Spelunky (Boss Fight Books Book 11)

by Derek Yu

What the games and the disks elicited was a real feeling of mystery and excitement that is hard to come by in the era of online trailers, reviews, maps, and walkthroughs. While some of the games, like Hack, were genuine classics, and others, like Madame Fifi’s Whorehouse, were little more than novelties, they all had the air of a real adventure around them, magnified by my youthful exuberance.

In truth, there’s a lot about the games that I’d rather read about in wikis and spoilers than experience firsthand, in the same way that someone studying medieval history might not actually want to ride into battle in a full suit of armor.

When I die in a game, it’s frustrating but it makes me want to keep trying and improve. To him, it was insulting.

A patient brings his or her symptoms to the doctor (“My stomach hurts!”) and may even offer a possible solution (“I think it could be the flu!”). In that scenario, it’d be a bad idea for the doctor to either dismiss the validity of the patient’s symptoms or to blindly accept that they have what they say they have. Like patients, players are often most in tune with how they feel about the problem rather than what is causing it. Doctors and game developers, with their experience and knowledge of their field, need to ask questions, perform tests, and eliminate possibilities in order to zero in on the correct solution.

We think that a cave must have a treasure chest in it, and if there’s a treasure chest it must be guarded by a monster, and if there’s treasure in the cave, then the player must find it, and if the player must find it, then there has to be a map that leads the player to the cave. That feels like good design because we took the time to plan it out and in the end the player did what we expected. But it doesn’t guarantee that the player will feel like they’re on a true adventure, making genuine discoveries.

My worry is that as players we’ve grown too comfortable with being comfortable. We revel in being consumers of products, rather than contributors to a rapidly-evolving art form.

We can’t have everything that we want all at once, though. We can’t know what to expect and also be surprised. We can’t be free from frustration and also be challenged. We can’t go unchallenged and also feel satisfied with our accomplishments. Mystery, surprise, tension, challenge, and a real sense of accomplishment always come at the cost of feeling uncomfortable. Given the opportunity, many of us would rather take the easier road, but that’s usually the less rewarding one.

Moving forward, the decisions are easier. I want to make my casts even more diverse and less stereotypical, because I think it will make the games better. I’m also going to ask myself whether an idea is vital to my game, or simply the first solution that solves my problem. I’m planning to do these things in the same way that I would make sure that my future games run at 60 FPS instead of 30.