Icy Dungeon
Back before I knew it meant we didn’t have much money while I was growing up, I used to love getting those 10-packs of shareware CD’s from the discount store. They’d have shelf after shelf of these things, in their paperboard display boxes with the clear front, each CD displayed slightly diagonally to maximize display space and represent the good deal you were about to get. Sometimes you’d find one with the entire first episode of DOOM, or one with a collection of DOS action games like Jane of the Jungle, Electroman, and God of Thunder (my favorite shareware game that I’ve never seen anyone mention, ever). They were like $3 for a whole box. My parents probably still have the discs in a drawer somewhere.
Anyway, that’s what Icy Dungeon reminds me of, in the best way.
It’s just one of these pure, relaxing puzzle games that reminds me of games I loved to play while growing up. It’s not quite a Sokoban-like or a Chip’s Challenge type of game, and yet it kind of is. Icy Dungeon is a single-screen puzzle game where you’re doomed to leave an icy trail behind you with every step. Walk back over that square of ice you left behind you, and you’ll slide until you hit a wall or a dry spot on the floor. Each stage tests your brain to walk across the iced and non-iced squares in a certain pattern to acquire keys/swords/etc. to get to the exit door. There’s a quick restart for when you trap yourself in the corner, which is handy because it’s easy to do and the only way to “lose” a particular map (you can’t melt the ice). Each puzzle is just hard enough to make you feel smart, but – at least in the first 15 levels presented in the free demo – aren’t hair-pulling-out hard.
I am very excited for when this game comes out… soon? There’s no confirmed release date yet. The free demo just launched and gives a solid taste of what to expect. Oh, and the music is great, too, even on the little Playdate speaker. Can only imagine how it’ll sound on the Stereo Dock, whenever that comes out.
Final game has 50 levels and Itch.io says it’ll only be $2.99 - day one purchase for me!
(Get the free demo on Itch.io.)
UPDATE: On May 7, 2024, the full game was released on Catalog and Itch. It’s $3 on Catalog and only $2.99 on Itch, and I believe the developer gets a slightly bigger revenue share on Itch, but the Catalog money helps keep the Playdate afloat, so I dunno. Buy it on both for less than the price of a Starbucks drink.
Did I beat it already? All fifty levels? I sure did, oops. Took like an hour or two, start to finish. I was clearly very excited for the full game release, and the demo was very representative of the final game. Also I might be too smart to be allowed? Between this and The Fall of Elena Temple, I’m having a puzzle game renaissance with my Playdate. There are so many great little things that remind me of the best Game Boy games I used to play when I was growing up. Let’s get Zoop on this thing (along with that amazing jazz soundtrack) and I’ll be a happy guy.
Anyway! The later levels get harder, but never pull-out-your-hair difficult. And I think it’s due to the limitations of the Playdate screen size when compared to the large-ish sprites in the game. There are only so many places to move around each single-screen level, and only so many ways to interact with the enemies (there are new obstacles and enemies introduced throughout the game, and each added wrinkle builds on the others in a very satisfying way).
The levels after the demo have more “item order” tricks to figure out. Like, okay, I need to get the key first, then the torch, then the sword, and get that skeleton first, then that door, then etc., etc. I loved trying to puzzle the level out before I took my first step. Sometimes I could brain the whole thing out, and sometimes I got about halfway before deciding… maybe I’ll just go for it and see how it works out for me. Worked out some of the time! Luckily for the times it didn’t, there’s a very easy way to restart the level. Just hold B and give it another go.
Loved Icy Dungeon. Want more levels! Or at least more games from Dylan Dougherty. Got a good mind for this stuff, and the Playdate is the perfect place for it.