Happy new year to all!
The year 2021 has (finally) arrived, and looking back we had a busy past year with the SSF2 Rotation Release Cycle and the announcement of Fraymakers! After a year like that many of you may be wondering what’s in store for this year at McLeodGaming.
Many of you probably already know that the end of Flash Player support arrived today, with the full transition to being globally disabled arriving on January 12th, 2021. As the creators of one of the most ambitious Flash-based projects on the internet, it pains us greatly to see it go. Flash is what allowed SSF2 to blossom into the ultimate Smash tribute that you see today, and it’s also what put McLeodGaming on the path to being a real independent game studio in the early 2000s. We may never see a technology exactly quite like Flash again in the future, and we think it’s important to look back and appreciate how it allowed all sorts of creative individuals to express themselves, despite all of the negative press.
On the bright side, a project called Ruffle has been underway for quite some time to emulate the Flash Player in-browser without requiring a plugin. It’s made great strides supporting tons of games from the ActionScript 2.0 days, including an almost fully-functional Super Smash Flash 1 (which we’ve enabled a toggle for on the Super Smash Flash home site, go check it out!). It may be some time before we see SSF2 supported since the game is built in ActionScript 3.0, but in the meantime you can always download the game to play on your desktop using Adobe AIR in place of the Flash Player.
(By the way, if you’d like to support such an awesome project, we encourage you to check out Ruffle’s Open Collective page)
Rest assured, despite the demise of the Flash Player and the end of the Rotation Release development cycle, SSF2 isn’t stopping any time soon! While the SSF2 Team is going to start off a bit slower this year, there are plenty of content plans in the pipeline. Expect more news to come as the team begins picking up the pace again.
Also please be aware that moving forward, the primary source for SSF2 news and content will be found on SuperSmashFlash.com. While we may mention SSF2 updates here on McLeodGaming from time to time, the optimal place for uninterrupted, dedicated updates can be found there (and most existing SSF2 pages here will be automatically redirected). Also make sure to follow SSF2’s new Twitter account and subscribe to its new YouTube channel so you don’t miss out anything!
Team Fray is excited to continue with the development of Fraymakers after its incredible Kickstarter campaign! There are plenty of characters to be animated, stages to be designed, and music tracks to be laid down, so you can expect us to be quite busy getting ready for Early Access launch. We’re already seeing some fun data come in via our Backer Content Survey (exclusive to backers only!), in addition to a lot of buzz throughout our socials about all the things everyone is looking forward to in Fraymakers. Make sure to join our socials listed over in the sidebar so you don’t miss any updates!
If you were unable to support the Kickstarter and are hoping to help in some way, one great method to do that is to wishlist Fraymakers on Steam. This way you’ll be notified when the game is released in Early Access and it’ll help add momentum to our initial launch.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Talk soon!
The December update of SSF2 has arrived for all!
Check it out now on SSF2’s Play page and read more about it here. This was a more substantial update than usual, so the SSF2 Team decided to take the leap from version 1.2 to 1.3. What do you have to look forward to this time you ask? Check out the update video below on SSF2’s new YouTube channel!
Make sure to subscribe to the new channel to keep up with the latest SSF2 video content and announcements. The SSF2 Team also recently revealed its new dedicated Twitter account, so go give the team a follow!
As a reminder, moving into 2021 the Flash Player version will no longer be supported. Moving forward the browser version will still be preserved and maintained on SSF2’s new home site until a solution arrives to make it playable again, however only the downloadable version will be actively supported. You can also expect SSF2 updates to be more prevalent on the new SSF2 website as McLeodGaming transitions to becoming more of a central hub for all of its related projects. You may see more dedicated socials for SSF2 in the future, but can still gather on McLeodGaming’s Discord server to discuss all things MG.
Also a BIG thank you to everyone who everyone who stuck with SSF2 this year during its recently concluded Rotation Rotation Release Cycle and MG Insiders promotion to play releases early! There have been more SSF2 updates over the past 12 months than any other time frame in the game’s history, and there is plenty more to come in 2021. However, maintaining such a frequent release schedule can be taxing, so the SSF2 Team will be taking a short break. The devs are looking forward to updating everyone on 2021 release plans soon after we roll over into the new year.
Have a happy holidays!
Fraymakers is FUNDED! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU SO MUCH! These past 30 days on Kickstarter have been incredible beyond words, and we can’t explain how excited we are to be able to bring you Fraymakers, our literal dream project, in its ultimate form. Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!
Also a reminder that even if you missed the chance to back us, you can still wishlist Fraymakers on Steam to be notified when Early Access is available!
SSF2 v1.2.5 is out! To play/download, head on over to the SSF2 page. As mentioned before, this month’s patch is primarily focused on balance and bug fixes, however we included a few additional treats for you. Here’s a brief overview of the changes:
You can check out the full changelog here.
Also a reminder that we plan to release an additional patch in December with more of a focus on content. There’s still a chance to sign up for the MG Insiders newsletter to get access to the December patch before the general public. For more details, click here.
Have fun!
That’s right folks, Fraymakers, our brand new platform fighter, has arrived on Kickstarter!
Head over to the campaign to check it out:
We’ve spent thousands upon thousands of hours behind the scenes over the past 2+ years in order to present to you what we’ve created. We hope you’ll agree that Fraymakers is truly worthy of being McLeodGaming’s next flagship game. But we’ll need your help in order to make it a reality, and that’s where you come in. The first 48 hours are crucial to the success of a crowd-funding campaign, so if you want to help us pave the way to a post-Flash future for McLeodGaming and participate in bringing Fraymakers to life, please back this project! The more backers we get at the start of the campaign, the better our momentum will be, and the better our chances to get featured by Kickstarter are.
Already backed, or not in a position where you can? You can help this project spread across the internet if you share the link to the Kickstarter campaign with as many people as possible! This is just as important as backing the project, and you would be helping us out tremendously. That’s friends, that’s family, that’s that person you’re mutuals with but have been too afraid to talk to on Twitter, that’s all of the Discord servers that you’re allowed to share links in… please – as far and as wide as you can go! Another way you can help us out is by adding Fraymakers to your Steam wishlist! Head over to our Steam page and hit the “Add to your wishlist” button:
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So what is Fraymakers exactly? The word is finally out – it’s a fully modular, full-featured platform fighter featuring a crossover main cast from indie classics including BIT.TRIP, Downwell, Rivals of Aether, Slay the Spire, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and Slap City! We’ve also added a massive selection of assist characters from a broad selection of other indie titles (far too many to list here!).
We’ve spared no detail or expense: the members of our playable cast feature full platform fighter movesets with no cut corners (that’s around 80 custom high-resolution pixel art animations per character). To sweeten the deal, our assist mechanic allows you to mix up your strategy by calling upon the unique ability of a helper to aid you in battle with a unique attack or ability. Make sure to visit our Kickstarter page to check out our campaign video to see everything in action!
If that’s not enough for you, we’re also introducing FrayTools, the robust custom tool we’re using to build the game itself! Using FrayTools, you can build your own characters, assists, and modes for Fraymakers using a program designed to make the experience as efficient, user-friendly and versatile as possible. Your options for new gameplay experiences are limited only by your imagination…or for the less creatively inclined, by your download speed.
Let’s bring Fraymakers to life together!