Commander Keen: Keen Dreams

Commander Keen: Keen Dreams

MS-DOS cover art
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Director(s) John Carmack
Producer(s) John Romero
Designer(s) Tom A. Hall
Programmer(s)
  • John Carmack
  • John Romero
Artist(s)
Platform(s)

Release date(s)

MS-DOS

Android

  • WW 10 June 2013

Windows, Linux

  • WW 6 December 2014

OS X

  • WW TBA
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Commander Keen: Keen Dreams (also known as Commander Keen in Keen Dreams or just Keen Dreams) is a 1991 video game by id Software which was originally released for PCs running MS-DOS by Softdisk Publishing, with all rights owned by Flat Rock Software since 2005. The game is part of the Commander Keen series. In 2013 the game was re-released for Android devices. After the PC version's source code became available due to a crowdfunding campaign, the game was also "greenlit" by the Steam Greenlight community in 2014.

Plot

After refusing to eat his vegetables, Billy is sent to bed by his parents. He falls asleep, only to awaken in a strange vegetable kingdom led by the evil potato king Boobus Tuber, who has imprisoned other sleeping children there. In the dream world, Keen does not have his trademark raygun and pogo stick, but has to defend himself with "Flower Power" seeds that temporarily turn enemies into flowers.

Gameplay

Keen Dreams Gameplay. In this screenshot, Keen avoids the grapes in the "Grave Divine" level

In this game Keen does not have his pogo stick, so he cannot jump as high anymore. He can, however, duck, and drop down from the semi-solid platforms if the player presses the jump key while ducking. An addition to the platforms are firemen's poles, which the player can use to climb to higher platforms, and even jump up on them if he times the jumps right. This and further episodes use a slanted 3D look for the levels.

Instead of the ray gun, Keen is armed with "Flower Power", small pellets he can collect and throw left, right, straight up, or, when falling, straight down. The pellets are used up if they hit an enemy, but if Keen does not hit anything, he can retrieve and re-use the pellet if he is quick enough. Enemies that are hit are not killed, but turned into a big, stunned flower for a limited time. All enemies are based on fruit or vegetables whereas the collectible score items are sweets.

Keen Dreams introduces three difficulty levels. Another improvement is that the player can now save anywhere and at any time.

Development

Commander Keen: Keen Dreams was developed by id Software and published by Softdisk Publishing as part of the Commander Keen series in 1991. Since 2005 Flat Rock Software owns the rights of the game. Years later, in June 2013, Super Fighter Team re-released a version for Android enabled devices, which is available on Google Play.[1] In September 2014, after an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign,[2] the game's source code was released on GitHub under a GPLv2+ license.[3][4] Also, a digital distribution re-release, another goal of the crowdfunding campaign, was achieved after having been "greenlit" by the Steam Greenlight community. The game is expected to be released as a 2015 version, instead of the 1991 version, in early 2015.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Super Fighter Team
  2. ↑ Let's get Keen Dreams re-released legally !
  3. ↑ commander-keen-keen-dreams-source-code-released on slashdot.org
  4. ↑ Keen source code on github.com
  5. ↑ "Keen Dreams on Steam Greenlight". September 16, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.