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.
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!!
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…
@SunnyKatt: Oh, okay, that’s good then
@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.
@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.
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.
The ‘b’ in Xbox isn’t a capital.
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.
Wait, so TIGsource is a better community-type site for games? I’m totally going to use that now 😀
“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
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.