Spelunky

January 9th, 2010 by Philip Gamble | Categories: Games


Derek Yu’s Spelunky (in Game Maker for PC and coming soon to xBox Live Arcade) has been attracting a lot of attention on Indie Gaming sites recently whilst remaining noticeably absent(??) from YoYoGames.com and the official Game Maker Community.

Spelunky is a platform game in which you explore caves to collect treasure.  Each game is different as the caves are regenerated every time you play.  You go around fighting enemies, avoiding obstacles, opening chests and collecting rewards.  The game comes complete with a level editor and it is easy to share user created levels with other gamers.

The  was listed in Gamasutra’s list of the 99 best free games of 2009 and was awarded first place in Bytejacker’s Free Indie of the Year Awards.

The source code (in Game Maker 8 ) was released on Christmas Day and can be downloaded here.

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  1. January 9th, 2010 at 14:02
    Reply | Quote | #1

    I have noticed spelunky has averted attention from YYG and the GMC. Odd, on TIG it gets plenty of attention. I guess he chose to market it towards the more “professional” crowd.

  2. January 9th, 2010 at 15:06
    Reply | Quote | #2

    “source code for Game Maker 8 was released”

    That sounds all wrong, it sounds like Game Maker 8 went open source, not that Spelunky went open source.

    I guess I need to try the game.
    -Elmernite

  3. January 9th, 2010 at 16:25
    Reply | Quote | #3

    Wait, so TIGsource is a better community-type site for games? I’m totally going to use that now :D

  4. January 9th, 2010 at 17:43
    Reply | Quote | #4

    Derek Yu is an admin (or something similar) at TIGSource, so it’s obvious why most of the game’s attention has been from them and sites like them.

    Also, why was it tagged as inappropriate/incomplete? I can’t think of any objectional content it might have, and even the pre-1.0 builds were VERY playable.

  5. January 9th, 2010 at 19:37
    Reply | Quote | #5

    Objectionable? Hmmm. Bloody death is extremely common. Some might consider Spelunky misogynistic because that dame in it is completely brain dead and takes a hell of a lot of abuse. It’s satire. All in good fun.

  6. January 9th, 2010 at 22:40
    Reply | Quote | #6

    @F1ak3r – If you mean why we marked it as invisible on YYG, it’s because someone else uploaded it even though they weren’t derek yu.

  7. January 9th, 2010 at 22:43
    Reply | Quote | #7

    @SunnyKatt
    Thanks for that. I considered that unlikely as the YYG game id suggested it was uploaded prior to the source code being made available but someone must of uploaded the original game distribution files.

  8. January 10th, 2010 at 03:21
    Reply | Quote | #8

    The ‘b’ in Xbox isn’t a capital.

  9. January 10th, 2010 at 11:13
    Reply | Quote | #9

    @SunnyKatt: Oh, okay, that’s good then

  10. January 10th, 2010 at 23:23

    Well it makes sense that the developer is an admin, or something on that site because keeping it out of the GMC/YYG makes it so people have to be linked to that site to get the game. Sorry if I’m stating the obvious but…

  11. January 11th, 2010 at 14:32

    I love those types og games. have just downloaded a program so i can play all the old amiga and commedore 64 games. its like being a child again… GREAT!!

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