Free Icebound (2D puzzle platformer)

Dragon47

Member
ICEBOUND

Download: http://www.mediafire...va/Icebound.exe

This game was made in a game prototyping competition in Norway called "NM i Gameplay" which lasted for 10 days (January 2014). The theme of the competition was "temperature". I wanted to share it with the community, so I translated it to English and here it is.

In Icebound, you find yourself on a malfunctioning space station. Something has gone wrong and a leak has caused water and ice to block the exits. You have to escape the space station before it shuts down, and you do so by reaching the exits in the 4 included levels with the help of an experimental particle-beam gun from the station's research center. The controls are explained in game.

Screenshots:



 
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Hamed

Guest
I LOVE this. LOVE the laser effect and LOVE the idea. It would be great if you could provide a tutorial on how you made the laser effect.
Thank you.
 

Dragon47

Member
I LOVE this. LOVE the laser effect and LOVE the idea. It would be great if you could provide a tutorial on how you made the laser effect.
Thank you.
Thank you :) The laser effect is a 1x32 pixels sprite which is white in the center with a vertical glow. It is scaled horizontally to be as long as the distance between the gun and the wall it's hitting. Then a shader applies a sine wave around the beam. And I think the colors are from the shader as well, I don't fully remember. The way it finds the distance to the wall is by checking collisions along the line in the direction the player is pointing the gun.
 

chance

predictably random
Forum Staff
Moderator
ICEBOUND

... is a wonderful game! I seem to recall playing this game briefly before. Perhaps it was posted on the old GMC. Either way, I'm very happy to see you post it here. I just finished to first two levels and enjoyed them thoroughly. This game deserve a lot of attention. Here are my thoughts about various aspects (so far):

Gameplay
Most of all, the gameplay fascinated me. The idea of using a single weapon for both melting and freezing is very clever, and well executed here. The visual clue about which effect is present, based on color, gives players all they need. And physical layout of the station in each level gives players (seemingly) multiple ways to complete the task. Although I'm not sure if those are false clues or not. So far, I've only found one solution for level 2, for example.

I also like the fact that the challenge is about the tactical use of melting and thawing -- not just being able to time a jump properly. I'm tired of platformers where the primary challenge seems to be jump timing.

While playing this, I was reminded of those "merge the blob" games popular on the internet now. This has some similar mechanics, but it adds a new feature such as being able to use parts of the ice as a tool.

Graphics and Sound
You've done an excellent job in this area. The ice and water effects are quite convincing. And their interplay is just fun to watch. Not sure if you used the built-in physics particles (box2d) effects, or made your own. Either way, it's nicely done and with lots of attention to detail (like the refractive rippling effect underwater).

And thanks for the description above about how the laser effect is created. I'm encouraged to try something like that myself now. The mechanics, and the glow effects, are a delight to see.

And finally, the scene lighting and background sounds are perfect. They give a moody sense of place, and a great feeling of depth. So it all works together to create an atmosphere that draws me into the game. I felt a real sense of immersion I seldom get with most games.

One small quibble would be the character's animation. The walking is a bit crude, and especially noticeable when moving up and down slopes. But it doesn't detract from the game at all.

Interface and Controls
Nice job here too. Just basic stuff that works well, like offering a choice of WASD or arrow keys. The game starts without any verbose descriptions, or complex instructions. It all seems very intuitive and professional.

Overall, VERY well done. I can't really find anything I dislike about this. I'm off to play more levels now.
 

Dragon47

Member
Thank you! Glad you like it :)
I didn't use box2D, but I might've been better off using it (with its liquidfun engine) since the water can seem kinda glitchy at moments, but at least it doesn't hinder the gameplay much. Good luck on the next levels!
 
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TimothyAllen

Guest
Awsome game but it crashed on me at level 4 (I think). Its the level where the room is really tall and at the bottom in the center, there is a hole with ice in it. Well When I got to the top area and was shooting down to melt the ice i got this error:

FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object obj_player:

Unable to find any instance for object index '-4' name '<undefined>'
at gml_Object_obj_player_Step_0
Should be simple enough to fix.
 

Dragon47

Member
Awsome game but it crashed on me at level 4 (I think). Its the level where the room is really tall and at the bottom in the center, there is a hole with ice in it. Well When I got to the top area and was shooting down to melt the ice i got this error:


Should be simple enough to fix.
Thanks. I haven't experienced this bug myself. Kind of busy at the moment, but might look into it later today.
 
T

TimothyAllen

Guest
Thanks. I haven't experienced this bug myself. Kind of busy at the moment, but might look into it later today.
I decided to try it again. Same thing happend. I cant get past level 4.
 
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