Icy Tower

Infobox VG
title = Icy Tower
developer = Free Lunch Design
publisher = Free Lunch Design
distributor = Free Lunch Design
designer = Johan Peitz
music = Anders Svensson
license = Freeware
engine = Allegro library
latest release version = 1.3.1
latest release date = October 29, 2005
genre = Platform game
modes = Windows
media = download, cover CDs
requirements = 5 MB HDD, 16 MB RAM, 200 MHz CPU
input = Keyboard, gamepad, joystick

"Icy Tower" is a freeware video game created by the Swedish game designer group Free Lunch Design. In the game, the player controls a character, whose goal is to climb the tower as high as possible. The character jumps up floors, and earns points while doing so.

Gameplay

The tower consists of floors in different sizes and shapes and is of infinite height. The player’s goal is to reach higher and higher floors. The player’s character will constantly accelerate as long as he moves. The faster he runs, the higher and longer he will jump.

As the player escalates the tower, the screen will start to scroll upwards slowly, and the player will have to keep up in order to not fall off the screen. Every 30 seconds, an alarm clock will sound and the scrolling will accelerate. A clock in the upper left corner of the screen shows how much time is left until the next speed-up. The player can fall off if he fails to land on a floor or if he does not keep up with the scrolling of the tower.

Combos

{| class='wikitable' style='float: right'! Floors! Combo
-
50-69
Amazing
-
70-99
Extreme
-
100-139
Fantastic
-
140-199
Splendid
-
200+
No Way

Combo jumps can be made by jumping at least two floors, at least two times, each jump taking maximum 2 seconds. After making a combo-jump, the combo mode activates. The meter to the left of the screen will fill up, and then drain within 2 seconds. In order to stay in combo mode, the player needs to make another jump of at least two floors high.

When the meter runs out or if the player makes a non-combo jump, the combo will end and the player will be given extra score. The formula for score is: $x\; =\; n^2$, where "n" represents number of floors reached inside the combo. Using combos is useful for obtaining high scores and climbing faster in the tower.

Floors

Every 100 floors, the floor type, the way the floors look, changes. The game allows the player starting the game with any floor type, but only after he successfully lands on the floor where that particular type begins. Also, the higher the floors are placed, the more narrow they are.

Characters

Version 1.2 introduced the ability to play with custom characters. "Icy Tower" comes with two default characters: Harold the Homeboy and Disco Dave, plus a template character, which allows players to create their own characters. Though many players opt not to do this since they must erase the template and draw the character from many angles in a confusing edit file not accessible from the game menu but rather in the games file in the hard drive of their computer.There are also websites which allow players to download others custom characters.

History and community

History

"Icy Tower" was first released on December 22, 2001. Since then, three main versions have been released. Version 1.2 introduced game replays and custom characters. Version 1.3 introduced major bugfixes, and made the game more difficult, in order to prevent the players from reaching very high floors. The game is based on Xjump, an older Linux-based title. [Citation|last=Serafin|first=Lukasz|title=Intervju med Johan Peitz|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070211051538/http://www.cure.se/kultur/johan/johan.shtml] According to the creators, the game was downloaded 10 million times since its debut. [Citation|publisher=YouTube.com|title=YouTube - Icy Tower Mobile Edition|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp2Cz4GVA6I]

At March 14, 2007, creators of "Icy Tower" have announced that the game will be ported to mobile phones. [Citation|url=http://www.freelunchdesign.com/pr/PR.FLD.20070314.pdf|title=Free Lunch Design Takes Games to the Next Level|publisher=Free Lunch Design] In June 2008, the official Icy Tower Mobile site was opened. [Citation|url=http://www.icytowermobile.com/|title=Icy Tower|publisher=icytowermobile.com]

Replays

Version 1.2 introduced the ability to save replays of games. This gives the player the ability to prove their highest scores, combos and floors. This feature made it possible to create online highscore lists, which list the best Icy Tower scores, combos, and floors, and allows internet users to download replays. The official highscore list can be found at the official Icy Tower site. Replays from older versions of Icy Tower are not always compatible with newer versions. For example, replays of games made in version 1.2 can not be viewed in version 1.3.

Cheat engines

Several cheat engines have been made downloadable on the internet.The give the player a list of cheats which can be activated during gameplaysuch as slow motion, large floors, huge scores and all starting floors.

References

External links

* [http://icytower.freelunchdesign.com/ Icy Tower Website]
* [http://www.freelunchdesign.com/ Free Lunch Design Website]