Spelunky! It’s a really, really good book (and videogame)
I’m reviewing all of the Boss Fight Books releases, so subscribe to this channel and click the bell notification icon to be sure you don’t miss future reviews.
Welcome to Burning Books. I’m Caleb, and I want to help you love video games even more. Today I’m doing that by continuing my journey to read and review all of the Boss Fight Books releases. It’s been a few months, but a long road trip over the holiday weekend has allowed me the time to jump back into the stack of remaining Boss Fight Books releases. I’ve reviewed 10 so far, check the link in the description for a playlist and be sure to subscribe to stay updated as I upload new review videos.
Today, I’m talking about Spelunky by Derek Yu, a book named for the game that the author developed. That’s just a convoluted way of saying that this book is written entirely by the subject game’s creator. This is a first for the Boss Fight Books series. And this book is so good, it makes me want to suggest that Boss Fight Books create an imprint entirely dedicated to books authored by the developers of the subject games. But I wouldn’t dare suggest a thing, because doing so would imply that Derek Yu’s simultaneous gifts for documenting, storytelling, and game making operate as a Venn diagram with overlap enough to mean Boss Fight Books could even fill out an imprint.
Selfishly, I kinda want to believe that this book is unique and that I’ve happened upon a secret game dev journal that just, magically, spoke to me. Yes, I’m selfish. I want to feel uniquely mentored by Derek Yu. Because, this book is something special.
I’ve got to back up. What’s going on with the book Spelunky, by Derek Yu. It’s basically an overview of Spelunky’s development, as told by Derek Yu, one of the game’s creators. The book starts by introducing the reader to Spelunky’s genre, the roguelike genre, a video game genre defined by procedurally generated levels and permadeath. This is a great way to introduce the book to the reader, because this is often how most games are introduced to prospective players. “What kind of game is it?” “Well, let me tell you.” That sort of thing.
Yu then digs into a brief history of the roguelike genre. Then he provides his history as an indie game developer, never pretending he’s more accredited or well known than he is. He discusses his relatively brief tenure as a developer prior to Spelunky (creating just two commercial games prior), always commenting on the people and the game dev forums that helped him along the way. He name-drops, but almost always as a way to say “thank you.” In a word, Derek Yu seems really, really nice.
But that’s not why this book is magical. Yu approaches the book as a reflective, life lessons sort of book, confidently offering witticisms that would be too clever if not for the real world stories he has to support the idioms. “A closer Target is easier to aim for” only works after hearing about Yu and his development partners experiencing too-aggressive deadlines for when developing Spelunky for the Xbox Live Arcade back in 2012.
When Yu talks about the need to accept feedback from players, he’s not speaking as an ideologue trying to push you, the reader, into a way of growth that he has not personally experienced. He talks about feedback because he truly wants to convey how important it is for creators to be open to outside influence. During a section on Spelunky’s Damsel character–the helpless woman archetype that the player must rescue in order to regain health–Yu pulls quotes from actual criticism he received. But he doesn’t fight against against it. Never. He instead welcomes the criticism as an opportunity to better understand his games and the players they serve. Here’s an example where he gets away with another almost-too-clever witticism: “it’s not obvious you’re breathing stale air until you step outside.” (pg. 148). If Yu weren’t a game developer he’d be a therapist or a philosopher, and I’d be first in line to adopt his ideas or lay on his office couch.
It’s possible this book resonated with me so much because I just recently started learning a new game engine, Construct 3. This is after attempts and mild successes with Unity 3D and Gamemaker Studio. I go in waves, pecking at game development every few months. Construct 3 is my flavor of the month. Yu’s book is just what I needed, and I think it should be required reading for hobbyist and independent game devs. It’s not a how-to book, but more of a theory book with how-to examples peppered throughout. Just as much as we get philosophical asides like those mentioned above, we also get a rundown of how the randomized level generator works (pages 34-41). And it’s awesome, by the way. If you read only one part of this book–but why would you–read the level generator section.
And just as we see Yu opening up to criticism of the game’s unintentional sexism, we see him open up to the many unexpected wonders that his game’s simple ruleset allows. There’s a cool story of a player who noticed an enemy character walking into a shop. In Spelunky, player characters are able to steal from shops. And when they do, shopkeepers go on a vengeance-filled murder spree, one which the player often does not escape from. The player in this anecdote knew that enemy characters operate under the same rulesets as player characters, so when he saw the enemy approach the shop, he knew to take cover. Because, sure enough, the shopkeeper went mad when the enemy stole an item and retaliated with wild shotgun blasts. After the carnage subsided, the player was able to walk into the shop and take the items from the dead corpses. This wasn’t a scripted event. This was the result of a ruleset so beautiful designed that cool events like this can just happen.
Spelunky by Derek Yu is, I think, my new favorite Boss Fight Books release. I highly recommend you read it. And, I highly recommend you watch the rest of my Boss Fight Books reviews. Just click the playlist link in the description below to watch them all. And while you are down there, click the subscribe button.
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Mentioned
- Spelunky by Derek Yu from Boss Fight Books
- Spelunky (the game website)
- Boss Fight Books reviews playlist
Creative Commons videos
Music Credits
8bit Dungeon Level Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
