Climbing Sim PEAK Was Meant to Be "Friendslop" Game from the Start

In a recent interview, Aggro Crab and Landfall, the developers of PEAK, a co-op climbing sim, which attracts almost 100,000 daily concurrent players, talked about how the game's idea appeared and how the two studios combined their diverse approaches in its development.

PEAK has been called a representative of the developing "friendslop" genre, which stands for budget-friendly co-op games meant to be played with friends. The developers shared that a "friendslop" game was a core idea from the start. They drew inspiration from representatives of the genre like Lethal Company, ultimately deciding to create their own "friendslop" title.

Caelan Pollock, the developer at Aggro Crab and the author of the original idea of PEAK, describes the genre as "something that assumes that you and your friends will make up the difference in comedy and interaction in what the game is lacking." As for the game's initial idea, the developer shared: "It was originally pitched in a hot tub in Sweden, and that idea was really just, 'Let's make a game about being lost scouts.'"

Interestingly, Aggro Crab and Landfall have different approaches to game development: Landfall focuses more on core game mechanics, and Aggro Crab highlights the game's aesthetic and narrative elements, like its themes and overall feel. However, they quickly became "fast friends," as Caelan Pollock described it. 

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