Spelunky 2, a sequel to Derek Yu‘s genre-defining 2008 rogue-lite platformer, is in development. The game’s announcement came as a surprise teaser at the end of the pre-show for Sony’s 2017 Paris Games Week presentation. The teaser revealed no gameplay, so little to nothing is known about the game itself.
Released first in 2008 as a freeware title for Windows PCs, Spelunky is a notoriously tough 2D platformer about descending through procedurally generated levels to discover ancient riches and rescue damsels (male, female, or pug, to the player’s taste) from successively deeper ruins and caves beneath the ground. Inspired by classics such as Super Mario Bros. and more recent indie platformers such as La Mulana, it was one of the first widely popular games to distill elements of the classic roguelike genre (such as newly generated levels in every new playthrough and collecting randomized items) into a friendlier and more accessible shell than the famously obtuse family of games originally from the ’80s. The free version of Spelunky was so successful that a visually overhauled remake came to consoles in 2012, eventually coming back to PC. The game has inspired countless imitators, and has remained a beloved and still-played classic ever since, with a vibrant speedrunning community.
The walls are shifting once again…
Spelunky 2 is coming to PS4. pic.twitter.com/e4zyWaL2Qs
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 30, 2017
The trailer for Spelunky 2 mostly comprised still photographs of the Spelunky protagonist retiring from his adventures to raise a family, with a new generation of aspiring adventurers growing up to assume the spelunking mantle. There was also an allusion to looking up toward the sky and a moon featured in the logo at the end of the trailer, suggesting the possibility that players may be inverting the first game’s basic paradigm and exploring upward instead of down.
No release date or window was provided for Spelunky 2, so presumably, it won’t be arriving until 2018 at the earliest. Although the game was revealed during Sony’s presentation, there was no mention of platform exclusivity — timed or otherwise. Given that the previous game has been ported widely, it seems safe to assume that the sequel will be coming to a range of devices as well. You can still download the original version for free here on the developer’s website.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.