ShareThis
Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a divisive entry in the beloved fighting game franchise. Introducing a slower pace and the addition of random tripping, many players perceived Brawl as a dumbing-down of the series to appease the casual crowd who had flocked to Wii. As a result, a talented group of fans banded together and formed Project M, an independent development studio that would mod the Wii title to make it more closely resemble the gameplay of Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube. In 2011, the first patch from Project M was released, much to the delight of competitive fighting game players around the world.
Now, nearly five years later, Project M has come to a close. We’ll let the dev team’s final blog post put into words the thinking behind their decision:
Hello friends,
Six years ago, we started a journey born out of our shared love for competitive fighting games. Eventually, the electrifying passion that coursed through us arced out and drew in more people until our small circle of friends grew into a team, and that team grew into an international community. Project M and its community have grown larger than any of us ever anticipated, and it’s truly heartwarming to see all of the unforgettable connections and friendships that have been forged through this project.
Unfortunately, we’re here to say that we’re at the end of that road.
We’ve learned so much in the process of making Project M—accumulating life-changing lessons in communication, team work [sic], professionalism, work ethic, and more—but there’s only so far we can take those skills in a volunteer project. With this in mind, we’ve made a difficult business decision: We’re ready to finish development here and move on to bigger and better ventures.
We realize that this will come as a shock to many of our fans. Please, forgive us. Again, it’s been an excruciating call to make, but it’s been made a bit easier by our satisfaction with the previous and final release, v3.6. We’ve spent six years polishing Project M, and rather than let it drag on through another several years of dwindling development and change-fatigue in the competitive circle, we’re going to consider our work complete.
In the mean time [sic], we plan to be hard at work on new projects, built from the ground up. We can’t spill the beans just yet, but know that we’re looking towards a fresh start with brand new designs. Rather than splitting our focus, many of us want to dedicate ourselves to this new venture fully. In this way, we hope to maintain the level of quality and professionalism you’ve come to expect from us.
In summary, we are ceasing development of Project M (effective immediately) and will be making no further releases as we turn our attention towards an entirely new venture. As the PMDev team will be formally disbanded, please forward all official communications regarding Project M to video game attorney and business consultant . We appreciate your support and your understanding.
One final time,
PMDev
Thank you for playing!
Anyone here ever give the Project M mod a try? What are your thoughts on the team’s work? Sound off in the comments!
Source: Project M
