Home » Icy Tower » Icy Tower – Windows Readme – Version 1.5.1 – English
Icy Tower – Windows Readme – Version 1.5.1 – English
Details
Type
Readme
Platform
Windows
Language
English
Size
15.01 KB
Filename
icy-tower_1.5.1_win_readme_en_f0h.txt
Free Lunch Design
presents
Harold the Homeboy
in
#### ### ## ## ###### ### ## ## ##### #### (R)
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@
%% %% %%%% %% %% %% %% % %% %%% %%%%
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::: ::: :: :: ::
'''' ''' ''' '' ''' '' '' ''''' '' ''
I C Y T O W E R
v1.5.1
=====================================================================
GENERAL
Welcome to Icy Tower(R)! This game is completely free. You may play
it as much as you like without paying a single buck. In exchange
for playing it, you are instead asked for a small favour. Please
let all your friends know about the game. We're sure they will
love it. Also, feel free to send us any comments you might have
about this game. See contact & support at the end of this document.
DISTRIBUTION
Icy Tower is freeware, anybody may (and should) play it. Therefore,
you are encouraged to distribute this game (in its original form)
like crazy. Upload it to every web site and BBS you know, give a copy to
all your friends, etc. There are however a few requirements:
* Give proper credit to Free Lunch Design
* Provide a link back to our site www.freelunchdesign.com
* You are not allowed to repackage the game. The installation file
as it can be found on www.freelunchdesign.com must be kept intact.
* The game may only be downloaded in it's original form. It may not be
served to users via download managers, wrapped with toolbars, or
anything similar.
Also, this game may not be included in a compilation or any other
kind of commercial package without permission from the authors.
This includes cover disks, game compilations and everything else that
involves money. See contact near the end of this document.
DISCLAIMER
Free Lunch Design does not accept responsibility for any effects,
adverse or otherwise, that this software may have on you, your
computer, your sanity, your dog, or anything else that you can think
of. Use it at your own risk. We have, however, never experienced any
trouble with it.
DESCRIPTION
Icy Tower is small and short but surprisingly addictive game. Control
Harold the Homeboy as he climbs his tower of infinite height whilst
doing cool jumps and moves in order to get a high score and awe from
his friends in the hood.
INSTALLING AND STARTING THE GAME
Since you're reading this text the game is probably installed and ready
to be played already. If not, locate the installation program
(icytower_install.exe) and run it. When installed you will find the
necessary shortcuts in the start menu.
THE STORY
One day, when Harold had nothing in particular to do, he found a huge
tower. The tower was icy cold, incredibly high and totally deserted.
"Ey, dis seems like a cool place to hang out in", Harold thought and
entered.
The tower was indeed empty, but small platforms here and there made it
possible for anyone brave enough to ascend to its higher levels.
"Ey, I bet a homie like me can do some mighty cool jumps and moves in
here", thought Harold, gazing upwards.
And so it started... Help Harold to make the coolest and highest jumps
in history!
THE TITLE SCREEN
The title screen will present you with a menu of the following format:
PLAY GAME - Starts a new game. You can either play a classic game,
or you can make it easier or harder by customizing the
tower and then starting a custom game
INSTRUCTIONS - Shows you a brief instruction screen
PROFILE - View your profile or start a new one
HIGH SCORES - View all the high scores made in the game
LOAD REPLAY - Loads and plays saved replays
OPTIONS - Lets you change sound and graphics settings
EXIT - Exits to your OS
Use the arrow keys or game pad to navigate the menu. The current selection
will be pointed at by Harold's hand. Use space or button 1 to select.
PROFILES
Icy Tower will track your performance over time in a profile. As you play
and get better, you will also rise in rank. All the details and the data
collected in your profile can be viewed in the profile menu.
If many players are sharing the same installation, multiple profiles are
a great way of separating each others' achievements.
THE OPTIONS MENU
The options menu is divided into four smaller menus. They are all
described here:
GFX OPTIONS
The graphical options control the visuals of the game. Here you
can alter settings that control the character and floors.
To add custom characters, see that section below. New start floors
must be unlocked by jumping higher and higher in the tower.
CHARACTER - Select what character to play with
START FLOOR - Select what floor type to start on
EYE CANDY - Increase or decrease amount of graphical objects
FULLSCREEN - Toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode
SOUND OPTIONS
Here you can change the audio output.
SOUND VOL - Adjust sfx output
MUSIC VOL - Adjust music output
CONTROLS
In the control menu you can customize the keys used for the game.
LEFT - Select key for left
RIGHT - Select key for right
JUMP - Select key for jump
REJUMP - Toggle rejump on and off (see Note 2 below)
Note 1: Eye Candy does not add to the game play but will improve the
playing experience. If your computer is slow and the
game lags you can try to turn this off to improve performance.
Note 2: Rejump. If this is on, you can hold spacebar and Harold will
jump constantly. If off you'll have to repress space to make
a new jump. Some like it one way, some like it the other.
GENERAL CONTROLS
Move about in the menus using the arrow keys and enter. When playing,
these are the default keys for controlling Harold:
Left and right arrows - Run left/right
Space - Jump
P - Pause
You can quit the game back to the menu by pressing P and then ESC.
If you have a game pad connected, use the direction pad to move Harold
and button 1 to jump.
PLAYING
The first thing you need to know is that Harold will constantly
accelerate as long as you move him. The second thing is that the faster
Harold runs, the higher and longer will he jump. The third thing is
that you can bump into walls, turn around and maintain most of your
speed. This is a useful technique if you want to do cool jumps.
As you ascend the tower it will start to scroll slowly and you will
have to keep up in order to not fall of the screen. This is not so
hard in the beginning since the scrolling is very slow. But every 30
seconds, an alarm clock will sound and the scrolling will go slightly
faster. The clock in the upper left corner of the screen shows you how
much time you have left until the next speedup.
Icy Tower can be played in many ways, although you might not get a
very high score in some of them. :) The main goal of the game is to get
a high score and a nice place in the high score list.
You will get 10 points for each floor you reach. This alone will not
give you any great scores, however. To be really victorious, you need
to learn the secrets of combo jumps.
To start the combo mode, you will have to make a jump at least two
floors high; i.e., run with Harold until you have enough speed, jump, and
land two floors above where you started.
When in combo mode the meter to the left of the screen will fill up but
will drain within one second. In order to stay in combo mode you need
to make another jump of at least two floors. If you manage to do that
before the meter is empty, the meter will be refilled and you can
continue doing combo jumps.
When the meter runs out or if you make a non-combo jump, you have
finished your combo and you will be given score depending on how many
floors in total you managed to climb during your combo.
The rewards you can be given are: GOOD, SWEET, GREAT, WOW, AMAZING and
EXTREME, and a few more. The latter ones are really hard to get and will
require a lot of practice.
The tower is infinitely high and Harold will never reach the top.
It's up to you to make sure that his stay in the tower generates a lot
of score so that he doesn't need to feel ashamed in front of his
friends. Good luck!
REPLAYS
Icy Tower features the possibility save your jump sessions and
view them at a later time. You can also send the replays to your friends
and brag about how skilled you are. Every time you finish a jump session,
a menu will appear where you can either watch it all again, save it or
continue to the main menu.
If you choose to save the replay, you need to enter your name (so that
you can take credit) and a filename. You can also enter a comment to
remember this special occasion. How far you got, your score etc.
will be recorded automatically. The replays will be saved in your profile's
replays/ directory where you installed Icy Tower. If you want to send
your replay to a friend, this is the place to look for it.
To view a replay at a later stage, either open it via the LOAD REPLAY
option in the main menu, or simply drag and drop the file on the Icy
Tower icon.
CUSTOM CHARACTERS
In Icy Tower you can make your own characters, complete with their
own sound effects and background music. It's not altogether easy, but
if you set your mind to it, you will succeed. For information on how
to make your own characters or add someone else's, read the information
available in the characters/ directory.
TROUBLESHOOTING / FAQ
Before trying anything out, make sure you have the latest drivers for
DirectX and for your graphics and sound cards!
Q: The gamepad/joystick acts strange. It seems to pull in the wrong
direction and so on. What is wrong?
A: During setup your gamepad/joystick will be initialized and calibrated.
Don't touch it! Let it be still while the game is in setup-mode.
Q: The game starts and the menu shows but I cannot choose anything!
A: Disconnect any joysticks and gamepads.
Q: The game runs slow and choppy! How can I speed it up?
A: Try turning off the Eye Candy and try turning on or off fullscreen.
Q: I never manage to get any cool combo jumps! What am I doing wrong?
A: Try harder. :) Make sure you use the walls to bump on and take
it slow, you have more time to concentrate than what it feels like.
SPECIAL THANKS
A game won't get made all by itself. There's always people and stuff
around who inspires the final product. In the case of Icy Tower 1.5
we'd like to thank everybody who ever played the game. Without you
guys we wouldn't have the inspiration to go on.
A truck load of thanks goes out to the forum members at the Free
Lunch Design forum for helping out, testing and finding bugs
everytime there is a new release. Without you there would be no new
version.
Also, all of you who play the game and compete with your friends,
spreading the game all over the world. Thank you too!
TECHNICAL MUMBO JUMBO
Icy Tower is written in c using the game library Allegro. For
sound effect playback, LOGG was used. For PNG handling, the
libpng and zlib libraries were used. The threading library
pthreads was also used.
Allegro & Logg: http://alleg.sf.net
zlib: http://www.zlib.net
libpng: http://libpng.sourceforge.net/index.html
AUTHORS & CONTACT
Free Lunch Design is a gaming brand from Sweden. Our aim is to
create small, high quality games, where game play is in focus.
Icy Tower was designed by Johan Peitz who also wrote the code for
the game. The delicious pixel graphics were made by Emanuel Garnheim.
Sound effects and music created by SomaTone Interactive Audio.
Visit us on the web: http://www.freelunchdesign.com
If you have comments, bug reports, or just want to ask something
you can contact Free Lunch Design by e-mail. We do however get a
lot of mail and it might take a while before we answer, so if you
have a question please check the online FAQs and forums first.
E-Mail: info (at) freelunchdesign (dot) com
FINAL WORDS
Icy Tower became a game much bigger than we ever could have imagined.
It is played and enjoyed by millions of gamers, of all ages, all over
the world. It's nice to see that all the players of Icy Tower out there,
are having as much fun as we had when we created the game.
In closing, here's a poem by John Boney:
"Harold
As I sat there, trying to complete my work, he was calling me.
When I was in the hall gathering books, I heard his voice. My
heart pumps more blood through my restless body, and he is still
there, constantly beckoning me. I have said to him that he cannot
control my life, but his power overrules my futile pleas. I am
a dog on a leash, the cruel master constantly jerking me back to
him. When we first met, he only spoke in unintelligible ramblings.
"Whoop-a-doobadoo!" he would say. My friend why do you speak so?
I see you for hours everyday, yet I cannot understand you.
"Whoop-a-doobadoo! Whoop-a-doobadoo!" The more I listen, the more
I hear. "Come," he now says, "I want to be with you." I try to
sleep, but he jerks me back from my rest on this cold floor. If
only I could remove this painful collar, which engrafts itself
around my neck and controls my head. Oh, how it itches. I am
powerless before the master. His eyes are covered to shield him
from the pain he is causing. He is unaware that he is abusing me
every moment he lives. "Join me. You are safe in here." Ouch, why
must you jerk me so? Your kazoo is harmonious, but it plays a
tune of death. Are you trying to torture me? If only you knew the
strife you inflict, you could change your ways. You wear a
toboggan, for it is cold within these walls. But I have no
protection, except this collar, which I fear may never come off."
- The End-