Slashdot Mirror

Nobody mentioned Spelunky so far.

Procedurally generated, "roguelite" platformer requring skill and metagame knowledge to succeed in.

Contains "daily challenges" (a one shot at playing s specific seed) for those playing it on Steam, which brings highly competitive elements to the game.
Also, recently a tool for it emerged that allows to lock seed generation to a particular value, enabling competition outside dailies.

Website: http://spelunkyworld.com/ and gameplay videos are aplenty on YouTube.
Has a free "original" version with low-res graphics to get a taste of the gameplay.

Most people are suggesting open source apps and games, but there are some really good closed source ones as well:

Spelunky(okay this one's open source)
Cave Story Fantastic platform game.
Trackmania Nations Great multiplayer and single player racing game.
Urban Terror The graphics are a little dated, but the gameplay is still really, really good. Online multiplayer team based FPS.

Randomly generated content does work. Quite well, actually. See Spelunky, as an example. Not only that, but the entire genre of roguelikes is defined by randomly generated content and it has been for quite some time.

Of course Minecraft isn't like Mario or any other game, it has won its place due to its own merits. Although it isn't completely unlike Amnesia in the sense that many players can tell tales of silent tension and desperate flights, but I digress.

You have to remember that Minecraft isn't finished yet. It started as just lego pieces, but it greatly increased in complexity. It's still a sandbox, but it's more like a living (albeit simple graphically) world each new update. While it probably won't be as complex as Dwarf Fortress (which is also an astounding game based on randomly generated content), it is easier to get immersed into.

Minecraft is about exploring as well as creating. It isn't about platforming and probably wouldn't be better if it was. But if that's what you want, there is Terraria.

But not a whole lot of fun in practice.

Spelunky http://www.spelunkyworld.com/ is a way better example of a platformer with randomly generated levels.

Athough I would concede the point that they're all rather too forgiving.

Spelunky would like to clear something up regarding this statement.

divide the map into a grid and randomly load the grid spaces with pre-designed sections,

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Spelunky, a free rougelike platformer which does exactly this. It work pretty well, mainly because this method guarantees that each block will be at least somewhat interesting to go through, since it was designed by a human. Look out for it coming to XBox live soon.

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/

Utterly unforgiving, cute, fascinating, free, old-school platformer.

(windows only sadly)