Nyan Games (Video Game Development)

[PFeng]

Summary:
Trina Silva makes video games with memories she gained from her dream.

*Video game development with cute girls doing cute things and soft yuri sprinkled on top.
*Just want to write about video games that I like.

 

[PFeng]

Chapter 1: Dormir

Kemet Calendar year 6222 June 6th, a teenage girl in a beige onesie was at her desk. Her fair skin and long wavy platinum hair glowed ethereally under the dim light.

She rested her feet on a footstool as they couldn't reach the wooden floor, her face with fine features was glued to the CRT monitor screen in front and her sapphire eyes were filled with determination. With the catchy game music playing softly in the background, she moved her fingers delicately to manipulate the arcade joystick and buttons.

"Yes! Now one more hit... and done. Finally, a successful eggplant run!" Trina Silva threw her arms up to celebrate.

"Hmm, doesn't seem to have any more bugs, guess I can finally wrap it up." Trina yawned after stretching her arms and body, then sunk her back into her swivel chair while watching the ending animation on the screen in satisfaction.

Flip, through the pet door, came an intruder in the form of a big housecat. She had long silver dense fur with tiger-like black stripes, an extra long fluffy tail, and pointy ears similar to lynxes. A coat of white mane surrounded her neck, and her white paws made her look like she was wearing socks.

The cat leapt onto Trina's lap, demanding her owner's unbridled attention as her birthright.

"Evening Luna, how are you?" Trina obliged and started scratching under her chin, massaging her body and combing her long fur as the cat purred. After the service, Trina offered her palms as boxing targets and Luna began practising her Sixty-Four Squishy Paw Art diligently with her coach.

Named after the moon befitting her appearance, Luna is a silver tabby Maine Coon. While already bigger than an average household cat, she was only 1.5 years old and will continue to grow until 4 to 5 years. Maine Coon is the biggest house cat breed after all.

Luna was Trina's 13th birthday and Christmas present from her grandmother. In the past year, this endearing fluff had grown from a tiny furball to now a big loaf and had settled down comfortably as a new household member.

After Luna seemed to have had enough of the sparring session, she looked Trina in the eyes and meowed. Trina answered by offering her shoulder then the cat immediately jumped on it. With the cat properly squished and secured, Trina turned off the electricity and left the room.

She proceeded to the music room to find her grandma, Laurel, at the piano.

Laurel Silva was in her late 50s, she had the same blue eyes as Trina and her short silver hair was always combed neatly to the side. Laurel raised Trina alone by herself, they were the only family members in this household. Trina's grandfather and parents were lost in a tragic accident not long after Trina was born.

Laurel gave Trina a pleasant smile through the lid of the grand piano without pausing the sombre piece, it was one of her original arrangements "Lilium", she often plays this at nighttime. Trina sat down beside her and yawned before leaning on Laurel's shoulder, she listened to the music with her eyes closed with Luna lying on her lap.

As the last note faded into silence, Laurel released the pedal from her feet. She turned to Trina and affectionately tidied up her slightly ruffled hair.

"Going to bed, sweetie?"

"Mm-hmm…" Trina hugged and buried her face into Laurel.

"Well then?"

Laurel proceeded to accompany Trina upstairs into her bedroom. After teeth brushing, Trina put Luna into a wicker basket bed on her bedside table, and then Laurel tugged Trina into her bed and closed her canopy bed's curtain.

"Sweet dreams." With Laurel's kiss on her forehead, Trina went to her dream.

===

Trina Silva used to consistently dream about a different world in her sleep.

The world in her dreams was similar to the real world but had slight differences here and there. Both Earths had six continents with similar shapes but when inspected closely the details were not quite the same, with some missing landmass or islands here and there. Except for Australia which was nowhere to be found in both.

For humanity, Trina initially thought there were drastic differences in human history because of the difference in 4000 years. Later she found out that's simply because the calendar in the dream used the birth of Christ as Year 1 instead of continuing from Ancient Kemet's calendar.

Just like the planet's geography, the overall history and development of human civilisations were similar in the general direction but differed in details. There were two world wars, but in the dream, the second world war ended with the deployment of two nuclear bombs instead of just one. The same applied to the politics of countries, notable historical people and literature. Some were new, some missing and some slightly different.

In the dream, the country Trina lived in was called the United Kingdom or Britain instead of the Commonwealth or Albion. Though these were just menial differences as both countries were still ruled by the same monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, with the exact appearance, personality and impeccable fashion sense.

Her Majesty remained a constant even in a different world. Long live the queen!

Trina explored the dream world through someone called John Smith. John was born in a similar era as her, but as time moved faster in the dream, she was able to peek into the future of a slightly different world. Year 6222 in the real world was probably around the late 1990s or early 2000s in the dream, and the dream continued beyond 2030.

Her experience in the dream was quite peculiar, she couldn't control nor influence the character. All she could do was passively watch John's life like a first-person video. Moreover, she could only see and hear well, her sense of touch was numbed, there was no heat, cold and pain, and her senses of smell and taste didn't work as well.

It wasn't too unbearable though, since she was in some sort of trance in the dreams, and she can focus only on memories that interested her. In mundane parts, her consciousness either drifted away or she had simply forgotten the memories upon waking up.

Through the dreams, she managed to learn various knowledge and skills like writing, sketching and coding from John's experiences and occupation as a programmer.

However, the things that she was most fascinated about were the video games that didn't exist in her world. She didn't really get to play them though, it's more like watching Streamer John's playthroughs, though she can read his emotions and thoughts, so it's like an upgraded immersive cloud gaming experience.

The price for the dreams was she had to sleep twice the amount of normal people, 12 to 18 hours per day, and may randomly and suddenly fall asleep. According to doctors, it was called hypersomnia and narcolepsy. Grandma took her to be diagnosed in various hospitals, but no medicine or treatment worked.

Luckily the condition gradually got better when she was 10, and at the same time, the frequency of the dreams was also starting to drop.

Now at 15, the last time Trina dreamt of John was a year ago, and she slept on average 8 hours every day. While still having problems waking up, she had no more narcolepsy and her body was quite healthy in all metrics, except maybe her height which halted at 139cm and nonexisting chest development. She started to get into a routine of exercise recently, maybe her puberty would catch up? It would be nice to at least pass the 140cm threshold.

Due to her medical conditions, Trina only went to primary school for a week before stopping since she was falling asleep randomly in school and sleeping all the time at home.

Afterwards, Laurel applied for her to be in home education. She already went through schools in the dream anyway so it wasn't much of a problem, the annual examinations were a walk in the park and a home teacher wasn't even needed.

As the dream proceeded further, Trina found out the truth about schools. They were more like juvenile prisons to keep children from bothering their parents or anyone else, rather than a place to actually learn anything useful. Even colleges or universities were only worth enduring if one would like to pursue a craft in fields that were locked behind paywalls of certificates, like medical or scientific research.

Therefore after she was healed, she decided it was still better to spend her time by herself.

Seeing how well she was doing, Laurel had no problem with Trina's decision. Laurel had always doted on her and never pressured her on anything, including academics. Even in music, Laurel as a professional classical musician never forced Trina to learn any musical instruments when Trina showed little interest in practising.

The only thing Laurel insisted on was bringing Trina to the local church every Sunday to socialise.

She did enjoy the visits. The people there were nice and would feed her all kinds of treats. Not to mention the medium-sized church was a beautiful building, she never got bored of looking at the colourful stained glasses, artworks and sculpted decorations.

Singing in the choir was quite fun and the prayer session was fine too, though she would either daze off in the silence or just sleep through it. Trina never really had anything to pray to god, except maybe for Grandma Laurel, but she would go and hug her instead.

Most of Trina's time was free to spend on whatever she was interested in, like writing and drawing things she learned from the dream, reading, listening to music or playing video games.

At some point, she decided she would create the video games from the dream in the real world. This time, she would make those games the way she preferred and play them by herself.

Making a video game would require a lot of things to be done. She can rely on Laurel and her childhood friend Airi for the music part. But she would have to do the rest by herself since she didn't have the capital to hire a team.

Trina had confidence with the advanced coding skill she acquired from the dream and her passable drawing skill, but the game must be manageable enough for a solo project.

3D games were instantly out of consideration, while the technology now did allow for 3D real-time rendering, the workload required will be at least tripled compared to using 2D. Even in the future dream world where powerful tools like Unity or Unreal Engine were available, 3D games were still mostly infeasible for solo or small indie teams.

The only realistic option would be a small 2D pixelated game.

After scouring through her memories in the dream, Trina soon thought of a game that was one of her favourites. It was a lean game where few parts were wasted in the design and was chiselled like a marble sculpture. Most importantly, the game was fun and Trina liked it.

It was Spelunky.

======
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[PFeng]

Chapter 2: Caving

*Spelunky Spoilers*

Spelunky, as the name implies, is about spelunking, also known as cave exploring, or the fantasy version of it. The players will fight through cave dungeons filled with traps and monsters to uncover secrets and treasures.

It is a 2D platformer, a very intuitive game genre: the character can move, jump and attack in four directions. There are many good games that are in this genre, the special twist that Spelunky has to differentiate itself is that it also incorporates the Roguelike genre.

Roguelike refers to a genre pioneered by a game called Rogue, a dungeon crawler game in the dream world, Trina found a similar title in her world called Lost. It was made like 20 years ago in the early days of the computer so the graphics were just simple texts and pixels. It had many unique features, but the main focuses were random dungeon generation and permanent death.

Random dungeon generation uses procedural generation to create randomised levels that make each playthrough different and fresh.

Permanent death means that once a character dies, there is no save and load feature and the players must restart the game from the very beginning. This harsh punishment of failure forces the players to consider every decision with careful deliberation, as a result, every single decision has more weight and meaning, creating a more immersive experience.

Spelunky incorporates these features into a 2D platformer, resulting in a game that players can easily get into and have a lot of depth to explore. While players will die frequently and restart due to permanent death, replaying the levels will not feel boring as players cannot rely on prior memory, for the levels will be slightly different every single time.

The first day Trina started this project, she immediately stumbled upon a fundamental problem: Unlike in the future dream world, there was no convenient video game engine available in the market yet.

Trina wanted to work freely at her own pace so she didn't want to join other studios. The other solution was to try and get a development kit from a game console. However, with the ongoing console war battle royale, she didn't know which one to choose as these were different games and companies from the dream. More importantly, she didn't want to be locked down by an exclusive deal and specific hardware constraints that will soon be outdated and ditched.

In comparison, the hardware and software of personal computers can be continuously upgraded and backwards compatible, which is better for game preservation. It is also a multipurpose tool that can be used in pretty much everything. PCs will likely increase in usage until pretty much everyone owns one for themselves, just like in the dream. The only device that will beat this is the smartphone. In short, Trina was wholeheartedly in the faction of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race.

For the operating system, Minisoft Meadows was an easy choice as it was pretty much a monopoly that was used by most PC users. The only rival was the free and open-source Rinux, which was mainly used by professionals to code and run servers.

Anyway, there was no choice but to start from scratch, the game engine. While John in the dream never had the experience of developing a game engine alone, he did have the experience of dabbling in a few. So Trina knew exactly what functions and features she needed from it. Moreover, it was only for making a 2D pixelated game, so there was no complicated rendering stuff.

Months later, a game engine version 1.0 with all the vital functions was created. Trina named it Lynx on a whim, for no reason other than that the lynxes are objectively cute, fluffy, majestic and capable. Trina liked lynxes, which was why Laurel got her an even better cat, Luna the Maine Coon.

With the tool ready, the actual game development can finally begin.

Everything started with the character's movements: How the character feels when moving around, jumping and falling. Spelunky is a brutal and unforgiving game, therefore the movement has to be responsive and precise, giving players the required control to meet the challenge of the game. There is also a mechanic to hang on the ledge of the platform, where the player can then climb up or drop off.

Next was the main and default attack, the whip was one of the few things she changed from the original game. The original whip was deliberately clumsy, where it first swung to the back only then hitting the front. This unique animation made the weapon feel special and was fine, the problem was that the attack didn't cover the diagonal front of the character. The intention was to mimic a real-life whip that only snaps at one spot, but this made the whip unable to reach flying enemies which approach players from the top side.

The original solution to this was to whip backwards, letting the initial swing to the top back hit the enemies. That was a pretty cool mechanic, but Trina felt that it is a bit too counterintuitive to hit the enemies while facing away, most players probably cannot figure this out on their own. The common bats in the first level weren't supposed to be such annoying foes!

To solve this Trina simply made Spelunkers to be able to aim diagonally by holding side and up. The drawback is that the character will move towards the aiming direction while executing this attack, but it isn't too difficult to time it and this fits with the risks and rewards philosophy of Spelunky. Experienced players who discovered the back whipping can utilise it to their advantage while the new players won't be too punished. This also gave players another layer of precision control.

What followed next was the key mechanic of character grabbing and throwing.

Most objects in the game can be grabbed and then thrown. Rocks, arrows, pots, skulls, stunned enemies, dead bodies, and even the small rats that can't deal damage and are just running in the background. Players often need to throw things to disarm arrow traps or damage enemies. This mechanic is an important part of Spelunky's gameplay loop. Since the character can only carry one object at a time, players have to constantly juggle between things to grab throughout the level. Weapons, throwables, damsels or trophies, all of them have different usages.

This was also the part where game physics needed to be coded. Things will be thrown at an arc, and thrown objects can damage the enemies and players. This can result in some unexpected domino effect, where something the player throws may ricochet off the wall and hit the player back, or trigger something else to fall on the player.

The next thing was to equip Spelunker with the ropes and bombs. Ropes are to be deployed upwards and let the player reach otherwise unreachable places, while bombs are used to remove blocks that block off the path. While they can be used in combat, these are the main consumable items used in navigating the map. Players are started with 4 of each at the start and can get more by finding the item crates or from shops.

After the character movements and tools felt right, the next was to design the maps that Spelunkers would be exploring. The level design is the most unique feature of Spelunky. Every level will be randomly generated using an algorithm, but not entirely random, as that would result in a messy map with dead ends and no focus, which wouldn't be fun to play.

To start with, each level is made of 16 rooms stacked together in a 4x4 grid. Every rectangle room consists of 8x10 tiles, where each tile is made from either a block to stand on or an empty space to move through.

At the start of map generation, a main route will first be created. The starting point will randomly be one of the top 4 rooms, then it will then randomly place a room to the left, right or down. This will continue for the next room until it eventually reaches the bottom layer where instead of going down to nowhere, it will create an exit to the next level. Every room in this generated route will have openings to both left and right, and rooms that are connected vertically will also have openings on either the bottom or top. With that, all rooms in the route are connected and the player can move from the spawn entrance to the exit without getting stuck.

The rest of the unused rooms will be filled with rooms with random openings, where they can be connected or walled off from the main route. If they are blocked off, players that want to access these optional rooms will need to use items like ropes and bombs or equipment like a pickaxe to remove the blocking ground tiles.

All rooms will then be randomly given a different template based on the type of openings: the corridor rooms with openings on the left and right, the drop-down rooms with an opening on the bottom, the landing rooms with an opening on top, and the optional rooms that are not on the main route.

These rooms are made from 8x10 tiles, each template has a fixed route with blocks to stand and empty space to move through, where players can travel from one opening to another. The routes can either be a simple straight line, a hill that goes up and down or a ladder to climb. The remaining tiles will be filled up randomly with empty spaces or different templates of platforms.

Finally, after the basic level layout is generated, every tile will roll a die to generate blocks, traps, monsters and golds with different perimeters and percentages to fill up the map. These had to be added slowly as there are a variety of areas with their specialities.

Four main areas that the player must navigate to reach the final boss Olmec are the Mines, Jungle, Ice Caves and Temple. However, to fight the hidden boss, King Yama, players need to collect unique items and go through 3 additional hidden areas, the Black Market, City of Gold and Hell. There are also other standalone hidden areas: Haunted Castle, Worm and Mothership.

Each area has a unique design in terms of looks, terrains, traps and monsters. The starting area, the Mines, is an abandoned underground mining cave. It mainly consists of brownish rocky terrain with narrow tunnels, there are man-made timber supports, platforms, ladders and explosive powder from mining operations. Spider webs, arrow traps and spikes are plenty and some skeletons may be disguised as a pile of bones. There are also danger noodles slithering around, spiders that jump, bats that fly, scorpions that sting and cavemen roaming around. The monster may also be hiding inside the pots.

The next area, Jungle, is filled with greens and has slightly larger space than the Mines. This area is significantly more dangerous as it is filled with more spikes, tiki traps that shoot out even more spikes and Mantrap Flowers that eat anything in its vicinity. There are frogs jumping around or exploding and piranhas swimming peacefully in the ponds. The mischievous monkeys chilling on vines will not deal damage but will steal and stun players to the potentially fatal ground. A bee hive room may also spawn with aggressive bees and a queen bee guarding it.

With the Udjat Eye, an item that can be obtained in the Mines, players can locate the entrance hidden inside the jungle floors to get to the Black Market. Multiple shops are set up there and a unique item, The Ankh, is sold here. It can resurrect the player once and is the 2nd key item to reach King Yama.

Sometimes the Jungle level may have a Restless Dead variant, which spawns undead monsters and the entrance to the Haunted Castle. The Haunted Castle housed undead monsters like skeletons, vampires and jiangshis. There is also a mini-boss Black Knight who charges aggressively at players with a large shield that blocks all attacks and can crush anything into the wall.

There is another special level which can be accessed by sticking a damsel to a sticky meatball on the Jungle's wall. It is actually a giant worm's tongue, which will be triggered to come out and swallow both damsel and spelunker into its stomach. The Worm is the only narrow and long map that is made from 2x12 stacks of rooms instead of 4x4, mimicking the body of the worm. The area is made from grotesque flesh that jiggles upon contact, there are also blocks that grow back after being destroyed and acid pools that deal damage over time. Weird Bacteriums and worm babies live here. Players can find the Crysknife which is a powerful melee weapon that can one-hit kill any enemy.

The Ice Caves is an icy blue large open area where players can move around freely, but risk falling off to death as there is no bottom floor but the abyss. To aid with this, Spelunkers will be sliding around on the icy floor unless spiked shoes are equipped and there are floors that will collapse after seconds on contact. Creatures are pretty chill here moving slowly but upon contact, Yetis will yeet players across the map and mammoths will freeze players into ice cubes. There are also aliens that look like green octopi with a mono eye in the Ice Caves, they fly around in UFOs and bring along some spring traps and mines. The 3rd key item, the Hedjet, is found within a Moai Head statue by dying in the level to be revived inside the structure.

The Mothership of the aliens actually crash-landed here and the players can go inside. It is a sci-fi spaceship installed with automated defence systems like spring traps, mines, forcefield gates and turrets. Plenty of aliens patrol here in tanks and UFOs. There is also an Alien Queen who can attack with psychic power. Upon killing it, players can get the plasma cannon with a big blast radius which is the most powerful weapon in the game.

The fourth main area, the Temple, is inspired by the pyramids of Ancient Kemet. It is guarded by mummies and mythical creatures with animal heads and human bodies like the Croc Men, Hawk Men and Anubis. The place is also full of spikes, arrow traps, tiki traps and the new crush traps, which slam into the floors and crush anything in between. The Anubis will drop his Sceptre upon defeat and together with the Hedjet, players can unlock the door to the City of Gold. The City of Gold is an area similar to the Temple, but the floors are made from gold blocks, here lies the Book of Death which is the final key to unlock the door to Hell.

The players will then proceed to Olmec's Lair to fight the final boss, Olmec. Olmec is an Aztec-inspired, giant golden head statue that is indestructible to any attack. He summons his worshippers and bounces around to stomp on the players. The only way to defeat him is to get under him and let him perform the crushing attack then dodge it. The crushing attack will one layer of blocks below him and eventually he would break through the floors and sink into the lava below. Bombs may be used to speed up the process, there are some stashed above the level.

In a regular run, players may exit through the right entrance and win the game with a giant golden trophy and get blown out to the surface with a volcanic eruption. Alternatively, players can stand on Olmec's head when he is sinking in lava and open the door to Hell with the Book of Death.

The Hell is a very claustrophobic area, consisting of very narrow passageways littered with tiki traps and spinning spike balls. Chains that the Spelunker can climb can be found over spikes, pools of lava, and other difficult-to-traverse areas. There are powerful monsters around like imps, devils and succubi. A mini-boss Vlad resides in his castle, his amulet can grant immunity to lava.

After braving through Hell, players can arrive on Yama's Throne to fight the true boss, King Yama. Inspired by Buddhism, King Yama is the judge of the dead who presides over Hell. As he is a gigantic figure sitting on his throne high above, players have to climb up chains in order to reach and attack him. Plenty of vampires and bats scattered around the map as well as his two henchmen, Horse Head and Ox Face. He will slam his fists causing skulls to fall from the ceiling directly above the Spelunker. After being dealt enough damage, his face will be detached from his skull and float around the area and shoot out magma man. Kill it then exit and that is the win, players will get a different trophy from Olmec and then get to ride the volcanic eruption to the surface once again.

To add more unpredictability to the game levels, there are also variants that can change the map layouts. Spelunkers will comment on their "Level Feeling" at the beginning of a level to indicate what map variants are activated, like "I can't see a thing!" for the Dark level.

The Dark level will be in total darkness, except within a certain distance of light sources and vision in the dark is limited to a very narrow radius. A torch will be generated on the level entrance which is a portable light source and can light up torches hanging on the wall around the levels. Traps such as Arrow Traps and Tiki Traps will also have candles on them as warnings. Harmless golden scarabs will also be generated around the map to provide more lumination.

The Dark level variant may happen to all levels other than the boss levels. But to help with speed running, it will also not appear in the first level and when players completed the previous level in 20 seconds or less.

For variants of the first area, the Mines, there is the Snake Pit which spawns a long vertical shaft filled with snakes and treasures inside. Another one is the Spider's Lair, which spawns a lot more webs, spiders and 4 giant spiders.

For the Jungle area, the Restless Dead variant has more gravestones, bones and skeletons. There will be a shotgun buried under a named grave. The entrance to the Haunted Castle can also be found underneath the burial site of a skeleton with a gold crown. Another one is the Flooded Cavern, in which the bottom portion of the map transformed into a lake. There are treasures under the lake but it is piranha-infested including a giant one.

For Ice Caves, there is the Yeti Kingdom where the Yeti King resides with his entourage of Yetis. Another one is the UFO Crash Site. Alien Lord with psychic powers will appear in his long narrow spaceship in the map and a jetpack can be found.

In every level, there is also a chance for special rooms to appear, like the golden idols that are valuable but will trigger different traps upon retrieval.

There are also Kali's Altars. Kali is inspired by the Hindu goddess and has a ferocious form with 8 arms. Spelunkers can sacrifice dead or knocked-out creatures or even themselves by dropping them on top of her bloodstained altars. Depending on how many were sacrificed, spelunkers will be rewarded with different items or equipment. The most valuable one is the Kapala, a chalice that lets players collect blood and gain health easily. Though there are plenty of mechanics in Spelunky that will instantly kill the players.

If an altar was destroyed, Kali would be displeased and spawn a group of spiders, even if the destruction was by another creature. Destroy the second one, a ball and chain will be attached to the player's leg. Third, the Ghost will be summoned immediately and in every subsequent level.

The Ghost is a typical locking ghost that looks like a white cloak with a howling face. It is a big enemy that normally appears after spelunkers linger for more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds in every level and moves through the terrain to chase the players. It cannot be damaged and will instantly kill upon contact. It's a mechanic to encourage players to move faster and take more risks.

Every level may also contain a shop. Different types of shops sell different goods: general, bomb, clothing, speciality, weapon, health, hired hand and wheel of fortune. There is also a shop that only sells the Ankh, which is exclusive to the Black Market area.

Standing passively behind the cash machine in the shops are the shopkeepers, who look like normal old gentlemen at first glance. However, players will very quickly find out that they are the worst inhuman monsters in Spelunky. Upon being provoked, the shopkeeper will pull up a shotgun and hunt the players immediately. These monsters can move at thrice the speed of spelunkers and jump high and irregularly from the shotgun recoils. Even after players kill that particular shopkeeper, his buddies will wait at the exit in every subsequent level, even in Hell.

Next are the various pieces of equipment that can change how spelunkers play and interact. Paste from giant spiders makes bombs sticky, pitcher's mitt makes thrown object fly straight, climbing gloves allow spelunkers to climb vertical walls, capes from vampires glides, jetpack flies, and teleporter can be used to teleport, though spelunkers will risk teleporting into the solid ground and die instantly.

A variety of weapons are also included. A mattock that can be used to dig through blocks, machete, boomerang, shotgun, freeze ray, web gun… The most unique one is the camera that can stun normal enemies and kill undead monsters using its flash. The ghost would even stop for a second to pose cutely for spelunkers when used.

All the descriptions of monsters and items were also added to an encyclopaedia for the players to check out. Trina also wrote down different dying messages for every possible way of death, this will show up with a short replay clip of Spelunker's death in the game over screens. The players will inevitably die a lot in unexpected manners, this is to show players that death in Spelunky is part of the fun.

Piece by piece, the game was steadily being filled up. As Trina had a clear picture of how the finished game would look like, there were very few efforts being wasted and minimal playtests required. It only took a little more than a year to finish the game.

======
Support and read ahead on Patreon or Ko-fi.

 

[PFeng]

Chapter 3: Dawn

"Trina, Trina… Sunshine and it's time to rise."

Trina Silva was deep in her slumber when she heard someone calling her name.

Swoosh, the curtains opened up and sunlight pierced through her eyelids, inflicting light damage over time. However, a sleep demon was not so easily exorcised. With her eyes still shut, Trina's arms started flailing around in search of her blanket to burrow into, but it was nowhere to be found. Instead, she grabbed onto the body pillow that was on the side of her bed.

"Ah!" The body pillow gasped as it got pulled onto the bed and Trina buried her face into it. After the initial surprise, the body pillow returned the embrace and adjusted to a more comfortable position, then it used its other hand to toy with Trina's bed hair.

Sensing the movement of fingers running through her hair, Trina's consciousness slowly started to boot up.

"Muumormingg Aimiii…" Trina mumbled as she recognised the distinctive floral scent and the familiar softness of the pillow she was hugging.

"Good morning sleepyhead." Airi Greene smiled gently at Trina.

"Mmmn…" Trina finally managed to open half of her droopy eyes and saw the feminine figure outlined by the sunlight shining through the window.

Airi Greene had long silky smooth dark hair, it was styled in a simple elegant Hime haircut, with straight frontal fringe and cheek-length sidelocks. There was a hint of basil green where the sunlight passed through her waist-long hair. Unlike the radioactive green that some people dyed with, her natural hair colour was of a much warmer tone and more subtle, it appeared to be normal dark hair when it wasn't lit with backlight.

Airi had a different kind of beauty than Trina and Laurel, her symmetrical facial features weren't as pronounced and much softer. Her fair skin and thin lips contrasted well with her big round dark eyes, which occasionally gleamed with mesmerising green. These oriental traits were inherited from her mother who was from Zipang.

Being 3 years older than Trina, Airi had a well-proportioned body with healthy development at her 18, opposite to Trina's under-developed height and third dimension. It was evidenced by the ample volume of softness Trina felt on her cheek, and her forehead only able to reach her chin after being dragged out of the bed.

With groggy eyes, Trina was guided to the washroom by Airi holding her hand. She haphazardly brushed her teeth and changed into a grey tracksuit that matched Airi's green one. Then, Airi gathered Trina's hair and put it into a ponytail with a hair band, which Trina offered to do the same afterwards.

Trina and Airi had known each other since young. Back when Trina was small, a fatal accident happened to her parents and grandfather. To take care of Trina alone, Laurel left her orchestral activities to be at home all the time. In her free time, she started offering music lessons in-house as a side job. Airi was one of her earliest students, and one that spent the most hours in their house as she lived next door and would frequently come over to practice, there's a grand piano here after all.

Laurel treated Airi like a second granddaughter, she arguably spent more time with Airi than Trina as the latter had little interest in taking music lessons. Trina kind of saw Airi as her sister since they basically grew up together.

Airi's talent for music was apparent and she managed to get her ABRSM grade 8 piano evaluation at 10 years old. That was mainly to convince her parents to let her be homeschooled and not worry about her academic performance since she already can enrol in a university for a music degree with that certificate.

Her obsession was not with mastering the piano but with composing music. For reliability and flexibility, the two instruments she used the most were the keyboard and guitar, along with MIDI and computer. But to understand different sounds, she would get her hands on all sorts of musical instruments, from drums and violins to brass and woodwind instruments. Of course, she cannot possibly come close to mastering all of them, but she probably can play any instrument that's on her hand, albeit only at a basic level. Later she also collected small peculiar instruments as a hobby, like a tambourine, kalimba, ocarina, jaw harp, bamboo whistle and even the screaming chicken.

There was one time Trina mentioned to Airi some artists she heard from the dream that would incorporate random sounds into music, like Haruka Nakamura and Kensuke Ushio. They would deliberately mix in noises from analogue machines like phonograph or piano pedals, from forest, rain or city, and just about anything that makes a sound like footsteps. There was also Cosmo Sheldrake who used sounds from birds, fishes, whales and even coral reefs. Inspired by that, Airi started carrying a portable music recorder around to collect random sounds.

Over the years Airi managed to create some songs and even put up a small album with help from Laurel. When she was asked to make the soundtracks and sound effects for Spelunky, she accepted immediately. Trina didn't insist on the early video game chiptune style of the original, the current hardware and optical disc had enough storage space to include music with a higher bitrate. She simply told her the environments and feelings she wanted for each track.

The end results were some fun Lo-fi jazz that Trina can vibe with. The soundtracks had catchy beats and incorporated characteristics from the environments. The Mines had a slightly eerie vibe with echo effects, Jungle was energetic with sounds of rustling trees, bugs and rivers, Haunted Castle had horror music with a church organ, Worm had grotesque meat and thumping sounds, Ice Caves was mysterious with water droplets, the Mothership was electronic with analogue beeping sound, Temple was in traditional Middle Eastern style, and Hell was intense with bubbling lava ambience. Airi also created different mixes, like slowed-down versions when the ghost appears, and sped-up versions when shopkeepers are triggered.

Some of the special effect sounds can be found on the internet. For the others, they had to experiment with various objects to create, like making swooshing sounds by blowing past the microphone, sharpening a knife, marinating meat in the kitchen, or boiling water. Laurel also brought them to the zoo to record animal sounds for the monsters. It was plenty of fun.

Back to the present, after washing up, Airi and Trina went outdoors via the house entrance. There, Laurel was watering the plants in the garden with a hose, and Luna was jumping at butterflies.

"Morning Grandma! " Greeted Trina as she charged into Laurel.

"Good morning Trina, and thanks for always waking her up Airi." Laurel smiled as she returned the hug and patted Trina's head. Luna also said nyahello by rubbing her body against her leg.

The garden was maintained well by Laurel ever since Trina can remember. There was also another garden in the back but that was more for plants and bonsai that were still work in process, the presentable ones were moved to be displayed at the front.

It was early summer and all the flowers were blooming: daisies, lavenders, yarrows, a few large sunflowers and more that Trina didn't recognise. There were also hydrangeas on the fence and wisteria vines on the wooden roof of the porch swing. A variety of vibrant colours and greens stood out against the backdrop of the beige stone wall, brown wooden door and grey thatched roof of their cottage-style house.

After Laurel was done watering, they headed towards the nearby playground for their morning workouts, with Luna following and moving around them, curiously inspecting any anomalies she found on the road.

This morning routine started when Trina learnt from the dream that early sunlight helps with maintaining a healthy sleeping schedule, and she could also fit it into an exercise routine. Trina knew she didn't possess the willpower to wake up early so she invited Laurel and Airi to join and help her.

"Oooone… One successful pull-up!" Cheered Trina as she dropped down from the monkey bar in the playground.

""Ohh!"" Airi and Laurel clapped to celebrate her new record-breaking achievement. Though they both had the capability to do more, Airi can do 3 reps, while Laurel can pull 12 despite being in her 50s as she had been training consistently for decades.

Anyway, a win is a win, and that would be the only pull-up she would do today. She proceeded to do push-ups, sit-ups, crab holds, squats and hamstring stretches, each only for one set with the few reps that she could manage. She knew how unmotivated she was in physical exercise, so she decided on a simple full-body routine with the absolute minimum requirements.

The main goal was to just bathe in the sunlight like a photosynthesizing plant to set her circadian rhythm, the workout was a bonus. Moreover, she was content knowing just by being able to continue this daily routine, she had already exercised more than the majority of people in modern society.

Trina was done in 10 minutes but Airi and Laurel took longer as they would do more sets. She followed Luna to explore the area, admiring the rustling leaves, majestic trees and the beautiful morning sky. After a while, she went back to Laurel while Airi went jogging on the track.

Trina and Laurel faced each other and put a long strap around them to lean on. Using each other as weight resistance, they started walking forward and backwards on the grass. Apparently moving backwards was good for the knees. Trina suggested the exercise for Laurel's fitness as she was approaching older age, though Laurel's body was still at least twice as stronger as Trina's.

"So you are going to Bearcade later?" Asked Laurel, walking back and forth was pretty relaxing, and it allows for some chit chats.

"Yeah, Mrs Turner would accompany me there. This should be the last time, there shouldn't be any more problems."

"Remember to bring your handphone, call me immediately if anything happens."

"I will. Don't worry, Mrs Turner will take care of me."

Mrs Bailey Turner came knocking at the door in the afternoon when Laurel and Airi had already left for the music school. She was a professional-looking woman in business attire, with auburn hair tied neatly in a ponytail.

Laurel had known her at the church and they were friends for a decade. Years ago she retired from her management job to raise her children, now that they are at the age to attend school, she finally had some free time to spare. When Laurel asked, she agreed to be Trina's secretary to handle the business stuff. Today Mrs Turner was here to bring Trina in her red Mini car to Bearcade's headquarters, an arcade games machine company.

When Trina was making the game, she realised Spelunky was really suitable to be played in an arcade machine.

The popularity of arcade gaming had peaked and had been in decline with the rise of the home consoles and PC that offered much higher value per cost. There were some rises with the introduction of fighting games that offered competitive player vs player, but that too will soon be replaced by the increasingly higher bandwidth of the internet. Arcade games will eventually be left with ones with special hardware like light guns, racing wheels and dancing pads.

However, that's in the future. For now, there was still some market for arcade games with traditional arcade joysticks.

As the game was completed, she took it to Bearcade. It was a company that mainly licences and distributes arcade games from Zipang to Europa. They were impressed by the game and agreed to publish it. With the help of Mrs Turner, Trina managed to negotiate a deal of 1-year exclusivity as she wanted to release it on PC later as per her original plan.

After signing the contract, Bearcade showcased Spelunky at the Video Games Expo, an industry-only trade event in Londinium. They also handled the other advertising and managed to secure some orders from arcade centres around the country.

Meanwhile, there was more work to be done for Trina. Arcade games need to run on Rinux instead of Meadows to avoid paying the expensive commercial licence to Minisoft. Porting the game wasn't too difficult as she didn't use many complicated Meadows APIs, it was done in a month. Bearcade also helped her with that as well as playtesting and bug fixing.

The arcade machine had two sets of joysticks mounted so local multiplayer was supported. The co-op will make the game easier to progress as a player can revive another by breaking the casket in each level. But of course, friendly fire was also present, it would be fun to sabotage teammates either by accident or deliberately.

One thing Trina changed to accommodate the arcade machine was reducing the levels of each major area to 2. Originally, Mine, Jungle, Ice Caves, Temple and Hell each had 4 or 3 levels, and when players went to the hidden levels, the normal levels would get replaced. She lessened the levels of the main areas and made it so that the hidden areas will be an addition to the main areas.

Now a normal Olmec run will be shorter while the hidden Yama run still requires the same length as before. It will be easier for new players and they won't get bored by going through 4 similar levels. Every level will be fresher and loaded with secrets to discover. Ultimately Trina thought this made for a more compact and better game, befitting the clean design philosophy of Spelunky.

"Here you can change the appearance of the damsels: the sexy lady, the hunk, the Shiba Inu, or the Maine Coon. The default is set at random, you can check or uncheck each one of them.

"This option is to reset the characters' unlocks, and this is for the High Score Board.

"I also fixed the monster's spawning in the Black Market, the shopkeepers shouldn't get aggroed automatically by them now."

Explained Trina as she went through the changes she made to the staff at Bearcade.

"Well, thank you for the wonderful work, Miss Trina. I think this is everything, you may leave the rest to us. We'll start shipping the machines about next week, I'll send you one too."

"Thank you Mr Miles. I will be looking forward to it." She shook hands and bid goodbye to the manager.

======
Support and read ahead on Patreon or Ko-fi.

 

[PFeng]

Chapter 4: Cave In

An aged gentleman limped behind the counter assisted by his walking stick while carrying a mug in his other hand.

"Hmmm… delightful, yet another good ol' peaceful day." George Reid grunted in satisfaction as he sank into his seat and started sipping on his freshly brewed black tea.

The amusement arcade centre was vibrance with colourfully painted machines and artificial neon lights from the screens. Loud noises of various electronic music and occasional exclamations of excitement from customers didn't affect George much as he had been operating the store for years. Frankly, it was almost soothing compared to the deafening sound of artillery, bullets and shouting on the battlefields that still haunt him in his nightmare.

"Hey, George! Here, 10 tokens for each of us." A group of young men entered the store while bickering with each other.

"Sure thing. What are you lads going to play today?"

"Fighters King, Max here said he wanted to show us his new Zankief."

"Oh, there aren't many people here that know how to use him."

"Hehe, don't be surprised. I've mastered a 22-hit combo."

"Hah! Let's see if you can pull that off against my Ryo."

"!" Out of the blue, George shot up from his seat and stared right behind them, the instinct that he honed for years was screaming at him.

"What? What's up with that suddenly?" The group turned back to check in response but couldn't find anything unusual.

"Dude you frightened me, and I thought you had a bad leg?"

George tightened his grip on the cane with a guarded pose as he felt the goosebumps on his arm.

"Do you lads not feel it? The presence that's heading here." He muttered with a serious expression on his face.

"Ww…who?"

"Don't tell me…"

"It can't be!"

*Gulp*

The group grew restless as they sensed the tension in the air, they looked at the entrance in anticipation.

*Tap tap tap…* The steady footsteps grew more audible as the loud noise of the arcades seemed to fade away. Finally, a figure came into their view.

"Hair as blue as the deep sea…"

"Gothic dress as black as death itself…"

"The rumours were real…"

"The One who had conquered and set the highest score on every game in this district."

"This aura… There is no mistaking it, it's the real thing!"

""Legendary Girl A!!!""

The lady paid no attention to the comments as she headed straight towards George. As she moved closer, the crowds parted to make way for her like the Red Sea to Moses.

She produced a 50-pound banknote with a sleight of hand and slammed it on the counter. George moved the stacks of tokens towards her slowly without breaking eye contact. She collected the tokens into her purse and continued to stare at him, cold sweats started to appear on his forehead.

A few seconds of silence that felt like an eternity passed and he pointed his finger towards the new arcade machine installed this morning. She nodded and finally left. The crowds sighed in relief at her departure.

Not a single dialogue was exchanged.

"What was that?" Asked Airi as she was flabbergasted by this absurd event that happened straight out of a fantasy. She was shopping in the mall with Trina and they decided to stop by to check out Spelunky which just hit the market, but Trina was immediately distracted by the cat plushies in the UFO catcher.

"Oh, you've never seen that before, the owner there just loves playing out drama skits like that." Trina glanced back for a second before resuming her focus on the claw machine. She was dead set on getting that La-Lion.

"And apparently that was his daughter."

"What?" Airi couldn't decide if she was disappointed or astonished.

===

Adeline was a game enthusiast who probably spent way too much energy and time on video games, be it on PC, consoles or arcades. Somehow she managed to get a job writing reviews and guides for a game magazine, so she now had an actual legit reason. She can proudly declare she wasn't just playing, she was working hard! She would appreciate it if people could call her a professional journalist with a strong sense of ethics and responsibility instead of some other embarrassing titles.

Today she was here to check out the new arcade game, Spelunky. She sat down after inspecting the cartoon artwork of adventurers and monsters plastered on the machine, they were pretty adorable.

'Only one token for each try, a platformer? There aren't many released in arcades nowadays. Catchy music… and this adventurer's outfit, is it inspired by Indiana Jon?'

Adeline had no prior information about this new game, only that it was published by Bearcade and made by a new studio called Nyan Games.

'Spelunkers select, there are only two characters? Guess I'll use the default guy.'

<The walls are shifting…>

'Okay let's see, joystick to move, this button is for Journal, to check out information? Whip, Grab, Throw, Rope and Bomb. Oh, the bomb destroyed the platforms, neat! The controls are simple enough, let's start playing.'

She started moving the character towards the left and then dropped down from the platform. Suddenly the character got hit by something and knocked down to the ground.

"What!?" She was so surprised she let her voice out.

'That grey tile over there is a trap that shoots out arrows? and that took 2 lives? I have to be careful.' Adeline thought to herself.

1 second later, she triggered another arrow trap and got flung onto a row of spikes. It was fatal and that was the end of her first attempt at Spelunky.

<Impaled: I fell on some spikes.>
<Level: 1>
<Money: 0>
<Time: 0:00:11>
<Kills: 0>
<Total Deaths: 1>

Her jaw dropped while staring at the Game Over Screen with a looping short clip playing of her being shot by the arrow and blood spilling on the spikes. She froze for a few seconds.

"Fufufufu… AHAHAHAHA!!!" With darkness looming on her back, she put a hand on her face and started to laugh maniacally.

"Are you provoking the dark queen of video games? Very well Spelunky! In the name of Legendary Girl A, I shall accept your challenge!" Adeline stood up and declared loudly with an embarrassing pose while ignoring the whispering spectators behind her.

And so, Adeline started her journey of discoveries, sufferings and deaths throughout the afternoon.

At the same time, various players across the country were experiencing the same joy as they plunged into the depth of Spelunky.

"Wait what? How did I die?"

"Oh, the maps are different every time."

"Arrow traps, of course I get hit by those arrows again."

"Did I just hit myself with a stone?"

"Fall damage…"

"Another skeleton, how did I always miss the pile of bones?"

"Oh big spiders, BIG spiders, I really hate spiders!"

"It was difficult enough and now you're telling me to play this in the dark?"

"Wow, a teleporter! …and I teleported myself into nonexistence."

"There is friendly fire in this game? I'm sorry buddy."

"Hmmm, can I hit this NPC with a rock?... Oh okay, that was a bad idea, but the gentlemen also overreacted just a little bit too much."

"Oh, you can blow at things while being a ghost."

"Don't touch that shopkeeper… Oh no, you have no idea what you just did."

"What? He is camping on the exit? How are we supposed to deal with that?"

"Yeah and every level after that. That's why I told you not to mess with him."

"Ok, something will definitely happen if I take this golden idol. Let's see… Oh, it's shaking… Oh wow, that's a big boulder, definitely didn't expect that. Wait, the shopkeeper is angry? But that was not my fault!"

"How did I die again??"

"A terrible chill runs up your spine? And what's with this creepy soundtrack? Oh, a ghost is chasing me, is it because I was too slow? But I can't find the exit, no no no, it's a dead end… death."

"Holy moly, the shotgun is overpowered, I can murder everything! …and then of course I get killed by those spikes…"

"Did the companion I rescued just killed me with a stone?"

"The damsel can be used as a body shield to the arrows? That's morbid… hahaha!"

"Finally escaped the mines, a new area, nice! …and I died immediately…"

"Pain peko..."

"Jumped straight into the mouth of that red flower…"

"Wow, I just got sent across the map."

"Blimey, the second area is so much worse than the first."

"All I can see are spikes, spikes everywhere."

"These frogs explode?"

"Don't mess with me you damned monkeys."

"That boomerang was deceptively fast…"

"What's with that giant fish!?"

"How did I die again???"

…

Meanwhile, Trina got back home feeling satisfied with the new plushies added to her bedroom collection.


======
Support and read ahead on Patreon or Ko-fi.

 

[Koby Edmonds]

Adeline's passion for video games is truly inspiring! Her dedication to conquering new challenges, like the Spelunky arcade game, showcases her unwavering enthusiasm for the world of gaming. Her infectious laughter and determination make her a captivating and endearing gamer. It's clear that Adeline's love for gaming drives her to explore, learn, and embrace every aspect of this thrilling virtual realm.
I had similar feelings when I started playing online games about 10 years ago. And now I have a passion for gambling, I love to play at 7Bit Casino, which you can learn about from the review from leafletcasino.com. 7Bit Casino offers an array of advantages that make it a standout choice for online gamers. With a diverse selection of games, including slots and table games, generous bonuses, and a user-friendly interface, it ensures an engaging and rewarding gaming experience. Plus, it accepts cryptocurrencies for added convenience and privacy. I think that such things may be of interest to many today, so I recommend giving them a try.

 

[ByronVasquez]

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