Editing Commander Keen (section)

===1991 to present===
{{see also|Commander Keen in Keen Dreams#Development|Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy#Development|Commander Keen (video game)#Development}}
[[File:John Carmack E3 2006.jpg|thumb|[[John Carmack]] in 2006]]
Ideas from the Deep, now founded as id Software, used some of these games to prototype ideas for their own games, including in late spring of 1991 ''Keen Dreams'', which they used to develop new systems for their next set of major episodes of the series.<ref name="IGNid"/> They did not initially want to do a ''Keen'' game for Softdisk, but eventually decided that doing so would let them fulfill their obligations while also helping to improve the next full set of games for Apogee.<ref name="3DRretro"/> The team reprised their roles from the first game, and prototyped an increase in graphical quality, a pseudo-3D view rather than a side-on view, ramps rather than solely flat surfaces, support for [[sound card]]s, and changes to the design based on player feedback.<ref name="MOD6676"/><ref name="IGNid"/> The game's plot, as a result, was designed to be a standalone game outside of the continuity of the main series, and not a true sequel.<ref name="IGNid"/> Once the game engine and design changes were completed, ''Keen Dreams'' was completed in less than a month even as the team simultaneously worked on another game.<ref name="MOD6676"/><ref name="3DRretro"/>

Beginning development in the June 1991, the team again reprised their roles for ''Goodbye, Galaxy''. Hall had received feedback from parents who did not like that the enemies in ''Vorticons'' left behind corpses instead of disappearing like in other games; he did not want the violence to have no effects, and so in ''Dreams'' had replaced the raygun with pellets that temporarily stunned enemies. He was not satisfied with this change, and while considering ways to remove Keen's parents during the introduction for ''Goodbye, Galaxy'', came up with a stun gun which would leave behind permanently stunned enemies.<ref name="MOD6676"/><ref name="3DRretro"/> Additionally, music, which was missing in prior ''Keen'' games, was added to ''Goodbye, Galaxy'', composed by [[Robert Prince (video game composer)|Bobby Prince]].<ref name="IGNid"/> The game, episodes four though six, was intended to be published as a set named ''Goodbye, Galaxy'' in the same manner as the first one: released through Apogee, with episode four released for free in order to spur interest in purchasing the other two episodes. By August they had completed a beta version of episode four, "Secret of the Oracle", and Romero sent it off to a fan he had met from Canada, Mark Rein, who had offered to play-test the game. Romero was impressed with the list of bugs that Rein sent back, as well as with his business sense, and proposed bringing him in to the company as a probationary president for six months in order to help expand their business. Within a few weeks of being hired, Rein made a deal to get id into the commercial market: to take the sixth episode and make it a stand-alone game, published as a retail title through [[FormGen]] instead of part of a shareware trilogy. Id signed the deal, but Scott Miller of Apogee was dismayed; he felt that not having a full trilogy for the shareware game would hurt sales.<ref name="MOD7786"/>

Also in August 1991, the team moved from Shreveport to Hall's hometown of [[Madison, Wisconsin]], leaving behind Wilbur, who was unwilling to leave a stable job at Softdisk to fully join in with the startup, but picking up programmer Jason Blochowiak, who was working at the time at Softdisk. There, they worked on ''Goodbye, Galaxy'', their remaining Softdisk games, and the now standalone ''[[Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter]]'' between August and December.<ref name="MOD8793"/> Despite being listed numerically as the sixth episode, due to it having a different publisher and schedule ''Aliens Ate My Babysitter'' was developed after "Secret of the Oracle" but before "The Armageddon Machine"; the fifth episode, however, was created within one month. Another trilogy of episodes, titled ''The Universe Is Toast'', was planned for December 1992; id worked on it for a couple of weeks, before shifting focus to ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992).<ref name="3DRretro"/><ref name="RomeroKeen"/> Hall proposed reviving the project after ''Wolfenstein'' was completed, but the team moved on to ''Doom'' (1993) instead.<ref name="MOD118121"/> Id did not return to the series afterwards, instead continuing to focus on 3D first-person shooters.<ref name="3DRretro"/>

In October 1999 during an online question and answer session, John Carmack, while discussing that the original founders of id Software were unlikely to ever work together on a game again, mentioned that he was considering the idea of making a ''Commander Keen'' game for the [[Game Boy Color]] [[handheld game console]].<ref name="IGNrumor"/> [[Activision]] formally announced at the start of May 2001 that a new ''Commander Keen'' game had been developed by David A. Palmer Productions, and would be released at the end of the month.<ref name="GSannounce"/> An interview the following week with founder David A. Palmer explained that the original idea for the game came from id, who approached Activision to produce it; Activision in turn recommended Palmer as the developer for the project as they had been attempting to get an agreement with id and Activision for several years for his studio to make a Game Boy Color version of several of their games. While Palmer was the developer for the game, id collaborated with the studio, with id having approval over game design elements and artist Adrian Carmack making some tile artwork for the game.<ref name="IGNint"/>