Cheese Dreams: New Moon

Cheese Dreams: New Moon is a platformer game released in two parts, its first part released on December 5th 2013. It was Nitrome Touchy compatible on release. Cheese Dreams New Moon is a remake of the original Cheese Dreams game that was released in 2007.

Cheese Dreams New Moon is Nitrome's second return to the Cheese Dreams series, after an attempt some year prior at making a direct sequel to the original game, which was ultimately cancelled. A demo of the game was released over a year before the game's release.

Nitrome will release the game in two parts, the first part on December 5th 2013 , and the second part in 2014.

Controls
leftright Arrow Keys - Move the moon left and right

up Up Key - Enters doors + see information again

Gameplay
Much of the gameplay is the same as its predecessor. The player can complete special side tasks along the way, such as saving trapped planet-like characters on the mouse ship. Each planet has its own behaviour, which can be used to help it escape.

Level 1
The player first starts off in a room with padlocked blocks and a key switch. By hitting the key switch the padlocked blocks will disappear allowing the player to go further. To complete the level the player needs to go right, jump on top of two spinning platforms to avoid spikes (which can be accessed right after jumping over the large purple block), reach the highest platform above, and go through the door. Then the player needs to go upwards to reach the topmost moving platform, ride this platform over a spiked gap, get off the platform once it changes direction, descend downward, and enter the door near the bottom of the level on the left.

Then the player should go either to the right of the left and hop on top of a pile of boxes to use the momentum to get to the platform in the center, jump onto one of the turning platforms on the left and right, jump to the platform in the center, then onto the either one of the platforms on the side, and then jump onto the above platform in the center. Upon going into the blue object the level will be complete.

All stars

Level 2
All stars

Level 3
All stars

Level 4
All stars

Level 5
All stars

Level 6
The player has to rescue Mars.

All stars

Level 7
The player has to rescue Saturn All stars

Level 8
The player has to rescue the lost moons.

Level 9
To unlock level 9, the player needs a total of 1050 stars. The player has to rescue Mercury.

Level 10
To unlock level 10, the player needs a total of 1200 stars. The player has to rescue the Sun.

Star bonus
In the levels of the game, there are certain numbers of stars to be collected. Collecting all the stars in a level will cause a message to show, shown below. An overall star counter can be seen in the level select menu, and an individual star counter can be seen in every level.

Planet rescue bonus
In levels 6 to 10, the player can rescue various planets. Upon rescuing a planet, and avatar will be rewarded to the player, and the level icon will change to that planet's avatar image.

Hazards

 * Melted cheese - Melted cheese is an orange liquid usually found at the bottom of the level.
 * Spikes Harms the player on contact, and can also kill the moon.

Interactive objects

 * Doors - Slides open when the moon comes near it, and can be entered by pressing up
 * Turning platforms - Tilts to the side the moon is on, and will eventually straighten themselves out if left for a while.
 * Key switches - When touched they will make any nearby padlocked blocks disappear, and cause the blocks to reappear if touched again.
 * Pipes - Allows the player to travel from one side of the pipe to the other quickly.
 * Boxes - Boxes are simple boxes that can be moved around by the moon. The player can use them also to reach higher places.
 * Moving platforms - Moves in a set pat indicated by white circles.
 * Platform balls - Platform balls can be bounced on top of to reach higher places.
 * Checkpoints - Checkpoints light up when the moon touches it. If the player dies, they will restart from the last checkpoint they touched. However, when player enters the room, the game starts from the door, if player dies
 * Breakable blocks - Hence the name, breakable blocks break when the moon touches them.
 * Spring platforms - Spring platforms are platforms that are powered by the moon's bounce. Every time the moon bounces on it, its power is recharged. It has a gauge in the middle to tell how much charge it has.
 * Tractor beam - Tractor beams are a large beam that pulls everything near toward it.

Enemies

 * Space mice - Walk around in a set area and will harm the moon upon contact. However, if they are hit on the head, their helmet will break and allow the player to kill them if they are hit again.

Demo

 * Main article: Cheese Dreams Demo

Development
A few years prior to work on Cheese Dreams New Moon, Nitrome worked on a a direct sequel to Cheese Dreams that expanded the story, this game taking place after the events of the regular Cheese Dreams. Although this sequel was ultimately cancelled, Nitrome later picked up the Cheese Dreams series again to create a remake.

In late March 2012, Nitrome released a demo of Cheese Dreams New Moon, this demo containing an example of the game's new physics engine and the game's graphics. Development of the game presumably continued, however, other Nitrome projects caused the game to go on hold, while other projects prevented work on the gamer continuing.

Nitrome staff for various parts of the game were caused to work on other games, such as in May 2013 John Kennedy (Cheese Dream New Moon's programmer) working on the programming of Test Subject Complete, and Jon Annal (one of the game's artists) working on the art of Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage. Work on the game was continued since September 24th 2013, and may have been the cause of the lack of Nitrome blog posts in the then-previous week.

March 23 2012
On March 23rd 2012, Nitrome hinted in their blog that they would release a demo sometime during the next week, although they didn't tell what game it would be for.

March 30 2012
On March 30th 2012, Nitrome released a demo for the game, the Cheese Dreams Demo. It took the player around a small level, and allowed the player to try and collect 450 stars hidden around the level. The level introduced many of the components that would appear in the full game.

September 24 2013
On September 24 2013, Nitrome announced the title of the game, Cheese Dreams: New Moon. They also announced that the game would be a remake of the original Cheese Dreams, with the same plot. The only difference would be the game engine and mechanics. Nitrome also released a preview image for the game.

November 15 2013
On November 15 2013, Nitrome released a teaser video for the game. The menu for the game was also shown in the video.

2.0 update
On December 10, Nitrome updated the game to version 2.0. In the update, several bugs were fixed, including avatar bugs and the star count replay bug. Levels that were slow were also optimized, a fall off the screen death sound was added, and the Nitrome Touchy full screen version was changed to have black borders instead of white.

Star count replay
If the player completes a level, then resets the level, the star counter will not reset. This can lead to the player gaining more stars than there are in the level, or unlocking levels ahead of time. This bug was fixed in the 2.0 update.

Locked level glitch
If the player used the star count replay glitch on a level before the 2.0 update and replay the level after the update, the star count will be reseted. Because the player will lose stars, some planet rescue level will not be accessible even if the player has already completed them.

Non-damaging spike ball in pipe
If the moon touches a spike ball while in a pipe, the moon will not take damage.

Falling out of the level
At the beginning of the level 7, where the moon has to rescue Saturn, the moon can use the space mice to bounce above the wall on the left and fall off the level. Upon falling off, the moon will not die, forcing the player to reset the level. A sound was added for death by jumping off the level in the 2.0 update.

Glitched star counter level
Sometimes, when the player enters a planet rescue level, the last stage of the level will be entered, where the player has to rescue the planet. Also, the star count will be out of -1 stars.

Moving tiles glitch
Another Lost moons level glitch is if all of the moving tiles in the level are lowered by one block, the level cannot be finished, since some platforms will be in the molten cheese. To fix this glitch, the player has to refresh the page the game is on.

Music button
If the player mutes the music and refreshes the page, the music icon will not be crossed out and the music will not play. If the player presses the mute button, the music icon will be crossed out but the music will play.

Trivia

 * This is the first game for which Nitrome has released a demo, as well as Nitrome's first remake.
 * Even though the target amount of stars in the demo is 450, there are 500 stars to pick up. The reason for this is because the extra fifty stars are in star blocks. Players might destroy the star blocks and get no stars from them.
 * Cuboy informs the player about content in the demo.
 * The checkpoints look like rods from the Chisel series. They also look like half-way checkpoints in Sonic the Hedgehog series and also make a sound like them when touched.