Icy Tower

Last updated
Icy Tower
Icy tower 1.4 logo.gif
Developer(s) Free Lunch Design
Designer(s) Johan Peitz
Artist(s) Johan Peitz, Emanuel Garnheim [nb 1] [1]
Composer(s) Anders Svensson
Engine Allegro [1]
Platform(s) Windows, Mac OS X
Release
  • EU: 2001-12-22
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Icy Tower is a freeware video game by Swedish game developer Free Lunch Design. It is a platform game set in a tower, where the player's goal is to jump from one "floor" to the next and go as high as possible without falling and plunging off the screen. The higher the player's character climbs, the faster the tower's floors move downward and the harder the game becomes. By default, the player controls the character using a keyboard.

Contents

Gameplay

A screenshot of Icy Tower 1.4 Icy tower gameplay screenshot.png
A screenshot of Icy Tower 1.4

The player starts the game on the tower's ground floor. To climb the tower, the player must jump from floor to floor (default control: spacebar). The character can pass through the floors from below but lands on them when falling from above. Once the player has landed on a floor, they can move across its surface using the arrow keys. By moving across the floor, the player builds momentum for the next jump. The character can also bounce off the vertical walls on the left and right edges of the tower, allowing them to switch direction while maintaining momentum.

If a player builds enough momentum, they can climb several floors in a single jump. Extended sequences of such multi-floor jumps are referred to as combos. A combo ends when a player makes a jump which covers only one floor, falls off a floor and lands on a lower floor, or fails to make a jump within a certain time frame (about 3 seconds).

At the start of the game, the tower's floors are stationary. When the player reaches floor 5, the floors begin to move slowly downward. Every thirty seconds, the floors' downward speed increases and the game tells the player to "Hurry up!" If the player misses a floor and falls off the bottom of the screen, the game ends. It also ends if the player is standing on a floor that moves off the bottom of the screen.

The goal is to reach the highest possible floor and accumulate the greatest number of points. Points are awarded based on the highest floor reached and the player's combos (if any). [1]

Because the tower is of infinite height, it is impossible to reach the top floor. [1] When the game ends, a replay of the game may be saved for later viewing.

Floors

The horizontal length of each floor depends on the player's progress, the version of the game, and a random factor. The floors' appearances change every 100 floors until floor 1000.

High scores

Icy Tower records players' best results in built-in high-score tables. Scores are recorded in several categories including highest score, highest floor and longest combo. Players may also publish their scores in online high score lists which may require players to provide game replays to verify their results. The official Icy Tower list is on Free Lunch Design's web server. [2]

Development

Free Lunch Design created Icy Tower using the C programming language and the Allegro game library. [1] Its designers were inspired by Xjump, a game for the Linux operating system. [3]

Ports

Icy Tower Mobile [nb 2]
Developer(s) Xendex Entertainment
Publisher(s) Hands–On Mobile
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Platform(s) Java ME
Release
  • EU: 2008-10-06
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player
Icy Tower Facebook
Developer(s) Free Lunch Design (Muskedunder Interactive [nb 4] )
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Platform(s) Adobe Flash, Facebook Platform
Release
  • EU: 2009-09-24
[4] [nb 5]
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player
Icy Tower iPhone
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Release
  • EU: 2010-11-12
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player
Icy Tower Classic
Developer(s) Free Lunch Design
Publisher(s) Free Lunch Design
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Platform(s) Google Play Store, App Store, Mac App Store
Release
  • EU: 2013-5-28
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player
Icy Tower Retro
Developer(s) Free Lunch Design
Publisher(s) Free Lunch Design
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Platform(s) Google Play Store (Palringo)
Release
  • EU: Unknown
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player
Icy Tower Jump
Developer(s) Free Lunch Design
Publisher(s) Free Lunch Design
Designer(s) Johan Peitz [nb 3]
Platform(s) Nokia
Release
  • EU: Unknown
Genre(s) action game, platform game
Mode(s) singe-player

On March 14, 2007, a press release was published on the Free Lunch Design website announcing a partnership between FLD and mobile game developer Xendex Entertainment for the porting of Icy Tower to the mobile environment. [5] Icy Tower Mobile (ITM) [nb 2] was released on October 6, 2008. Due to the then-current limitations of mobile platforms, the game lacked several features in its PC counterpart, such as recording or sharing replays, and changing game characters. [6]

On September 24, 2009, a Free Lunch Design game named Icy Tower Facebook (ITFB), developed on the Adobe Flash platform within the development framework of the Facebook social networking website, was released. [4] [nb 5] It allows players to compare their results with results of their friends within the Facebook system. Players can also personalise their in-game avatars and unlock additional game levels (so-called towers) corresponding to various game styles in the PC version of Icy Tower by exchanging them for coins, the game's virtual currency.

In November 2012, an official continuation of Icy Tower, Icy Tower 2, was released for iOS and Android. The producer estimates that on November 23, 2012, the number downloads of Icy Tower 2 downloads surpassed one million. There are also unofficial, player-developed Icy Tower ports for the Nintendo DS [7] and PlayStation Portable [8] game consoles.

Reception

Icy Tower ranked high in the "Most Popular" ranking of the "PC games" section in the Download.com software directory website; its average monthly number of downloads was "more than 20,000" in 2006, amounting to over five million as of 2009. [9] [10] The total number of Icy Tower downloads was estimated at over 11 million in 2008. [11] In terms of the number of websites devoted to the game, it is most popular in Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. [12] Central European countries are also home to a major portion of top Icy Tower players. [2] [13] According to Johan Peitz, the author of the game, the reason behind the popularity of Icy Tower is that it allows players to compete in several different categories, for example in striving for both high floors and high scores. [14]

Online Icy Tower communities allow their members to exchange high scores, replays and comments about the game and its gameplay. Additionally, players frequently compete against themselves in online competitions. Icy Tower tournaments usually consist of a number of rounds, each lasting one or more days. In every round, contestants are required to record one or more replays with a result in a specific category of the game. [15] [16] [17] Players have also organized live meetings, which took place in Cracow and Warsaw, Poland [18] [19] [20] and Prague, Czech Republic[ citation needed ].

On May 30, 2007, an official Icy Tower website operated by Free Lunch Design was launched, available at icytower.­freelunchdesign.­com. [nb 6] On June 3, 2009, the day of Icy Tower 1.4 release, an additional, complementary site has been opened at icytower.com.

Add-ons

The internal structure of Icy Tower allows for making changes to the character, soundtrack, sound effects and game palette through downloading and installation of repackaged resource files. [21] [nb 7]

Since version 1.2, Icy Tower allows for the use of skins to create additional custom characters which can replace the three default characters provided in the game package. [22] Making a new character is done by creating an image file of a specified structure, containing the various poses needed to animate the character. It is also possible to create a more complex add-on using WAV sound files, which will modify the game's soundtrack and sound effects.

Tools

There are a number of tools to help players train, change the game physics, or analyze their own results.

Notes

  1. ↑ As the person responsible for the renewal of the game graphics in Icy Tower 1.4.
  2. 1 2 The game is also known as Icy Tower ME (ITME).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 As the designer and artist of Icy Tower in the version for personal computers.
  4. ↑ A Swedish game developer that owned Free Lunch Design as of March 2008. "What's new". Muskedunder Interactive. Retrieved December 30, 2009. The Swedish flash game developer Muskedunder Interactive today [i.e. March 30, 2008] announced it has acquired the independent game developer Free Lunch Design.
  5. 1 2 The version of Icy Tower Facebook released on September 24, 2009 was a beta release. As of 2009, no final version of ITFB has been released.
  6. ↑ The site has subsequently been relocated to itc.­freelunchdesign.­com.
  7. ↑ Since Icy Tower 1.4 it is no longer possible to change the game palette using a custom character.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Free Lunch Design. Icy Tower (PC) (1.4 ed.). (Readme file named "Icy Tower v1.4").
  2. 1 2 "Highscores". Icy Tower Community. Free Lunch Design. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2009.
  3. ↑ Serafin, Lukasz (September 28, 2005). "Intervju med Johan Peitz" [Interview with Johan Peitz] (in Swedish). cure.se. Archived from the original on February 11, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2009. [...] I got the idea from Xjump, an old game installed on the school computers. I expanded and improved the gameplay, packaged it neatly, and there you are – the first version was ready.
  4. 1 2 "Links on "Icy Tower"". Facebook. September 24, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2009. It's finally here: Icy Tower for Facebook! The game is limited to 5000 players during the initial test phase, so claim your slot now!
  5. ↑ "Free Lunch Design Takes Games to the Next Level" (PDF). Free Lunch Design. March 14, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  6. ↑ Maliszewski, Piotr (July 29, 2008). "wywiad z twórcami Icy Tower Mobile - Xendex" [interview with the creators of Icy Tower Mobile - Xendex]. ICYTOWER.mobi (in Polish). Icy.pl. Archived from the original on December 16, 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  7. ↑ "I'm porting IT to the DS". Free Lunch Design Forum. December 23, 2008. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  8. ↑ "LUA Icy Tower v0.6". Downloads / LUA-Spiele (in German). PSPSource.de. February 4, 2007. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  9. ↑ "NEWS: Icy Tower climbs the charts". Free Lunch Design Forum. February 27, 2006. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Icy Tower specs and Arcade Game specifications". Download.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  11. ↑ Handsonmobile (May 30, 2008). "Icy Tower Mobile Edition". YouTube. Retrieved December 30, 2009.
  12. ↑ "Icy Tower Highscore List". Free Lunch Design. Archived from the original on May 6, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2009.
  13. ↑ Kyratzes, Jonas (August 20, 2006). "Interview with Johan Peitz". Archived from the original on January 7, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2009. Icy Tower ... features the possibility to play it in different ways, you can either aim for score by doing combo jumps, or you can aim for height by rushing towards to top all the time.
  14. ↑ "Holiday 2003 Icy Tower Contest - Win a copy of Call of Duty". Computer Action Games. About.com. 2003. Archived from the original on July 12, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  15. ↑ "2nd Annual Icy Tower Holiday Contest - 2004". Computer Action Games. About.com. 2004. Archived from the original on August 26, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  16. ↑ "ICY TOWER NATIONS CUP 2006 r." Free Lunch Design Forum. November 22, 2006. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  17. ↑ "Icy.pl board users meeting - Cracow, 15.07.06". Free Lunch Design Forum. July 14, 2006. Archived from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  18. ↑ "Icy Tower players meeting - Warsaw, 05.07.08". Free Lunch Design Forum. May 18, 2008. Archived from the original on October 21, 2008. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
  19. ↑ "Icy Tower players meeting - Warsaw, 28.08.10". Free Lunch Design Forum. August 26, 2010. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
  20. ↑ "Mods for Icy Tower 1.4". Free Lunch Design Forum. July 5, 2009. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
  21. ↑ Free Lunch Design. Icy Tower (PC) (1.4 ed.). (Readme file named "Icy Tower custom characters").


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