Spelunky Explorer's Club

[KLG-7DD]

http://www.twitch.tv/walkwipe/b/510178013

Shopkeeper again.

[Bored of Canada]

http://www.twitch.tv/walkwipe/b/510178013

Shopkeeper again.

Oh man. You were so bloody close too!

[KLG-7DD]

Unbelievable shittery at the end of today's: http://www.twitch.tv/walkwipe/b/510419582

[Bored of Canada]

My run for today hasn't uploaded onto Twitch yet, and even though I couldn't be arsed with my microphone, I definitely laughed at my probably avoidable death.

Spelunky's great. It's just an endlessly playable game.

Has anyone played Risk of Rain yet? That's supposed to be the most recent big rogue-like-like-like that took vidya jams by storm.

[KLG-7DD]

My run for today hasn't uploaded onto Twitch yet, and even though I couldn't be arsed with my microphone, I definitely laughed at my probably avoidable death.

Ghost?

Has anyone played Risk of Rain yet? That's supposed to be the most recent big rogue-like-like-like that took vidya jams by storm.

Considered it, but wondering if I need it in my life.

[Norton Canes]

What a game. Monsters, traps, jungles, temples, bombs, crystal skulls, jet packs, Yeti...

And no fucking chance of seeing any of them, because for the thousandth fucking time a fucking block turned out to be a fucking poison dart head or a fucking bat flew in at the wrong fucking angle or fucking somesuch random and totally fucking unforeseeable shit happened. 

Fuck me, might as well play fucking flappy bird for all the fucking control you have over what fucking happens.

1/10.

[KLG-7DD]

But you have control over everything. Every death is your fault. Nothing is unpredictable, everything is avoidable. A block doesn't "turn out" to be a poison dart, you can always see them before you get hit by them - so you should set them off safely, find another way around.

Play for 20 hours and you'll know exactly where the bats are moving to. In fact, you'll be able to coax them to where you want them to be (which may well be in front of an arrow trap to trigger it and kill the bat).

[Bored of Canada]

Ghost?

Nah. Got past that level but fell on some spikes...

But you have control over everything. Every death is your fault. Nothing is unpredictable, everything is avoidable. A block doesn't "turn out" to be a poison dart, you can always see them before you get hit by them - so you should set them off safely, find another way around.

...which leads into this point. If you watch the end of that, I'm too busy thinking about the time before the ghost arrives, and getting to the key for that chest I'm holding that I stop checking my surroundings for dangers, and don't look down before I leap. I could have avoided that death if I had just looked down for a second. And even if I didn't look down, my cape would have saved me, but I wasn't even bothering using it, because I wasn't on top of my game and hit the spikes because of it.

It's a fair game.

[Norton Canes]

I can see that it's the sort of game where there is just so much going on you can't be expected to pay attention to everything, and inevitably miss some dangers. But - because, I guess, of the random level generation and monster propagation -  there are too many occasions where you are forced into a spot, through no particular fault of your own, where there is just no way out. Like you say, I guess the answer is to play for 20 hours and let the advantageous and disadvantageous coincidences average themselves out.

One thing I might have misunderstood - is the amount you donate to the short-cut guy cumulative even between sessions, ie when you close the game? Because if I was getting towards not having to plough through everything right from the start each time, no matter how slowly, I would be far more inclined to persevere.

I'm playing the pixelly classic version of the game, by the way. 

[Norton Canes]

Answer: Yes.

[KLG-7DD]

I can see that it's the sort of game where there is just so much going on you can't be expected to pay attention to everything, and inevitably miss some dangers.

That will happen because we're not perfect players, but the idea is that you ARE supposed to see dangers before they appear, through training yourself to recognise patterns and pitfalls. Look before you leap is the primary rule, and you can always do it.

But - because, I guess, of the random level generation and monster propagation -  there are too many occasions where you are forced into a spot, through no particular fault of your own, where there is just no way out. Like you say, I guess the answer is to play for 20 hours and let the advantageous and disadvantageous coincidences average themselves out.

No, you've got it wrong. You can always get out of every level unscraped if you do the right thing. Playing for 20 hours means you get good enough to see how to move around properly, not to average out unfair things. None of it is unfair.

One thing I might have misunderstood - is the amount you donate to the short-cut guy cumulative even between sessions, ie when you close the game? Because if I was getting towards not having to plough through everything right from the start each time, no matter how slowly, I would be far more inclined to persevere.

In Old Spelunky it was cumulative. It's diffferent in New Spelunky. If you get into the game you'll eventually see there's actually not much advantage to be had from skipping levels.

[Norton Canes]

692 games in and finally the head of Olmec crashes into the lava. Bit of a chore that last level, compared to the sprightly mayhem of the previous 15.

[Gavin M]

Get in you beauty - finally beat Olmec at the 444th time of asking.  Like Norton above, the final battle went on for bloody ages as I only had 7 bombs.  I've never been so nervous playing a game before, still shaking a bit now.

[Gavin M]

I DID IT
I FUCKING DID IT
FUCK YOU YAMA
FUCK YOUR STUPID BEARDY DEAD FACE

[Bhazor]

This is the only game I regret buying from Gog instead of Steam. No competitive challenge dungeons with the DRM free version.

Still frickin' love the game though.

[Bored of Canada]

Do people want to start up the Spelunky Explorer's Club again? Or if people are going to do the same with Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and stream the daily challenge, I'm game to pick that up. I loved the competition and hilarity of this concept.

[Norton Canes]

I'm at the 1400+ game mark now, and DETERMINED to get to the City of Gold.

The other week I even got to the locked door on the Temple level, with the Sceptre, having got the Ankh from the Black Market and gone through the Moai statue. Then I realised that when I'd left the statue, I'd forgotten to pick up the Hedjet.

There was cursing.

[Norton Canes]

Another thing I discovered about the game that makes me love it a tiny bit more - when you blow up the large rock that crashes through the back wall when you pick up a Golden Idol, it leaves a tiny rock behind.

Genius. It's the attention to detail.

Edit: Woah! I've just read in the Wiki that you can give Golden Idols to shopkeepers as payment. I thought you had to cash them in at an exit first. This is going to be a big help.

[Norton Canes]

GAME 1838

The City of Gold, at last. And, relax.

[BPFHAY]

I still can't quite get it together to beat Yama. I don't really understand his attack patterns, how the fists work, what makes me keep falling down and where I should be, and it's so hard to get there that I haven't really had more than five attempts. I feel like looking up how to beat him would be cheating a bit.

[Norton Canes]

Given the inordinate amount of time I've wasted on invested in Spelunky Classic, I think it might be a while before I take on Spelunky HD.

[Norton Canes]

Yes! Game 2307, a visit to the Gold City and Olmec ends up in the lava.

[Norton Canes]

Finally bought Spelunky HD yesterday, after getting bored of the Classic version once my win ratio reached about one in six games. It looks great but I'm not super warming to it just yet. I loved the trashy 16 bit-ness of the original; the upgrade plays almost too smoothly. Probably get to like it more once I've got use to the things you can't do that you could in Classic, like drop ropes or bombs in front of arrow traps to set them off. Also it's a major bugbear that you get a chill up your spine when the ghost appears, rather than as a 30-second warning. Would it have killed them to put a countdown on screen?

Anyway Spelunky 2 out soon.

[Norton Canes]

So, yeah. Been playing for a couple of weeks now and not really keen. It sure looks pretty. I like the pugs. But as I intimated above, there are to many small annoying things that make it even more frustrating to play.

Like...

• Seems harder to get around the mines, and therefore accumulate cash. Features like the shopkeeper in the isolated cell take up so much room they block access to other areas. Also
• The boulder is far more destructive. It generally doesn't stop until hits the lowest floor. Why would you ever risk setting one off, unless you'd scouted all the levels below for altars and shops?
• This one's small but a real pain, and again stops you accumulating as much money in the mines - in the original, when you fell past a sheer face that had a push block covering a passageway, hitting left or right as you fell would push the block, stopping your fall and giving you access to the passageway. Now you just fall past it. So unless you've got sticky bombs there's no way in.
• Beyond the mines, the bonus levels are way too difficult, in a sort of 'why should I waste my time with them?' type way. It would have been better to include them in the normal flow of the game, make it six or eight areas long instead of four
• Sorry, five. Forgot about Hell.
• And the Udjat Eye now only seems to be activated when you're practically on top of the concealed door to the Black Market. Bye bye, Black market.

I think the bottom line is that the HD version doesn't hold much extra allure for anyone who's hammered the Classic version to death.

[Norton Canes]

Oh and the worst thing - on the dark levels, only getting one torch instead of a crate of three. Three torches gives you a fighting chance to see what's up ahead and come out of a dark level with something. With one torch it's just a case of getting through alive against the odds.

OK I'll stop going on about Spelunky four years after everyone else got bored with it.

[bomb_dog]

No, don't. I'm still playing the HD version with many deaths to my name. Got playing the daily challenge a couple of years ago and made it to the low 600s... how I think I'm in the 700s due to a lack of being able to commit to the ghosting grind, throwing potentially hours away only to die horrendously moments later.

Still completed two 4:3 daily challenges two days running last week though, but even with scores in the seemingly high 350,000 region, only came about 44th that day.

Anyone wanna be steam mates as you get to see each other's Daily scores when you've had your go?

[Norton Canes]

Also it's a major bugbear that you get a chill up your spine when the ghost appears, rather than as a 30-second warning. Would it have killed them to put a countdown on screen?

No, as it turns out. Go into options and switch the 'display' option to 'pro', and you get this - note the timer:

[Bhazor]

I've somehow ended up getting a bunch of ultra hardcore Spelunky streamer videos on youtube. As someone who has been trying to just get past the jungle for years now it's deeply upsetting to see some asshole do a true pacifist no gold hell run like its nothing.

[Norton Canes]

Ha! Take that Olmec you burnished twat. Get in lava. At last.

After making practically everything more difficult in the HD version (don't even get me started on the fucking Scepter) they let one massive gimme slip through in the final level - unlike in Original, Olmec doesn't chase you if he's off-screen - giving you all the time you need to bomb through to the lava on the right-hand side (with the 79 bombs I got from raiding the Black Market, thank you very much) before luring him over to his doom.

Three months of relentless Spelunking handsomely rewarded there, I think you'll agree.   

[bomb_dog]

Nice one! It's very satisfying when you complete a run through, isn't it? Makes it feel easy too, but you still end up dying horribly on 2:1 on your next go.