Free Lunch Design presents Harold, the Homeboy in #### ### ## ## ###### ### ## ## ##### #### @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ %% %% %%%% %% %% %% %% % %% %%% %%%% :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::: ::: :: :: :: '''' ''' ''' '' ''' '' '' ''''' '' '' I C Y T O W E R v1.1 ===================================================================== GENERAL Welcome to Icy Tower! 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. You are encouraged to send any comments you might have about this game. See contact & support at the end of this document. DISTRIBUTING Icy Tower is freeware, anybody may (and should) play it. Therefore, you are encouraged to distribute this game (in it's original form) like crazy. Upload to every website and bbs you know, give a copy to all your friends, etc.. However, this game may not be included in a compilation or any other kind of commercial package without the permission from the author. See contact near the end of this document. DISCLAIMER I do 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. I 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. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Required: * pc 200 MHz * windows * directX 7.0 or later * 16 mb ram Recommended: * pc 400 MHz * windows * directX 7.0 or later * 16 mb ram * sound card * gamepad INSTALLING AND STARTING THE GAME Since you're reading this text the game is probably installed and ready to be played already. If not, loacate the installation program (icytower_install.exe) and run it. When installed you will find the necessary shortcuts in your start menu. THE PLOT One day, when Harold had nothing 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", thought Harold 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, grazing upwards. And so it started... Help Harold to make the coolest and highest jumps in history! THE TITLESCREEN The titlescreen will present you with a menu of the following format: START GAME - starts a new game INSTRUCTIONS - shows you a brief instruction screen OPTIONS - lets you customize the game EXIT - exits to your os Use the arrowkeys or gamepad to navigate the menu. The current selection will be pointed at by Harold. Use space or button 1 to select. THE OPTIONS-SCREEN The options menu gives you the following to choose from: SOUND VOL - adjust sfx output MUSIC VOL - adjust music output FULLSCREEN - toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode EYE CANDY - toggle eye candy on and off REJUMP - toggle rejump on and off Note 1: Some computers might have trouble running the game in windowed mode. Just so you know, this might not always work. Note 2: Eye Candy does not add to the game play but will make the playing experience better. If your computer is slow and the game lags you might want to test to turn this off. Note 3: 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 the other. CONTROLS Use the following keys to control Harold: Left and right arrows - run left/right Space - jump Esc - pause If you have a gamepad 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 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 escalate 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 5 minytes, 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 next speed up. Icy Tower can be played in many ways, although you might not get very much score in some of them. :) The allover goal of the game is to get a high score and nice place in the high score list. You will get 50 points for each floor you reach. This alone will not gain 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. Ie run with Harold until you have speed enough, jump and land two floors above to where you started. When in combo mode the meter to the left of the screen will fill up and it will drain within a 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. The latter ones are really hard to get and will require some intensive practice. The tower is of infinite height 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! HIGHSCORES Icy Tower 1.1 features the possibility to upload your highscores to the Free Lunch Design website. A file "scores.txt" will be updated everytime you exit Icy Tower. Locate the Icy Tower page on Free Lunch Design and look at the online highscore list for further instructions. TROUBLESHOOTING / FAQ Q: The gamepad/joystick acts strange. Pulls in wrong directions aso. What is wrong? A: During setup your gamepad/joystick will be initialised and calibrated. Don't touch it! Let it be still while the game is in setup-mode. Q: The game runs slow and choppy! How can I speed it up? A: Try turning of the Eye Candy and make sure you run in 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. CREDITS Icy Tower is a game from Free Lunch Design. Code, gfx: Johan Peitz Musix, sfx: Anders Svensson CONTACT & SUPPORT Free Lunch Design is an independent game developer from Sweden. Our aim is to create small, high quality games, where gameplay is in focus. 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. I do however get a lot of mail, so if you have a question please check the online faqs and forums first. E-Mail: johan@freelunchdesign.com If you want to support Free Lunch Design in monetary ways, please enter our website (see above) and click our sponsors a few times. :) - The End-