Yu showed off some of his art on Twitter last night (joining the #artvsartist tag, where artists show themselves and their work) and took the opportunity to give a progress report too. “[Eirik Suhrke] and I are on both projects and at some point we knew we’d have to focus on one to finish it off before going back to the other,” Yu said. “Well, that time has come and we’re going all in on Spelunky 2 to release it this year! We’ll holler when we know exactly when.” Here’s a trailer from 2018 showing off some of the sequel’s newness, including physics-y water and lava, some cute critters to ride, online multiplayer, and oh my that gun just cloned a cat. As for UFO 50, Yu notes that it “is still very active!” He said that Jon Perry, Paul Hubans, and Tyriq Plummer “are working on it full time”, and pointed out that Plummer streams himself working on Tuesdays. “We’ll try to get a date this year, but the plan is to release post-Spelunky,” Yu said. UFO 50 will have games directed by all them and, last we heard, Downwell creator Ojiro Fumoto is involved too. Presented as the work of an obscure but visionary fictional company, they’ll trip across all sorts of genres with the goal to “combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design sensibilities.” Here’s a peek from back in 2017:
