IS this game dead?

[ElectroRobotic]

discuss

[20two20]

It would seem so

[Sasuraa愛]

It is too bad. It was fun.

[Hareesh]

I just got it, hoping for a game, but it seems no-one plays anymore?:(

[uncle wooly]

It's a sad end to a good game :'(

[bean boy]

Sadly yes

[Freddie]

Yes.

[ACBlackJ0ck]

The harsh way of saying that noone plays it but it is either way

[Spatvark]

Very dead. It's a shame, because it was genuinely fun, and the few organised team matches we had were awesome, but Smashball struggled to keep new players due to the steep learning curve involved in utilising the grappling hook to build up speed, and airstrafing to maintain that speed while turning corners. That lead to a huge gulf in ability, where those who could airstrafe (which it may just be me, but I found it damn hard to learn) would walk all over those who couldn't, and nobody likes constantly losing without any chance of improving.

The devs did try to combat this, but those of us who were pretty good at the game were unhappy with the changes they were making, so we wound up leaving as well.

I don't know if it was actually possible, but with airstrafing being removed (all other movement was great, and could be picked up with a bit of practice, but airstrafing is just HARD), there'd be more equality in player's skill levels. I truly believe Smashball should have been something great, but either the dev's inexperience or the limitations (and quirks) of the Source engine (or more likely a combination of the two) caused it to not be able to maintain a stable enough community for the game to survive.

p.s. I swear there used to be more Smashball matches up on YouTube, even one or two with me playing in it!

[Protag]

wut is the new update? and it wont work anymore D:

[v.^]

its not for kids

[v.^]

faaack its not runing

[ElectroRobotic]

Originally posted by The Awsome Gamer {TAG}:

wut is the new update? and it wont work anymore D:

Controller support update for the engine; if you have read Half-Life 2 news

[Hamp]

My favorite game of all time, developers dumbed it down to the point where it got boring.

[vaska00762]

Probably. Only bots online.

[HughManatee]

This game was dead more than a full year before this thread was made.
The problem with this game was that the devs had no real experience making a profitable game, and they had extremely big amibtions. They wanted to make a video game that could be just as fun to watch as it was to play.
Unfortunately, most games that are fun to play are terrible to watch unless you also play and understand the mechanics. And when games are fun to watch for non-players, it's usually because the focus was on looking cool and balance was thrown out the window, making them not so fun to play.

If big studios and professional devs couldn't make this happen, why would such a small, inexperienced team have the audacity to think they could? Dead before it even left the ground, imo.