Complex sentence: The game failed in the competition, likely as a result of it not meeting the competition's criteria, but gained popularity when Sagal published it online, and links to download the game quickly spread throughout the Internet.
Split into simpler sentences: The game failed in the competition, likely as a result of it not meeting the competition's criteria. In spite of failing in the competition, the game gained a fair amount of popularity when Sagal published it online, and links to download the game quickly spread throughout the Internet.