Spelunky's Derek Yu Talks Indie Street Cred, Spelunky's Changes On 360

How non-indie can you be and still be considered indie? That was the question on Brandon Sheffield when he interviewed Derek Yu for Gamasutra. Yu may not be a recognizable name to every gamer, but it's one of the minds behind indie hits Aquaria and Spelunky, which will be coming soon to the Xbox Live Arcade. Even if you are a "famous" indie developer, how indie can you really be if your publishing partner is one of the largest companies in and out of gaming? Yu explains...

I personally don't feel like that's something that needs to be reconciled unless I'm totally bending over for them. If they say, "I want you to put a Toyota Yaris in Spelunky" and I do it, then yeah, that's something I have to reconcile.

They're just providing a platform in there. They're just helping me put the game on their system and providing the marketing and the distribution for my idea and work. I don't have any problem with that.

The interview goes on to touch upon Yu's love for graphics and presentation for games of all sizes, but one of the most interesting things to come from their chat was when Yu mentions how the graphics for Spelunky will be a little bit different on the 360 than the PC version.

I'm going for much more of a painterly look. Kind of like the work that I did for Aquaria. It's going to be kind of cartoony and comical, but... In terms of 2D games, I'm still a big fan of the painted look. I just played Odin Sphere, and I really enjoyed it...

...I definitely want to kind of make it clear that this is not a replacement for the PC version. It's going to be its own thing. It's definitely based on the PC version. The people who played the PC version are going to get it right off the bat and be very familiar with it. But yeah, I like to try new stuff.

I'm glad that Yu sees the value in taking chances with this release and not simply repackaging the PC version for console gamers with little or no thought. To read more about Yu, his projects, and his approach to all things indie games head on over to the full interview. The 360 version of Spelunky is currently slated for release sometime next year.

[Pondering Indie Spirit: Derek Yu Speaks] Gamasutra