Keen Episode 3 1/4: The Volticons Attack! <ABANDONED>

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Nospike
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Keen Episode 3 1/4: The Volticons Attack! <ABANDONED>

Post by Nospike »

I'm working on this Keen 2 minimod. The story finally explains why the Council Members "owe Keen one" and it's between Keen 3 and Keen Dreams. The enemies are nearly done, most of them are just recolored + slightly patched. The Robot Guards and the Scrubs will probably stay the same. The graphics are mostly just recolored and will not change very much, except the level backgrounds. I plan to make these brand new. I'm thinking of the full story, just to finish it and write it. You will be surprised who will be Keen's enemies this time, I think. Currently, I'm working on levels. If someone can help me a bit with level designing and some graphics, I'll be very glad. Sadly, I have many time-consuming things to do now, so the work will go slowly, I fear. That's all in short.
Last edited by Nospike on Mon Aug 30, 2010 15:12, edited 2 times in total.
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VikingBoyBilly
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Re: Commander Keen Episode 3 1/4: Keen WILL Die!

Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Nospike wrote:You will be surprised who will be Keen's enemies this time
If it's Ganon and his minions, the thread title gave it away :p
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

OK, if you fear your drawing skills aren't good enough to keep the quality of the original games, I'd say draw new enemies anyway. I'd rather see some new enemies than recolored ones.
If you say minimod what do you mean with that term? Few levels or (as NY did) few graphics changed?
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Most graphics will stay, the levels will be all new. To the enemy problem - no, those aren't the ones VikingBoyBilly mentioned. Maybe if I have a very good mood, I'll try to recreate the robot guards. However, I decided that the Scrubs will stay. They will be a good help for me to make some new things and I like their design. Also, I have some new graphics to be made, including computers etc. Unfortunately, I can't use the shade tiles (Keen 2 used these on the right side of platforms and below them) because the Vorticon Elite replacement is glitchy when it's in dark. I know what causes the problem, but I don't know how to fix it yet. Guess I'll have to do it 'cause if I don't, I won't be able to use the new backgrounds, I fear. A little easter egg - if you haven't noticed (I doubt about that) look at the episode number carefully. Where did I see that number before... :D
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Great! I think I fixed the Elite glitch. :spot

No, I didn't. The graphics are corrupted, darn! I only used Photoshop when I moved the shadow sprite to the sprite image part 'cause there was nothing. Is there a way to fix this? ModKeen can't accept that stuff.
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Re: Commander Keen Episode 3 1/4: Keen WILL Die!

Post by DaVince »

VikingBoyBilly wrote:
Nospike wrote:You will be surprised who will be Keen's enemies this time
If it's Ganon and his minions, the thread title gave it away :p
Is that a reference to the video clips from that horrible CD-I game? :P

I agree with drawing new enemies - draw them anyway. You will probably not be happy with the enemies and try drawing them again until they look good enough. Plus you can get some nice feedback and stuff.
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VikingBoyBilly
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Nospike wrote:no, those aren't the ones VikingBoyBilly mentioned.
Swoosh!
Keen 3: Keen MUST Die!

Keen 3 1/4: Kenn WILL Die!
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Post by Grimson »

Is that a reference to the video clips from that horrible CD-I game?
Horrible? You dare call them horrible?! The animated cutscenes are perfect examples of....uh...creativity with no boundaries? :disguised
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Post by DaVince »

Oh, no. The cutscenes were awesome. It's the gameplay that was horrible.


...


:lol
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

OK, back to the corrupted graphics problem. This is usually caused when Modkeen (you were using modkeen right?) tries to import graphics while the palette has been messed up. This could have happened in several ways: 1. the order of colours has been changed when saving in PS, or you changed the RGB values of one or more colours (those colours won't get displayed right).
If you graphics ae completely scrambled, you might have saved in the wrong colour format. Be sure to save in a 16 colour bitmap, if you look at the properties of your graphics and the show something like "256 colour bitmap" that would be your problem, you should try to reset the colour mode to the 16 colour Keen palette.
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Post by KeenRush »

Also make sure that the sprite width is dividable by 8 (and that the result is an integer). Although I can't perfectly remember what kind of problems it causes since I've had that problem just once or twice long ago, but I think it messes up some graphics.

Good luck with the mod, and agree that no matter how badly you draw, everyone would rather see new graphics instead of recoloured ones. The mod doesn't have to be done in a week! I'm not only defending myself here :p, but generally, it should take as long as it must.
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Thanks guys! I'll try these things. When some new graphics will be completed, I'll make some screenshots.
No, it's not glitchy in game. I just can't even import it via ModKeen, it gives me something like "Couldn't open sprite bitmap blah blah blah!" error. Is there some way to use only the 16 colors? Seriously, it was HORRIBLE PAIN doing that. Vorticon Elite can explain. :o
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

A BIG CHANGE!

Well, ppl, I'm going to make this a Keen 1 mod. Reason? Keen 1 seems easier to mod (or at least more annoying to mod, which is the reason I switched) and because making enemies will be easier, I think. I can't use most of Keen 2 things, anyway. The glitchy vorticon elite seems impossible to fix and I don't want to bother with that, I spent one day trying to fix it, no results.
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

If you want you can send my your vort elite graphics, and I'll see if I can find something wrong with them.
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Well, OK, then. It would work to replace Keen 1 vorticons with it. I really love that sprite, but... it just doesn't like me. :o
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