[MAY] Spelunky by Derek Yu

[Liz England]

This month's reading is Spelunky (Boss Fight Books) by Derek Yu

Spelunky is Boss Fight's first autobiographical book: the story of a game's creation as told by its creator. Using his own game as a vehicle, Derek Yu discusses such wide-ranging topics as randomization, challenge, indifferent game worlds, player feedback, development team dynamics, and what's required to actually finish a game. Grab some ropes, a mattock, and your favorite pug—this book is going to dig deep.

https://bossfightbooks.com/products/spelunky-by-derek-yu

There's several Boss Fight books out and I've asked other developers for recommendations. Almost universally people recommend the Spelunky book so I have high hopes for it. Apologies to anyone who hasn't played Spelunky - I try to keep books that require specific games to a minimum. I recommend checking some let's plays of the game to get a feel for the main mechanics.

There's a dead tree (paper) version of the book available but I'm unsure of where they ship do, but I believe the ebook should be available to everyone. If you picked up any games storybundles in the past, double check if you already have a copy - I've seen it up there a couple times.

Sorry for the lateness this month - I got bogged down a bit by life. The book is short so hopefully reading this month will go quickly!

[lcareccia]

Yay! This was on my reading list already, so now I have an excuse to actually read it! Also, this isn't a Boss Fight book, but if you need recommendations for something similar and you're not sick of Dark Souls discourse, "You Died" is A+ reading.

[Jens Bahr]

Finished the book tonight. Excellent read, can't wait to get my hands on more Boss Fight books. What struck me about Derek Yu's argumentations was that he clearly understood what made his game good and knew how to design for that core principle of roguelikes: the rising tension in the player as he progresses through the game. The rising stakes and the mastery of not the game's environment, but the game's soul - which is achieved by randomizing the levels.

I can recommend these videos to supplement the book:

• GDC Postmortem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiDy6CgBKqs
  
• How (and Why) Spelunky Makes its Own Levels | Gamer Maker's Toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqk5Zf0tw3o
  
• And the Solo Eggplant Run. A video that is directly mentioned at the end of the book. I didn't watch it in its entirety, but browsing through it you can feel how the tension ramps up in the player a lot. To the point where he is mostly silent for the later levels. The stakes are so high at that point, he only has one heart left and one little mistake can ruin everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrPeu5NWk0
  

Also, I hope I am not spamming this group by posting my thoughts after reading each book :-)