Despite being one of the most popular and successful MS-DOS games of all time, not too much is known about the creation of the side characters in Commander Keen. However, thanks to a Twitter exchange between Keen's creator, Tom Hall, and a fan, the origins of Princess Lindsey have been revealed.
In the past, Hall has revealed that the character of Commander Keen is at least partially based on his real-life brother. Wanting to know more about the other characters, Twitter user Ian Hanschen tweeted to Hall and another Keen alum, John Romero, asking, "did one of you put your then-girlfriend into Keen 4?" in reference to the character of Princess Lindsey.
Hall replied to the tweet, explaining, "That was a Keen fan, Lindsey Velez, who wrote us a fan letter hoping for a female protagonist too!" In the same tweet he also reveals that the fire monster in Commander Keen 4 called the Berkeloid was inspired by a fan named Ryan Berke who had told the Keen team he'd seen a fire creature in a dream. Commander Keen recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and while a new game hasn't been released in the series for decades, there's obviously still a lot of new information to be mined from the retro titles.
A mobile game was announced by Bethesda that was to take advantage of the Commander Keen IP back in 2019, but that game was cancelled shortly after the release of a trailer that largely disappointed fans. Most Keen fans agree a true sequel needs the involvement of Tom Hall. Now that Microsoft has bought ZeniMax, the rights holder for Commander Keen, a future Keen game is in the hands of the company behind the Xbox brand. Hopefully, it gives Hall a call.
Commander Keen 1 through 5 are available on PC.