Episode 11: Mean, Keen, and The Unseen

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.

Yay or nay?

Poll ended at Mon Oct 04, 2010 18:58

Yay
11
79%
Nay
3
21%
 
Total votes: 14

User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Episode 11: Mean, Keen, and The Unseen

Post by Grimson »

Inspired by the oh-so clever concept of "Commander Mean", I think we should have a mod that features such secondary antagonist (if Mort is primary), only better. This is what he is going to look like:

Image

Yeah, obviously and intentionally near-inverted version of Keen, perhaps a clone of Billy altered by Mortimer to become his evil twin.

And it shall remain mystery just what might be The Unseen ;) because frankly speaking, I have no idea lol

P.S. If Meen's dark skin color is too much contrast and feels racist in a game of albino people in your opinion, I'll just recolor Meen's skin into dark gray.
Last edited by Grimson on Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:12, edited 2 times in total.
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
Dynamo
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 783
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 22:03
Location: Everywhere.

Re: Episode 11: Meen, Keen, and The Unseen

Post by Dynamo »

Grimson wrote:Inspired by the oh-so clever concept of "Commander Mean", I think we should have a mod that features such secondary antagonist (if Mort is primary), only better. I'd call him "Commander Meen" instead, and this is what he is going to look like:

Image

Yeah, obviously and intentionally near-inverted version of Keen, perhaps a clone of Billy altered by Mortimer to become his evil twin.

And it shall remain mystery just what might be The Unseen ;) because frankly speaking, I have no idea lol
I like the idea. Meen may be assigned to eliminate Commander Keen but he fails to do that every time on the last moment. It would be original, too. Good luck with it, and visit IRC more so I can kill you more!
Grimson wrote:P.S. If Meen's dark skin color is too much contrast and feels racist in a game of albino people in your opinion, I'll just recolor Meen's skin into dark gray.
....What?

Also, what's up with that signature? That doesn't look like Spyro at all.
User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Post by Grimson »

....What?
Well I've seen such discussion before. I find it childish if it's considered racist, yeah, but you never know what others think.
Also, what's up with that signature? That doesn't look like Spyro at all.
I already saw that in the other thread. I like it, it's the way I'd imagine Spyro and it shall stay in my sig until I get bored at it.
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
Dynamo
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 783
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 22:03
Location: Everywhere.

Post by Dynamo »

Grimson wrote:Well I've seen such discussion before. I find it childish if it's considered racist, yeah, but you never know what others think.
It's not that you consider it to be childish, it's that it IS childish. I hope no one's going to complain about it, besides, the sprite looks nice.
Grimson wrote:Of course CKeen, I shall remove the bl4sph3m1c signature at once.
That's the spirit!
User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Post by Grimson »

CKeen wrote:
Grimson wrote:The sig stays.
Imma noob.
That's the spirit!
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
Ceilick
The Dude
Posts: 1670
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 20:10
Location: Seattle

Post by Ceilick »

This looks like a combo of Bleen and Mean.

I think adding Commander Mean to cast of fan characters is a fun idea, and certainly a mod featuring him as new villain (less competent or threatening than Mortimer, I imagine). I've actually already done up a set of sprites for him (although they still need some work, some of the colors are kind of glaring).

But why the change from the source material? I think it would be better to keep both the original Commander Mean design and name.
User avatar
Roobar
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 3267
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 16:12
Contact:

Post by Roobar »

It's more like he's got a tan from the sea.
User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Post by Grimson »

But why the change from the source material? I think it would be better to keep both the original Commander Mean design and name.
Because Mean was simply hideous with the mirrored grin and all. This is closer to what Keen looks like with inverted colours.
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
User avatar
_mr_m_
Vortimaestro
Posts: 431
Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 23:14
Location: Quetzalacatenango

Post by _mr_m_ »

My only suggestion right now would be to not use the name 'Commander Meen'

It should be more like 'Commodore Meen' or 'Admiral Meen.' You know, one rank title above Keen? It'd give something else for the secondary antagonist to rub in Keen's face.
"I just drew this stupid little fish." -- Tom Hall
User avatar
VikingBoyBilly
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 4158
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:06
Location: The spaghetti island of the faces of dinosaur world for a vacation

Post by VikingBoyBilly »

If commander Bleen has dark skin and is a good guy then it is not racist to have another dark, evil "Commander Mean."

But I think of Commander Meen as a joke villain that is extremely incompetent, like Jessie and James. He's nothing compared to Mortimer.
Image
"I don't trust players. Not one bit." - Levellass
Dynamo
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 783
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 22:03
Location: Everywhere.

Post by Dynamo »

Here are some ideas about the Commander Mean character and his possible appareances in mods.

The first appareance would be as the main villain of a game. In this game, Commander Keen returns home after one of his many adventures, but once he goes in his garden he finds his pet Yorp has disappeared. In his kennel however, there is a message that says:

“Dear Commander Keen, You may have noticed a few changes in your former home. While you were off playing hero across the universe, I took it upon myself to demonstrate to everyone that you're not a hero but rather a stupid, little kid who wants to be famous. I kidnapped your pet Yorp and took him with me on planet (insert name here), one of the most savage planets in the galaxy. If you really care about your pet, you better come here immediately, so that I will finally show you that you aren't a hero and that I am way better and more skilled than you. Your days of glory are coming to an end, Commander Keen. Now it's time that a new hero rises with an iron fist. I will show my strenght to the whole universe, and there's nothing you can do to stop me. Best Regards, Your Arch Villain, Commander Mean. â€￾

Keen will travel to the planet and will fight various ferocious monsters until he finally meets and confront Commander Mean and rescues Yorp.

Characteristics of Mean (that make him very different from Mortimer), include the fact that he is not very intelligent and extremely selfish, as he thinks a real hero must not be kind to everyone but rather show his strenght to the universe. Unlike Mortimer he works alone and does not have henchmen, and he does not intend to destroy the universe, he "merely" wants to be the strongest hero in the universe and therefore he has to eliminate his main rival, Commander Keen.

After this commander mean would re-appear in 3 other games where he would star as the protagonist.

In the first one, Commander Mean is still recovering from his defeat at the hands of keen and while in a space bar, he watches the "television" and sees the latest news, that speak of commander keen's adventures. He becomes extremely angry at this point and thinks "Keen! Always Keen! My strenght is not appreciated while that poor loser is liked by everyone!". Shortly after, the television announces Commander Keen will recover an artifact from a newly discovered alien temple that is said to grant invincibility to the one who finds it. Mean instantly thinks "This will be the demonstration that I'm better than Keen in any way! I will get the artifact before Keen does!"

Heading for the planet, he finds out the temple is guarded by various ancient and arcanic guardians that don't like strangers too much. At the end of the game Mean finally reaches the artifact room, and finds out the artifact is a potion that donates invincibility and ultra strenght to the one who drinks it. Mean immediately drinks it. It had a horrible taste but Mean thought he had finally became the strongest hero in the universe. To verify if the potion had effect, Mean tried to break a brick with his fists but he failed to do so and even hurt himself. Tha means the potion had no effect! Reading the ticket that came with the potion, he finds out the potion expired about 1000 years ago and now has absolutely no effect. It's at this point that Commander Keen too arrives at the scene and notices his enemy with the potion. Mean, however, gives the potion to Keen to mock him, saying "here's your precious and useless treasure, hero! hahaha!" and leaves the planet. The potion had no effect, but at least commander keen failed in one of his actions.

When he arrived at the bar again he watched the television once more, and it said Commander Keen recovered the artifact that was in truth a potion, and donated it to the galactic museum, thus earning prestige. At this point Mean facepalms and becomes even more pissed at Keen.



In the second game, Mean finds out an army of criminals has built a huge space station somewhere in the solar system and is threatening to destroy the galaxy (Keen 5 anyone?). Mean decides to head there and demonstrate he's better and stronger than Commander Keen. He hastily leaves but notices he has no idea on where this space station is located, and thinks that since it is huge he will find it rather easily. Indeed, he soon finds a huge space station which is very well guarded and he lands in it, beginning to attack everyone in there. At the end of the game, when he finally disabled the station completely, he is reached by some journalists who ask him who he is. He answers "I'm Commander Mean, the strongest hero in the Universe! I just defeated these aliens and saved the day!". But suddendly a voice tells him: "You didn't save anything! This is... WAS, the main base of operation of the solar system police! You are under arrest!". Mean manages to escape and reaches his ship, avoiding capture. Arriving at the bar again, he finds out that while he was fighting against the police, Commander Keen attacked and disabled the real space station that was threatening the Galaxy and has received the gratitude of countless planets.

Mean is even more pissed off.

In the third episode, Mean wants to have his revenge on Keen and decides to follow him. Keen received a SOS from a planet and is going there to find what's going on. Once Keen lands on the planet however, Mean loses his starship which disappeared. Not realizing what was going on, Mean landed on the planet and found out there were some strange buildings wth robot guards in there, that attacked Mean when they saw him. Mean thought it was a trap orchestrated by Keen and fought the robots until he found Keen himself. However Keen was in a prison and Mean accidentally broke him free, while he was trying to kill him. Keen managed to escape the complex. Mean realized it was not a trap orchestrated by Keen but rather, someone else was trying to eliminate Keen. Indeed, the facility belonged to Mortimer McMire who got really pissed once he found out Keen was saved by someone else. But Mean became even more angry as he did not intend to save his arch rival.

Going back to the bar, the television has another report about Keen and about how he survived and escaped. Mean then suddendly decides his next action is going to be quite simple. He fires his gun at the TV, making it explode. Now Commander Mean will surely not hear about Commander Keen for a while!
zdude
Grunt
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 16:15

Post by zdude »

This is a very good idea!!! I approve of this!
CKeen wrote:Possible storyline....
That is very detailed. This could pass as the story for Commander Meen. Now the planet where he rescues Spot, Zerg homeworld anyone? :D

His spaceship: Cream of Mushroom Supershuttle?:crazy

His gun: Vorticon Hyperpistol (All I could think of and he could have gotten it off the blackmarket. :mortlol )

Oh, and he's a Viking's fan. :p
User avatar
kuliwil
Blue-tongued Yorp
Posts: 1731
Joined: Wed May 12, 2010 8:51
Location: Facestalking Commander Spleen.
Contact:

Post by kuliwil »

zdude wrote:Oh, and he's a Viking's fan. :p
Oh ho BINGO!

And this mod sounds terrific!

I think Commander is best, makes it like two twins squabbling - they are almost equally matched.

What's Mean's IQ? Maybe Mortimer made it so that it was identical to Keen's, just so that he could be entertained for an extended period of time watching them fight it out?

:painted - almost. We need a mean emoticon now!
"Hi, I'm Tom Sellick's moustache."
Image
User avatar
Scarlet
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 1065
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 2:56

Post by Scarlet »

Just thought of something... perhaps he could be some dufus/bozo wannabe who gets in the way of things?

I also kinda like the idea of gray color instead of brown. Makes it look less real - that is what makes keen so cool, how there are all these un-ordinary characters. They are somewhat anatomically plausible, which is also important I'd say.
User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Post by Grimson »

CKeen, I know you're intentionally referring to Super Mario Land 2 in the first Mean episode's story, but I liked more the original story we discussed about. That should be Mean's first appearance; instead of being a direct reference to Wario, Mean should only resemble Wario through his greed and need to get rid of the main protagonist (Keen).
What's Mean's IQ? Maybe Mortimer made it so that it was identical to Keen's, just so that he could be entertained for an extended period of time watching them fight it out?
Mortimer is out of this, Mean is an individual character with a past shrouded in mystery (because it's irrelevant). His IQ is definitely lower than Keen's, and to prevent another reference to Keen-Mortimer relationship, we should never mention his IQ.

Oh, and yeah, we discussed this yesterday and his name and appearance will stick the way it is now. Commander Mean: Mean is his name, Mean is his game!
Last edited by Grimson on Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:11, edited 1 time in total.
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
Post Reply