The co-creator of Rogue - yes, THAT Rogue - chats with us about the creation and legacy of his seminal 1980 game that birthed a genre! We discuss the origins of its key innovations of procedural generation and "consequence permanence," its surprisingly Chesslike origins, and the secret metagame behind Quicken (shhh!).

Rogue

Hack

Nethack

Brogue

Curses programming library

Diablo

ADOM

Moria

Angband

Rogue's instruction manual

Glenn's unused Rogue manual art

Our full crew is reunited, and just in time for a very special guest! Spelunky HD programmer Andy Hull joins us to chat about his time as a toy designer, rebuilding Spelunky from the ground up, and nailing the jelly shader in his upcoming 2v2 basketball beat 'em up, Dunk Lords.

Things we discussed:

Dunk Lords

Mossranking

Klik & Play

Sushi Slicing Play Set

Scoop & Stack Ice Cream Cone Play Set

Bake & Decorate Cupcake Set

What is Bothering Carl?

Spelunky book

Aquaria

Braid

Ridiculous Fishing

Corridor Crew

Spelunky render dupe

Solo Eggplant Run

Indie Tech Talk #17: Andy Hull

Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy

Ape Out

NBA Jam

Lee Petty of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Stacking) drops by to talk to us about their upcoming post-post-apocalyptic roguelike, RAD! We discuss the emergent origins of its procedural design, capturing '80s nuclear angst, and Tim Schafer's love/hate relationship with farts.

Things we discussed:

leepetty.com

Tharsis (iPad)

Brutal Legend

Broken Age

Stacking

Headlander

RAD

Amnesia Fortnight

Psychonauts 2

Grim Fandango Remastered

Brothers Quay

Hitman

Autonomous

Chromehounds

Risk of Rain

Inside Out

The Return of Heracles

Gamma World

Moebius

Talisman

MossRanking creator Mathieu "saturnin55" Legaré and advisor/speedrunner Kevin "meowmixmix" Hyer join us to talk about the history and design behind Spelunky's incredible community hub.

Things we discussed:

MossRanking

mewomixmix's GDQx2018 run

Playing the Spelunky 2 demo at TwitchCon

speedrun.com

Bananasaurus Rex's infamous solo eggplant run

Crypt of the Necrodancer

Nick's Daily Death

Sci-fi strategy-shooter Void Bastards is tearing up the charts, and we've got two of its creators on the show! We discuss worldbuilding via British bureaucracy, telling stories in a world of roguelite progression, and yelling at yourself in your own game...as a pirate.

Things we discussed:

Void Bastards

Embed with Games: A Year on the Couch with Game Developers

System Shock

Dishonored 2

Captain Forever

Card Hunter

Brazil

Red Dwarf

The Stanley Parable

Choose Your Own Anna Anthropy interview

The creator of The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy joins us for a career-spanning discussion of his design ethos, and the organized chaos that drove the creation of the most successful roguelite ever.

Things we discussed:

Super Meat Boy The Binding of Isaac

The End is Nigh

The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls

Gish

Aether

Closure

Dungeon Crawl Stone SoupDesktop Dungeons

Fingered

The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth

Keyforge

Overwatch

Kingdom Death

Brogue creator Brian "Pender" Walker joins us to chat about the elegant design behind his sublime roguelike dungeon-crawler, from the lessons he took from Rogue (and those he didn't), to creating a rich world of interactions while keeping things simple.

Things we discussed:

Brogue

Zach's instructional Brogue stream

Brogue w/ Daily Challenge

Brogue w/ Daily Challenge + Potion change

Rogue

Angband

Nethack

Derek Yu on Brogue

Roguelike Celebration talk: Procedural level design in Brogue and beyond

Hearthstone's Dungeon Run

David Sirlin on balancing multiplayer games

Slay the Spire

Andrew Doull's Ascii Dreams

Unangband

Brian's lessons From the original Rogue post

Brian's Roguelike Radio interview

Brogue's Jellymancer build

Into the Breach

Caves of Qud

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Braid

The crew makes the most of being paired off: Andy and Zach talk climbing documentaries, persistence, and design back home, while Nick and Doug play and discuss some Spelunky co-op on the road in New Zealand. Plus a quick interview with Mini Metro's Robert Curry, one of the biggest Spelunky fans we know!

Things we discussed:

Free Solo

The Dawn Wall

PRACTICE 2016 Talk - Mastering Movement

Notes on the Synthesis of Form

Grow21

Typeshift

Mini Metro

We delve deep into the pages of Derek Yu's excellent Spelunky book, from its thoughtful musings on creativity, to its inspiring lessons in game design. A must-read on how our favorite game came to be! Plus some record-breaking Spelunky news, the Weekly Challenge, and more.

Things we discussed:

Now Play This

Low% Hell World Record

d_tea's back-to-back World Records

Co-op All Journal Entries run

Spelunky book

Boss Fight Books Humble Bundle

TIG source

Derek Yu's Twitter thread on difficulty

Mutazione announcement trailer

Shopstorm, A Spelunky Story

Spelunky Generator Lessons

A Breakdown of 2013's Most Fascinating Video Game Moment

We return home from the Game Developers Conference with hands-on impressions of the new Spelunky 2 demo, while the muse himself Derek Yu gives us a Spelunky 2 development update. Plus Slay the Spire's Casey Yano talks about the design of their hit roguelike deckbuilder!

Things we talked about:

GDC

Day of the Devs

Slay the Spire

Dream Quest

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Cyber Shadow