Post Script

Derek Yu, lead designer and lead artist, Spelunky 2

Derek Yu created and released the original Spelunky as a freeware game in 2008, before an HD remake for Xbox 360 four years later saw it reach a wider audience and become a defining influence on the Roguelike genre. Here, he discusses the challenges and opportunities involved in making a sequel.

What made you decide to release a sequel?

When Spelunky released, I already had some ideas for a sequel, but I knew that it would take an entirely new game to do them justice. Shortly after, I became a dad and started writing a book about my experiences working on the game. It felt like a lot of things in my life were coming together to say, “Hey, Spelunky is done, but it’s time to take what you learned and put it into a sequel about the next generation of characters.” I was also excited to do what most indies were not doing at the time, which was to actually expand on their successful games. Back then, it was way more common for indie developers to make one completely new game after another. The final piece of the puzzle was simply finding the right people to develop this sequel with me, and when Blitworks and Eirik [Suhrke, sound design and music] both agreed to join me on it, I knew we had enough strength, experience and familiarity to pull it off.

How much were you keeping existing players in mind – players who are probably expecting to be challenged from the off?

The original Spelunky has built-in difficulty levels, where, beyond the two different endings, you can also unlock shortcuts to make things easier. For Spelunky 2, we’ve built on that concept, and there are many more ways to make a run easier or harder for yourself as you better understand the game. The branching paths are maybe the most direct example – some routes are designed for higher risks and rewards. Just like in the first game, if you want harder challenges, they are definitely there – and in many cases, they’re extra-tough!

You’ve also talked about welcoming new players. How do you do that without losing the challenge that is key to Spelunky?

I’ve spent more time thinking specifically about new players, as I knew the core game was not changing, only getting bigger and deeper. I was pretty confident, especially given my own preferences, that Spelunky 2 would be enough of a challenge for veterans of the first game. The tricky part was somehow explaining to new players that they’re more than welcome to come and explore, too. In the end, I feel like the two groups don’t need to be treated very differently. A richer world with more freedoms, stronger themes of family and community, some extra polish all around… these are all great ways to bring in new players that also benefit old ones. The challenge is there to serve as a canvas for exploration and personal expression, and my hope is that that’s clearer to new players with what we’ve added.

How much of Spelunky 2 was inspired by watching the Spelunky community doing things even you never expected?

The community has had a big impact on the game – not just in terms of their accomplishments, which influenced how deep I felt a sequel could go, but also in how they’ve supported each other and helped bring in new players throughout the years. That was a feeling I wanted to capture inside the game, too. The characters you encounter will have their own backstories and support you in their unique ways, just like in real life.

“I actually find it quite freeing as a creator to have a group of players that understands what I’m saying right off the bat”

There’s a sense of mystery about Spelunky, even when you’ve played it for a long time. Is it trickier to recapture that with a sequel?

I try not to recapture anything, but to instead move forward and go deeper – but in layers of complexity, so that new players can still join the conversation and find value in it. I actually find it quite freeing as a creator to have a group of players that understands what I’m saying right off the bat. To be honest, it can be a little frustrating to try and explain a concept for the first time. Now that the language of Spelunky is better understood, I feel like I can start talking about more complex and interesting ideas, which is exciting.

There’s always a concern with sequels that they’ll lose the purity of the original. Then again, new features means new systems and potentially more surprises. Is it a challenge to find that balance?

I did set some ground rules for myself to make sure that Spelunky 2 had a natural end point. One was to ensure that the ‘normal’ victory took about the same amount of time as the original – once you put in the many hours to learn it, of course. Spelunky would still remain an arcade game in that sense. Another restriction was to disallow finicky new systems like inventories or dual-wielding items or anything like that. From there, I think it just comes down to experience as a designer and knowing intuitively when an idea is adding enough value to justify the additional complexity. Spelunky isn’t really affected by what I do with a sequel – it will always exist in its ‘pure’ form. To really evolve the concept, I can’t be completely tied down by the original game.