Story Overview
Set in an abstract world within a scientific laboratory, Cheeks of Steel sees the player take on the role of Harry the Hamster, accompanied by his sidekick and parasite, Tick the Flea. As the game begins with Harry sleeping happily in his own little dream world, his real world is soon turned upside down as his best friend and Love of his life, ‘Espher' goes missing.
With only a letter left by his love and an insightful bloodsucker on his back, Harry sets off on an adventure to the far reaches of his cage to explore several ‘Themed cages'. Eventually finding a lead which points directly to the evil scientist ‘Doctor Seek', Harry and Tick attempt to collect all the missing Hamster Tubes and reach the escape hatch at the top of the cage, breaking free of Capture and rescuing Espher from Seek's clutches. But with no one else to help them, are the foul mouthed, bad behaving, dysfunctional duo actually up to the task?
Game Specification
Platform: Pc, Xbox 360 & Playstation 3.
Number of Players: 1 (Single Player only)
Target Age: 15+ Strong language and sexual/mature references
Game Type: 3D Platform
Violence Level: Mild cartoon violence, contains blood, violence towards animals
Number of Environments: 4 Levels, 1 Hub Level, 1 Training Level
Game Camera: 3rd Person, ¾ High Angle Camera, with 1st Person feature
Unique Selling Points
- Experience the next generation of Platform titles, bringing you all the memorable qualities of the past with the high quality graphics of the future.
- Take control of the most outrageous duo ever created, relying on the abilities of both characters to uncover the truth about Capture.
- Explore ‘Themed Cages' designed and built as paradigms of all your favourite movies and games.
- Laugh for hours at an in-depth, comical storyline, packed full of adult humour and uncensored language.
- Navigate through an elaborate and colourful, abstract world. See what the world really looks like through the eyes of a Hamster.
- Enjoy hours of entertaining gameplay, with each puzzle and power up aimed to keep you amused every step of the way.
Backstory
There are many myths and beliefs pursued by humanity in hope of finding the truth. One of them is the legend of immortality. Whilst numerous theories have been suggested over the centuries, none have proved successful. However, there is one scientist who claims he has found the key, and the secret lies in Hamsters! How or why is unknown, but ever since it was discovered that hamsters hold a greater potential for experimentation than rats, the scientist named Dr. Edward Seek believed that the source lies in their short life span. The only issue of extracting it came from the small functionality of their brains, which caused their bodies to shutdown before experiments could be complete.
As a result, Doctor Seek figured that the only way the experiments could work, was if the mind of a hamster became more capable. Therefore, he decided to create a simulated environment within a cage that would resemble that of a typical human town, believing that living like humans would help with the necessary evolutionary process.
Nevertheless, even if this was to work, there was no way it would help every hamster exposed to the simulated civilisation. It would only have an effect on a small percentage, most likely those hamsters already with slightly more capable brains. In order to identify the more intelligent hamsters, a series of challenges were set up to see which ones were capable of completing them. These challenges were created and isolated in specialised ‘themed cages', which the hamsters would have to discover in remote locations of their primary, ‘civilisation cage'. Of all the hamsters exposed to the civilisation cage, those that managed to complete the tasks or excelled over the rest, were then selected for chemical testing. The subsequent testing involved combining hamster DNA with various chemical formulas and injecting them back into the host. Thus far, this testing has resulted in a 100% death rate.
After several years of failure however, the experiments were deemed ‘unethical' and ordered to cease operation. Doctor Seek agreed, to the public eye at least. His research became private and hidden to the world, having to settle on using any hamsters he could get his hands on. With no progress and a severe lack of high quality hamsters, it seemed that Seek had finally lost it. Like many scientists, the research he was working on became his life, and had taken him over. Desperate for results, he decided to take some serious action, making his experimentations even more extreme and out of control.
Setting
Cheeks of Steel is set in an abstract world, based around a scientific laboratory. The primary focus of this laboratory resides in a small hamster civilisation, created by the evil scientist Doctor Seek. This civilisation has been built within a large cage structure and designed to represent a standard human town, with streets containing lamp posts, buildings and even the occasional landmark. Whilst there is nothing particularly complex about the town to the human eye, to hamsters the environment appears to be far more elaborate. They chose to call this place, ‘Capture'.
Their homes are structured with two floors that contain a bedroom, a lounge and bathroom. These are placed around several streets surrounding a town centre that is marked with a large water fountain. In addition to this point of interest, there is also a maze and park area. The park contains small obstacles designed for exercise such as tubes and monkey bars. Its main attraction nevertheless is a large wheel that resides in the North-West corner of the park. During the day, there are often long queues of hamsters waiting for a turn.
One thing that the town does lack is shops. Instead, the centre of each street is lined with food bowls, filled full of various foods and nutrients. Nevertheless, hamsters can often be seen on the streets selling and bartering anything from rare items to luxury food that they might have found or bought.
Connected to Capture are what are known as ‘Themed Cages'. There are three in total, and each one is designed differently to relate to a number of films or games that already exist. For example, one level is based around the film ‘Sin City', and has been given a narrative style that's taken from the game ‘Max Payne'. In each of these, a number of challenges and obstacles have been put in place, with rewards at the end for encouragement. The objective of these is to distinguish the more intelligent hamsters amongst the group and use them for further testing.
The hamsters that inhabit the town are all of a Syrian origin. There are a number of reasons for this including their availability compared to other species. Another reason is that the Syrian hamster happens to be one of the most intelligent hamsters over all other primary species, not to mention that they're much easier to tame. Although Syrian hamsters are naturally solitary creatures, it seems that providing they are relatively young and have their own territory, they can co-exist with one another with little or no hassle. At the time of the game, the town inhabits somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred hamsters.
Harry
Gender: Male
Age: 4 ½ Months
Height: 0' 7" Weight: 2 lbs 13 oz
Coat Colour: Orange and Light Brown
Coat Style: Piebald
Scars/Markings: None
As one of the few hamsters to be born and raised in Capture, Harry stars as the unlikely hero when strange disappearances begin to occur. Perceived as a stereotypical, foul mouthed teenager, many see Harry as nothing more than a nuisance, one which they might have tried to do something about, if it weren't for his slow mentality and amusing vulnerability to accidents. Instead, many of Capture's citizens mock Harry and laugh behind his back, setting him up for mishaps and getting him to do their dirty work when no one else will think twice.
However, even with people making fun of his mental limitations, Harry secretly has a big heart and all the determination to back it up. He merely despises the attitudes and morals of the society around him, feeling like they just don't understand the true meaning of life. Harry believes that there's more out there than just the cage around him, dreaming of one day finding it and proving it to everyone else.
It's because of this that Harry feels there are only two people he can trust. One is his sidekick and mentor Tick, as he relies on Harry's blood and wellbeing to survive. The other is Espher, his best friend and love of his life, which he has purposefully concealed through fear of rejection.
Tick
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Height: 0.3 cm Weight: 0.01 oz
Eye Colour: Red
Scars/Markings: Tribal like Markings across Back
Tick is a sly, obnoxious flea that spends his life sucking on the blood of hamsters, and other rodents alike. But whilst many believe this is purely as a source of food, Tick also collects the strands of DNA found in the blood of his victims, gathering their knowledge and improving his own intellect. This ever expanding IQ then goes on to sharpen his wit, not to mention increasing Tick's awareness to his surroundings.
Yet whilst his intelligence steadily advances, so does his ego. In fact, Tick's most renowned feature is his distasteful level of arrogance. Looking down on everyone around him, Tick can often be found making sarcastic jokes and belittling others. He has no love for those around him, and expects none back. Or so he claims...
Since making Harry his host however, Tick has shown an unusual level of sympathy, looking out for him, and teaching him the essentials to surviving in life. Of course, there are times when Tick makes fun of Harry, purposefully leaving him to wander into trouble, although it is more than likely that this is merely to keep Tick entertained. He claims that his concern for Harry's wellbeing is because he relies on him for all his basic needs, but the truth could simply be that Tick has finally experienced friendship.
