Indie developer RetroSpecter recently discovered that their 2018 platformer, Crashphalt, has experienced an unprecedented surge in player activity. The game, which had garnered minimal attention since its release, suddenly saw a significant increase in player count and player reviews, with many commenters discussing the popular RPG Undertale rather than Crashphalt itself.
This unusual trend became clear when RetroSpecter noticed over 500 new reviews for Crashphalt, a stark contrast to the dozen reviews it had accumulated over its first four years. The comments often expressed a desire to play Undertale with others or referred to Crashphalt as "the best game to never actually play." This perplexing situation prompted RetroSpecter to investigate, leading to the discovery of its connection to Undertale Together, a fan-made multiplayer mod for Undertale.
While Undertale Together typically supports only local co-op, players found a method to enable online multiplayer by utilizing Crashphalt. SteamDB charts show a dramatic increase in Crashphalt's peak daily player count from 6 to 107 between November and December 2022. This coincides with a YouTube video uploaded on December 2, 2022, which detailed a workaround for playing Undertale Together online. The method involves copying Crashphalt's installation files into a modified Undertale directory and renaming the Undertale executable to "Crashphalt.exe." This allows Steam's Remote Play feature to function with the mod, effectively enabling online play for what would otherwise be a local-only experience.
The same technique was also found to work with Deltarune, and another spike in Crashphalt's player activity was observed in June 2023, following the full paid release of Deltarune on Steam. The reason for choosing Crashphalt specifically remains a mystery, though RetroSpecter speculates that the game's free-to-play status and the presence of Remote Play enabled on its store page might have made it a convenient choice for the hack.
Despite the unconventional nature of this newfound popularity, RetroSpecter expressed a positive outlook. The developer stated that it is "really cool to see that the game has found a second life" and finds it inspiring that Crashphalt can indirectly impact the Undertale community. As a nod to the game that inspired their development journey, RetroSpecter humorously extended an invitation to Undertale's creator, Toby Fox, to collaborate on a future project.