A bit taken aback by so few active players

[Illimitus]

especially considering the recent sale!?

Spelunky hurt by limited controller availability?

Perhaps Steam should put a link to controller purchases on front page or otherwise push controllers?

Spelunky hurt by replay value?

I'm just not getting it?

[gk97]

i dont know what your talking about, spelunky has a very strong and active community. We might not be the biggest community but we are one of the most dedicated

[Ladez]

Spelunky has infinite replay value.

[Big Chimpin]

You really would be better off just springing for a 360 controller. It's pretty much the defacto standard at this point and they really aren't expensive. I have a 360 controller and wireless reciever and it works great for every game that I use a controller with. Quite honestly, most third party controllers have poor quality builds anyway.

[Misery]

Dude, this game isn't CS:GO. It's not the most popular, but it's one of the most dedicated. Plus, I'm pretty sure most people who still play the game only play for Daily Challenges or streams since the game has been out for a while now.

[Okihara Jones]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Big Chimpin:

You really would be better off just springing for a 360 controller. It's pretty much the defacto standard at this point and they really aren't expensive.

Well, I agree with half of that. I own a 360 controller and I don't even own an XBox. It's a great controller and it does make some games a bit easier. I use mine all the time with my Arkham games, and Spelunky of course. But I would not say it's a standard. Playing Spy in TF2 on a controller is damn near impossible. If I had to play 85% of my Steam games with a controller I would quit gaming. (Are you listening, Steam Box devs?)

[SpawN]

Yep wireless xbox reciever and controller works for all games that have controller support, my days of stuffing around with other 3rd party controllers are over - its too much hassle.

[very sketch]

700 to 950 players daily is not small at all considering:

-Indie game
-Roguelike
-No online multiplayer

This is one of the bigger communities actually.

[Illimitus]

It's small considering the quality of the game: PC Gamer game of the year 2013.

I want to know what factors prevent it growing, and I suspect the lack of wide spread controller ownership is the key. You can't play this game the way it is supposed to be played without a controller.

[QcChopper]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Illimitus:

You can't play this game the way it is supposed to be played without a controller.

I disagree, some people are better with keyboards than gamepads, many PC players are.

[Ladez]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Illimitus:

It's small considering the quality of the game: PC Gamer game of the year 2013.

I want to know what factors prevent it growing,

That just goes to show how little a game of the year status means in the long run. I don't understand why people put so much trust in it. Which games are worthy of this title is highly subjective, and PC Gamer received a fair amount of criticism for awarding it to an indie platformer. Spelunky features 2D graphics, has a cute cartoony art style, features permadeath, is unforgivingly difficult, doesn't have much in-game progression, and is a platformer. Not exactly the stuff that AAA mass-appealing games are made of.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Illimitus:

and I suspect the lack of wide spread controller ownership is the key. You can't play this game the way it is supposed to be played without a controller.

That is a bold claim, and it couldn't be further from the truth. Spelunky has excellent keyboard controls. I'm seriously clueless as to why some people are going around saying otherwise.

[Illimitus]

Can we be real? The number of people playing a game has to do with the common experience, not the experience of a few "keyboard masters" if they exist. The game plays better with a controller. Period.

[Ladez]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Illimitus:

Period.

No.

I'm being perfectly real. You, on the other hand, seem to state your own opinion as fact. The majority of people preferring the controller doesn't equate to the keyboard controls being bad. That is a serious leap of logic.

Your disregard of the keyboard controls is pointless, if you don't include some elaboration as to why you think the controller is required. But as of now, you're only writing claims with nothing to back them up but your own opinion.

[Illimitus]

I'm not saying hte keyboard is bad. Beat Rougue Legacy with a keyboard, until i got my controller. But the controller is how the game is supposed to be played, for most people. And that is what drives adoption of a game.

[Ladez]

Well I still disagree that it's supposed to be played with a controller, but so be it. I tried both methods and both work equally well. I just don't do well in Spelunky with a controller, it's too fast-paced, so I've committed myself fully to using the keyboard and perfecting my play with it.

Anyways, as I understand it, an Xbox 360 controller or other Xinput based controller is what is assumed when a game advertises controller support on Steam, even if the game supports other controllers. This is also what is recommended on the Big Picture page. If people want to use third-party controllers they should expect complications once in a while, but that can be handled by one of the emulators out there.

So I wouldn't say that Spelunky suffers from limited controller availability. Xbox 360 controllers are widespread, so it makes sense to support that, and everything in the game from installation to launching and playing can be done with the controller via Big Picture.

[Misery]

I exclusively play this with a keyboard. I find it to be way more precise than a controller due to how quickly I can get to my keys—especially the arrow keys.

I will say that gamepads are 'more comfortable', but I will never say that they are 'better to use', because I just don't find that to be true for a 2D game like this.

Also, I beat Rogue Legacy and Super Meat Boy on a keyboard; nearly all achievements on both.