Forgotten Free Steam Game Unexpectedly Gains Popularity Eight Years Later
Crashphalt was released on Steam back in 2018.
The small free indie game Crashphalt unexpectedly got a second life thanks to the Undertale community. The developer, under the nickname RetroSpecter, shared on Reddit that for a long time he barely remembered his first project, but recently discovered a sharp surge in its popularity.
Crashphalt is a four-player multiplayer platformer where participants use a powerful ground pound to create shockwaves and try to knock opponents off the arena. According to RetroSpecter, the game was never a big hit, but it helped him learn game development, make friends in the industry, and eventually move on to creating projects professionally.
Years later, the developer decided to check the game’s page on Steam and noticed an unexpected change. While Crashphalt received only about ten user reviews at the time of its release, their number has now exceeded 500, and the game’s rating has reached “overwhelmingly positive.” Most of the new reviews, however, barely mentioned Crashphalt itself, but were filled with jokes and references to Undertale.
Investigating the situation, RetroSpecter found out that Crashphalt is actively used to launch Undertale Together — a cooperative modification that allows two players to play Undertale. Although Undertale itself does not support Steam Remote Play, enthusiasts found a workaround: they use any free game with Remote Play support, copying its files into the Undertale folder. After this, it becomes possible to launch the cooperative mode via Steam.
This is where Crashphalt came in handy. Since the game is free and supports Remote Play, many guides recommend downloading it. This led to an unexpected increase in downloads and reviews. Later, a similar cooperative mod also appeared for Deltarune, which caused a new wave of interest in the old project.
RetroSpecter himself admitted that he doesn’t know why users chose Crashphalt, as there are many similar free games with Remote Play support. In his opinion, his project was simply lucky to be “that” game that started being recommended in instructions.
Despite the fact that many players use Crashphalt solely as a technical tool for modifying other games, the developer is not at all upset by this. He noted that he has long since moved on to new projects and is happy to see his old work unexpectedly get a second life.
