Super chilly and super tough 2D flash biking game
September 22, 2009 3:15 PM Subscribe
Icycle is a flash game about a naked man, a bicycle, and the end of the world.
Also death, lots and lots of death. Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Also death, lots and lots of death. Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
It's really pretty, but the low contrast & changing scales are somewhat needlessly frustrating.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:30 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 3:30 PM on September 22, 2009
The intro is great, the art is great. It'd be a decent Sonic clone if the screen scrolled.
posted by Elmore at 3:30 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by Elmore at 3:30 PM on September 22, 2009
It doesn't save your progress, by the way, so after I finally got past level 4 with the sequential toxic puffs of air, the "yay you passed level 4" thing stuck around, blocking most of the screen, & I reloaded the page to get rid of it:
Back to level 1.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:43 PM on September 22, 2009
Back to level 1.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:43 PM on September 22, 2009
Had fun with it up until level 6.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 3:45 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 3:45 PM on September 22, 2009
Brilliant. I love the cute graphics. Beating level 6 is TOUGH, though!
posted by misha at 4:00 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by misha at 4:00 PM on September 22, 2009
Needlessly hard due to input lag. Perhaps that's just poor flash performance on my machine right now, though.
I noticed that someone has filled in the top 3 leaderboard slots with a perfect score and no deaths. Way to go, michaelg!
posted by keep_evolving at 4:09 PM on September 22, 2009
I noticed that someone has filled in the top 3 leaderboard slots with a perfect score and no deaths. Way to go, michaelg!
posted by keep_evolving at 4:09 PM on September 22, 2009
Terrific. Thanks!
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:19 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:19 PM on September 22, 2009
It happened again, after level 7. Maybe it's because I held down a key as finishing a level?
posted by Pronoiac at 4:27 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 4:27 PM on September 22, 2009
It happened again
I haven't had this prolem, but that sucks man. You might want to tell the developers about it.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:34 PM on September 22, 2009
I haven't had this prolem, but that sucks man. You might want to tell the developers about it.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:34 PM on September 22, 2009
a naked man, a bicycle, and the end of the world
I know people for whome that would be a pretty definitive Friday night, as long as you added alcohol.
posted by Grangousier at 4:40 PM on September 22, 2009
I know people for whome that would be a pretty definitive Friday night, as long as you added alcohol.
posted by Grangousier at 4:40 PM on September 22, 2009
Terrific game. Loved it. Only got 216 bubbles and ranked 275th but still thought it was the best flash game I've ever played.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 5:00 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 5:00 PM on September 22, 2009
very pretty and clever game
posted by leotrotsky at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by leotrotsky at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2009
Goooooorgeous. Has anyone played through multiple times? Do you continue to obtain items to keep yourself warm?
posted by pokermonk at 5:23 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by pokermonk at 5:23 PM on September 22, 2009
Apparently the MeFi Effect is in force -- the entire site's now 403.
posted by chuq at 5:24 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by chuq at 5:24 PM on September 22, 2009
"Forbidden. You don't have permission to access /icycle on this server."
Anybody have an alternate URL for this?
posted by ardgedee at 5:25 PM on September 22, 2009
Anybody have an alternate URL for this?
posted by ardgedee at 5:25 PM on September 22, 2009
Couldn't find a mirror, but the game looks great (yt).
posted by quoquo at 5:27 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by quoquo at 5:27 PM on September 22, 2009
Sorry, didn't click the second link before posting the slyt.
posted by quoquo at 5:29 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by quoquo at 5:29 PM on September 22, 2009
It's kind of interesting in the day of reddits, diggs, metafilters, et al that people still publish stuff on the web that they clearly hope to be seen but have inadequate hosting and/or bandwidth.
posted by maxwelton at 5:46 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by maxwelton at 5:46 PM on September 22, 2009
It's kind of interesting in the day of reddits, diggs, metafilters, et al that people still publish stuff on the web that they clearly hope to be seen but have inadequate hosting and/or bandwidth.
Speaking as someone who has been Farked/Boingboing'd a few times, I think I can say with some accuracy that even people relatively comfortable with the interwoobs and its various quirks can very easily not understand exactly how much bandwidth they have, or how traffic spikes can crash your service even if you've paid for tons of bandwidth but not for dedicated processor power on the server.
The fact that any service that can easily survive a Farking or similar costs a fair chunk of change doesn't help either.
posted by mightygodking at 7:32 PM on September 22, 2009 [3 favorites]
Speaking as someone who has been Farked/Boingboing'd a few times, I think I can say with some accuracy that even people relatively comfortable with the interwoobs and its various quirks can very easily not understand exactly how much bandwidth they have, or how traffic spikes can crash your service even if you've paid for tons of bandwidth but not for dedicated processor power on the server.
The fact that any service that can easily survive a Farking or similar costs a fair chunk of change doesn't help either.
posted by mightygodking at 7:32 PM on September 22, 2009 [3 favorites]
The fact that any service that can easily survive a Farking or similar costs a fair chunk of change doesn't help either.
Well, speaking as someone who's been Boingboinged, MeFi'd and Slashdotted on different occasions, the real problem is that even if you have a dedicated server, it's difficult to scale your webapp to meet demand when 99% of the time you only need a ten-thousandth the CPU time and bandwidth. Someone needs to offer some kind of Slashdotting insurance where you can round-robin requests to a cloud service on demand with minimal effort.
posted by signalnine at 8:58 PM on September 22, 2009 [1 favorite]
Well, speaking as someone who's been Boingboinged, MeFi'd and Slashdotted on different occasions, the real problem is that even if you have a dedicated server, it's difficult to scale your webapp to meet demand when 99% of the time you only need a ten-thousandth the CPU time and bandwidth. Someone needs to offer some kind of Slashdotting insurance where you can round-robin requests to a cloud service on demand with minimal effort.
posted by signalnine at 8:58 PM on September 22, 2009 [1 favorite]
BTW- The Slashdot effect trumps all, even the time I was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal website.
posted by signalnine at 8:59 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by signalnine at 8:59 PM on September 22, 2009
I hope this means that the game gets picked up on a site like Kongragte for a fair chunk of change. They deserve money!!
posted by The Devil Tesla at 9:50 PM on September 22, 2009
posted by The Devil Tesla at 9:50 PM on September 22, 2009
This game was the sole reason I got no work done yesterday. Got to the infamous level 6 and saw there was two more levels left.....surely it would that that long to finish it.
Most fun I've had with flash in a long time. All elements of it worked together to keep me addicted and happy. HUZZAH!
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 10:46 PM on September 22, 2009
Most fun I've had with flash in a long time. All elements of it worked together to keep me addicted and happy. HUZZAH!
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 10:46 PM on September 22, 2009
Hm. Mightygodking, I think you use Wordpress, which I understand could use some more caching to ease up on CPU demands?
The Devil Tesla, how recently was that Slashdotting? I thought they'd lost ground to Reddit & Digg & Hacker News & huh, it looks like 2009 has been good to them.
Oh, & hello cache! The sound follows the bike if you have headphones on.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:33 AM on September 23, 2009
The Devil Tesla, how recently was that Slashdotting? I thought they'd lost ground to Reddit & Digg & Hacker News & huh, it looks like 2009 has been good to them.
Oh, & hello cache! The sound follows the bike if you have headphones on.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:33 AM on September 23, 2009
Grrr, broken last night when I saw this post at home with free time, working now that I'm at work. Why do you have me, Metafilter?
posted by Reverend John at 6:22 AM on September 23, 2009
posted by Reverend John at 6:22 AM on September 23, 2009
errr, hate... do you hate me for my typos?
posted by Reverend John at 6:22 AM on September 23, 2009
posted by Reverend John at 6:22 AM on September 23, 2009
Loved the game. Completed it! 74th place! I really loved a few of the surprises, like the end of level 7 (the ice closing in). Great sound design too.
posted by JBennett at 8:03 AM on September 23, 2009
posted by JBennett at 8:03 AM on September 23, 2009
The Devil Tesla, how recently was that Slashdotting?
No idea, I don't read /.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 10:44 AM on September 23, 2009
No idea, I don't read /.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 10:44 AM on September 23, 2009
This games ranks up there with I Wanna Be the Guy and Cave Story in terms of pure addictiveness. The only problem with it is it's too much fun to kill the protagonist.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:07 PM on September 23, 2009
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:07 PM on September 23, 2009
255 goddamn bubbles! 255! It is so hard to get the last few!
posted by lholladay at 2:54 PM on September 23, 2009
posted by lholladay at 2:54 PM on September 23, 2009
The author fixed the problem I was having, & she moved to a new host so it's actually available.
Would anyone be interested in watching a speedrun?
Also, MGK: Amazon S3.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:04 PM on September 25, 2009
Would anyone be interested in watching a speedrun?
Also, MGK: Amazon S3.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:04 PM on September 25, 2009
Would anyone be interested in watching a speedrun?
YES
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:53 PM on September 25, 2009
YES
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:53 PM on September 25, 2009
I too would like a speedrun, I enjoy watching things I am bad at done well.
posted by tehloki at 4:56 PM on September 26, 2009
posted by tehloki at 4:56 PM on September 26, 2009
I'm thinking "tool-assisted," by the way. I'm not terrible - I've beaten it - but I'm definitely not great, either.
Now, I just have to find a decent macro recorder.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:09 PM on September 26, 2009
Now, I just have to find a decent macro recorder.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:09 PM on September 26, 2009
That collapsing building in the last level was a thing of beauty. Thanks for this.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:27 PM on September 27, 2009
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:27 PM on September 27, 2009
So I think I've got it. It's somewhere in between a speedrun & a walkthrough. I didn't record macros, so it's a bit sloppy sometimes. I just recorded video until I finished, & I'll just edit out the deaths. The dozens of deaths.
But of course I missed one on level 6 the time I finished - I'll see if I got it on another run. And audio got out of sync. And I'm not sure whether I should include the ending.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:08 PM on September 28, 2009
But of course I missed one on level 6 the time I finished - I'll see if I got it on another run. And audio got out of sync. And I'm not sure whether I should include the ending.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:08 PM on September 28, 2009
Video of the first six levels - the other two will have to wait until after the meetup.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:32 PM on September 29, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 5:32 PM on September 29, 2009
Here's level 7. Fixing the sync on the last level's being difficult.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:29 PM on September 30, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 9:29 PM on September 30, 2009
The author just contacted me to say, whoa, I saw the video, & something is horribly wrong. So, I'll try this again on another system.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:50 PM on October 1, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 1:50 PM on October 1, 2009
I managed to do a decent speedrun. This video is much much faster, though at lower resolution.
Screencasting software is kind of demanding, & doesn't work well with a game that's so CPU-demanding/sensitive.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:02 PM on October 4, 2009
Screencasting software is kind of demanding, & doesn't work well with a game that's so CPU-demanding/sensitive.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:02 PM on October 4, 2009
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posted by Elmore at 3:28 PM on September 22, 2009