sounds like my 2 yr when I first trying to move him to a bed- (he was around 22 mths then). After a week of fun and games, I gave up and moved him back into the cot- wasn't worth the stress. I tried moving him to a bed about 5 months later and it was a much different story- he didn't get out of bed once. Didn't do anything different, just him being that wee bit older made all the difference.
Actually thinking about it the one major difference was the time of the year- when we first tried it was summer time, so light in the evenings- 5 mths later it was winter and dark in the evening.