Commander Keen for the Sega Genesis (Aka "Keen on Sonic

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.
Post Reply
coder12
Grunt
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 20:25
Location: Little Falls, MN
Contact:

Commander Keen for the Sega Genesis (Aka "Keen on Sonic

Post by coder12 »

So .. I've been working on a Sonic 1 hack for a couple of years here .. and unfortunately I've gotten so busy that not much work has been completed on it recently. When I last was working on it, I'd implemented Keen's running physics, begun working on his pogo, begun working on his gun, I'd gotten a few songs ported, as well as a lot of level art.

So I'm starting over from scratch. WHAT? Yup, I know a significant amount more now. It's time to start over.

Here's a video of one of the songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xXs_ybx64c

It's been at least 5 months since I've done any Sonic hacking, so we'll see how this goes..!


The reason I'm posting this here:

A: You're all more critically friendly when compared to the Sonic Retro crew (I've been lurking here for a while :) )
B: I want your advice, ideas, etc... The intention of this game is to make something totally new that everyone will enjoy!

:)
User avatar
tulip
Flower Pot
Posts: 2520
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:50
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:

Post by tulip »

Welcome, and yeah, we're friendlier than anybody else!

Your musics sound good, I like the Title Screen song, too.

So my question is, you're going to put Keen into the Sonic universe right? I mean the environment will be featuring Sonic-Style enemies and landscapes? Or did you have something completely different in mind?

If you want to get Keen mechanics into a sonic game, let me remind you, if you have Keen with only one 'hitpoint' you got to make the enemies considerably easier to make the game not frustrating. Also I dunno if it's possible to hack Sonic to the extent that you can have enemies that only push or stun you, but that would be cool.
Image You crack me up little buddy!
DisapprovingOwl
Grunt
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 23:08

Post by DisapprovingOwl »

Ah, cool idea for a project. = )

Good to hear you're actually trying to modify the physics etc. to work like Keen - is there any resource you can reference to get it pretty much exact, or is that all going to have to be done with guesswork and a lot of patience?
The reason I'm posting this here:

A: You're all more critically friendly when compared to the Sonic Retro crew
...Some of us are the Sonic Retro crew, y'know. 'Sup. ; ) Don't worry, I'll try to be as critically friendly as possible. = )
B: I want your advice, ideas, etc... The intention of this game is to make something totally new that everyone will enjoy!
As far as advice goes... Are you attempting to make a Galaxy-style Keen game, or something more akin to the older episodes? If Galaxy-style, at least a couple of levels set in an icy environment could be a cool idea, since AFAIR that hasn't been done in a Galaxy-style Keen game. Definitely try to come up with environment ideas that are as original as possible when designing levels - a game with that old-skool Keen feel but brand new levels and environments is what's needed here IMO, so that you have just the right amount of familiarity and nostalgia without feeling like you're retreading ground too much.

Also, if you're completely modifying the engine to feel like Keen, unless you're planning on leaving some sort of Sonic reference in the game I'd be tempted to change the name from "Keen in Sonic". Maybe come up with a pun relating to "Mega Drive"/"Genesis" (depending on your locality) somewhere in the title, to reference the system it's on? Or not, I dunno, maybe not.

As for the song, it sounds like it's progressing well, but could really do with some variety in the drums - it starts off fine with just the kick(?) sample (forgive me if I'm wrong there, I'm working from my very limited knowledge of drums here) for the four-beat intro, but as soon as the rhythm starts getting a bit more complex and faster from around 0:04 you really want to start making use of some of the other drum samples compliment the rhythm and add a little more variety.

The instrumentation of the song is nice and old-skool sounding though, so kudos for that. = ) It sounds perfect for map music, though if it's intended to be level music I might suggest experimenting with changing the instrument for the main melody that comes in at 0:18 to something that sounds a little brighter. Still, if this is indicative of the musical direction the mod is taking then, providing you can add a little more variety with the drums, I'm really looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!
coder12
Grunt
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2010 20:25
Location: Little Falls, MN
Contact:

Post by coder12 »

tulip wrote:So my question is, you're going to put Keen into the Sonic universe right? I mean the environment will be featuring Sonic-Style enemies and landscapes? Or did you have something completely different in mind?
What I have envisioned right now is a conversion from the sonic engine to the keen engine. Keen physics, keen enemies, keen humor (ohhhhh! Bad pun! :D)
tulip wrote: If you want to get Keen mechanics into a sonic game, let me remind you, if you have Keen with only one 'hitpoint' you got to make the enemies considerably easier to make the game not frustrating. Also I dunno if it's possible to hack Sonic to the extent that you can have enemies that only push or stun you, but that would be cool.

It's not too hard to do with some ASM modding, since the source of Sonic 1 is completely available to use. I'm still brushing up on my ASM skills though so for me it is a wee bit difficult :P
DisapprovingOwl wrote:Good to hear you're actually trying to modify the physics etc. to work like Keen - is there any resource you can reference to get it pretty much exact, or is that all going to have to be done with guesswork and a lot of patience?
From what I'd done so far, the running physics were just about perfect; however I'm working on a whole new spritesheet to better fit the sizes of everything in the sonic engine, otherwise reworking collisions etc... would be horrendous :)
DisapprovingOwl wrote:...Some of us are the Sonic Retro crew, y'know. 'Sup. ; ) Don't worry, I'll try to be as critically friendly as possible. = )
I had a feeling there would be a select few from retro here! Is there anybody else? :christmas
DisapprovingOwl wrote:As far as advice goes... Are you attempting to make a Galaxy-style Keen game, or something more akin to the older episodes? If Galaxy-style, at least a couple of levels set in an icy environment could be a cool idea, since AFAIR that hasn't been done in a Galaxy-style Keen game. Definitely try to come up with environment ideas that are as original as possible when designing levels - a game with that old-skool Keen feel but brand new levels and environments is what's needed here IMO, so that you have just the right amount of familiarity and nostalgia without feeling like you're retreading ground too much.

Also, if you're completely modifying the engine to feel like Keen, unless you're planning on leaving some sort of Sonic reference in the game I'd be tempted to change the name from "Keen in Sonic". Maybe come up with a pun relating to "Mega Drive"/"Genesis" (depending on your locality) somewhere in the title, to reference the system it's on? Or not, I dunno, maybe not.

As for the song, it sounds like it's progressing well, but could really do with some variety in the drums - it starts off fine with just the kick(?) sample (forgive me if I'm wrong there, I'm working from my very limited knowledge of drums here) for the four-beat intro, but as soon as the rhythm starts getting a bit more complex and faster from around 0:04 you really want to start making use of some of the other drum samples compliment the rhythm and add a little more variety.

The instrumentation of the song is nice and old-skool sounding though, so kudos for that. = ) It sounds perfect for map music, though if it's intended to be level music I might suggest experimenting with changing the instrument for the main melody that comes in at 0:18 to something that sounds a little brighter. Still, if this is indicative of the musical direction the mod is taking then, providing you can add a little more variety with the drums, I'm really looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!
There was an ice cave level in keen 4 ;) But I think putting in an ice level would be a grand idea! Since there were never any specific enemies for it. I've got some new enemies that my friend and I came up with, but I kinda wanted to save some of them so we can make a new iPhone keen game, ehh, we'll see. I'll just need to make more for this game I guess!

I've been back and forth to Keen in/on Sonic. I guess I could do, Keen on the Genesis/megadrive, and put a picture of .. Keen on a Genesis or megadrive, depending on the locality! :)

At this point all music has been scrapped, I hope to rebuild certain songs and increase my knowledge of the music portion for the megadrive, and I also hope to get some better instrumentation going on, since all the voices I had were from Oerg, or random ones that I made. :P

This should be interesting! :)
Post Reply