Final words for Stick Fight: The Game

[et]

Final words for Stick Fight: The Game

I'm one of the oldest players for this game. I wasn't one of the first, but I did purchase the game via Steam on Sep 29, 2017; that's exactly 1 day after it released on Steam (September 28, 2017). I last played the game on April 16, 2020. My playtime between those two dates was 368 hours. I unlocked every achievement (Xiao Xiao) on August 13, 2018. YouTubers like Blitz only started playing this game around December 8, 2017 which is about 2 whole months after me.

For my 360 hours, most of which was 2017-2018, I played this game ruthlessly. In 2018 it was almost unheard of to have that many hours in this game. I was undeniably a top-tier player. There weren't any community guides or guidance videos on combos, everything was learned by trial and error. I am glad I learned a bit of intensity while playing this game, it helped me become competitive.

Anyone who played this game a lot would recognize the name "Zilotron". Zilotron stood at the forefront of tournaments. I met Zilotron before all of that and when we fought it was unclear who was superior. Both of us were equally reckless and fast. He was one of the only players who felt like a challenge, so it was a good learning experience. Before I quit playing there were talks about events, I didn't feel a particular attraction to them because I mainly just wanted to get faster and more accurate.

To put into perspective how skilled Zilotron and I were... In the heyday, we could kill an average player 100 times and die about 5 times on accident in the process to the offscreen or spikes. Players must not fear accidents in this game because speed is everything. I recommend that everyone end matches fast: jump across the entire map as soon as the round starts and throw weapons as soon as you pick them up--that's the kind of game this is. As burgeoning experts, Zilotron and I memorized every single map including the exact ways to maneuver the maps, the best places to wait for weapons, and the best ways to run from a weapon wielder. I estimate we had about a 30% accuracy on getting headshots with thrown weapons against fast players. Anyone who stood still or moved slowly would almost certainly die as soon as we picked up a weapon. We also were discovering counters to glitches and bosses. I know a lot of people think the bosses are unfair, but I thought they were more balanced the more skilled the players got. Personally, I played on 400 health to extend battles, but 100 health was undeniably the best for throwing weapons.

A part of me wishes to compete for the title of "best player", but there are other parts that reject that. First, I enjoy writing much more than playing games. Second, I don't want to become skilled in a game that is poorly made. Additionally, I am not subject to the sunk cost fallacy or addiction after my many years break. I imagine if Zilotron and I were to fight, then I'd lose every time until I get another 100 hours of practice. If I were to play this game again, then I'd definitely become more skilled than I was in the past, but that doesn't motivate me.

Ultimately, I feel hollow every time I look at this game. I feel a some dread at wasting time. I feel like it is pointless to endlessly fight. I made a lot of "steam friends" while playing this game, but I haven't messaged any of them in about 6 years maybe? Actually I played this game on Xbox yesterday with some IRL friends. I absolutely destroyed them and they promptly decided to quit playing the game forever. I would have crushed them much more severely, but I was playing with a broken controller with a right trigger which wouldn't register most of the time. I also play "Rounds" which is deemed as a successor to this game. In Rounds, I win about 90% of my matches with them even while using the broken controller. Needless to say, they rarely play the game now.

Rounds is very different from this game, but it's also very similar. Both games have absolutely horrible game breaking bugs. The developers will never fix them and that's fine, because most bugs can be fixed by just returning to the lobby and playing again. I'm not angry about any of these things, just shocked that the Unity game engine is either so difficult or so broken itself.

There is another thing that is very confusing about both games for me. That is the match making. According to steamcharts.com, this game has 500 concurrent players right now and Rounds has 1000. Whenever I try match making on either of these games on Xbox, it takes forever and usually doesn't work. Maybe it's different for Steam now, but back when I played this game a ton, it took a long time to get a match. When I tried the game in 2020 on Steam, there were basically no matches. I guess either the statistics are wrong or the matchmaking is broken. Also, it says there was an average of 72 concurrent players for Stick Fight: The Game in September 2017. That exploded to an average of 1919 players in October 2017. It's impressive that this game was this popular on launch.

Although I really like the floppy physics of the stickmen and I like the weapons in this game, I do wish the developers went further. I understand that it's not profitable and exceeds the price tag, so I won't complain. I see "Botten Hanna" is registered as a developer and still replies to the rare community discussions on Steam. I doubt it's paid and suspect it's purely out of a sense of obligation and passion for the game. Since I can't afford to misplace my time, it's time for me to say goodbye to this game. As for the community, I never got invested in it. Send a friend request and we can talk some. I'm not willing to play this game though. Reply if you have any nostalgia for this game, I'll read it and re-reply.

Thank you for making this game. Also, thank you for pricing it at $5.00.

[bedirhan1393]

Originally posted by et:

Final words for Stick Fight: The Game

I'm one of the oldest players for this game. I wasn't one of the first, but I did purchase the game via Steam on Sep 29, 2017; that's exactly 1 day after it released on Steam (September 28, 2017). I last played the game on April 16, 2020. My playtime between those two dates was 368 hours. I unlocked every achievement (Xiao Xiao) on August 13, 2018. YouTubers like Blitz only started playing this game around December 8, 2017 which is about 2 whole months after me.

For my 360 hours, most of which was 2017-2018, I played this game ruthlessly. In 2018 it was almost unheard of to have that many hours in this game. I was undeniably a top-tier player. There weren't any community guides or guidance videos on combos, everything was learned by trial and error. I am glad I learned a bit of intensity while playing this game, it helped me become competitive.

Anyone who played this game a lot would recognize the name "Zilotron". Zilotron stood at the forefront of tournaments. I met Zilotron before all of that and when we fought it was unclear who was superior. Both of us were equally reckless and fast. He was one of the only players who felt like a challenge, so it was a good learning experience. Before I quit playing there were talks about events, I didn't feel a particular attraction to them because I mainly just wanted to get faster and more accurate.

To put into perspective how skilled Zilotron and I were... In the heyday, we could kill an average player 100 times and die about 5 times on accident in the process to the offscreen or spikes. Players must not fear accidents in this game because speed is everything. I recommend that everyone end matches fast: jump across the entire map as soon as the round starts and throw weapons as soon as you pick them up--that's the kind of game this is. As burgeoning experts, Zilotron and I memorized every single map including the exact ways to maneuver the maps, the best places to wait for weapons, and the best ways to run from a weapon wielder. I estimate we had about a 30% accuracy on getting headshots with thrown weapons against fast players. Anyone who stood still or moved slowly would almost certainly die as soon as we picked up a weapon. We also were discovering counters to glitches and bosses. I know a lot of people think the bosses are unfair, but I thought they were more balanced the more skilled the players got. Personally, I played on 400 health to extend battles, but 100 health was undeniably the best for throwing weapons.

A part of me wishes to compete for the title of "best player", but there are other parts that reject that. First, I enjoy writing much more than playing games. Second, I don't want to become skilled in a game that is poorly made. Additionally, I am not subject to the sunk cost fallacy or addiction after my many years break. I imagine if Zilotron and I were to fight, then I'd lose every time until I get another 100 hours of practice. If I were to play this game again, then I'd definitely become more skilled than I was in the past, but that doesn't motivate me.

Ultimately, I feel hollow every time I look at this game. I feel a some dread at wasting time. I feel like it is pointless to endlessly fight. I made a lot of "steam friends" while playing this game, but I haven't messaged any of them in about 6 years maybe? Actually I played this game on Xbox yesterday with some IRL friends. I absolutely destroyed them and they promptly decided to quit playing the game forever. I would have crushed them much more severely, but I was playing with a broken controller with a right trigger which wouldn't register most of the time. I also play "Rounds" which is deemed as a successor to this game. In Rounds, I win about 90% of my matches with them even while using the broken controller. Needless to say, they rarely play the game now.

Rounds is very different from this game, but it's also very similar. Both games have absolutely horrible game breaking bugs. The developers will never fix them and that's fine, because most bugs can be fixed by just returning to the lobby and playing again. I'm not angry about any of these things, just shocked that the Unity game engine is either so difficult or so broken itself.

There is another thing that is very confusing about both games for me. That is the match making. According to steamcharts.com, this game has 500 concurrent players right now and Rounds has 1000. Whenever I try match making on either of these games on Xbox, it takes forever and usually doesn't work. Maybe it's different for Steam now, but back when I played this game a ton, it took a long time to get a match. When I tried the game in 2020 on Steam, there were basically no matches. I guess either the statistics are wrong or the matchmaking is broken. Also, it says there was an average of 72 concurrent players for Stick Fight: The Game in September 2017. That exploded to an average of 1919 players in October 2017. It's impressive that this game was this popular on launch.

Although I really like the floppy physics of the stickmen and I like the weapons in this game, I do wish the developers went further. I understand that it's not profitable and exceeds the price tag, so I won't complain. I see "Botten Hanna" is registered as a developer and still replies to the rare community discussions on Steam. I doubt it's paid and suspect it's purely out of a sense of obligation and passion for the game. Since I can't afford to misplace my time, it's time for me to say goodbye to this game. As for the community, I never got invested in it. Send a friend request and we can talk some. I'm not willing to play this game though. Reply if you have any nostalgia for this game, I'll read it and re-reply.

Thank you for making this game. Also, thank you for pricing it at $5.00.

maan ur og am dont played this game a lot my friend buyed it for me but I was whatching vids about this game at like 2017 when I was just a little kid it was so fun I dont have any questions to you I hope u had a good life

[Botten Hanna]

Hi! Thank you for the post and your time in the community! :)

Addressing some things you mentioned:

Stick Fight doesn't have crossplay on Xbox and steam meaning that the steam numbers have no bearing on your finding matches on there which might explain the lack of games.

The majority of players also tend to play with friends only, meaning that even if players are active they might not be in the normal matchmaking line.

"Also, it says there was an average of 72 concurrent players for Stick Fight: The Game in September 2017." Is probably due to it releasing at the end of September so no one was playing the game until the last two days! But yeah we had no idea the game would blow up the way it did, it was and still is amazing!

Can't believe it's turning 8 years old this fall!