--- title: A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because... description: Crashphalt, a free indie game on Steam published in 2018, experienced a 1683% spike in player count because people discovered they could use its Steam Remote... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because people use its files to play multiplayer Undertale | daily.dev og:description: Crashphalt, a free indie game on Steam published in 2018, experienced a 1683% spike in player count because people discovered they could use its Steam Remote... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PQdusF8u0.png og:image:alt: A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because people use its files to play multiplayer Undertale og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because people use its files to play multiplayer Undertale **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Crashphalt, a free indie game on Steam published in 2018, experienced a 1683% spike in player count because people discovered they could use its Steam Remote Play support to enable multiplayer in Undertale, which doesn't natively support it. Players patched Crashphalt's Remote Play functionality into Undertale by renaming executables and swapping files to trick Steam. The developer, Retro_Specter, only recently found out and is completely fine with it, happy that their old game is helping people enjoy Undertale together with friends. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How are people playing multiplayer Undertale even though it doesn't officially support it? Players exploit Steam Remote Play by hijacking a free game called Crashphalt that has Remote Play enabled. They rename Undertale's executables and swap files so Steam launches Undertale through Crashphalt's Remote Play permissions, effectively tricking Steam into treating Undertale as the Remote Play-enabled game and allowing friends to play together online. _Curious how gaming communities engineer workarounds like this? daily.dev surfaces stories on creative platform hacks and modding._ ### Why did the indie game Crashphalt suddenly get way more players on Steam years after release? Crashphalt, a free game released in 2018, saw its player count jump about 1683%, from single digits to just over 100 average concurrent players, starting around December 2022. The surge wasn't due to new interest in Crashphalt itself but because players were using its Remote Play feature as a workaround to enable multiplayer in Undertale, a completely unrelated game. _Track how unexpected platform quirks reshape usage patterns by following gaming and dev stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Someone built a free-to-keep Steam game tracker, and it has already sent 600k alerts](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-built-a-free-to-keep-steam-game-tracker-and-it-has-already-sent-600k-alerts-hgoiu0vwm) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Toby Fox and the Making of ‘Undertale’](https://daily.dev/posts/toby-fox-and-the-making-of-undertale--y6ejxgdak) · Game Designing · 25 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam), [#indie-dev](https://daily.dev/tags/indie-dev) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because people use its files to play multiplayer Undertale","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T06:10:30.316Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:03:55.236Z","description":"Crashphalt, a free indie game on Steam published in 2018, experienced a 1683% spike in player count because people discovered they could use its Steam Remote...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f859d1d1f9e9769a81d9bb48d17d8d6f?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f859d1d1f9e9769a81d9bb48d17d8d6f?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"gaming,steam,indie-dev","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A free game on Steam saw a 1700% player increase because people use its files to play multiplayer Undertale"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-free-game-on-steam-saw-a-1700-player-increase-because-people-use-its-files-to-play-multiplayer-un-pqdusf8u0#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How are people playing multiplayer Undertale even though it doesn't officially support it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Players exploit Steam Remote Play by hijacking a free game called Crashphalt that has Remote Play enabled. They rename Undertale's executables and swap files so Steam launches Undertale through Crashphalt's Remote Play permissions, effectively tricking Steam into treating Undertale as the Remote Play-enabled game and allowing friends to play together online. Curious how gaming communities engineer workarounds like this? daily.dev surfaces stories on creative platform hacks and modding."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did the indie game Crashphalt suddenly get way more players on Steam years after release?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Crashphalt, a free game released in 2018, saw its player count jump about 1683%, from single digits to just over 100 average concurrent players, starting around December 2022. The surge wasn't due to new interest in Crashphalt itself but because players were using its Remote Play feature as a workaround to enable multiplayer in Undertale, a completely unrelated game. Track how unexpected platform quirks reshape usage patterns by following gaming and dev stories on daily.dev."}}]} ```