January 21st, 2012 - IGF Bound and Then Some
Great news! Spelunky was nominated for 3 awards at this year's Independent Games Festival - Best Design, Technical Excellence, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize! We're all really excited about it here at Team Mossmouth. If you're going to the Game Developer's Conference in March, be sure to check us and the rest of the nominees out at the IGF pavilion. We'll be there looking for people to play co-op and deathmatch with us!
Also, I figured this would be a good time to put up a What is Spelunky? page on the site to answer people's questions about the game. Is it a remake, a port, or what? Well, head on over and find out! There are some new goodies on there for regulars, as well.
See you at GDC! And we'll let you know as soon as there's a release date.
Discuss this update in the forums...October 31st, 2011 - Happy Hallowe'en!
Fans Enjoying Spelunky at PAX 2011
It's been a long time since our last site update! Since then, quite a lot has happened: we went to PAX 2011 and exhibited alongside the amazing Faraway, we produced our first batch of Spelunky Minis figurines (not yet for sale online!), and even entered next year's IGF! Andy also made a rap video about Magic: the Gathering with composer Laura Shigihara last week, at the annual TIGJam.
Is all of our fun getting in the way of Spelunky's development? Not at all! Plenty of time has been spent in the lab, as well, and we're pleased to say that we can see some light at the end of this randomly-generated tunnel. In fact, the majority of the work left is in satisfying Microsoft's requirements for certification and in polishing the game to a point where we can be really happy releasing it. I wrote an article about polishing here, on my game making blog. Check it out!
I have more articles planned that go a little more in-depth into the design and new features. I'd like to cover random level generation and multiplayer, among other things. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to talk about. As always, make sure you check the Spelunky twitter for the most up-to-date Spelunky news!
Discuss this update in the forums...June 17th, 2011 - Music Sampler, Part II
Hello again, everyone! First of all, let me thank you all for all the feedback we've been getting - both good and bad! We're doing our very best to please both ourselves and all you players out there.
Without further ado, here's a brand new sampler of the game's soundtrack:
Spelunky XBLA - Music Sampler II
It was fun reading up on everyone's guesses as to where the various musical pieces fitted in, last time. This time, however, I'll be kind enough to reveal (most of) these tracks' purposes:
00:00 - [SECRET]
00:37 - Adventure Start
01:07 - Ice Caves
01:26 - Menu
01:45 - Temple area
02:10 - Darkness
02:38 - [SECRET]
03:10 - Lush
03:36 - [SECRET]
04:18 - Shop
04:52 - Title Track (Stripped Version)
This sampler showcases the various soundscapes and styles that I've embraced on this score. Between this sampler and the previous one I've shown of a big part of the score, but there are even more in there. Every area has various tracks, and special sub-stages have unique tracks as well. Please share your thoughts on the pieces previewed, so we can make it as good as possible! Note that these tracks are in different stages of production, and the final result will alter some.
I'd like to use this occasion to also address the dismay some of you have had towards the music - specifically, that of the most recent trailer. The track in the trailer is not in-game music, it's actually what plays during the credits roll. We thought it would be a neat and cartoony contrast to the havoc being wreaked in the footage, but ultimately, it seems it was an odd choice of music on our behalf. Regarding the actual track, I'm personally very satisfied with it. It's a fun one, which culminated from a fun recording session, and I think it suits its purpose well. I've noticed especially that the saxophone isn't to everyone's liking. I think my friend Jens did an excellent job playing it, but I realize that not everyone is as fond of "cheesy music" as I am. There's only a handful of tracks in the score that have sax, and depending on your feedback we might strip some of it out. We do hear you, so let us know how you feel about it!
Finally, I'd like to rant a little about my thoughts and inspirations behind this music. I mentioned this in my previous post, but when I first started out I decided to go with a mix of FM synthesis, sample-based tracker music and live band. In my head I imagine a triangle, where each angle represents one of the above. The tracks in this score vary in sound, but all can be placed somewhere in said diagram. Some tracks are all FM, some are all band, etc., but most are a combination of the three. My reasoning for going with those three styles lies in the fact that Spelunky feels, to me, like an early 90's computer game, with an up-to-date presentation. The FM part is inspired by old arcade games and old computer sound chips such as the AdLib. The tracker music is also synonymous with 90's computer games, especially the Amiga and the demo scene. I added in a live band to make it work with the hand-drawn, HD graphics. Somewhere in the process I decided to also include a few tracks that were pulse-wave based (hear 00:00 and 02:38). It's a sound that comes real easy to me, and I added some of it to please those who felt I relied too much on FM.
I'll have to stop myself there, but if you have questions or comments we'd love to hear them.
Discuss this update in the forums...June 14th, 2011 - Spelunky XBLA Debut Trailer!
Yay!
Many months of hard work are culminating into a game I'm very proud of! We still have a few more months to polish up Spelunky XBLA, but I'm happy to be showing off what we have now... I think it's a good sign when making a trailer is this enjoyable. Watch it in HD to catch all the details!
Discuss this update in the forums...April 23rd, 2011 - Multiplayer!
In February, Andy and I spoke at Game Developers Conference, where we announced that we were adding offline multiplayer to the game! Multiplayer was an popular request for the original game, so I was pretty excited about adding it to the Xbox version. If you want to see our slides, I've posted them here, along with a paraphrase of the talk.
Having gotten the single-player portion of the game to a good state, we're now spending some quality time with the multi and I gotta say, it's pretty durn fun! Spelunky "automatically" works very well as a cooperative game, but we're adding some new mechanics to make it even more engaging. Can't wait to show you guys!
Discuss this update in the forums...October 7th, 2010 - More Screenshots!
It's been a long time coming, but here's a fresh batch of screenshots from the XBLA version of the game! As you can see, we've done a lot with the graphics since you last saw them. I really want Spelunky to be as fun to look at as it it to play, and to that end, we've added lots of little details to the backgrounds to try and make each part of the game feel even more distinct. What do you think?
Discuss this update in the forums...September 17th, 2010 - Claylunky
In case you missed it, I had a bit of fun with clay earlier this week, to celebrate the upcoming release of Super Meat Boy, which is also coming out on XBLA.
Discuss this update in the forums...August 17th, 2010 - Blink Blink
Hello, my Spelunky brethren! Long time no see. I want to apologize for the lack of updates... truth be told, though, things are going very well! The past few months we've been working very hard, creating content for the game and making decisions about what we want to add to the XBLA version.
It's easy to underestimate the amount of work that goes into making a game, even after you've made it once before! Just getting the original game ready for XBLA is a lot of work - as you can see by our friendly alien up above, the new graphics have a lot more detail to them. As a result, an animation that looked good with 4 frames might take 8 frames to look right, and each frame requires a lot more polish. I'm not complaining, though! I'm actually having a lot of fun reimagining the old characters in such a fancy way. What do you think?
Aside from the new graphics and audio, though, I'm sure Spelunky veterans are most looking forward to new game content and modes. Hell, it's something I'm really looking forward to in Spelunky XBLA! In the coming months we'll show you some of these things and would love to hear your feedback about them.
For now, consider this a small teaser to let you know that the game is doing well. I'm really happy with our progress up to this point and we should be ramping up our updating from here on out to show you what we've been working on. If you're feeling antsy, check out our Twitter - I'll try to post some fun development notes there every week (hopefully something more interesting than "STILL WORKING ON SPELUNKY. MY HANDS SMELL FUNNY."). Goodnight, everyone!
Discuss this update in the forums...May 7th, 2010 - Here be the musics!
It's time for another introduction, it would seem. My name is Eirik, but I'm known to many as "chiptune artist" Phlogiston.
I will be supplying music and sound design for Spelunky XBLA.
You're welcome to check out my website.
I've been working on this score for several months now, and it's been a blast! I'm not going to write a ton about it, at least not at this point, but I wanted to show off a little bit of it, to give you guys an idea of what it'll sound like.
TEASER MP3 - medley of various songs from the game
Basically, I wanted the soundtrack to be a mix of retro-sounding videogame music and more modern-sounding music utilizing actual instruments. I guess I imagined it would sound like a mixture of FM-based music (arcade, SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, 80's music), sample/tracker based music (Amiga/90's demoscene) and just regular pop/rock (70's/80's/90's). Hopefully you guys can tell me if it came through or not.
More as it progresses!
Discuss this update in the forums...Mar 28th, 2010 - Lighting the Way
Derek wasn't lying in that last post. Things are indeed moving along quite well as we continue to work on the Xbox 360 version. It has been quite exciting to see the project evolve from just a few sprites displaying on the screen to a game that is unmistakably Spelunky.
I guess this is supposed to be my official introduction or something! I'm Andy, the guy helping Derek with Spelunky. As there are only two of us, I'm wearing many hats on the project, but one of my main jobs is as graphics programmer.
I thought it would be kind of neat to give a quick run-down of how the dynamic lighting works in Spelunky. This isn't going to be too technical because 1) I'm not sure how interesting that would actually be; and 2) I'm not sure how accurate I would be explaining the technical aspect. (I mean really, I did spend the last five years as a reclusive wooden toy designer...)
First, the normal maps are rendered to a texture. For those not in the know, the normal map tilts the surface of each pixel so the light will bounce off them at different angles. So the lavender color you see above indicates a flat surface facing the screen, while all the colored edges indicate different tilts at different angles.
If you are wondering why there isn't much detail in Spelunky Man, it's because the graphics card actually generates simple normal maps for all the active entities in the game. This not only saves time (because we don't have to generate normal maps for every frame of animation of all the sprites) but it also ensures that the lighting won't make the surface details of each sprite hard to see. It does allow for a nice rim lighting effect on the sprites, so they still are able to blend nicely into the scene.
Continue reading, dear friend...
Discuss this update in the forums...Mar 8th, 2010 - Spelunky XBLA Screenshots!
We've been working hard over here at Mossmouth Headquarters (a mossy stump fit for two or maybe three!). No slackin'! And we think things are coming along pretty good.
Good enough, in fact, that I'd like to show off some of what we've been doing on Spelunky for Xbox Live Arcade! As you can see, we're spending a lot of time making the game look new and beautiful for XBLA. Mr. Andy Hull is helping me add all kinds of new graphical effects to make the game pop on your t.v. screen. Bombs will send shadows bouncing off of the walls, and if, for example, rubble falls into a small lake, it will send ripples dancing across the water's surface.
Those are just some of things that are making us so excited about this version of Spelunky. We're doing everything we can to make it feel new, and totally made for the Xbox 360... without losing any of the original game's depth. Please let us know what you think about our work, and keep checking back, because now that we're on a roll (like a boulder) I'll be updating the site more often! See ya!
Discuss this update in the forums...
Dec 25th, 2009 - Version 1.1, Source Code Released!
Happy Holidays, everyone! I said I would release the source code before the end of 2009, didn't I? Not only that, but version 1.1 is out as well. This release has a lot of bug-fixes in it. It also adds some extended stat-tracking. If you've ever wondered how many times you've been killed by arrow traps or how many damsels you've saved, now you can find out - just open up "stats.txt" after exiting the game. Both v1.1 and the source can be downloaded here.
Things are going very well with Xbox 360 development - I'm really enjoying working on this platform and I'm excited about what you guys will think. Unfortunately, that's all I can say about it for now! Rest assured that the new year will bring more news on this front.
In the meantime, enjoy 1.1 and also the source code! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with. Please use the Spelunky Source forums to discuss it!
Discuss this update in the forums...Sep 1st, 2009 - Welcome to Spelunky World!
Hey there! Welcome to the new Spelunky website! Methinks it was about time to move the game to its own digs on the web.
Aside from kicking off the new site, I'm pleased to make some very exciting announcements here today. First off, version 1.0 is finally ready! That's right, the game can finally come out of its "beta" status. This version has a lot of bug fixes and some new surprises, so check it out.
Secondly, and this one's a big one - Spelunky is making its way to Xbox Live Arcade in 2010! Yep, and it's going to be much more than a straight port of the PC game - I'm planning on stuffing it with new graphics, audio, and other features for XBLA users. With all the other great independent games on XBLA or coming to it, I'm hopeful that Spelunky will feel right at home there. I think it's a cool platform and I'm excited about what I'll be able to do to make the game special.
Regarding the inevitable question of whether the XBLA flavor of Spelunky will also be available on PC or any other systems: I don't have any plans for it right now. The original Spelunky doesn't need replacing, in my opinion, and I'll continue to support it as a free title. Not only that, but I'm planning on opening up the source code before the end of the year so that people can modify the game to their heart's content. For now, head over to the Spelunky forums to discuss the game and share levels!
Thanks to everyone who supported the game thus far - I've been overwhelmed by the response and where it's taken the project. As always, please give me your feedback on everything. Stay tuned to this site and my Twitter if you want to be up-to-date. Happy Spelunky-ing!
Discuss this update in the forums...
