This game is about travelling back and forth across a randomly generated ice cavern, trying to retrieve as many fish as possible before the ice inevitably crumbles beneath you. What a hero!

If you step on a block of ice, it will crumble the moment you jump off. You'll have to plan your route carefully to ensure you don't get yourself stuck.

In this way, you will continuously traverse the same level, but your previous round will affect the next.

Play with either Keyboard or Controller!

For those of you wanting a little challenge, my record is 7 Fish, see if you can beat it ;)

"Wind Sound" by Mark DiAngelo is licensed under CC BY 3.0

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  • Kwis
    Lv. 67
    • When you force fullscreen, please leave a way to naturally end the game other than alt+f4 (escape, or escape via menu), or allow us to remove fullscreen with the default command
    • When restarting, it feels awkward to get thrown back to the menu. With a game like this (precision platformer/die and retry), the player usually wants to give it another try as soon as he dies
    • I like that the ice only breaks when you jump. That way you can kinda think on it.
    • Why is the joystick (as opposed to d-pad) not active with the controller? Works fine with the d-pad but I like to play with the stick if I want to
    • The game didn't need to break blocks as you end on the other side. You're gonna break a lot of them anyway, which will naturally make the game harder. In fact, I even think you should have done the opposite to get us to have longer runs: create blocks instead of breaking them
    • Jumps need coyote frames, frames where you have a few pixel spares to jump after quitting a platform
    • Ambient is cool with the wind and all but watch out, as we're not supposed to use already made assets in this jam. We can use sound generators like bfxr, but taking direct sound effects is normally against the rule (regardless of free use), unless it's from the yoyogames marketplace
    • The game felt kinda nice though, I like that the difficulty is influenced by how the player does
    Night Fuss
    Submitted

    Night Fuss

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for the feedback :). A lot of the small unpolished aspects arose due to the time constraints of a Game Jam, but they are good things to note nonetheless. I guess I need to get out of the habit of just using Alt-F4 for every application.

      I do also feel that there is too much ice breaking, too quickly. I have updated the game in a new build just for me, which does change a lot of those things. Ice breaks only once per cycle, not twice, you don't break 2 ice blocks by standing on both of them, Joystick for movement, those sort of things.

      That is an interesting idea that you mentioned, having a few blocks extra placed every time instead of them breaking. I might have to experiment with that. It could make a theoretically infinite maximum score.

      Thank you again for the detailed feedback!

  • WangleLine 🌸
    Patron

    The atmosphere is gorgeous. The art, the wind sounds, Mmmm!

    I wish you would have added support for WASD movement, as arrow keys + space feels weird for people like me, who are only used to WASD.

    Anyway, great submission!

    Night Fuss
    Submitted

    Night Fuss

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thank you, I'm glad you like the atmosphere.

      It seems the main criticism for the game is the controls, so I'll definitely look into adding more options next Gamejam :)

  • havik
    Patron

    That was a cool game! ( Get it, cool... ice?? ...sorry). I struggled a little bit with the controls, felt I had to just hold W and spam buttons a bit, but that's more a negative at my platforming skills than the game itself. My best was 3, clearly I need to play more platformers :D

    Good entry!

  • Zingot
    Lv. 1

    Great entry to the jam, I really enjoyed playing this. I was incredibly bad at it, but I did really enjoy navigating the crumbling ice world =)

    bLOOPy
    Submitted

    bLOOPy

  • 89o
    Lv. 18

    A neat little game. I liked the aesthetics and the main mechanic. There's a lot of options to move around. However, I think that as an arcade game, it should be technically possible to get an infinite score, however here you're doomed to fail, no matter how well you play.

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thank you :)

      I was thinking about whether or not you should be able to get an infinite score, but I wasn't sure how I would make that work, while keeping the crumbling ice mechanic. Perhaps I should try toying around with some ideas.

  • Pixel Pincher
    Lv. 4

    I played with the keyboard and found it extremely hard, I am not good at platforms, though. That apart (as it is not meant as a criticism), I love the idea, really original! Maybe I would shift it more into one of the two directions: more skill based (maybe bricks collide after a while) or more tactics based (easier controls and more planning).

    But after all I think this is really worth to be polished up and released as a full game.

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thank you! I never thought about the different directions I could take the game, this has sparked some more ideas for further development. I think a tactics-based approach could be really interesting, since that would probably be more accessible to people who don't play many platformers.

      Having someone say that they could see this as a fully developed game is such a great compliment, thank you :)

  • David Yates
    Lv. 2

    This is slick. Difficult, but a playable kind of difficult. I really appreciate that you took the time to make the platform mechanics solid with additions like wall sliding/jumping. Presentation is great -- overall this game feels solid and fully realised in a way that's rare for jam entries.

    I found the controls a bit awkward though -- space and shift are two buttons I'd rather not use together, and I prefer platformers like this to use the up arrow for jumping (I would have liked it as an alternative at least). But that's largely a me thing.

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thank you! I'm glad you appreciate the platforming mechanics. I spent quite a while fine tuning them to make it feel as tight as possible.

      Other people have also mentioned the controls. I was originally going to make it Z to jump and x to sprint, but I thought most people would prefer Space to jump. Turns out it was the other way around! I'll keep in mind using up to jump, in addition to another key. Nothing wrong with more options.

  • g0ldent0y
    Lv. 5

    Did i miss something, the D-Pad wasnt working? And was there a button to quit the game. I had to end it over the task manager, since i coudln't exit it otherwise.

    Other than that, i liked the entry, but with keyboard it is quite hard to play.

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Of course! I forgot to add a button to end the game. I usually just use Alt-F4.

      Do you use an Xbox controller? That's what I tested on. Xbox controllers tend to have better compatibility with Windows, so if you were using a Dualshock 4, for example, there might have been issues.

  • Kylazaur
    Lv. 5

    Nice little game, I couldn't beat it because the fish was twice the size of my head but nice entry, ^-^

  • Hyper Freeze Games
    Lv. 17

    I had so much fun with this game!

    What I liked: -Controls and "feel" of the movement etc are very on point -Very clever gameplay that inspires to mastering the art of icecube jumping -Sound effects are nice -Minimalistic player model works really well -Atmosphere is cool (hehe), gives off Celeste-y vibes! -I got three fish

    What I'd like to see improved: -Having the game completely restart after dying takes a tad too long -Also, showing the whole level upfront and not being able to move could frustrate after repeatedly dying to stupid mistakes

    Will definately keep this on my computer for killing time!

    Evil Loop
    Submitted

    Evil Loop

    • HSmileyFace
      Lv. 2
      HSmileyFace Developer of On Thin Ice

      4yrs ago

      Thanks so much! I agree with you on the criticisms. There's too much waiting time between fish, and deaths.

      Really glad that you enjoy it, and took notice of the controls. I put a lot of effort into making them feel responsive.

      I can definitely see the Celeste vibes, and I mayyyy have used Madeline's sprite as a reference ;p, as well as the NES Ice Climbers sprite.

  • Yosi
    Lv. 46

    Great game! I found the controls a little hard to get used to (mainly because it wasn't picking up the control stick on my gamepad) but it was fun to play!

  • Eva
    Lv. 13

    This game was really challenging! It feels complete and held my attention easily. I really like this exploration of the theme.