Uncovering the backbeat behind Spelunky's random levels

Mossmouth's Spelunky is a game with two complimentary pillars: It's brutally difficult, and its levels are randomly generated. Darius Kazemi's Spelunky Generator aims to lift a bit of the fog surrounding the latter.

Kazemi created the tool with a modded copy of the original, PC version of Spelunky to deconstruct how the game creates a randomly generated "solution path." Before adding any of the enemies, traps or treasures, Spelunky lays out 16 rooms on a four-by-four grid, beginning with a "start room" on the top row. The game then chooses from four basic room types and assembles the map like Lego blocks.

In a part two of his analysis, Kazemi, who ported Spelunky to the web with HTML5 last year, explains how the game's individual rooms are laid out using templates.

For more on the Xbox 360 version of the game that was released last year, be sure to check out Polygon's Spelunky review.