Mossmouth

Yes, it’s really happening!!! We announced Spelunky 2 earlier this week at Sony’s Paris Games Week conference, alongside some other cool titles. We haven’t set a release date, but the game will come out first on PlayStation 4 and Steam. After that, we’ll look into other platforms (don’t worry, we’ve heard your pleas!). This time around I’ll be working with BlitWorks, who was responsible for porting Spelunky to PSN. To be honest, this project wouldn’t exist without them, because they’re the only ones who I feel have the technical expertise, the manpower, and the Spelunky knowledge that are needed to pull off a sequel. I also enjoyed working with them on the port and enjoyment is an important part of the game-making process! Eirik is returning for audio and design and did a great job editing our announcement trailer. We would have loved to work with Andy again, but it’s hard to feel too bad about it, since the reason we aren’t is because Andy is working on the arcade basketball game of my dreams: Dunk Lords. I’ll definitely be picking his brain about Spelunky 2 whenever possible, though. Special thanks to the Spelunky fans - Spelunky 2 wouldn’t exist without you, either. We can’t wait to reveal more! In the meantime, I recommend checking out the Spelunky subreddit and sharing your thoughts and your speculations with the rest of the community. See you soon!

Keep reading

Here’s the second excerpt from the Spelunky book. It’s from a chapter called “EXPLORER.GMK” that discusses the very earliest build of Spelunky, the core elements of the game, the importance of themes, and the relationship between artists and their influences.

Kotaku has published an excerpt from the Spelunky book! This is a chapter called “Improvements”, about changes made to the original freeware game, why making fan games is so carefree, and how to make monsters feel more “alive” with only simple behaviors.

The Spelunky book is finally here, weighing in at 222 pages! It’s available both as a physical book (which looks very nice - the editors and printers did a great job), and as an eBook. It’s been a long road - I appreciate the patience of all the backers and my editor, Gabe Durham. Before this, I’d never written anything longer than what I ended up cutting from my first draft (about 10,000 words). So thanks for bearing with me! I’m happy with the final book. There was a lot I wanted to say - about game design, about the craft of game-making, and about my influences - that had to be tied together through the story of Spelunky’s development. You’d think that since I created the game all the thoughts I needed would already be in my head, but I rarely have a full understanding of my own work at the time of its release (this is something I discuss in the book itself). To put together the entire picture, I revisited my old emails, chats, and forum posts, and also read other people’s thoughts on the game. The result is that I learned a lot about Spelunky and my feelings about game design and creativity after writing this book. Hopefully readers will get the same kind of satisfaction from it. At the very least, it should give you a sense of what it was like to make a good-sized indie game, from the freeware version on the TIGSource forums to the Xbox 360 remake and beyond. Thanks again to the backers, to Boss Fight Books, and to the many people who read the book and gave feedback. Look for excerpts of the book to be released in the coming days!

Andy and I spoke to Rock Paper Shotgun’s Alex Wiltshire about how the shared traits of enemies and items leads to Spelunky’s emergent gameplay.

Awesome Games Done Quick was a blast! Andy and I joined via Skype and did our best to provide some commentary, although as I “joked” early on - these guys know the game better than we do! Kinnijup and BumCommando did an amazing job with both the run and the commentary. Many thanks to these guys, to Ruddigger, and to the rest of the Spelunky community for making this happen. AGDQ has always been one of my favorite gaming events of the year, but this one was the most special. If you missed any of it, all the runs were uploaded here to the Games Done Quick YouTube channel.

For the first time ever, Spelunky will be played at Awesome Games Done Quick, or AGDQ, a week-long speedrunning charity marathon and one of the most enjoyable video gaming events of each year! We’ll be closing out the “indie block” of AGDQ 2016, with runners BumCommando and Kinnijup attempting an All Shortcuts + Olmec relay, where the players will have to unlock all the Tunnel Man shortcuts and then beat Olmec. The timer starts when the first player selects the character and ends when the screen fades to black after they exit Olmec’s level. The time for the run is tomorrow (January 5th), at around 6am PST! You can find the full schedule for AGDQ here. Even if you can’t make the Spelunky run, you should watch the rest of the marathon and consider donating! It’s for a great cause (The Prevent Cancer Foundation).

Thanks to our friends at Fangamer and illustrator JP Coovert, we now have two great new t-shirts for sale! Celebrate your love of danger with the Pitfalls and Perils tee! Or, celebrate your love of material possessions with the Cave Cache tee! Orders made within the next week should arrive in time for Christmas, depending on your location. Please check Fangamer’s Holiday Shipping Deadlines page for more info. Happy holidays!