Peak has emerged as a surprising hit among gamers. This cooperative climbing game sold over one million copies in less than a week and ranked among the top 40 most popular games on streaming platforms in recent months. The game was developed through a collaboration between Aggro Crab, the creators of Another Crab’s Treasure, and Landfall, known for Content Warning. Most of the development was completed during an intense one-month game jam.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Nick Kaman, head of Aggro Crab, shared insights into the game’s development and his envy of Landfall’s rapid development approach with Content Warning, which he said “upended all our assumptions about game development.”
At the time, Aggro Crab was preparing to release their largest project yet, Another Crab’s Treasure, a three-year endeavor that left the team exhausted. “Although it was successful, Content Warning was a bigger hit made in less time,” Kaman said via email. Fortunately, the two studios had a friendly relationship, so when he asked to join Landfall’s team in Seoul, he received a warm welcome.
“We brought our computers to an Airbnb in Hongdae and locked ourselves in for a full month. Upon arrival, we headed straight to the nearest IKEA and spent a whole day assembling desks and chairs,” Kaman added.
It’s important to note that Peak wasn’t created entirely from scratch during those four weeks. Aggro Crab’s creative director, Caelan Rashby-Pollock, had conceived the idea a year earlier in Sweden. The initial concept was vague, leaning towards an open-world survival game, but the team quickly became excited about the idea of a group of lost scouts on an island, infused with dark humor. From that point, development accelerated rapidly.
“Basically, we were either working on Peak or talking about it during meals,” Kaman continued. “Though intense, it was the most fun I’ve had working on a game. For a comedic multiplayer game like this, the player experience often mirrors the development process,” he said. “Most design decisions were driven by the question, ‘Would this be fun if it happened?’ Seeing every Peak highlight shared on TikTok reminds me of the joy we felt creating those moments.”
Peak is now available on Steam.
