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our 5th playable character has been added to the roster! this is by far the most complicated character i've ever worked on, across both of my platfighters. she features two unique movesets and multiple ways to swap back and forth between them. balancing her is an ongoing challenge, but i'd rather get her in the community's hands and let you guys figure her out :)) please note: we had to make some engine and gameplay changes to get her to function properly, so there may be some launch issues we weren't able to find. please enjoy!
the save state and load state functions in training mode have been drastically improved. all projectiles/spawned objects/anything you can interact with, is now preserved when you save a state, making it easier to lab combos and set up certain scenarios!
texture sheets have been cleaned up, unused assets removed, and most things are just more organized behind the scenes. we've changed the way gameplay texture sheets are stored and loaded, to hopefully improve performance on lower end machines and remove the dreaded memory leak that some players have still been experiencing.
i have been balancing the other 4 characters during the process of making sarissae as well, but i'm going to save this for an update in a couple of days. sarissae took a lot of work to finish in the last few days so i didn't quite get to finish or test some of my changes when it comes to balance. i can post what will change ahead of time, but i will do so in a separate update. this also allows me to push fixes and balances for sarissae at the same time that everyone else gets balanced. the short version: slight nerf to eureka and rend, decent buff to ninja, and fixing all of knockt's moves that don't connect or function properly + a small recovery buff.
for now, enjoy sarissae! and i promise the next character won't take as long. they are closer than you think :))
i will get right to the part people will probably care about the most. sarissae, our 5th playable character will be available this month. i will NOT give a release date this month, they will just be out one day, and a trailer along with them. no more release dates lol
btw it is pronounced s-air-iss-aye. if you don't like it you can make your own game and decide everything over there.
i've revealed before that our 5th character will utilize a spear, but i'm trying to do something that's *fairly* unique in the platfighter space with them, so it's been a bit complicated to balance and problem solve. while holding the spear, they operate similar to a swordie (on steroidsd), BUT....sarissae can THROW THE SPEAR! this doesn't sound too crazy at first, it's just an item right? no, sarissae has a completely different moveset when they aren't holding the spear, meaning i am basically making two characters. they are intended to be much weaker with no recovery without the spear, so this means i had to find reasons to make you throw it. for now, it's mostly coming from the fact that all the kill moves/specials/smash attacks are throw moves that FORCE you to do it, to interact with the system. i'm debating forcing it in other ways, like hurting sarissae if they hold on to it too long, but i think this gets a little silly. for now, all you need to know is that this is really hard to make work but it's really fun to work on lol. there are a few example attacks below, as well as the spear mechanic. when it hits an opponent, it comes back to you right away, but if you miss (or do certain attacks) you'll be forced to go pick it up or fight with your fists! full moveset will be shown when i actually know every move. this character is strange and complicated so i'm honestly just experimenting until things feel good.
plaguye took a small break from workshop to make some much needed improvements. most notably, the game is just much more optimized now (please...please tell me we fixed the memory leak this time)
online teams will also be coming to this update, and i will be updating color palettes to help that along. ALSO, you now have the ability to select random on the character select and stage select. you can also enter training room on any stage now! (and pick training stage for fights if you're weird). for newer players, there will be more tooltips and popups to help navigate menus and delete profiles, etc.
MANY bugs and crashes have also been addressed, including a nasty one that should help quickplay find matches faster even if the player count is low.
workshop/custom characters will not release with this update, but the hardest part of developing it is behind us! (and by us i mean plaguye). characters are finished, and i've even been using the mod tools to edit sarissae. most features are in place, there are just things to clean up with menus/implementation/optimization, and then last but not least, connecting it with steam's backend to make it easy to use. we also want to make tutorials and documentation so it's very easy to use right away! adobe gave us a big scare last month, so we started work on our own app for creating the characters. this is still FAR away and will be after the workshop update, but it's nice to have the bones in place. i'm sorry workshop has taken so much longer than we planned for, but i think the systems we have and the ease of use will be worth it in the end.
despite the game's low concurrent players, the daily active users is still quite healthy, and the game is still selling consistently. i think workshop and a few more characters/stages/content will breathe new life!
love you guys, lemme know what colors you want to see for sarissae :))
hi everyone! pluto here, just wanted to give a brief update before the holidays on what we're working on behind the scenes, as well as provide a very small patch for CPU difficulty. enjoy!
this is a quick patch to include a difficulty setting for CPU's. you can now select easy or hard after adding them to your match. the "easy" CPU setting should provide a nicer training method for newer players. the "hard" CPU's are the same ones that were already implemented in the game.
this was cooked up pretty quickly just to give new players a way to practice without needing to go online and fight players who are more experienced. in the future, we would like to add more difficulty settings for CPU's, but we wanted to push this update as quickly as possible to give newer players a better experience.
this remains our #1 goal for AFQM, as we feel it really adds to the longevity and replayablity of the game. also, i just really want to see what you guys come up with!
as stated in previous updates, fully custom stages are implemented, but now we need the ability for stages to load custom scripts and spawn custom objects, because characters will need the ability to create these objects. there are still a lot of things that need added, like proper integration with steam workshop, modding documentation, and testing online to ensure everything runs smoothly, but the most difficult part (actually getting custom characters to load properly without the need of the game engine) is almost finished!
while modding/workshop is a top priority for plaguye at the moment, i plan on contracting an additional developer (most likely after the holdays) to whip up a long overdue in-game tutorial, to better explain the mechanics of this game. while i originally created this game as a fun way to just do cool combos, it's obviously taken on a life of its own, and a step-by-step, in depth guide is very needed for newcomers. this was always planned, but needing to rework the online infrastructure, as well as fixing in-game bugs and balance issues, took priority for many months.
our 5th character is also actively being worked on! this is essentially my only task at the moment, so i'm hoping their development will go quickly. i will not be giving a hard date for their release though, because something bad happens every single time i do that and i miss the date lol.
anyway, character 5's weapon of choice will be a lengthy spear! his gameplay will be focused on keeping you at specific distances to maximize their damage output. (no, they are not a marth clone, i promise). they will also have 2 special moves i'm particularly excited about, because i haven't quite seen it done before in a platfighter, but i will keep it a secret until i make sure it's actually going to work. i don't want to keep their entire development a secret though, so once i have some concrete footage, i'll share it with you all, and maybe even livestream working on them towards the end!
i'm still blown away by the reception this game received. halfway through this year i had no idea what i was going to do with my life. i was out of money and out of time, and instead of getting a regular 9 to 5, i doubled down, worked 18 hours a day for 2 months straight alongside plaguye, and created/released A FEW QUICK MATCHES hoping it would sell just enough copies to get me out of debt. now, over 130,000 people have downloaded this little game, and i have enough resources to fund this game to its endpoint, as well as stickfigurez, and even future games. i know a huge part of it is luck, but i'm still proud of this game and the team that helped bring it to life! thank you all for playing A FEW QUICK MATCHES!
hello players!
we're currently aware of a bug involving steam invites that crashes the game, and are working on a fix. for now, when you create a lobby, set it to "public" and join your friends using the lobby code. we're hoping to resolve this issue within a day or two. the upcoming patch will include a few more online improvements to connections and stability as well.
our next patch will also include CPU AI updates. the CPU's are now smarter and play a bit more like humans, and because of the new systems, it will now be easy for us to create different difficulty levels for the CPU's in a future update.
A FEW QUICK MATCHES has been announced as a main title for PLATFIGHT ONLINE, an upcoming online tournament that celebrates platform fighters. there will be a $2000 pot bonus for this event, plus some exclusive AFQM merch! you can find out more details and register for the tournament for free here:
PLATFIGHT ONLINE INFO / REGISTRATION
we're also still planning out workshop implementation and are working on some more content for the game as well. progress was slow recently because both of the main developers were moving houses. we'll be more active now as we're settling into our new places!
-pluto
after a few quick delays, ninja has joined the roster as our 4th playable character. with his unique ability to cancel tilts and aerials straight into specials, his combo game really opens up and allows for maximum creativity! we hope you enjoy him, and can't wait to add even more!
(there are a few visual and audio bugs with the character, and we've found some hurtboxes to be disjointed, but we are fixing these in a patch later today).
we really wanted to couple the online update with ninja, but it's just not quite ready yet. lobby systems are proving to be pretty tricky to get up and running. however, we've tested quickplay with multiple players who were previously unable to play the game at all online, and all of the issues seem to be resolved with our new servers. we plan on running a beta branch soon for those experiencing the issue, so even if lobbies aren't fully finished, you will be able to play quickplay on this branch until we complete it. plague is still hoping to finish the full update within one week
i do want to say, we get a lot of comments and frustration around the fact that updates are being pushed but the online still isn't fixed for those who cannot connect, and it probably makes it feel like we aren't working on the issue. BUT as a team of 2, i am purely responsible for the gameplay side of the game, and plague is completely handling the network issues. our 2 tasks do not overlap and do not interfere with eachother, so i am free to work on ninja and balance the game / add stages / fix gameplay bugs, while plague reworks the servers. his job is extremely tough for one dev to tackle, but i have absolutely zero experience with networking and wouldn't be able to help speed up the process at all. i do plan on hiring more help once the first round of funds transfer to us, but until then, it's basically the two of us grinding out any work that needs done. i just wanted to clear up any confusion as to why it feels like the network issue isn't being taken seriously. it absolutely is, and we REALLY REALLY hope to be finished this week. at the very least, the beta branch for quickplay will be live.
thank you all for your patience for ninja, and even greater patience for the network update. i really love this game and want to do everything i can to make it as accessible as possible! if you have any specific concerns, feel free to email [email protected], or leave a feedback report in our discord, linked on our steam page <3
-pluto
i really didn't want to have to do this, and originally thought silksong wouldn't effect AFQM numbers too heavily, but behind the scenes we're seeing quite a big difference. so in order to maximize ninja's potential player-pull, we're going to release him sometime after this weekend. i won't give a hard date, but releasing during silksong weekend is basically just gutting your potential growth from releasing a new fighting game character. new fighters are the biggest draw for our genre, and we need to give ninja the release day he deserves!
i know a lot of you have been waiting, i just ask you be patient for one more weekend and one last hurdle. thank you all for supporting a few quick matches <3
i will get the bad news out of the way early which is that i just don't think i'm going to have ninja ready by tomorrow/august. too many outside factors in life interfered and when you're the only one working on a character, that kind of thing can really slow you down. i think i could still technically finish him by tomorrow, but i got some news and i won't be around for the weekend, so if ANYTHING went wrong i wouldn't be here to fix it, and i want to make sure he's actually fun and cool lol. delaying by 1 week let's me cook a little longer, and also gives me time to balance the rest of the cast after cherry's tournament along with the ninja update, so it feels much more like a larger update! there will be at least 1 patch before the ninja patch to fix up some bugs. i feel pretty bad for letting the community down and not getting him out in august as previously stated, but there were just so many other things to focus on before i got to work on him, and because the community was so huge initially, many many issues arose faster than they normally would. it's a good problem to have, but i'm sorry ninja was the sacrifice :((
to those who can't connect online, i know it's been frustrating and i completely understand, but i have good news! plague has made a lot of progress with reworking the online to steam servers. quickplay is fully functional through the steam servers and feels great. he's working on the lobby system now, which will be much more robust than the current version. you'll have public lobbies to look through, and private lobbies for tournaments or to invite your friends through steam friend's list! he estimates that september 12th is the latest the update would come, so it could be earlier than that!
as soon as plague is done with online, it's workshop time baby!! i'll be hiring to work on the tutorial and other issues so plague can focus on modding. i also may have more character news in the near future
hello everyone, pluto here from studio bidou!
i just wanted to update you all on what we're actively working on. updates will roll out frequently this week, some large, some just minor tweaks or hotfixes. here's all you need to know!
first, we just want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and response to this game. we've reached 60,000 players and we're still in the first week of release! it's been an unreal ride. for those who don't know, i initially made this game in 2 months as a side project, just to generate a little bit of income. i didn't expect it to blow up like this, so i've been trying to adjust to the larger-than-life community. there are still many issues and bugs to work out, and at the moment we're a team of 2, but we're working hard to improve the game as fast as possible!
this is our number one priority to fix. we're remaking our server system entirely, and switching to using steam servers. this will hopefully remedy a lot of the errors people are getting when trying to play the game online. currently, about 5% of players can't connect online due to certain routers / NAT types not communicating properly with our server. we promise we're taking this extremely seriously, and are working every day to make changes to the new system. please be patient for a little bit longer, we got you!
this is the last BIGGGG bug in the game, but if you alt+tab or click out of the game while it's booting up on steam, your controller won't work once you get into an online match. this is super hard to figure out, mostly because it doesn't happen in our engine, ONLY when we upload a build to steam. so for now, just don't tab out until you're in the main menu! you can also solve the issue by deleting all other profiles
new stages are coming to the game this week! ninja is also actively being worked on now that we sorted out most of the game's big problems. he's still on track to release sometime this august.
we'll also be changing many default binds, especially in training mode to allow dpad users to still utilize training mode to the fullest. we also want to add rolling and teching to the parry button. deadzones have also been a strange issue for us and we're working to find improvements
thank you all for playing and supporting a few quick matches. we'll continue to update the game frequently and make as many positive changes as we can!!
pluto
we are aware of some players being unable to connect to quickplay and lobbies. this issue seems to mainly be caused by VPN's/firewalls/antivirus software not trusting the game because it's peer2peer. while this isn't a permanent solution, disabling these may fix the issue if your problem still persists, please be patient. i've got devs working on the connection issues and improving the servers, but it's difficult to test because the problem seems to be so inconsistent and we haven't completely figured out what's causing the issues. but please know, we're working on it and will update you as soon as we can!
i'm also adding a way to report bugs, but you can always join the discord to report issues as well. thank you all for the crazy day one! the response to the game has been amazing and we want to make sure your experience matches your enthusiasm!
A FEW QUICK MATCHES launches August 5th, with ninja not far behind as free update later this August!
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This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for A Few Quick Matches, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main A Few Quick Matches statistics page.
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