Global online game developer Bigpoint has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products to create an online game based on the hit feature film franchise Ice Age.

The free-to-play browser game, Ice Age Online, which will feature popular characters from all four films including Manny, Diego, Sid and Scrat, will launch coinciding with the July 2012 premiere of Twentieth Century Fox’s Ice Age 4: Continental Drift in 3D.

Game users can play and customize Sid the sloth who must find ways to protect the herd of animals, rescue lost animals, and find an ideal place to live by collecting acorns and construction materials such as wood, flowers, coconuts, and mud.

Features include friend lists, activity trackers, leaderboards, and challenge modes.

The Ice Age franchise to date has reached more than US$4 billion in worldwide box office, home entertainment and consumer products sales (toys, games, plush, apparel, publishing.

The brand has also expanded with a new Cirque du Soleil show to premiere in November this year at London’s Wembley Arena, and a live attraction called Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaur – The 4-D Experience, which debuted last month at Merlin Entertainment’s two premiere theme park resorts: Alton Towers in the UK and Gardaland in Italy.