"When it comes down to it, I feel like art should never be compromised for any reason— especially not to satisfy a certain group of people. [...] There was no compromise for Spelunky."
Derek Yu is an American independent video game designer, video game artist, and blogger. Yu has designed and co-designed several award-winning games, most famously Spelunky, Aquaria, and Eternal Daughter. He is also notable as a blogger and custodian of the influential TIGSource blog/community about independent video games. He has been called an "indie superstar" and a "genuine icon" of the video
"The most important thing to know about video game development and schooling is that no one, whether its an indie studio or big company, cares about degrees. How could it, when some of its most prominent members are drop-outs or never-beens?"
"My worry is that as players weve grown too comfortable with being comfortable. We revel in being consumers of products, rather than contributors to a rapidly-evolving art form. [...] Weve gone from asking "How does this game play?" to asking, "Does this game play the way I want it to play?"
"I like that in general: just having a little bit of unpredictability in each level. And I really like dense level design with a lot going on. I think for this level, the message that I want to convey is "Find peace through hell". And thats kind of my design philosophy in general."
"Feeling stuck? Push forward. Start working on the next level, the next enemy, the next whatever. Not only is it helpful for motivational purposes, but you want to get a sense for how your whole game will play out. Just like writing— you dont want to go through it sentence by sentence, making sure every sentence is perfect before you move on. Get an outline down."
"Thats a type of game that I really like, is one that grows on you a lot over time, and your understanding of it feels like its on an exponential curve. I just hope that enough people are willing to give [Spelunky] a chance, [who may] not be used to that."
"I think my word is "flow" for game design, because I think you want your game to flow, and I think you want your game development process to flow. To me, that means everything starting from a central idea, and then layering on top of that to have a very coherent experience. I think if you develop games that way, [itll come across] to the players, and theyll have a similar experience thats really smooth."