I love Spelunky too! Vertical Drop Heroes' combat system is more RPG-ish than Spelunky, and as you buy upgrades for your Heroes, the game gets a bit easier each time, unlike Spelunky where every game starts you out as the exact same basic explorer... so there's a progression from session to session for VDH.

I'd probably compare it more to Rogue Legacy, though the visuals and level design are more spelunkish.

At the start you get to choose from three different heroes with different skills and traits. These skills and traits are unlocked in the game by finding merchants and parting with your money to purchase them. You can also buy more basic upgrades (damage, health, xp) in the hub.

So, if you like Rogue Legacy (and Spelunky), you'll probably like this game as well.

OK, I'll buy it, especially because it's one of the few rogue-likes to handle multiplayer properly.

I do like Rogue Legacy, but not nearly as much as Spelunky. I understand the need to give the player some impetus to keep playing by making them stronger every time, but I'm not so fond of that mechanic -- I prefer the player to have to get better on his/her own, if possible. BoI sort-of manages to walk that fine line between making the player too powerful and challenging him to improve by unlocking new items while simultaneously unlocking new monsters, and is also one of my favorite games.

Regardless, this is currently one of my favorite genres, so I'll check the game out.

BTW, is there any ETA on the OSX version's networking? What's the problem there?

I'm using Faucet Networking to get it working via TCP/IP, which doesn't work on OS X due to the lack of DirectPlay functions there. As a compromise between getting too powerful from the upgrades, once you unlock New Game Plus, the monsters scale to your upgrade levels, so how far you go depends almost completely on your own skill. Plus, of course, you will be unlocking more and more options as you play, as well.

Yes, the only real and permanent upgrades are the health and damage buffs you get in the hub, and maybe the weapon unlocks you get by completing certain global tasks in the game. The skills and traits are more like sidegrades, allowing for a bigger hero variety and more options in how you want to approach killing enemies and navigating the levels.

And conquering the game by increasing your player skill only works to a certain extent, because of the RPG mechanics of the game. Your hero gets stronger by defeating enemies and gaining xp and levels from kills. So hero progress works more like in an RPG, as Nerdook has already said. Without gaining levels, your hero would be easily defeated by the quickly scaling enemies.

Just one more point: the various enemy types you encounter all have their own patterns and abilities, and how you approach each one is something you have to learn by experience. For example, Lightning Towers aren't very powerful if you're alone, but if you rely heavily on allies, a single Lightning Tower becomes much deadlier as it can bounce multiple times off each ally you have... so you might want to skip freeing allies for that level.

I've bought the game and it's really wonderful. I'm enjoying it tremendously. I love how well you've balanced so many things in the game, like the ability to bypass a boss for the price of several keys, or the pacifist mode that starts out each level. The various powers and traits all make a difference (unlike Rogue Legacy, where you generally forget about them). I also love how each character looks different, and the little touches like bonuses and penalties to wielding dual swords and such. Really wonderful game. I hope you can get it on Steam asap to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I'm enjoying the game so much it's hard to think of things to improve. Nevertheless, I'll try to come up with a few:

- The water animations, at least on OSX, show black edges regularly, so it's not only when the screen shakes.
- I'd love a better introduction that sets the scene. The intro text is nice and entertaining, but something animated like the intro to Spelunky or to BoI would give a better sense of place.
- Why is there an auto-attack option? Many people will never discover that they can turn it off. It also gives the game a cheap iOS/flash feeling, which it's trying to avoid. Additionally, it makes pacifist runs impossible.
- The screen sometimes seems too dark (and I don't mean just in dark levels). Could there be a gamma adjustment slider?

Finally, I hope you find a library to do OSX networking with, because I'd really love to have that option.