Derek Yu

Last updated
Derek Yu
Derek yu gdc2007.jpg
At the 2007 Game Developers Conference
Born (1982-07-02) July 2, 1982 (age 42)
Pasadena, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Game designer, artist, blogger
Website www.derekyu.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Derek Yu (born July 2, 1982) is an American independent video game designer, video game artist, and blogger. [1] [2] Yu has designed and co-designed several award-winning games, most famously Spelunky , Aquaria , and Eternal Daughter . [3] He is also notable as a blogger and custodian of the influential TIGSource blog/community about independent video games. He has been called an "indie superstar" and a "genuine icon" of the video game industry. [4]

Contents

Life and career

Yu's first exposure to computer games was an Atari 2600 when he was a child. Already in second grade, he and a friend started mapping out simple games on paper, later moving on to making text adventures on the PC and eventually using Klik & Play to make games. After graduating college with a degree in computer science, Yu moved to San Francisco and worked as a freelance illustrator. [4]

In 2007, Yu created satiric run-and-gun freeware game I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator with Alec Holowka and two others, in response to Jack Thompson's "A Modest Video Game Proposal", an open letter regarding gun violence and violent video games that offered $10,000 to charity if videogame developers would dare to make a game depicting videogame developers being killed. The collaboration with Holowka later led to the formation of the company Bit Blot and the release of Aquaria in 2007, which was a big success and won the Seumas McNally award at the 2007 IGF. According to Yu, "Not only did Aquaria sell well enough that [Alec Holowka and I] could continue making games full time, but the positive feedback we received from players and critics also validated us as artists and helped to put to rest our doubts about whether we were making something worthwhile." However, Bit Blot never produced another title, and the last update to the company's website occurred in 2011. Yu and Holowka lived in separate countries, [1] and Holowka cited the long-distance nature of the collaboration as a source of tension during a 2008 interview.

In 2008, Yu released the highly popular and influential roguelike Spelunky , propelling Yu's work to the wider mainstream for the first time. A sequel, Spelunky 2 , was released in 2020.

In 2014, Yu designed the card game Time Barons with Jon Perry. [5]

Works

DateTitleRoleNotesRef(s)
2002 Eternal Daughter [6]
2002 DRL Artist [7]
2003DiabolikaRemade as one of the games included in UFO 50. [8]
2003Diabolika II [3] [9]
2006 I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator [10]
2007 Aquaria Winner of the 2007 IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize. [11] [12] [13] [1] [2]
2008 Spelunky PC Gamer UK 2013 Game of the Year. Released for the Xbox in 2012. [14] [15]
2020 Spelunky 2 [16]
2024 UFO 50 Contains remakes of past games like Diabolika and Quibble Race. [17] [18]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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<i>Im O.K – A Murder Simulator</i> 2006 video game

I'm O.K – A Murder Simulator is a 2006 freeware video game developed by Derek Yu, Chris Hanson, Philippe Jones, Alec Holowka and Christopher Howard Wolf. It was created as a satirical response to a challenge by anti-video game-violence activist and disbarred attorney Jack Thompson.

<i>Aquaria</i> (video game) 2007 video game

Aquaria is a side-scrolling action-adventure game designed by Alec Holowka and Derek Yu, who published the game in 2007 as an independent game company Bit Blot. The game follows Naija, an aquatic humanoid woman, as she explores the underwater world of Aquaria. Along her journey, she learns about the history of the world she inhabits as well as her own past. The gameplay focuses on a combination of swimming, singing, and combat, through which Naija can interact with the world. Her songs can move items, affect plants and animals, and change her physical appearance into other forms that have different abilities, like firing projectiles at hostile creatures, or passing through barriers inaccessible to her in her natural form.

<i>DRL</i> (video game) 2013 video game

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<i>Spelunky</i> 2008 video game

Spelunky is a 2008 source-available 2D platform game created by independent developer Derek Yu and released as freeware for Microsoft Windows. It was remade for the Xbox 360 in 2012, with ports of the new version following for various platforms, including back to Microsoft Windows. The player controls a spelunker who explores a series of caves while collecting treasure, saving damsels, fighting enemies, and dodging traps. The caves are procedurally generated, making each run-through of the game unique.

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<i>Desktop Dungeons</i> 2013 video game

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eggplant run</span> Video game challenge

An eggplant run is a challenge playthrough of the 2012 roguelike-like platform video game Spelunky HD. Such a playthrough centers on carrying an eggplant item to the final boss of the game, King Yama, and tossing it into his face. This eggplant item was originally added to Spelunky as part of an easter egg pitched by the game's composer Eirik Suhrke, and Spelunky's lead designer Derek Yu decided to give it the additional function of turning King Yama into an inert eggplant monster.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Road To The IGF: Bit Blot's Aquaria Archived 2008-12-21 at the Wayback Machine gamasutra.com, October 23, 2006
  2. 1 2 Inside Job: Interview; Aquaria Creators Derek Yu, Alec Holowka (page 2/5) Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine The Escapist, 18 January 2008
  3. 1 2 4cr Interview - Derek Yu Archived 2008-01-16 at the Wayback Machine 4colorrebellion.com, September 30, 2005
  4. 1 2 Bradley, Alan. "Being Derek Yu: A Chat With The Creator of 'Spelunky', 'UFO 50'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Time Barons: From Spelunky to Card Games". pastemagazine.com. October 15, 2014. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  6. ↑ About, archived from the original on 2001-03-03, retrieved 2017-05-07
  7. ↑ "DRL - D**m, the Roguelike: DRL 0.9.9.8 Released, Jupiter Hell Classic Announced!". drl.chaosforge.org. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  8. ↑ "Diabolika (Windows)". My Abandonware. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  9. ↑ "Diabolika 2: The Devil's Last Stand (Windows)". My Abandonware. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  10. ↑ Wallis, Alistair (2006-10-23). "Road To The IGF: Bit Blot's Aquaria". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2009-12-10.
  11. ↑ IGS: Inside The Making Of Aquaria Archived 2010-05-10 at the Wayback Machine gamasutra.com, February 18, 2008
  12. ↑ Yu, Derek (2016). "1". Spelunky. Los Angeles, CA: Boss Fight Books. p. (kindle ebook location) 117.
  13. ↑ Holowka, Alec (3 November 2011). "AQUARIA FOR IPAD RELEASED!". bit-blot.com. Bit Blot. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Game of the year 2013: Spelunky". PC Gamer UK . Future plc. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  15. ↑ "Major Nelson Xbox Live Marketplace Release Schedule". 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2018-11-21. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
  16. ↑ "Spelunky World". Spelunky World. Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  17. ↑ "Derek Yu". www.derekyu.com. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  18. ↑ "UFO 50". 50games.fun. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
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