Have you ever played A Short Hike? If not, it's a peaceful game where players hike, climb, and fish as they make their way to Hawk Peak Provincial Park's summit. Its creator, adamgryu, has just released A Short Hike 99, which is a A Short Hike multiplayer mod for up to 99 players. Originally, it was joked about as a Battle Royale April Fool's joke, but instead, we got this, where you can hang out and vibe with up to 99 other players online, which is pretty cool.
How do I play the A Short Hike multiplayer mod?
First off, you have to own the game on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Sorry, console owners. If you own the game on Steam, you can use the Betas tab to install the mod. The beta branch is called "ashorthike99_mod". However, if you own the game on Itch.io, GOG, or Epic, you need to download the right patch and install it in the A Short Hike folder by copying the unzipped patch folder and overwriting "A Short Hike_Data." Once the game is installed, you'll see "multiplayer" appear in the options menu. If you are an OSX, you'll have to follow these instructions here.
As for what the mod is all about, it's not a long-term mod but an experiment, so don't expect many (or even any) patches to the mod going forward. Only the player state is synced, with everything else behaving as if you're playing single-player. Finally, if you're worried about corrupting your save file, don't, because the mod won't mess with it.
The developer-run server won't be permanent, but it will be up for two weeks and then it'll be down forever. The good news is that players can host their own servers if they try the developer's server and want to continue the good vibes after the server goes down.
For more information on multiplayer mods, hiking, and everything in between, stay tuned to TechRaptor.