in 2006, amounting to over five million . The total number of Icy Tower downloads was estimated at over 11 million in 2008. In terms of the number of websites devoted to the game, it is most popular in Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. Central European countries are also home to a major portion of top Icy Tower players. According to Johan Peitz, the author of the game, the reason behind the popularity of Icy Tower is that it allows players to compete in several different categories, for example in striving for both high floors and high scores. Online Icy Tower communities allow their members to exchange high scores, replays and comments about the game and its gameplay. Additionally, players frequently compete against themselves in online competitions. Icy Tower tournaments usually consist of a number of rounds, each lasting one or more days. In every round, contestants are required to record one or more replays with a result in a specific category of the game. Players have also organized live meetings, which took place in Cracow and Warsaw, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic. On May 30, 2007, an official Icy Tower website operated by Free Lunch Design was launched, available at icytower.­freelunchdesign.­com. On June 3, 2009, the day of Icy Tower 1.4 release, an additional, complementary site has been opened at icytower.com. Add-ons The internal structure of Icy Tower allows for making changes to the character, soundtrack, sound effects and game palette through downloading and installation of repackaged resource files. Since version 1.2, Icy Tower allows for the use of skins to create additional custom characters which can replace the three default characters provided in the game package. Making a new character is done by creating an image file of a specified structure, containing the various poses needed to animate the character. It is also possible to create a more complex add-on using WAV sound files, which will modify the game's soundtrack and sound effects. Tools There are a number of tools to help players train, change the game physics, or analyze their own results. Notes References Platform games Side-scrolling video games Freeware games 2001 video games MacOS games Windows games Flash games Java platform games Video games developed in Sweden Video games scored by Adam Gubman GameStick Games