💥Super Smash Bros. Clash

This is the first retrospective I’m writing for this site, and my third-ish attempt at it. I was gonna go really in-depth into the game’s development with a sort of timeline, and while I do still think that’s interesting, it’s a really exhaustive read and kinda boring to write. Instead, I've decided to save that for the page on "Alpha 0.7", or "V1", the game's initial iteration.

At its core, Clash represents to me how it felt back in the day (middle school) to first get into making games. It was my first “big” project, where I had previously only made minor games in Blocksworld. Being introduced to Scratch in my middle school computer science class, I realized that, even though it wasn’t strictly 3D like Blocksworld, it was a much more flexible tool.

It started when a friend of mine challenged me to see which of us could make the better Smash Bros. fangame in Scratch. His didn’t end up going anywhere, but mine did (as evidenced by it existing right now). Of course, the earliest iterations really sucked. It was a great start though, maybe the best I could’ve had.

All the best game development resources out there tell you to start small and fail fast. I never realized until thinking back now, but the initial stages of Clash helped me learn this lesson without even realizing it.

The version that exists nowadays is lovingly known as “Alpha 0.8”, or “V2”. I didn’t know how game version numbers worked (I only learned a few months ago as of writing this), so the jump from Alpha 0.7 to Alpha 0.8 was MASSIVE. It totally overhauled the gameplay and UI, added (and removed) a stage, removed a fighter, reworked every existing fighter, and added two new ones.

After releasing the version of the game that exists today, I still wanted to make it better. I mean, it was in alpha. I did some work to add Kirby and Sandbag as the next fighters, both being quite different from the game's other fighters thus far, but work on "Alpha 0.9" eventually fell off as my focus shifted to other projects.

With a single glance at the roster, it’s really easy to tell where my priorities lied. I wasn’t really concerned with making a game others could enjoy. What I wanted was to make my dream Smash Bros. game with the characters I loved. It just so happened that a lot of people liked it too.

The best part of it all, which still rings true for everything I make nowadays, is seeing the reactions of the people who play the game. Tons of my friends were really into it, one even putting together a tier list. Later on in high school, that same friend showed the game to his whole computer science class, and I was reportedly some sort of god to them???? Crazy, considering just how scuffed the game is.

What I’m trying to say with all of this is, Clash is a microcosm of everything game development is to me. It’s improving your craft every time you sit down and work, it’s creating the game you have always wanted to play, and it’s the absolute euphoria of seeing your hard work and passion pay off as you see others genuinely enjoying what you made.

As with all the games I’ve made and ever will make, I would never be who I am now without this silly little platform fighter.

...Can it even be called that?