Final Update

Cpt. Grumpy Spice reporting, Star Date; uhm... 24012014

It's been a while since we decided to talk to you so just before the game will be released, here's the final update;

When we decided we wanted to remake the NES cult-classic Ice Climber, we had a large amount of wild ideas to revamp the game and make it an entirely new experience. With the idea-bucket filled to the brim, we set out to create the best. game. ever.

Needless to say, we failed. Miserably

Instead we were able to make a barely functional vertical platformer that sort of looks nice. I’m not kidding, It actually looks presentable now. Other than that, quite a handful of gameplay ideas featured in the original design document had been scrapped once we realized we were far behind schedule. People who saw us during the mid-term presentation might be able to tell you more for I wish not to go into any further details.

But enough negativity! Let’s focus on what we did actually achieve in the course of this past month;
-Actually playable vertical platformer
-Two-player versus?co-op?Idunno at least you can play it with a friend
-Level-generation all procedural-like
-AI. It’s better now
-Shiny sprites & animation

These features are what makes our game special makes this an actually not-painful experience. And before my crewmembers informs you on the technical boring stuff, let us tell you a bit about all these features

Actually playable vertical platformer;
For those of you who were with us during our first presentation; we actually got somewhere!
Yes, our game is now actually a creating that we don’t have to be ashamed of presenting and don’t have to feel responsible for the emotional damage it may cause.

Two-player mode;
Our hero, mentioned in earlier blogs and in the presentation, now has a friend!
Meet Dan. Dan D Dansson;



Indeed, Bob no longer stands alone in his quest to climb the mountain of immeasurable size, as his lover Dan joins the fray. Don’t be weird about it.

Level-generation all procedural-like;
Our main goal in the remake of Ice Climber was to create a mountain that constantly grew as Bob (and now Dan) ascended. Yes we actually made that work! With numerable potential “layers” as building blocks for our mountain and with probable variety within these layers, the number of possibilities is endless… or at least something that approaches it.

AI. It’s better now;
The game does feature some AI and we’ve made it better; Now your task is to help Bob & Dan to climb the mountain without dying of horrible wound inflicted by the mountain’s hostile wildlife.
Shiny sprites & animation;
Considering how one of our very first posts on this blog was an update on how we made the player-character, we had a feeling we couldn’t neglect the graphical fidelity of the game as much as some of our artists would have liked. With a colourful throw-back to retro-gaming in the foreground combined with the amateuristic menu & background, we feel we have created an unique aesthetic which seamlessly combines 32-bit graphics with the lack of professional skills as shown in the midterm presentation.

And now some technical details I guess;


 Lt. Shiny Spice reporting, Star Date; same as before.

Being able to infinitely jump upward while continuously generating the level was quite a bit of work. The way our level works is by using a two-dimensional array which stores (the starting positions of) all tiles and enemies. When the game starts, instantly this array is filled with randomly generated tiles and enemies, except for the start of course. When the camera reaches a high enough position, an additional row has to be added at the top of the array so the level doesn’t run out when you reach the top. Unfortunately, the size of the array cannot be changed. Therefore, the first thing that has to be done is moving everything in the level down one row, and then adding an additional row on top.
As for the random generation, it isn’t completely random of course: in that case a lot of the time the level would be impossible to complete. As such, we have a lot of individual layers where for each layer added on top, it is randomly selected from one of those. To add some additional variety, those layers aren’t the same every time that layer is selected. Micro random generation means some tiles will only have a certain chance of appearing, and the same goes for the enemies. All this makes for a good random generation and infinite mountain, and for a nice playing experience.


So to summarize; We wanted to make something cool, but something f***ed up and we had to catch up and now we have something cool! Hooray for self-congratulatory blog-posts!