Icy Tower

Platform video game

This article is about a computer game. For a tabletop game, see IceTowers. For a skyscraper, see Ice Tower.

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2001 video game

Icy Tower

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.

## Gameplay

[edit]

A screenshot of Icy Tower 1.4

The player starts the game on the tower's first floor. To climb the tower, the player must jump from floor to floor (default control: space bar). 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

[edit]

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.

* Floors 0–99: Stone
* Floors 100–199: Ice
* Floors 200–299: Wood
* Floors 300–399: Metal
* Floors 400–499: Chewing gum
* Floors 500–599: Bone
* Floors 600–699: Vines
* Floors 700–799: Pipe
* Floors 800–899: Cloud
* Floors 900–999: Rainbow
* Floors 1,000 and above: glass

### High scores

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

2008 video game

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

2009 video game

Icy Tower Facebook

Developer(s)| Free Lunch Design (Muskedunder Interactive[nb 5])
Designer(s)| Johan Peitz[nb 3]
Platform(s)| Adobe Flash, Facebook Platform
Release|

* EU: 2009-09-24

[4][nb 4]
Genre(s)| action game, platform game
Mode(s)| singe-player

2010 video game

Icy Tower iPhone

Designer(s)| Johan Peitz[nb 3]
Release|

* EU: 2010-11-12

Genre(s)| action game, platform game
Mode(s)| singe-player

2013 video game

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

Video game

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

Video game

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 14 March 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 6 October 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 24 September 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 4] 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 23 November, the number of 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

[edit]

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

### Add-ons

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ As the person responsible for the renewal of the game graphics in Icy Tower 1.4.
2. ^ a b The game is also known as Icy Tower ME (ITME).
3. ^ a b c d e f As the designer and artist of Icy Tower in the version for personal computers.
4. ^ a b The version of Icy Tower Facebook released on September 24, 2009 was a beta release. As of 2009[update], no final version of ITFB has been released.
5. ^ A Swedish game developer that owned Free Lunch Design as of March 2008[update]. "What's new". Muskedunder Interactive. Retrieved 30 December 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."
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.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e Free Lunch Design. Icy Tower (PC) (1.4 ed.). (Readme file named "Icy Tower v1.4").
2. ^ a b "Highscores". Icy Tower Community. Free Lunch Design. Archived from the original on 3 July 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
3. ^ Serafin, Lukasz (28 September 2005). "Intervju med Johan Peitz" [Interview with Johan Peitz] (in Swedish). cure.se. Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 30 December 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. ^ a b "Links on "Icy Tower"". Facebook. 24 September 2009. Retrieved 4 October 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. 14 March 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 March 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
6. ^ Maliszewski, Piotr (29 July 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 16 December 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
7. ^ "I'm porting IT to the DS". Free Lunch Design Forum. 23 December 2008. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
8. ^ "LUA Icy Tower v0.6". Downloads / LUA-Spiele (in German). PSPSource.de. 4 February 2007. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
9. ^ "NEWS: Icy Tower climbs the charts". Free Lunch Design Forum. 27 February 2006. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
10. ^ "Icy Tower specs and Arcade Game specifications". Download.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
11. ^ Handsonmobile (30 May 2008). "Icy Tower Mobile Edition". YouTube. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
12. ^ "Links". Icy Tower Community. Free Lunch Design. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
13. ^ "Icy Tower Highscore List". Free Lunch Design. Archived from the original on 6 May 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
14. ^ Kyratzes, Jonas (20 August 2006). "Interview with Johan Peitz". Archived from the original on 7 January 2007. Retrieved 30 December 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."
15. ^ "Holiday 2003 Icy Tower Contest - Win a copy of Call of Duty". Computer Action Games. About.com. 2003. Archived from the original on 12 July 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
16. ^ "2nd Annual Icy Tower Holiday Contest - 2004". Computer Action Games. About.com. 2004. Archived from the original on 26 August 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
17. ^ "ICY TOWER NATIONS CUP 2006 r." Free Lunch Design Forum. 22 November 2006. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
18. ^ "Icy.pl board users meeting - Cracow, 15.07.06". Free Lunch Design Forum. 14 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
19. ^ "Icy Tower players meeting - Warsaw, 05.07.08". Free Lunch Design Forum. 18 May 2008. Archived from the original on 21 October 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
20. ^ "Icy Tower players meeting - Warsaw, 28.08.10". Free Lunch Design Forum. 26 August 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
21. ^ "Mods for Icy Tower 1.4". Free Lunch Design Forum. 5 July 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
22. ^ Free Lunch Design. Icy Tower (PC) (1.4 ed.). (Readme file named "Icy Tower custom characters").