1.26 Released!

ːspel2caveːːspel2caveːːspel2caveːːspel2caveːːgoldidolː I'm very happy to announce that with the release of v1.26, we've reached a big milestone with Spelunky 2's online multiplayer. You can now play Spelunky 2 online, with friends or random players, in Adventure Mode or Arena Mode, and now... between all available platforms (Steam, PS4/PS5, XB1/XBX, Switch) through cross-play! With that, I feel like all of our major goals for online multiplayer have been met, but to be clear, we will still be monitoring social channels for feedback and plan on making further improvements to the Spelunky 2 online experience.

Shout out to BlitWorks for their tireless efforts to make this possible!

As Always, Thanks For Your Patience

We really appreciate that so many players have stuck with us as we worked on online multiplayer. Trust me when I say that we always feel frustrated ourselves when something doesn't work as planned or we're forced to delay a release. I wanted to spend a little time explaining why the delays have been so long, for those that are interested. If you're not, just accept my apologies and my gratitude and then feel free to skip to the next section! ːspel2cavelː

I think I've said this before, but it bears repeating that Spelunky 2 is pretty complex for online multiplayer, despite "just" being a 2d platformer. At it's worst (for online, I mean!), there are four players running around a double-layered level with destructible terrain, liquid simulation, and high interactivity, where nothing in the level can be disabled temporarily, even when it's out of view. On top of that, it's a fairly fast-paced and detailed arcade-style game. So there's a lot to keep track of at any given moment.

Being multiplatform also adds many challenges - not just technical ones (and those are significant, of course), but also communication ones. Often, resolving a problem, even if it seems minor, can take days or weeks as people communicate back and forth across different companies, departments, languages, and time zones. Every platform has its own unique way of handling things, so getting everything lined up is tricky. This was particularly true for cross-play.

That being said, you may wonder why we don't simply take all of this into account when we give our release date estimates and pad them out more? The truth is that when we give our estimates, those are our actual internal estimates, and it may seem hard to believe, but we do pad them out! So those dates are the dates we're genuinely aiming for, with confidence. Game development is so hard to predict, though, and a lot of times it's not one thing, but many things that add up, and X gets delayed long enough that suddenly Y takes priority. And then Y has its own unforeseen delays, etc.

So it's tough - we need to be optimistic and ambitious to get these things done, and we want to let you know what we're thinking and planning, but it doesn't often line up perfectly. Some developers adopt a "when it's done" attitude, which makes sense, but can be frustrating for players in a different way. For me, personally, I've been thinking about how to handle release dates in the future, and I'd like to continue giving estimates, but probably less frequently, and definitely with a more neutral (i.e. less excited) tone and some clear warnings that they are estimates only and players should only purchase the game as-is.

FAQ

Are you planning more updates after this one? As I said above, yes! Our next steps are to collect feedback