Public Commander Keen Forum

[Benvolio]

Hello Everyone!

I'm Benvolio. (many people here already know that, as I am a keenmodding.org user since 2004).

I am tonight releasing a zip entitled "Benvolio's Fun-Pack 2011" which contains a few intriguing abandoned Keen1 modding projects which I have dabbled in since the latter half of 2005.

More specifically, the pack contains three mods, as follows:


The Psychedelic Mod

The original idea here was to make a vividly colourful, trippy adventure in which Keen is trapped in hallucinogenic world by some poison administered by Mortimer McMire. What has emerged from five years of sporadic work is a mini-mod which, I hope, gives a good flavour for what was envisaged originally!

Sorry I've no screenshots right now as I don't have access to the webspace (it belongs to my Dad)!


Earl Pedro in "Untitled"

This little mod showcases Earl Pedro, a panama-hat wearin' pipe smokin' detective, in Spanish surroundings old and new, cultured and tacky, in four simple levels. He was originally going to solve murder mysteries but, in this limited form, he is merely a tourist, taking in scenic castles and holiday beach resorts.


Highway Blues

This was another, ridiculously ambitious project, attempting to place Keen behind the wheel of an entirely un-glamourous hatchback, and drive across the United States. I envisaged a lengthy series of motorway-type levels, ideally with hazardous drivers threatening poor Keen. What emerges now is a taster of the potential of such a mod.


I hope you will agree with me that, while nothing special, these bits and pieces were worth putting out there for public amusement rather than gathering dust in old zip files on a DVD rom, as they had done until recently!

I hereby declare that the content is fair game for people to use in their modding endeavours, - who knows someone could conceivably take an interest in furthering the development of one of the projects. Unlikely!!


If you are not acquainted with Benvolio's mods, I suggest you head to the following:
http://www.maguidhir.com/benvolio/
and sample the delights. I recommend "A Sham On Inishmort".

Oh and happy Halloween everyone! Check out Benvolilord's Halloween Horrors (2005), also found on Benvolio's Workbench.

[kuliwil]

Right, there goes my exam revision.

These look wickedneat man! Can't wait to play 'em!

Also, I've seen you on K:M and always wanted to say: love your username.
_________________
"Hi, I'm Tom Sellick's moustache."

[lemm]

Tubular, man...
_________________
A topic can solve everything!
-szemi

[tulip]

These are pretty cool.

Graphics are outstanding. Especially Psychedelic Keen. But I love the scenery in the first 2 pedro levels too, you have always been a master at palette patching.
Highway is an interesting idea, that sadly didn't really work.

I'd love to see a levelpack for Psychedelic Keen.
_________________
You crack me up little buddy!

[wiivn]

All of them are very original. You've got to continue working on at least one of them!

psych is the most polished and creative one.

pedro shows very nice idea. I like walking around the hotels roundabout with chicks. Very good representation of the hotels, pools etc. Too bad it feels unfinished.

And the highway. Very neat idea. I also like the titlescreen and the menus.

[Paramultart]

Am I the only one who thought this was Bonevelous?
_________________
"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

[TerminILL]

Yes.
_________________

[KeenRush]

Good stuff. I love this kind of experimental mods, too bad they aren't finished.

The Psychedelic Mod is unlike any mod I've seen so far; totally psycheledic. Pretty graphics.

Earl Pedro in "Untitled" is an interesting idea (never would have thought of it) and in the distinctive Benvolio style.

Highway Blues -- certainly another interesting idea. Quite far from a finished work but it was relaxing nonetheless to drive through the roads. Not bad at all.

Maybe I'll yet make at least one more mod... This is inspiring.
_________________
codename H.Y.E.N.A.

[wiivn]

[Benvolio]

Thankyou all for your wonderfully positive feedback!! It means a lot to get this kind of response after putting any kind of work into a project!
I would, like Tulip, love to see a levelpack for Psychedelic Keen!

And Paramultart, with all due respect to yourself, and to the entirely other entity of Bonevelous, I am Benvolio, my pseudonym drawn from the works of Shakespeare. (Kuliwil, I'm glad my name has been appreciated!) The origins of the name 'Bonevelous' are unclear to me, but it would appear not to be Shakespearean - despite some elaborate Shakespearean Keen jokes submitted to the forum. ("Keen and Lindesy: Star-Crossed Lovers"... really? :-P) But I digress. I hope you have enjoyed the mods despite the confusion.

I would be delighted to see you all modding prolifically, but particularly delightful would be inspiration by my mod, of KeenRush to produce another epic work. (insert routine derogatory comments on difficulty of Episode Smile here - unfounded comments i may add.)

Wiivn, I shall likely not continue to work on any of them - though like KR, "maybe I'll yet make at least one more mod".. who knows!?! *returns in 2021 with a keen1 mod with 16 pallettes, 16 tilesets, 640X480, Benvolian soundtrack* ... the mind does boggle, the mind expands.

So... all are encouraged to keep enjoying the Fun-Pack and more importantly to keep modding in its flourishing state as we continue to make inroads into the 21st century.

[Paramultart]

The Psychedelic Mod was fantastic. Some of the best visuals I've ever seen in a Keen 1 mod. Very well done and enjoyable.

However, I don't understand why you couldn't have made the other games beatable. You didn't have to invest much time into finishing them, just make like... one level with all the ship parts and whatnot, just to allow the player the satisfaction of knowing they saw all there was to be seen of the mods. At least, that's what I would have done had I released some abandoned projects.
_________________
"Father Mabeuf was surveying his plants"

[The Keen Commander]

I found these all very interesting and promising.

Earl Pedro has the potential to be an amazing mod. All it needs is a main conflict, a weapon for the main character and a good story. Someone needs to pick up on that one.

The Psychedelic Mod is very interesting and original. I liked the incorporation of the Keen 2 light switches. As Tulip said, a level pack here would be cool.

Highway Blues is too amazing an idea to let die. Someone seriously needs to see this through to completion. If I had the time/skill to do it myself I would.
_________________
I'd like to get a Futurama mod going. Here's what I've got so far:

http://www.pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=2152

[Benvolio]

Thanks for your appreciation guys... I guess that I didnt put an ending in 'Pedro' or 'Highway' because i would have had to devise a finale, which takes some effort which I didn't feel like putting in! I guess it's fairly clear that the 4 levels on the maps are all that's in the game, so that the player can exit the game when they are done. I would be delighted to see levelpacks or further work on any of these projects... Psychedelic would make for a good levelpack, although I fear there may not be enough tiles for a very diverse range of levels... perhaps a mod of a mod could be created!!

[VikingBoyBilly]

Finally got around to playing these. Some neat ideas here. The driving mechanics might seem cool on paper, but ingame it's really broken and kinda boring. If there was some way to... uh... "fall down" the street it might work better, but you're still looking at extremely 2-dimensional left to right level design. The arched street you drive under looked really cool but at the same time the perspective seemed off at the bottom and top (not enough room for the cars to fit into the entry). The car turning into keen when you pogo'd was really weird.

Psychadellic mod: The really high jumping made this weird and fun to play. Some of the points items really blend in with the background, and the enemies were really unexpected (cellos? hammers?)
I liked that it showed off some of the masking effects, like the level with that magenta haze and the light switch level that changes the pallette. But once again, even though we're not stuck in a car, the levels feel kind of flat and two dimensional. They're more like sonic the hedgehog levels than what you would expect from commander keen.

Pedro: This mod is really empty, but has some nice scenery. The maps are 1-directional, again. There are no real hazards except pools i guess, and there's beach women that you can stomp on and it makes their hair bounce up and down. Pedro's walk cycle is kinda weak though... the only part of his body that moves is his legs, and in a very stilted manner.

These have potential though, and would be neat if someone picked these up and expanded them into fleshed-out levelpacks.
Benvolio's strength is making bright neon palettes
Benvolio's strength
_________________

[Benvolio]

Thanks very much for playing these and for your feedback!!! I agree that these mods can be quite stark and two-dimensional in their gameplay, though I would like them to be taken in context, as they are abandoned/incomplete projects and thus more effort would surely have been made to make them feel more action packed, had i continued working on them.
Earl Pedro was in particular simply a demo of the art that I had thus far drawn.
Highway Blues was simple a demonstration of a concept; I envisaged that the other sprites would have been dangerous driving vehicles or imposing lorries or buses, making the driving experience somewhat more exciting. Perhaps I would have increased the game engine speed with a patch. And made sound effects.
As for the Psychedelic Mod, I think they are ever-so slightly Sonic-like (people seem to think that's a terrible thing) but I would liken the scenery more to something like Shmaynoria first level or even XkyKeen3, but different in many ways as well.
Thankyou for re-iterating that levelpacks would be cool for these mods!

Edit: oh, i just played Bananasauros there for the first time - I finally stopped trying to get powerarchiver to open the rar file and tried other software- just wanna say I'm hugely impressed with the entire mod!!!!