![]() It took two years to develop, but received plenty of praise along the way, winning the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival in 2006. He teamed with another designer, Alec Holowka, to make Aquaria, an underwater exploration game. ![]() Their collaboration culminated with a freeware Metroidvania called Eternal Daughter in 2002.įor his next game, Yu was ready to try something new. Yu and Perry's partnership would last 12 years, with the pair releasing games through AOL communities and, eventually, dedicated indie game forums. ![]() and then my uncle got an Nintendo Entertainment System pretty much right when it came out."īy second grade he was designing games on paper with the help of a like-minded 8-year-old named Jon Perry. "My parents got an Atari while they were pregnant with me and I started playing it pretty early. His love of video games started before that. He continues: "As a designer, it's one of the most influential and inspiring games that I've played in forever."īut it's just randomized Mario, right? What's the big deal about that? Actually, there's far more going on in Spelunky than first meets the eye.ĭerek Yu was born in 1982. Most recently: Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. You may recognize the name, as McMillen has been behind some of the best indie games ever made. " Splelunky is, in my opinion, the best indie game ever made." That's Edmund McMillen. Sounds miserable, doesn't it? Surprisingly, it's not. Die once and you're back at the very beginning with a whole new set of levels before you. The first level might have you avoiding pressure-sensitive traps, using bombs to blast your way to the exit, but it could just as easily have you battling a mess of snakes and spiders, requiring precise jumps to avoid spike pits.Įven though the level design is random, you'll be well-acquainted with the visual style of this first level (the game always starts in the mines) as, unlike most platformers, Spelunky only gives you a single life to make it to the end of the game. And while the levels have specific themes (mines, jungles, caverns), the level designs are different every time you play. In it, you control a small, Indiana Jones-esque hero, attempting to survive increasingly difficult 2D platforming levels as he delves deeper into a treasure-rich landscape. Suddenly that experience you've gained from repetition is completely worthless and you have a very different game on your hands. All the jumps come naturally and all the enemies are easily avoided.īut what if, instead of the uniform levels of Super Mario Bros., it was entirely randomized? Die once and you start at the beginning with a whole new set of levels. Like driving somewhere you've been hundreds of times before, your brain goes into auto-pilot when playing a platformer you know really well. Memory and repetition guide us through platformers. Picture the pipes, the fire flower, the mountain of blocks leading to the end flag. Picture the lone goomba, marching toward you in the opening seconds, or the trio of question mark blocks, one hiding a predictable mushroom. ![]()
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