Derek Yu's platformer and nethack hybrid
By ahoodedfigure 8 Comments
No rest for Yu
I like randomly generated stuff. It's sorta like peering into the unknown, or at least a jumbled up version of the known. I've spent many hours with Nethack and other roguelikes, watching as a bunch of ASCII characters or graphical overlays march toward me and tear me to ribbons. One of my favorites is Doom, for example.
Derek Yu (co-creator of Aquaria) has put the peanut butter of random dungeon generation with the chocolate of a graphical multi-function platformer and came up with Spelunky. It's freeware, and almost free of bugs (the only thing that didn't really work properly for me was the music. EDIT: It was my own fault, I put one of the key bindings over the toggle for music. OOPS). It's got secret items, many different tools, and bombs and grappling hooks that come standard to help negotiate the randomly generated dungeon areas (without bombs and grappling hooks you would sometimes be screwed. Make sure you always have at least one rope and a few bombs as you go deeper, just to keep the way clear). Steal from ancient civilizations and kill the odd cave denizen, just remember those ruins might still have a few active traps...
Read about it and get it here:
http://www.derekyu.com/?p=250
If Nethack has taught me anything, it's to not be greedy and just go for the exit if things look rough. Since I've died about fifty times so far, I apparently still refuse to take my own advice. The vaguely Cave Story-like platforming can sometimes be a little bit tough, but it's nothing a good key layout and patience can't overcome. I won't spoil all the game's intricate little surprises, but just realize that many objects in the game have more than one use.
I've been having a bit of a pulp fiction revolution in my head after seeing the Dark Void footage. However Dark Void may turn out, it's got the modern-adventure-tale gears turning in my head. Then I stumble upon Derek Yu's latest project, as if he read my mind for my desire for more pulp stuff. The pulp sensibilities of Spelunky are nice beyond the obvious main reference the game makes. Yu's inventiveness continues to entertain me; I'm glad he's still young, and still avid about putting a lot of heart into his work.
Having a bit of trouble trying to add images at the moment, but will add a few to liven up the text later. Either that, or I should just learn how to do it in HTML again and not be dependent upon these fancy new machines! Dagnabbit!
Addendum: Now that I got the music working, I have to say it's got a great 8-bit vibe that recalls the echoes and blurring that 8-Bit music consoles had. This game does reference the 8-Bit days platformer days, but what really makes me happy is that if you don't read the instructions and just explore, learning how things work first-hand by experimentation,
the game reminds me of even older games, where you were given a simple little environment with its own physics that you could play with, instead of something that necessarily tried to mock how things work in the real world.