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Hi Nitromians,

time for another Icebreaker update! We have some bad news and good news...

First the bad news...after a lot of testing and feedback We are still finding new bugs on Android (Google Play and Amazon store) so that is holding things up...

some of them have been quite amusing though like one where the chains decided to use Vikings for the graphics in some circumstances! We are getting there though so bear with us! 

The good news from this is that because this has all taken some time and because we wanted to launch the pack update alongside the Android release is that we are now planning for it to be a full pack update rather than splitting it into two parts which had previously been the plan.

Just to stress the significance of this....it's a whole new pack with it's own theme, side routes, 3 new enemy types, new mechanics, soft body physics, cut scenes, new story, new characters, returning old characters and an epic boss fight that makes the current ones look rubbish by comparison! Oh and it's all set inside a giant Octopus type beast!

It is almost 40 more levels and about the same amount of new mechanics as we put in the entire game so far! So it's a BIG update!

p.s. we will also be turning the iPad version of the game universal with cloud support too!

p.p.s. Oh and there will be some new missions in there for the new pack too :)p.p.p.s. We're working on a fancy new trailer to show this stuff off before launch!

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

Today's Pixel Love game is My First Quantum Translocator by Cellar Door Games.

You play as a test applicant testing out the Quantum Translocator 4300 (QT 4300). The test controller "Steve" guides you through a multitude of tests. Shortly after the tutorialized levels, things kind of go up a gear. We don't want to spoil anything for you though!

The main idea here is to use your momentum coupled with the quantum translocator and the environment to solve the puzzles. Some of these puzzles are real head scratchers. Once you understand the basics of how to navigate, you'll be given even harder tests!

This is quite a challenging game, making it very satisfying when you beat the puzzles.

Click To Play!

Have fun, we'll bring you another pixel love game next week.

by Tom

Hi Nitromians,

next week we should have a brand new game for you and it's a good one! I would go as far as to say that its the best twist idea we have had since Faultline and Mega Mash! It is the swapping game that we teased about a few weeks back. It has a new interesting mechanic that is going to make your brains hurt....in a good way! 

Also next week we will have an Icebreaker update to let you all know what is happening there.....a juicy update that I hope you will all appreciate!

As a final note this week we have been talking about the possibility of running a Nitrome Game Jam. Everyone seems keen on the idea in the office and we would nicely split into 5 teams of two. We haven't ironed out the details yet so if you want to throw in your thoughts for a jam please do let us know what you think in the comments below.

Have a great weekend everyone!

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

were thrilled to announce that Pocket Gamer have placed Icebreaker in their list for not only best puzzle/casual game of the year, not only best iOS game of the year but also best Overall Game of the year! To be considered up against the best handheld titles is quite humbling!

This is a public vote so if you like Icebreaker and think it is worthy you can help us potentially win by casting your vote!

You can vote for us at the following link. Remember we are in the 'Best Puzzle/Casual Game','Best iOS Game' and 'Best Overall Game' catagories. 

A big thankyou to everyone who chooses to support us and we will keep our fingers crossed for the results!

by Mat

Hi Nitromians!

Today's pixel love game pick is Push created by Ian Snyder.

This one was chosen because it has a really interesting game mechanic. You push your way around the levels and the levels around you.

The goal is simple - get to the glowing yellow goal. How you get there however is completely up to you and your style of play. For most levels, there will be multiple ways to warp and bend the environment to your liking to pass them.

The game gets increasingly difficult when you start encountering crumble, fire and spring tiles. We felt there was plenty of variety in Push to keep us happily flying through the levels. One of the great things about the structure is that you don't have to complete the levels in a set order and you get given an overview of the levels layout before starting.

Click To Play!

Let us know if you complete any from the "Stupidly Difficult" set!

Have fun everyone, we'll bring you another pixel love next week.

by Tom

Today's Pixel Love game is Displaced created by LIDgames.

We found the displacement mechanic to be interesting but what really caught our eye was the monochromatic artwork style. It's a short game but still worth checking out. Be warned, the levels in this one get very difficult quickly!

Click To Play!

More Pixel Love to come next week!

by Tom

Nitrome will soon have moderator accounts!

It is important that we keep a tight ship at Nitrome and there are just not enough of us to cope with the volume of user generated activity that goes on!

We have already put in place some systems that are doing a pretty good job of keeping things clean but nothing is perfect!

Our initial filters were a bit too strong so we loosened them a little which we feel has led to a better user experience. It does mean a few more things get through the cracks though and moderators should be able to help us spot what does and correct that.

Moderators are going to be by invitation only to start off with so please don't apply. By being an active member of the community however you may receive an invite.

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

It's time to share a little more info on our second secret browser game that we hinted at a little while ago. This game is called Ditto and the concept of the game involves mirrors.  We'll let you speculate just how that will work for now but to whet your appetite check out this little animated gif we whipped up of the main character.

Oh and you may notice the character is female in this game which is a little different for us :)

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

Today’s pixel love is Scamper Ghost. It’s sort of Pac-Man mixed with a mouse avoider and it has a ton of style. Use the mouse to collect pellets and power pills while avoiding the ghosts for as long as possible!

Though the game was launched back in 2009 it recently came back to our attention because it has been involved in a news story with King (makers of Candy Crush). King have recently been hitting the news with the story that they are trade marking the words ‘Saga’ and ‘Candy’ sending out notices to developers that use those words to take down their games or change their names. King say that they are just protecting their Intellectual Property but when you have games like ‘Banner Saga’ and Candy Slots’ which bear no resemblance to Candy Crush Saga get caught in the crossfire it’s understandable why this has became a big story.

Relating to this story it seems that back when Scamper Ghost came out it was originally offered a deal from King to publish the game. When they were offered a better deal from Max Games rather than walk away King decided to ask another developer the chance to clone the game resulting in the game ‘Pac Avoid’. Not only is the game a very close clone of the game they offered to buy but it also heavily uses the ‘Pac’ from Pac-Man name which has lead people to call them hypocrites when trying to make others take their games down.

Regardless of what you think we felt that Scamper Ghost was a good game and this was a good time to feature it. If you want to play it you can using the following link: Scamper Ghost

If your interested in the back-story to this then you can read more about the Cloning debate here and Kings trade marking of common words here.

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

A lot of you have asked why we don't use our original musician Lee Nicklen anymore. We know a lot of you were fans of his music so we're thrilled to announce that we have Lee back doing some music for the swapping game that we previewed to you recently.

You can hear a rough draft of a track he is making for our swapping game here!

Have a great weekend everyone and we will be back next week with more exciting news!

by Mat

We've found a real treat for you this week as our Pixel Love choice. It's called Underbyte by Unusual Cadence, a platformer styled in the key of Super Mario Bros.

We adore the concept and clever ideas behind this one.

Do you know what happens when you lose a life in Mario? Well, from Underbyte's point of view, the characters get dropped into the "garbage dump". In the dump, the ordinary platform game rules break down or get twisted and warped completely. You will be left to defend yourself against the hoards of other lost lives and make it through with all your bits intact.

The graphics in this really do lend to the glitched, buggy atmosphere, as does the music. This is a frantic, fast-paced platformer that we think you'll love.

Click To Play

Enjoy, more Pixel Love to come next week!

by Tom

Hi Nitromians,

For those of you who have been following our blog of late, we recently showed a small teaser image about two new games that we are currently making for the website. We must say that some of your guesses were quite amusing! (Elvis, a cowboy, an artist, a cactus-man?)

We thought it would be nice to finally show a glimpse of one of these new games. We're not going to say much more for now but the game's theme is all about swapping.

We'd love to hear your guesses regarding what the mechanic might be.

Have a great weekend everyone and see you all next week :) 

by Jon

Hi Nitromians,

The game of the year Icebreaker nominations just keep coming at the moment! Apple'n'Apps.com has just listed Icebreaker A Viking Voyage in their best 50 games of 2013! We came in at a respectable 39th place!

I think we need to start listing all these somewhere on the Icebreaker page :)

You can check the full list here.

by Mat

Hi Nitromians,

Since we have been back, we have been hard at work on some new flash games for the website. You know about the second part of Cheese Dreams: New Moon already, but there's more.

Some of you have pointed out to us that we have been making a lot of sequels of late. So we thought it was about time to introduce some brand new concepts to you all. With that in mind, we have two of them bubbling away behind the scenes both featuring a brand new mechanic.

Well have more on them soon. But until then, take a glimpse at both games main protagonist in silhouette.

Any guesses on what they both are?

by Jon

Wow Nitromians!

We just noticed that Metacritics posted their top 25 games of 2013 and our game Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage came in at number 19!

To put this in perspective....Metacritics collect all of the review scores that each game gets and make a combined average score for each game. Metacritics is generally considered in the gaming world as the most respected mesure of how well your game has performed critically.

So with that in mind from all the iOS titles released in 2013 our little game ranked 19th!!!! That is insaine!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the game so nicely :)

There is a direct link to the list here.

by Nitrome