4 ms·

I wonder if there's enough interest in the franchise to reboot it or see it in a new medium in a way that isn't just a cash grab. My worry there's only a 5-year

I wonder if there's enough interest in the franchise to reboot it or see it in a new medium in a way that isn't just a cash grab. My worry there's only a 5-year window of PC gamers who would care, but I'd still love to see it.

smcl 4y ago
They made an attempt, but it was apparently a "free-to-play" pvp card game which caused a bit of a stir and got cancelled prior to release: https://www.gamereactor.eu/commander-keen-reboot-seems-to-have-been-cancelled/ https://www.gamereactor.eu/commander-keen-reboot-seems-to-ha...
- albertzeyer 4y ago
  While I loved the original games, I did not like this new comic style at all - it is a very different type of humor. Also, the impressions of the new game by these trailers were very unsatisfying and not really like a game I would enjoy playing and not at all like the original games. So I wondered, how should a modern reboot of the game actually look like? The graphic style is sth very subjective. I think just keeping the old pixel graphics would not be appropriate. But then what style? Should it be some comic style? Or more realistic? Or maybe sth in between, like GTA? Maybe like Halo? There is a similar discussion around Monkey Island now. I assume it should be a proper 3D game. What type of game? I think this should follow the old style. Ie. some small puzzle elements (but not too hard), some maze-style levels, levels where you do not just go from left-to-right but in any directions, where you collect key cards or whatever, activate some mechanisms etc. Maybe it's a bit like Tomb Raider. The main character should be the same. The setting should be similar, the same, or maybe extended, of course different worlds. I think there should be more and new and different opponents, aliens, etc. I think the kind of humor should be similar. But this is maybe hard to get right because I'm not sure how it fits together with modern graphics. Should it be violent? Should there be blood? Maybe that fits the humor. I don't know.
  - smcl 4y ago
    Yeah I think you're right that they maybe missed the mark with this. I know I'm certainly not the target market (my only experience of Keen was killing him in Doom II) but it looked a bit odd to me. Resurrecting a franchise has to be done with a great deal of care - there has been success with id software games before (Doom and Wolfenstein are good examples) but I guess you're walking a pretty fine line when you try it and there will always be a vocal (minority?) crowd telling you that you're fucking it up. I don't know if the Keen games was popular or interesting enough to warrant a reboot, but I certainly wouldn't envy the team tasked with the purpose of developing it for exactly the reasons you stated.
  - tetha 4y ago
    > What type of game? I think this should follow the old style. Ie. some small puzzle elements (but not too hard), some maze-style levels, levels where you do not just go from left-to-right but in any directions, where you collect key cards or whatever, activate some mechanisms etc. Maybe it's a bit like Tomb Raider. Hm, I've been thinking that some format like Super Mario 64, or Super Mario Galaxy, or A Hat in Time would fit how the Keen games worked very well. Using the Bean'n'Bacon-Rocket to cruise between different planets and space stations, chasing hints for the mighty Mortimer, solving puzzles of some difficulty, possibly with some light Metroidvania elements of upgrading the rocket (naturally with a vaccuum cleaner and booze, as in the first game). Maybe you could go ahead and do some of the interesting ideas Super Mario Galaxy explored, with small, strangely shaped space stations with whacky gravity.
- whywhywhywhy 4y ago
  So painful that the requirement for so many companies to make sequels to classics is "We'll make it if we can use the IP as window dressing for some exploitative gambling mobile game in the hopes that a handful of whales will pour enough into it a month to justify it"
  - smcl 4y ago
    Yeah I imagine that happens a fair amount, but thankfully it's not always the case. We just have to hope that for every attempt to make a STALKER or Worms sequel w/ NFT tie-ins (blegh), there's a Doom Eternal or a Monkey Island.
- Blikkentrekker 4y ago
  It was, to be fair, a standard platformer with no innovative mechanics that was mostly known due to being one of the only ones on the personal computer at the time which lacked the hardware acceleration to normally make it possible. The Franchise has no identity other than the characters involved. Sonic 4 and Sonic Generations did not merely bring back the characters of the older Sonic games, but the innovative mechanics that are still fondly remembered.
  - smcl 4y ago
    Yeah that could be a weakness (no built-in audience waiting for the next chapter...) or a strength (you can really take it in any direction if you want it to...). However my opinion is broadly the same as yours - there's not enough meat on those bones to warrant a sequel.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
They should do what Sega does with Sonic and just kinda let people use the IP for fan games so long as no one makes any money off of it. Then make a weirdly popular movie starring Jim Carrey as Mortimer McMire.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
  I look forward to the angry fan reaction regarding the Dopefish casting.
  - corrral 4y ago
    I feel like you could get Elijah Wood to say yes to that. And it'd be awesome.
Mezzie 4y ago
Probably not, unfortunately. (I'm also in that 5-year window; the original Commander Keen was the first PC game I played on my own and I played the hell out of it). The one form that MIGHT work might be something like a tabletop adaptation somehow: A nostalgic/90s aesthetic TTRPG on a group saving Mars from the aliens or something. It'd be cheap enough to produce + distribute and TTRPGs can live on niche, dedicated fandoms in a way that's harder for video games, plus there's some crossover in the people who like both. Oh, wait. We could reboot it playing as the ALIENS. That might be unique enough to catch some new fans if it were well made. A just plain reboot won't work, though.
BizarroLand 4y ago
Yeah, it would be a good candidate for a 3d platformer run and gun except that the theme of the character is probably considered to not be cool or interesting enough to reboot. Commander Keen was, in my opinion, the videogame version of Calvin and Hobbes' "Spaceman Spiff", and that character probably doesn't resonate with the under 30s which comprise the majority of the video game buying demographic. I still hope someone at ID pushes the idea anyway, who knows, if it's a good enough game people will play it regardless of the character attraction.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  > Calvin and Hobbes' "Spaceman Spiff" I hadn't put it together, but you're right!
wedn3sday 4y ago
Just release a Commander Keen game pack for the Switch.

smcl 4y ago

They made an attempt, but it was apparently a "free-to-play" pvp card game which caused a bit of a stir and got cancelled prior to release: https://www.gamereactor.eu/commander-keen-reboot-seems-to-have-been-cancelled/ https://www.gamereactor.eu/commander-keen-reboot-seems-to-ha...

albertzeyer 4y ago
While I loved the original games, I did not like this new comic style at all - it is a very different type of humor. Also, the impressions of the new game by these trailers were very unsatisfying and not really like a game I would enjoy playing and not at all like the original games. So I wondered, how should a modern reboot of the game actually look like? The graphic style is sth very subjective. I think just keeping the old pixel graphics would not be appropriate. But then what style? Should it be some comic style? Or more realistic? Or maybe sth in between, like GTA? Maybe like Halo? There is a similar discussion around Monkey Island now. I assume it should be a proper 3D game. What type of game? I think this should follow the old style. Ie. some small puzzle elements (but not too hard), some maze-style levels, levels where you do not just go from left-to-right but in any directions, where you collect key cards or whatever, activate some mechanisms etc. Maybe it's a bit like Tomb Raider. The main character should be the same. The setting should be similar, the same, or maybe extended, of course different worlds. I think there should be more and new and different opponents, aliens, etc. I think the kind of humor should be similar. But this is maybe hard to get right because I'm not sure how it fits together with modern graphics. Should it be violent? Should there be blood? Maybe that fits the humor. I don't know.
- smcl 4y ago
  Yeah I think you're right that they maybe missed the mark with this. I know I'm certainly not the target market (my only experience of Keen was killing him in Doom II) but it looked a bit odd to me. Resurrecting a franchise has to be done with a great deal of care - there has been success with id software games before (Doom and Wolfenstein are good examples) but I guess you're walking a pretty fine line when you try it and there will always be a vocal (minority?) crowd telling you that you're fucking it up. I don't know if the Keen games was popular or interesting enough to warrant a reboot, but I certainly wouldn't envy the team tasked with the purpose of developing it for exactly the reasons you stated.
- tetha 4y ago
  > What type of game? I think this should follow the old style. Ie. some small puzzle elements (but not too hard), some maze-style levels, levels where you do not just go from left-to-right but in any directions, where you collect key cards or whatever, activate some mechanisms etc. Maybe it's a bit like Tomb Raider. Hm, I've been thinking that some format like Super Mario 64, or Super Mario Galaxy, or A Hat in Time would fit how the Keen games worked very well. Using the Bean'n'Bacon-Rocket to cruise between different planets and space stations, chasing hints for the mighty Mortimer, solving puzzles of some difficulty, possibly with some light Metroidvania elements of upgrading the rocket (naturally with a vaccuum cleaner and booze, as in the first game). Maybe you could go ahead and do some of the interesting ideas Super Mario Galaxy explored, with small, strangely shaped space stations with whacky gravity.
whywhywhywhy 4y ago
So painful that the requirement for so many companies to make sequels to classics is "We'll make it if we can use the IP as window dressing for some exploitative gambling mobile game in the hopes that a handful of whales will pour enough into it a month to justify it"
- smcl 4y ago
  Yeah I imagine that happens a fair amount, but thankfully it's not always the case. We just have to hope that for every attempt to make a STALKER or Worms sequel w/ NFT tie-ins (blegh), there's a Doom Eternal or a Monkey Island.
Blikkentrekker 4y ago
It was, to be fair, a standard platformer with no innovative mechanics that was mostly known due to being one of the only ones on the personal computer at the time which lacked the hardware acceleration to normally make it possible. The Franchise has no identity other than the characters involved. Sonic 4 and Sonic Generations did not merely bring back the characters of the older Sonic games, but the innovative mechanics that are still fondly remembered.
- smcl 4y ago
  Yeah that could be a weakness (no built-in audience waiting for the next chapter...) or a strength (you can really take it in any direction if you want it to...). However my opinion is broadly the same as yours - there's not enough meat on those bones to warrant a sequel.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

They should do what Sega does with Sonic and just kinda let people use the IP for fan games so long as no one makes any money off of it. Then make a weirdly popular movie starring Jim Carrey as Mortimer McMire.

SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
I look forward to the angry fan reaction regarding the Dopefish casting.
- corrral 4y ago
  I feel like you could get Elijah Wood to say yes to that. And it'd be awesome.

Mezzie 4y ago

Probably not, unfortunately. (I'm also in that 5-year window; the original Commander Keen was the first PC game I played on my own and I played the hell out of it). The one form that MIGHT work might be something like a tabletop adaptation somehow: A nostalgic/90s aesthetic TTRPG on a group saving Mars from the aliens or something. It'd be cheap enough to produce + distribute and TTRPGs can live on niche, dedicated fandoms in a way that's harder for video games, plus there's some crossover in the people who like both. Oh, wait. We could reboot it playing as the ALIENS. That might be unique enough to catch some new fans if it were well made. A just plain reboot won't work, though.

BizarroLand 4y ago

Yeah, it would be a good candidate for a 3d platformer run and gun except that the theme of the character is probably considered to not be cool or interesting enough to reboot. Commander Keen was, in my opinion, the videogame version of Calvin and Hobbes' "Spaceman Spiff", and that character probably doesn't resonate with the under 30s which comprise the majority of the video game buying demographic. I still hope someone at ID pushes the idea anyway, who knows, if it's a good enough game people will play it regardless of the character attraction.

dehrmann 4y ago
> Calvin and Hobbes' "Spaceman Spiff" I hadn't put it together, but you're right!

wedn3sday 4y ago

Just release a Commander Keen game pack for the Switch.