Great of Heka
From ZDoom Wiki
Introduction
Image:CAKEA1.bmp Image:CPIEA1.bmp
New heroes have entered the scene!
Instead of your standard DOOMGUY, you get to play as a big-chested Heka-Warrior! (In the infancy of the idea, there was only a male hero. But his little sister was added to avoid angry emails about civil rights.)
So what the heck is this mod? Is it even Doom?
Great of Heka is a ZDOOM mod in progress by author PaganRaven, otherwise known in the real world as William Elliott Waterman. Currently it can only be run in GZDOOM because it uses custom pickups in the DECORATE. At a first glance of this, one would wonder how in blazes this is even related to DOOM at all. Well, it's not. It is constructed on the foundation of the DOOM engine and the power of ZDOOM. It is also a first-person shooter with fast-paced action and multiplayer capability. That is about all it has in common with DOOM. Every other aspect of the game, including story, environment, enemies, items, weapons, sound, music, playable characters, and the player's physical capabilities (including running speed and jump-height) are entirely original. This mod showcases just how truly innovative and flexible ZDOOM can be, twisting and turning DOOM inside-out to the point it no longer appears to be DOOM at all. The distinction is that, no matter how hard a modder tries, the player is still going to need to load the DOOM2 wad upon startup, so it is still DOOM in the most technical sense. The final version is planned to have three episodes with a total of 33 maps (3 of which are super-secret maps, of course).
Inspiration
Many aspects of this game are inspired by mythology. Heavily from Greek and Egyptian. The term "Great of Heka" actually comes from the Egyptian goddess Aset, who has ultimate power. Heka itself is basically this special power that the ancient Egyptians revered. It is comparable to magic, ki, atman, etc. A certain force that, unfortunately, is not romanticized in today's culture. Other than that, a lot of inspiration for this game comes from the two games Hexen and EarthBound. It capture's Hexen's action and gameplay while having an artistic and creative style of EarthBound. However, this is not a knock-off of the two games in any way. It is a stand-alone original.
Story
Prologue
Planet Potassium is a tropical paradise that knows no strife. If people want food, they can pluck it off a tree. Beefcake and Cutiepie grew up in the southern marshes, away from the crowded cities without a care in the world. While growing up, they noticed they had seemingly extraordinary abilities of physical dexterity, never fell ill, and became very beautiful, but they thought little of this.
One day, the seventh prince of all breadmonsters, Lord Bananabread, came to Potassium to begin a new empire. The breadmonsters are big-nosed, fork-tailed creatures from Fiber, Potassium’s sister planet. They are a homosexual, patriarchal race who killed off their entire female population ages ago, and considered women of any species to be vile, repulsive beings. Lord Bananabread hid his mortality in the underworld so he could never be assassinated. His goal is to steal all of the world’s prized bananas and banana milk, begin a new colonization on this planet, and bring honor to his father Commander WholeGrain. But are his endeavors truly of his own motivation, or is there a higher force directing his actions? Fists clenched and filled with pride, Lord Bananabread screamed to the heavens:
“NOW IS THE BEGIN OF MY RULE TIME!!!”
The people thought there was nothing to stop this invading menace, for anybody who goes to the underworld will die instantly, making Lord Bananabread’s mortality impossible to retrieve. But Caramel and Molasses, Beefcake and Cutiepie’s parents, knew something different. They told their children that 20 years ago, when Cutiepie was born, a divine being known as Aset visited their modest dwelling, and kissed the two children. She was captured by an evil force, and sent her essence to bestow the key unlocking the secrets of her heka power into the kids, so her abilities could not be tapped and used for sinister purposes. The heka power is what made Beefcake and Cutiepie seemingly perfect in every quality, and it also gave them the ability to survive in the underworld. Beefcake and Cutiepie must use their strange gift to travel to the underworld, retrieve Lord Bananabread’s mortality, infiltrate his empire to defeat this tyrant, and save the world. If they don’t succeed, Potassium is surely doomed.
Episode 1: Enter the Heka Warriors - Synopsis
The player(s) start off their adventure on the level 'Dune', which takes place in an egyptian desert/tomb environment. The player(s) progress through many levels until they reach the Naos of Death, where they fight the boss and jump down the hole that leads to the spirit world so they can find Lord Bananabread's mortality.
Episode 2: The Spirit World - Synopsis
All levels of this episode take place in an underground, dungeon-like environment. What do you expect from the underworld? Lord Bananabread's mortality is being guarded by the zombie-demon known as Blackjack, a powerful entity who has control over all the Jackal-Lantern and Jackal-Frost imps. But this isn't the end of the episode. The player(s) must brave through the underworld, and they can find their way out only by defeating the monster Tanknaos.
Episode 3: Confronting Lord Bananabread - Synopsis
The player(s) make it back to the surface world. But it's not time to relax yet. Now that Lord Bananabread's mortality is in possession, the player(s) must make a full frontal-assault through Lord Bananabread's territory right into his fortress for the final battle.
Future Episodes
Will be announced if the first 3 ever get done (I'm still not even finished with ep 1 yet).
Gameplay
The World of Potassium
Unlike the gritty, dark bloodbath and sci-fi environment of most DOOM WADs, Great of Heka zero takes place in a whole new world. This is a pastel-colored land populated by many anthropomorphic fruit, and the design has a cartoony-style similar to EarthBound. The story has a little bit of Sci-fi, but it is not an over-arching need like in DOOM. Great of Heka zero is a creation of pure, unrestrained fantasy. Not the swords and dragons kind of fantasy, but the ‘anything and everything that comes off the top of your head’ type fantasy. It is a timeless place, crawling with fruit-dinosaurs, modern-day plumbing, Egyptian tombs, Greek hypostyles, African jungles, humanoid monitor lizards in an organized crime syndicate, shape-shifting sheep clones, and teleporting owls. This has a cartoon style, hence a lack of violence. Sure, you get to kill stuff, but they blow up in mushroom clouds. No blood, gore, coarse language, or anything like that. With this game’s level of quality, it doesn’t need to find appeal with cultural waste.
Game Dynamics
The physique of the mighty Heka Warriors is a little bit different from your standard DOOM marine. For instance, they only run at half his speed. It might sound like a drawback, but it is actually a little bit more realistic and easier to control. One thing you’ll definitely notice is the jump height. These guys could give Super Mario a run for his money. They even emit a cute sound-effect when they take off. The Heka Warriors have a maximum of 256 HP. Don’t get too excited. Attacks are a little bit more brutal so they need all that health. The Heka Warriors also have another gauge of power. They possess an energy force known as Heka points, hence their title. Because of their supernatural power, Heka Points automatically recover at a slow rate, and max out and 999. The Heka points are used to pay for the Heka attacks (each Heka attack is described in more detail later). It can also be used for magic spells to do miraculous things like recovering health and teleportation. Unlike the DOOM marine, whose health instantly boosts up when he grabs a medkit, the Heka Warriors’ health slowly build up one point at a time when they use a power-up. This is called rolling health, and the speed of the rolling health varies with the game’s difficulty setting. The difficulty level also changes the intricacy of in-game puzzles. Someone who plays Nightmare-mode is in for real brain-benders that hardly get any easier in the second playthrough.
Weapons
THE HEKA ATTACKS
FLAMETHROWER
Just as the name suggests. Shoots close range flames at the foe.
HEKA ROCKET
Fires a simple cluster of energy to damage the foe.
AIR STRIKE
Missiles fall from the ceiling to damage the foe. Has alternate firing modes: Vertical and Horizontal.
HEKA BEAM
Shoots a concentrated and intensified beam of light energy that penetrates flesh and doesn't stop until it hits a wall. Very similar to the Sun Staff in Hexen 2.
HEKSPLOSION
the grandaddy of all weapons. A line of sparks appear on the ground and a ten-foot mushroom cloud appears when it hits a foe or a wall usually killing everything within an eight-foot radius except maybe scytheclops, silver beatle, and tanknaos. This comes with splash damage that can kill the shooter so use it at a safe distance!
THE GUNS
HAMSTER REVOLVER
shoots flying superhero hamsters that do minimal damage.
HUMMINGBIRD UZI
rapidfire hummingbirds that are as powerful as the hamsters but fire at a VERY fast rate.
BOW OF NIT
This is both the shotgun and the machinegun. Use altfire modes to either shoot a billion arrows per second or shoot massive clusters at slow intervals.
SCARAB LAUNCHER
shoots scarabs that eats and shreds through the flesh of whatever is closest to them. they won't stop tearing through the target's tissue for a few seconds making this a dangerous weapon and very difficult to evade because they are heat seeking.
SUPER SCARAB LAUNCHER
This weapon is quite an improvement over the previous model. It shoots 3 killer scarabs with each blast to cause triple-trouble for your enemies!
KITTEN CANNON
Much like a rocket launcher. Shoots cats that explode in lethal love energy upon contact, and can kill opponents very quickly. Unfortunately there is also recoil damage so use with caution!
Items and Pickups
BANANA
Recovers 4 health and 4 heka.
ANKH
Recovers 64 Health points at the cost of 100 Heka points and can be reused.
JEWEL OF ASET
Restores 100 Heka points.
HERO'S LIGHT
Lights up the area.
WINDBAG
When opened, shoots out a gust of wind that blasts the enemies back.
SILVER BROOMSTICK
This can be used to fly for a limited time.
OVINE
These little guys shape-shift into the first thing they see. So you can make an army of clones of yourself to fight and confuse the enemies. The clones may be able to attack like you do, but unfortunately they're kinda dumb, and they only have 1 HP.
WARP OWL
A magic owl that teleports the player back to the start of the map.
PINEAPPLE PIZZA
Recovers 128 Health and 128 Heka
YELLOW APPLE
Can transform Beefcake and Cutiepie into Cupcake and Muffin when eaten. Useful for crawling through tight spaces. In a deathmatch, these can be tossed to turn opponents into weak little kids.
BLUE APPLE
Another type of magic apple. Only this one puts people to sleep. Yawn... boring I know.
MEAD OF POETRY
Turns whoever drinks it into a super-genious.
LUCKY CAT
A Chinese cat figurine that has a chance of taking the hit for it’s master, destroying itself in the process.
MAGIC LOTUS
A beautiful lotus flower with mystical properties. Has a chance of bringing someone back from the brink when they are in mortal danger. But it only activates on it's own will, and sometimes it will choose not to revive its user.
EYE OF HORUS
gives full area map at the cost of 500 heka and does not get discarded after use.
RAMESSES EGO
makes user invulnerable for 15 seconds at the cost of 700 heka and does not get discarded after use.
THE DRINKS
In the game you find jars that you can fill and refill with speciffic drinks. The drinks include water, which fully recovers health, latte, which fully recovers heka, and bananamilk, which is a full restore.
THE KEYS
You find and use keys to unlock doors on each level.
Enemies (in episode 1)
DISCO BANANA
Get your groove on to the funky beat. These hip and happenin’ fruits each weild a pair of hamster revolvers. They do minimal damage, but they sure look cool in their elevator shoes.
BANANASAUROS
These are friendly fruits, but they will attack if provoked. Bananas can be reaped from these creatures upon death, and females have a very rare chance of dropping a jar of banana milk.
JACKAL LANTERN AND JACKAL FROST
They’re both as different as they are the same. These two imps have holiday cheer. They are so short and weak that they are likely to be killed in a single blow. But be wary. Their powerful fire and snow magic will leave you in tears.
KING OF DENILE
Like his name suggests, he will never admit the faults of his own actions. They all look the same, so their kingdom has a serious problem with usurpers of the throne. At a distance they’ll attack with an irritating sound wave, and up close they’ll chomp into you with their huge gaping mouths. They have high stamina, so try to avoid close combat.
PEPPER RAPTOR
These guys are small, but they’re packin’ heat. They’ll spit jalapeno fireballs that will sear flesh on contact.
SCYTHECLOPS
Sometimes appearances can be deceiving. But in this case they're not. Scytheclops is a trigger-happy psycho who can turn his claws into any type of bladed weapon he chooses. Thia includes axes, chainsaws, buzz-saws, shuriken, and the standard scythe. They are actually a vegetarian race, and kill just for the fun of it.
Silver Beatle
The guardians of the spirit world.
Releases
None yet. There was one small two-level release in the ZDOOM community forums some time ago to see how it appeals, but so far it is still infantile in development. An official release is not planned until the first episode is complete, as well as implementation of multiplayer and difficulty settings.
Screenshot Samples
 Starlit majesty of a serene mountain landscape. |
 Can you see the sheep way over there? |
 Hey there little bananasauros! Wanna come and play? |
 Rollout the red carpet! |
 OOOoooooo... does it ever end? |
 An oasis of cool water. OH MY GOD the water is reflective! And what's this? You can see the bananas sitting under the water! (You can tell they're not a reflection because they're not upside-down, like the trees) |
