one tile
high). Map doors are going to be quite fun indeed... so look forward to some
trippy intricacies.
We'll see what happens with a pre-Keen Awards demo. I'm still far from happy
with my current selection of level tiles--many more need to be developed to
suit my plans.
Among the changes to come
(and changes that have come)
are:
o All new enemies (Interrogators,
Instigators,
Garthurian Monks,
Lower Monks)
o Keen wearing a Monk
robe (to 'blend in')
o
A less-cool-than-I-hoped jumping effect
o
A much-more-trippy-than-I'd-anticipated
levitation effect
o Many, many, many
insanely tripped out levels
o Some classy
interactive map elements
o Wacky stuff you've
never seen in a Keen mod before
o The worm sprite featured on this site (due to UNFLEEXABLE demand)
o Insane new features far beyond the scope of the original Keen trilogy!
Who knows what's gonna happen after this mod? Keep watching and see what
evolves...
Enjoy,
>Commander Spleen
