Cross-progress isn’t implemented just yet
For those of you who are planning to crack into Spelunky or Spelunky 2 for the first time on Nintendo Switch, I’m excited and nervous for you. I hope your runs go well! The new ports launched today on the eShop, and while I haven’t tested them out, the early impressions — including chatter about a smooth frame rate — sound encouraging.
Some players have noticed a cross-progress / data-sync feature in the Switch version of Spelunky 2, but it doesn’t appear to work yet. What’s it do? And when is it coming?
Responding to questions in a Reddit AMA, Blitworks’ Guillermo NWDD said that the developers “plan to include this feature on PC in the next update, which will be coming after the next patch lands on Nintendo Switch (1.23).” It’s being tested right now.
Rather than move your save data from one platform to the next (in this case, from Spelunky 2 on PC to Nintendo Switch), this feature will “merge” your progress.
“So for example, by using cross-progress you can unlock an achievement on Steam and get it on Switch or vice versa,” according to Guillermo. “Some stats such as runs finished are also merged, but the merge isn’t perfect, so if you kill four enemies on Switch and then three on Steam, it would only show four (depending on the order of the syncs).”
The developer also explained that while they can’t go into specifics due to NDAs, Spelunky 2 won’t get the progress-sync feature on PlayStation, so this will be Switch/PC only.
Elsewhere in the AMA, Spelunky designer Derek Yu expressed a desire to, at some point, do a physical edition. It’s on the table. “I’d love to do it and it’s great to hear that there’s interest for it,” he said. “It just takes time to set up, which we haven’t had a lot of this year. Now that the game is out on Switch we can look into it more.”
The question-submitter suggested a Switch double-pack, which I think would be perfect.