{"id":973595,"date":"2026-01-05T02:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=453507"},"modified":"2026-01-05T02:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T02:52:18","slug":"one-person-cant-solve-2024s-largest-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/one-person-cant-solve-2024s-largest-games\/","title":{"rendered":"One person can\u2019t solve 2024\u2019s largest game(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky<\/a><\/em>, <\/em>partnered with a crew of brilliant designers to release a collection of 50 games (yes, 50<\/em> video games!) I assumed that I knew the outcome: I would lose my job, fail as a father, and be discovered years from now in an abandoned shack in the forest, ensconced by my filth and mumbling \u201cYou can\u2019t take me away! I still have four more games to complete!\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, here I am, a mere day after UFO 50<\/a><\/em>\u2019s release, reading about this massive collection of video games rather than playing it. Is this self-preservation? Personal growth? Of course not.<\/p>\n

After hours of frantic hopping from one game to the next, I accepted that one person couldn\u2019t, nay, shouldn\u2019t<\/em> be responsible for appreciating this gargantuan masterwork. Rather, appreciation of UFO 50<\/em> is a team sport. And the UFO 50 <\/em>subreddit is its field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like this year\u2019s Animal Well<\/a><\/em> and Yu\u2019s previous Spelunky<\/em> games, the collection is filled with yet-to-be-cracked codes and still-hidden treasures. Along with 50 games, UFO 50 features a backstory of a fictional developer, UFO Soft, along with a terminal that allows players to input code. How those two facts relate, that\u2019s what the subreddit hopes to decipher. <\/p>\n

In a recent episode of Simon Parkin\u2019s My Perfect Console podcast<\/a>, Yu spoke at length about the magic of mystery \u2014 how neither The Legend of Zelda<\/em> nor Dark Souls<\/em> came with easy answers, with both games inviting players to discover and map their worlds. Now, along with his childhood friend and fellow designer Jon Perry (and a slew of other creatives), Yu has passed that experience to another generation, one that doesn\u2019t untangle a video game\u2019s riddles at home but on a massive social platform.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful to this subreddit community for saving me from going into the wilderness alone. I\u2019ll keep my job. I\u2019ll live up to my aspirations as a loving parent. And I mean, like obviously, I will play a disgusting amount of\u00a0UFO 50<\/em>\u2019s idle game\u00a0Pilot Quest<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 all while reading through the subreddit\u2019s threads, where thousands of fellow fans team up to convert 50 games into one unified adventure.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky, partnered with a crew of brilliant designers to release a collection of 50 games (yes, 50 video games!) I assumed that I knew the outcome: I would lose my job, fail as a father, and be discovered years from now in an abandoned shack in the forest, ensconced by my filth and mumbling \u201cYou can\u2019t take me away! I still have four more games to complete!\u201d And yet, here I am, a mere day after UFO 50\u2019s release, reading about this massive collection of video games rather than playing it. Is this self-preservation? Personal growth? Of course not. After hours of frantic hopping from one game to the next, I accepted that one person couldn\u2019t, nay, shouldn\u2019t be…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":973596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nOne person can\u2019t solve 2024\u2019s largest game(s) | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky, partnered with a crew of brilliant designers to release a collection of 50 games (yes, 50 video games!) 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