Spelunky is a roguelike platformer developed by Mossmouth and released in 2012. Players explore procedurally generated underground caves filled with traps, monsters, and treasure, dying frequently and starting over with nothing — yet carrying forward the knowledge of how the game works. It is widely considered one of the defining games of the roguelike renaissance.
Spelunky began as a free PC game made by Derek Yu in 2008, inspired by classic platformers and roguelikes. The HD remake, developed with Andy Hull, launched on Xbox 360 in 2012 and PC in 2013, introducing refined visuals, new content, and local multiplayer. The game distils a seemingly simple premise — get from the top of a cave to the bottom — into a system of extraordinary depth and emergent possibility that rewards hundreds of hours of dedicated play.
Each run generates a new layout of four themed worlds: the Mines, the Jungle, the Ice Caves, and the Temple, followed by a secret final area for those who discover the game's hidden path. Every room is assembled from handcrafted tiles recombined procedurally, ensuring the layout is always fresh but never unfair by design. The player has a small health pool, limited bombs and ropes, and dies permanently from any number of hazards — arrow traps, rolling boulders, shopkeeper shotguns, or a simple fall from too great a height.
Death is the engine of learning. Each run lasts minutes early on, but the knowledge gained — which tiles hide traps, how enemies patrol, the value of particular items — compounds into genuine expertise. The game contains dozens of interlocking systems: a complex item economy, hidden altars and sacrificial mechanics, a ghost that appears if the player dawdles, and a secret chain of objects and locations that leads to the true ending. Discovering these systems organically, without guides, is considered a rite of passage by the community.
Local co-op supports up to four players, adding chaotic friendly-fire comedy to the otherwise solitary experience. The daily challenge mode — a single fixed seed run scored globally — became a focal point for competitive play and speedrunning.
Spelunky received widespread critical acclaim, earning a Metacritic score of 90 on PC. It was praised for its seemingly infinite replayability, its elegant design economy, and the way it made every death feel instructive rather than arbitrary. It appeared on nearly every major end-of-generation best-of list, including Edge's 100 Greatest Games and IGN's Top 100. It is frequently cited as one of the most influential games of the 2010s, directly inspiring a generation of roguelikes and platformers, and remains a touchstone for discussions of procedural generation and emergent game design.