Five years ago this month, Spelunky HD launched on Xbox Live Arcade. A roguelike with randomly-generated levels and some not-so-subtle nods to adventurers like Indiana Jones, Spelunky soon found critical success and began a long journey including additional platforms, merchandise, hidden secrets, and Game of the Year awards.
But looking back five years later, it’s hard to say anyone could have predicted just how successful Spelunky would become. In the past 18 months alone, Spelunky was featured in Games Done Quick and was the subject of a book and documentary. Most importantly, the game is still played daily on Twitch, with a healthy community that updates new records weekly on fan-run site Mossranking.
To celebrate five years of Spelunky in the spotlight, we spoke to creator Derek Yu as well as Jamie White, a speedrunner under the name Kinnijup who currently holds every major world record in Spelunky.
“I'm obviously thrilled that people are still interested in the game! It's one of those games that has depth but it's buried under the surface (pun intended), so the popularity has mounted slowly,” Yu told IGN. "It's been a bit of a roller coaster for me emotionally. With Spelunky Classic my expectations were next to nothing, so the game's reception took me happily by surprise. Then the opposite happened with the XBLA reboot. The launch wasn't bad, but it wasn't at the level people had come to expect from XBLA indies at the time. Now I'm really thankful that the game continues to build up an audience over such a long period of time.”
Now I'm really thankful that the game continues to build up an audience over such a long period of time.
Among that audience is White, who plays Spelunky daily and just last week obtained the only major world record he was missing. White explained that the random level generation helps keep the game interesting. “In addition to bringing in new players, the game stays fresh for even the most seasoned veterans,” he said.
“We've even got people like Buddy7heElf, former score record holder, who still plays competitively and has played the game ever since the day it came out on XBLA. Daily Challenges have players who have played since the beginning as well.”
According to White, that means the pool of people playing the game stays active, and the constant stream of people is why he keeps playing.
“My main motivation is derived from the awesome community built around the game and the replayability of the game in general,” he told us. “I've met people through Spelunky who I consider closer than some of my closest friends outside of gaming. I've even been able to meet several awesome Spelunky players in real life over the years and chat with developers Derek Yu and Andy Hull on multiple occasions. As far as the game is concerned, knowing that each seed I play will almost certainly be brand new in at least some tiny way is a huge incentive for me to turn it on at least a little bit every day.”
I've met people through Spelunky who I consider closer than some of my closest friends outside of gaming.
Occasionally, Yu himself is among the audience watching, though he admits that it can occasionally make him a bit anxious to watch too much.
“I follow Mossranking on Twitter, I'm subscribed to the Spelunky subreddit, and every now and then I'll lurk on a Spelunky stream, but watching people play my games has always been kinda stressful,” Yu admitted. “Even after all these years, it puts me in a heightened state that's a mixture of excitement, terror, and overanalyzing everything. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing about these records. And when I'm in the right mood, I enjoy watching the runs. I just find it healthier for myself if I dip my toes in the pool every now and then rather than dive into the deep end.”
Still, Yu is grateful to the community, and acknowledges that high-level players have taken Spelunky to a place he didn’t imagine. “The game's out of my hands now,” Yu said. “Players like Kinnijup understand the nuts and bolts of it better than I ever will, which is great. The game feels like it's continuing to grow in front of me, which is so gratifying. It's a living thing.”
The game feels like it's continuing to grow in front of me, which is so gratifying. It's a living thing.
Despite holding so many records, White is modest in describing his accomplishments, and still thinks his records will be toppled eventually.
“The records are all strong and I'm really proud of them, but due to the nature of the game, the random level generation aspect, the records will basically never be untouchable,” he explained. “There's a few up-and-coming players who could snag some of the main speedrun records at any point, and score is always in contention.”
In “Any%,” the category for beating the game as quickly as possible by any means necessary, White holds the current record of 1:39.716. He also holds the game’s current high score, 3,526,575, and the record for beating Hell (the game’s harder, second ending) the fastest, currently at 3:36.363.
“I wouldn't be surprised if by 2020 we're looking at a 97-second run and a 3.6 million score run. Hell will likely go down a few seconds, potentially under 3:30 from 3:36,” he predicts. “It all depends on who plays, how motivated they are, and if we get any new talented players. It's possible the records won't change at all for a little while too, but I think it's more likely that at least some will see improvement.”
Some amount of frustration is inevitable if you want to make players really own their accomplishments.
For his part, Yu is happy to see Spelunky finding so much success, but emphasized that he doesn’t think Spelunky and other roguelikes only get attention because they’re difficult.
“I think there's a misconception that games like Rogue and Dark Souls are appealing just because they're hard, when really the challenge is a small piece of the puzzle,” he explained. “What players really want is for their actions to feel meaningful, and that requires a lot of different elements working together: difficult-but-fair challenges, player agency, high stakes, true secrets, an interesting world to explore, etc. For a long while, it felt like games were designed around this idea that players shouldn't get frustrated or else they'll quit, and that made them feel more artificial despite the technological leaps. These days, it's better understood that some amount of frustration is inevitable if you want to make players really own their accomplishments.”
“Roguelikes in particular had all of those meaningful elements and then on top of that they added the randomization, which, as we now know, is great fun for everyone involved,” he continued. “Unfortunately, turn-based games with ASCII graphics are a hard sell to most people, no matter how interesting the ideas are."
Aside from ports, which I can't confirm yet other than that I'm thinking about them, my part in Spelunky as the current game stands is done.
"So I think Spelunky, being a graphical platformer, played a role in bringing those ideas to the mainstream. That's something I'm really proud of. Dwarf Fortress was also really important for the genre. It pretty much doubled-down on the complexity to the point where it couldn't be ignored. It was one of the games that made me start thinking about the value of roguelikes in modern gaming.”
As more players do get interested in roguelikes, White says the Spelunky community will be there to embrace them.
“The Spelunky community is extremely welcoming to newcomers and always able to offer good advice to improve your experience with the game in general,” he said. “[Mossranking] is the go-to website for all things Spelunky and Spelunky community-related. It's a fantastic resource for players of all skill levels. It's expertly maintained by saturnin55, and receives regular content-related updates and improvements.”
As for Yu, he says he’s always happy to see Spelunky find success, but that he considers the game finished and fans shouldn’t expect any surprise additional updates.
“Aside from ports, which I can't confirm yet other than that I'm thinking about them, my part in Spelunky as the current game stands is done, and I think updating it at this point wouldn't do much for it,” he said. “Not that I feel the game is perfect. Nothing's perfect! But for me, it's done. Spelunky as a concept has never stopped living in my head, though."
Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and still tries to watch Spelunky streams at least a couple times a week. You can find him rambling about Persona and cute animals on Twitter.
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