Cheesecake Hero

Introduction

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The world is in peril. Cheesecake, a once prized and celebrated food, can no longer be created. Monster have ransacked the world and stolen all the ingredients needed to make it. This has left the locals without their most important food.

Goudan, a man who can no longer tolerate its absence, has taken matters into his own hands. Armed with his sword, shield and wits, he sets out to recover the cheesecake ingredients and save the world.

This game was made for the NES Jam 2024. While the objective was to make the look and feel like an NES game, I emulated some of the inner working concepts, like limiting what tile and palette data were kept in memory (rather than using pre-made images) so I would have to adjust what I could draw as the game progressed, something that closer resembles how an NES would perform the same function. I also limited the composition of the music tracks to: 2 Square, 1 Triangle, 1 Noise and 1 for misc. stuff; most of the time it was for a Sawtooth channel. Oscillator power, huh?

How to Play

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Keyboard Set1	Keyboard Set2	Keyboard Set3	Touch Controls	Description
Arrow Keys	WASD	WASD	Directional Pad	* Move the active piece around on the board * Select options on the menu
Z	X	J	X	A BUTTON * Interact with the game world. * Confirm option in menu.
X	C	K	O	B BUTTON * Use selected item in the game world. * Cancel option in menu.
ENTER			+	START BUTTON * Access menu. * Pause game.
SHIFT			-	SELECT BUTTON * Display ingredients collected.

• Changes to the keyboard set will not take place until after the player leaves the OPTIONS page.

• The default setup when playing for the first time is Keyboard Set 1. If this is an issue, the touch screen buttons can be controlled with a mouse to allow a player access to the OPTIONS page and change the setup to one of the WASD options.

The goal of the game is to recover seven key ingredients in order to create the perfect cheesecake. Each ingredient is protected by a powerful monster and will require equipment, leveling up and a bit of skill and strategy. Navigate the overworld to check out the various locations, battle enemies, collect experience and gold and ultimately recover your ingredients. Once you have them all, return home so Goudan can bake his cheesecake!

This game features what is called "Bump mechanics". The player (literally) bumps into the enemy to do damage. There is strategy to this, however: A frontal assault will do considerable damage to the player. Try to aim for an off-center attack or hit the enemy from the side/back to avoid taking damage.

Towns and villages are scattered throughout the world. With enough gold, the player can recover health, purchase items, arms and armor to help tread the more difficult areas of the world. There are also small huts around. Some of them may carry important items the player will need for their journey.

Each boss layered is marked by a location that does not look like a cave. Be careful when going into one; the monsters are tougher and there may be conditions that require special equipment, such as a lantern to see in the dark

Tips For Survival

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There have been a few concerns about how easy it is to die in the game. Here are a few suggestions to help improve the player's survivability:

• The bed in Goudan's house is a great way to recover HP without having to spend any money. Spam it's use until the player can reach a town
• If you are lost, you can download the world map (It is available on this page).
• Stay near Goudan's house until the player gets to (At least) level 2. From there, it should become easier to roam around the world map.
• Try to attack off-center. This prevents the player from taking serious damage from the enemies.

Inventory

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• Swords - Improve attack power.
• Shields - Improve physical damage and resist damage.
• Rings - Wearing one enhances the player's abilities. These do not work during a boss battle:
  • Punch Ring - Increase attack power
  • Punch Ring - Increase attack power.
  • Protect Ring - Increase defense.
  • Heal Ring - Gradually recover health.
  • Speed Ring - Slows down enemies.
• Wing - Instantly travel to any town or home.
• Scary Mask - Disables enemies on the screen for several seconds.
• Fruit - Recovers up to 26 health.
• Herb - Recovers up to 76 health.
• Potion - Recovers up to full health.
• Key - Unlocks a door.
• Hammer - Smashes broken walls to open a new path.
• Lantern - Can see in dark caves.
• Goggles - Can see invisible enemies.
• HP+, STR+, DEF+ - Permanent status increases.
• Cheesecake Ingredients - Collect all seven to win!

Latest Updates

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Version 1.02 -- October 5th, 2024

• Updated the scripts that control drawing tiles and sprites, cleaning up how it's processed and fixing a bug along the way.

Version 1.01 -- June 24th, 2024

• An issue with slamming the enemy along the top end of the screen can cause the game to crash. This is no longer possible to perform because an override was placed in the function that controls this pathing check.
• A few small changes to the overworld map, mostly to remove issues with going across the map and ending up on pathblocking tiles. The overworld map (for download) also has the updates.
• Minor updates to the overworld flower tiles to make it appear (a little more) like background and less like a wall.
• Several of the earlier enemies got speed nerfs, making them slower and easier to outmaneuver in battle.
• The first two enemies saw both a strength and defense reduction, making it a lot easier for the player to reach level 2
• Music player and tracks were updates with some tweaks to the tracks and improvements for percussion sounds.

Version 1.00 -- June 16th, 2024

• Game has been uploaded to Itch.