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Spelunky, Downwell and more indie devs announce 8-bit game anthology UFO 50

50 fully realised retro games from today's top talent.

Five of today's finest independent game developers have joined forced to collaborate on one giant retro game anthology entitled UFO 50.

The all-star crew consists of Derek Yu (Spelunky), Eirik Suhrke (Skorpulac), Jon Perry (Time Barons), Paul Hubans (Madhouse), and Ojiro Fumoto (Downwell).

UFO 50's game genres will range from platformers to puzzle games to shmups and RPGs. "Our goal is to combine a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design sensibilities," the developers said of this varied collection. You can get a glimpse of many of these titles in UFO 50's announcement trailer below:

Cover image for YouTube videoUFO 50 - Announcement Trailer

In an FAQ about the anthology, the developers noted that "the games are slightly smaller than commercial 8-bit titles from the 80's, but rest assured that they are full games and not microgames or minigames! Completing the entire collection could easily take over a hundred hours."

As far as who did what in this collaboration, each individual game has a director that's taken point on the project, but everyone has contributed to everyone else's projects.

The meta-narrative of the collection is that these games were all created by an obscure 1980s video game publisher that made a lot of great games that never got the attention they deserved.

All of UFO 50's games will feature a single-player mode, and roughly a third of them will offer multiplayer options as well, either in competitive or cooperative modes.

UFO 50 will launch in 2018 on PC, with other unannounced platforms planned to follow.