Monday, August 6, 2012

Episode 43: Spelunky

Welcome to Roguelike Radio episode 43. This week we talk about Spelunky. Talking this episode are Andrew Doull, Ryan Boyd, Darius Kazemi and Spelunky developer, Derek Yu.

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.




Topics discussed in this episode include:
- Derek's experiences with roguelikes: Hack, brogue, DoomRL, Dwarf Fortress
- Level generation and procedural content in Spelunky
- Designing interacting systems and the importance of shopkeepers
- Tom Francis' Spelunky posts
- Replacing the random number god with game maker physics
- Are the best procedural games about digging into the ground looking for treasure?
- Rescuing maidens and marrying theme and mechanic
- Spelunky as My First Roguelike
- Edit: The upcoming games mentioned: Catacomb Kids, Tower Climb (Thanks to Eben)
- And more...

You may want to check out Darius Kazemi's HTML 5 port of Spelunky at Tiny Subversions, which features several articles on the Spelunky code and systems.

11 comments:

  1. I just posted a review of the XBLA version a couple days ago, but I'm going to have to check out the HTML 5 version now I suppose :)

    Review here.

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  2. I was wondering when they'd port it. The computer version of the game was made with Gamemaker, and they've come out with a Gamemaker that will create HTML5 files. So there you are. Easy peasy (though I'm sure it was hard, everything is).

    This is easily on my list of top 5 roguelikes. The local multiplayer option for the xbox makes it one of my top 5 favorite games period.

    I've not listened to the entire podcast yet, but I applaud the topic.

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  3. For those interested like I was, here's links to the two games mentioned:

    Catacomb Kids
    TowerClimb

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    1. I really wanted to play TowerClimb but had trouble buying it, I sent an email but got nothing back. Then I just sort of got lost in Diablo...:-(

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    2. It's definitely worth it, in my opinion. It is also important to get the control scheme down in order to really take advantage of the game in full. Like Spelunky, there are little hidden things all over the place to access, but the difficulty is *way* higher, in my opinion.

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  4. Thanks Eben: I've added the links to the main post.

    Joseph: In case it's not clear, Darius isn't affiliated with Spelunky in any way except as a fan. The PC source code was open, and he took advantage of the HTML 5 Game Maker release to port it.

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes I'm familiar. I've played around with the source a bit myself. I added a sword in place of the whip. It slashed without the delay of the whip, which I hated. Kinda fun.

      -Jo

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  5. Great episode... Always interesting to hear about the inspiration and design choices for games.

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  6. Incidentally, this is an awesome video of a guy trying to play Spelunky:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvSVQslQcD4&list=PL6D06E02D43C42EC0

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    Replies
    1. I laughed quite a bit at this. Thanks Darren.

      -Jo

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  7. Played Spelunky quite a bit but got fed up with it in the end. Temple level was too difficult. Too many unkillable enemies and using the tunnels wouldn't help either as the starting gear isn't enough. Also very much not a fan of the insta-kill Tiki traps in the jungle level which more often than not heavily cluster around the exit.

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