Downloads are downloads, even if it's technically to enjoy another game. The indie platformer Crashphalt was yanked out of obscurity in recent months, not because people discovered it's actually a hidden gem, but in order to avoid restrictions on a clever Undertale mod.
The developer behind Crashphalt, RetroSpecter, explained what's going on in a Reddit post. Almost eight years ago, he put the multiplayer fighter on Valve's store for the low cost of nothing. It was his first project and he just wanted people to enjoy it. Playership fluctuated in single and double-figures and the game got a few positive reviews - cool, and on he went to make more games.
"While it didn't set the world on fire, it let me learn the ropes of game dev from start to finish, led me to make many friends that I still keep up and work with, and is one of the many stepping stones that led me to working on games full time," RetroSpecter says of the project.
Then, earlier this year, he suddenly realized Crashphalt had over 500 Steam reviews - a massive increase on the previous amount - and they kept mentioning Undertale. "I love Undertale," says one. "Story of Undertale," says another.
After a little bit of digging around, RetroSpecter found the remarkable reason: Crashphalt was serving as the catalyst for players using Undertale Together for remote multiplayer. The mod lets multiple people enjoy Toby Fox's RPG in the same session, but Steam only allows for it to be used locally.
You achieve this by copying Crashphalt files into a directory for the Undertale mod, then rename Undertale's exe file to Crashphalt, and Valve's marketplace thinks you're booting up RetroSpecter's game instead and enables remote play. Simple!
A video uploaded in 2022 outlining this method lines up with the initial spike in Crashphalt downloads and concurrent players, at least according to SteamDB. Then the numbers just kept going up. A similar mod for Deltarune has further grown the stats.
Presumably, this can be done with other games, and RetroSpecter believes Crashphalt was simply chosen out of luck and convenience. "The only requirement for the hack is that the game has Remote Play enabled, and I guess it does help that Crashphalt is free," he writes.
He adds that it's "really cool" Crashphalt has gotten a "second life," while he's since moved on in his game development ventures. Somehow, someway, I'm sure Sans is involved. He usually is.
