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[Valter]

Arrows will currently still hurt you even when bouncing off walls. I think they should stick into walls, or at least hit them and then fall down the side, instead of ricocheting all over the place. It's currently really irritating.

EDIT: Currently, if you hold the run button down while the level starts, you get a bug relating to friction.

[Saladan0]

Hey, Derek, just want to say you have a real gem here. Its addicting, and albeit a little frustrating when GOD himself seems to kill you without you able to do anything, but that aside this has probably been the best game ive DLed and played in quite a while, good job.

EDIT: What I mean by act of god is that things happen that you have no control over, IE Throwing a rock, bouncing off two walls, a ceiling, hitting the player which launches him off the side, getting shot by TWO arrow launchers on the way down killing him and promptly having the body landing on some spikes.

You may think im exaggerating but this really happened, it was the farthest ive gotten, and I should have be en screaming in frustration, but I was to busy laughing so freaking hard.

[jkd003]

Great game Derek!
In fact, I would say spelunky is already my favorite game out of all the ones you have produced over the years.
Your blend of two great game types works wonderfully and I have really enjoyed the challenge.
It took me 100 deaths to get the first tunnel shortcut, but the forest level really disappointed me.

Trees are a pain the the behind, I often find myself in a situation where I need to use a bomb or rope to pass a tree because there is no other way around it without climbing gloves.  I don't think they add anything to the game other than a way to steal resorces from the player and potentially trap him.

Vine spike pits slow the game down. They are incredibly dangerous and force the player to slowly travers them, punishing them with a instant death if they fail.

And because of the above two, Risk of the ghost booby-trapped Golden Face idol is not worth the pay off at the end.

Although the randomly generated Trees could be played with so the player almost always has a way over them if he follows the standard route, and the vine spike pits could be improved simply by shortening their length(perhaps one vine over a smaller spike pit or a swinging vine), I think the Ghost booby trap may as well be cutout unless you can give the player a much bigger reward than 5000(is that the payout of the idol? I cant remember) and the blocks over water pit trap is fantastic.

You also have the added man-eating plant who not only can take several hits like the caveman, but instantly kills anything it touches and is jump proof. I think this makes it rather overpowered and steals a lot of the thunder from the caveman.
There is no need to have 2 different enemy's running around soaking up damage and the instant kill is rather harsh.
Some alterations you could put in to balance the plants strength:
when you are gobbled by the plant you stay in its tummy and slowly lose HP, the only way to free yourself is to mash [jump]. Make it possible to escape the plant losing only 1HP if you mash fast enough, and have a successful escape kill the plant will make players just as wary of it as always, while saving them from a possible cheap death.
or the lazy way and reduce its hp to 1 like the bats.

On a note unrelated to the forest level, I think you should really take advantage of this game being on a PC platform.
The one thing you have plenty of is hard drive space.
It would be FANTASTIC if you added to the main menu a TREASURE building.
Inside the TREASURE building you would have on the right the mounted body's of your fallen foes and a number below it declaring exactly how many of that monster you have killed.
And on the left you would have a museum of every treasure item you have found as well as a count of how many of each item of course.

The only items and monsters counted would be ones added to your score after you pass a level.

Lastly a lot of the items acquired still confuse me.
I have no idea what the treasure you get from the locked box does, and it took me forever to connect rescuing women with restoring HP. It would be nice if you got a log of every item earned as well as information as to what it does.



I hope I'm not being too rude, just trying to give advice to improve a game I already love!

EDIT: oh, one more thing: it would be fantastic if you could pick up and throw knocked out enemy's like the cave man and man eating plant.
Of course you would have to then add a warning animation as they are about to wake up and damage the player if they hold a conscious enemy. 

[Eclipse]

Spelunky is the new Cave Story.

Pixel who? we got Derek Yu! 



This game is a freakin drug. 

[Derek]

Glad you guys are enjoying it!

Wouldn't you know, I found a couple bugs in the new build - nothing major, not worth a new version number, but worth fixing.  It's been reuploaded - the link's the same!

jkd: Thanks for you feedback.  Not rude at all.  The Jungle definitely requires a different kind of play.  Let me address each of your issues one at a time, because I think you have some good points there.

Trees - There are more ways to get around the trees than just the climbing gloves, although yes, sometimes you are forced to use bombs or ropes!  I think the trees do add something, though... besides making the landscape more interesting, you can use the branches to escape enemies or break your fall.  A few people have mentioned being annoyed by them, though, so I might reduce the number that appear on the "beaten path."

Spike Pits - I like these because they're not too difficult to get across by themselves, but feel really dangerous and can be very dangerous with enemies around.  Danger is good!

Cemetary Idol - I agree with you on this one.  The risk/reward is out of whack, because Ghosts are really fierce.  It should probably be a special type of idol that gives you a bigger bonus.

Man-Eaters - Like the spike pits, I like these because they are not too difficult to get by, but feel very dangerous.  And in general I like to avoid button mashing.  I allowed it for the webs because it's not very intrusive, but I think it might get annoying with the Plants.

It sounds like you got to the Jungle fairly recently.  The more you play, the easier it should seem.  And a lot of the tough spots can be circumvented with bombs, ropes, and items.  It's actually probably easier to start from the beginning, since you can bring more gear with you into the level.  The shortcuts are mostly for practicing.

I'd love to add more stats and stuff but I might not get around to it for awhile!  One of the reasons being that I hacked GM's highscore table to store the data the game currently saves and I've already maxed out my 10 available slots.  I could always save to file but then anyone could edit their stats until I figured out how to encrypt it.

Thanks for the feedback!

Spelunky is the new Cave Story.

Pixel who? we got Derek Yu! 

You're basically asking to get me flamed, but maybe that's already unavoidable.  I'm glad you dig the game, though, dude!

Shoot, I gotta go wrap presents now!

[Tanner]

Suggesting a climb-up move again. I just died twice with the "overshooting the ledge and landing in spikes" bit.

[Cheater‽]

I'm glad you dig the game, though, dude!

I see what you did there, Derek.

[jkd003]

You are right derek, I have just gotten to the forest level, I'm sure I'll get used to it as I play more.
And it might actually be a good thing to have a hackable save file.
This is a very challenging game, and I think that a lot of people who download it wont have the determination or patience it takes to get very far. Unless you are planing on putting up online rankings, I don't see whats the problem with leaving the game open to cheating. Its a good way to give less committed players a chance to see everything in the game with a simple Google search without dumbing down the game.

[Eclipse]

You're basically asking to get me flamed, but maybe that's already unavoidable.  I'm glad you dig the game, though, dude!

uh? why?
....sorry 


i think you guys are asking too much, i mean, keep in mind that Derek can't adjust the game to everyone preferences in terms of gameplay. Also, one of the things i appreciate the most in games is the quality to have fun even while dying. Even if the game is tought i think a skilled player can have a pretty fair game, and dying in several and funny different manners keeps me want to retry it. There's the same feel i've found only in the best roguelikes here and that's refreshing in a platform game, i really think Derek nailed that point!

[Xion]

= [SECRET] now turns [SECRET] into [SECRET].

WHAT! I MUST KNOW!

[Valter]

= [SECRET] now turns [SECRET] into [SECRET].

HOLY SHIT REALLY?

[Cheater‽]

Keyconfig doesn't include flare button.

Edit: Also, recent breaktroughs in pixel art analysis (pixelanalysistology) has led me to the conclusion that the idol was inspired by Mr. T

[PixelScum]

Using Key Config unchecks the resolution, not sure if this affects anything or is purely visual but I figured you'd want to know.

Edit: Oh and I forgot, sometimes enemies will go active without you actually being near them, seems to happen often in the middle of the map and seems to only apply to the spiders, giant spider included. Could apply to others though, I just haven't noticed it with anything but the spiders(as they're probably the most annoying enemy in the first world haha.)

Edit2: Also it occurs to me you might want to do something different with the Udjat Eye. As it stands the Eye is harder to get than the Spectacles and is worse overall.

Edit3: Something I don't think was mentioned, pickaxes can be duplicated. Looks like if you stand next to the broken head without touching it, and try to pick it up it'll give you a free perfectly fine pickaxe while not grabbing the broken head.

[Loren Schmidt]

I busted all my money on a jet pack and flew around the level, then accidentally landed in a totally easy to dodge spike pit.

By the way, the ladders and ropes seem to handle better now.

Thanks for doing the D-pad support right! Is it possible to change the controller layout, by the way?

[Zaphos]

Hooray, new version!

exiting the stats room I got this:

___________________________________________
ERROR in
action number 2
of  Step Event
for object oPlayer1:

In script characterStepEvent:
Error in code at line 784:
   xVel*=xFric

at position 8: Unknown variable xFric

edit: also, the thing where hitting a bag with an enemy in it hurts you as the enemy dies is still there.  ... and the two dudes in the intro bug ... ah wait, there's a list of what you changed, heh, I'll ignore bugs that carried across versions then

[Nitro Crate]

I busted all my money on a jet pack and flew around the level, then accidentally landed in a totally easy to dodge spike pit.

By the way, the ladders and ropes seem to handle better now.

Thanks for doing the D-pad support right! Is it possible to change the controller layout, by the way?

You actually bought something. That's ludicrous!
That must mean you've never experienced the wonder of having a jetpack/climbing gloves/mining pick/spectacles. You're pretty much unstoppable, except you become a ton more careless and probably die 30 seconds later.

[Loren Schmidt]

...a jetpack/climbing gloves/mining pick/spectacles...

[Ivan]

Really, really great game, Derek! I played it with a 360 wireless controller and it was a total blast. Probably one of my favorite games this year (or next year?). Anyway, really great job!

Couple of feedback things (if they were already mentioned, I apologize) : it would be nice to be able to configure the gamepad buttons and I had some weirdness with ropes being launched without my consent when i was running and jumping like crazy (is there some combo i was executing or maybe just a bug with the input?)

Anyway, A++, mate!

[FrankieSmileShow]

Wow. This game is SO awesome. I didn't have that much fun with a single game in some time now.

I really like the option to take a chance to stay in the room a while longer to get some extra cash, risking a gruesome ghostly demise...

For the saving encryption, I think you can write to a bin file instead of a text file, you cant really cheat by just opening it up with notepad. You can prolly still cheat with it but it takes a lot more effort probably.

[nanotie]

Hurray I saw the tutorial again ! 
Thank you for considering my mockup suggestion.
(didn't know I could open chests, put down things instead of throwing them ...)

I managed to go to the forest but I would like to be able to save my progression at some point...
If you want to implement a crypted save file, it's very easy with the UltraCrypt DLL made by andrewmc. It has only one crypt/decrypt function and adds only 16kb to your game.
I use it to crypt all external ressources of my projects.
Files look like that :

UHHK
 \]WXXH]WQWT|   e l o  o\{e~! 

D       
  tua l     #,(J   

About gamepad support it didn't work so I had to uncheck it and use Xpadder instead.

I have two simple gampads (no analog sticks) :
Logitech Precision Gamepad (D-pad + 10 buttons)
Thrustmaster Firestorm Digital 3 (D-pad + 8 buttons).

The buttons worked fine but The D-pad is not supported : no directions, and the game acts as if up is always pressed.

I've never had any problem myself with the mouse->joystick1->left/right events.
In GML, the function for the D-pad is :

Code:

joystick_direction(id)

returns 9 possible direction values : vk_numpad1,...,vk_numpad9
(look at the numpad as a compass)
789
456
123

Code:

if joystick_direction(1)==vk_numpad5  ... // no direction pressed

if joystick_direction(1)==vk_numpad2  ... // down
if joystick_direction(1)==vk_numpad4  ... // left
if joystick_direction(1)==vk_numpad6  ... // right
if joystick_direction(1)==vk_numpad8  ... // up

Great, great, great game you have here. Now I'm totally hooked.
I killed the shop keeper and took his gun, good feelings !
Also I can apreciate now the pleasure of not knowing the purpous of all items before you use them.

Thank you again.