I think most of the modding community knows this by now, but I am working on a Kid Chameleon clone engine called the "WildSide Engine", or just "WildSide". The intent of this project is to create an entirely new Kid Chameleon-styled game from the ground up, that could potentially be put on Steam or released to the public in other ways, to carry on the legacy of this awesome game.
While this post is mostly just to raise awareness that this project is going on, I have a demo available for download here, which will allow you to play the current build of WSE. It's just a large testing level to experiment with Kid's movement, but it's also proof of concept that there's something to show so far.
Next on the list of tasks is to make the GUI (displaying health/time/diamonds/lives/etc.) and to add blocks and the rest of the terrain functions (damaging terrain/slopes/secret passages). After that will be transformations, and finally themes and the rest of the game structure.
In its finished state, WSE is planned to support 14 themes (versions of the original 9 themes + 5 new themes) and 15 transformations (Kid form + 14 helmets). Unfortunately, to avoid legal issues, the original forms from Kid Chameleon will not be used - but I would rather look at this as a way to breath fresh air into the game with all-new helmets instead of having to stick to the classics!
Additionally, while WSE is intended to be its own standalone game (probably by a more attractive title), it will also feature an official level editor and is tentatively planned to support entirely separate level routes (i.e. you could have the original levels, and KCX, and HMR all in the game at the same time, and choose which one to play from inside the game).
Now, this is obviously a huge undertaking, but I'm optimistic. What you see in this demo was programmed in less than four days, so progress has been swift. Once the next few internal systems are laid out, it should all be downhill. The biggest issue is going to be the graphics, but if worst comes to worst, I can always give it a shot myself.
I hope this is as exciting to the rest of you as it is to me; without this community, WSE wouldn't exist, and I think it would be awesome if we could all work together to make this game a reality. A true sequel to Kid Chameleon is a thought I'm sure all of us have entertained over the years, and it's up to us to make that happen.
So please, try the demo and give me your thoughts! Report any bugs in the demo, as well as feel free to share your thoughts for the direction of the project: What would you like to see added to the KC formula? Removed? Changed? We have a blank slate to start from, and I want it to become whatever the KC community would want from a sequel.
Thanks for your time, and enjoy!
https://sites.google.com/site/tyamods/wildside
~Tya