ProbablyMonsters has launched Crimson Moon, a Gothic High Renaissance action-adventure RPG built around fast melee combat, character progression, and replayable missions that can be completed alone or through two-player online co-op. Players become a Nephilim, a human-angel hybrid charged with reclaiming the fallen city of Gildenarch from demons, vampires, undead creatures, and the imposing Dead Gods.

Available for $19.99 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, Crimson Moon is also the clearest expression yet of ProbablyMonsters’ current production strategy. The independent developer and publisher is pursuing what it calls focused AA games with AAA sensibilities: projects that concentrate their resources on a smaller collection of defining features rather than competing with blockbuster releases through sheer size.

In this interview, ProbablyMonsters Chief Marketing Officer David Reid explains how that philosophy affects scope, pricing, publishing, audience validation, and portfolio planning. He also discusses the extraction-game comparisons inspired by Crimson Moon’s high-risk missions, the advantages of coordinating development and publishing internally, and why premium AA may represent one of the industry’s largest opportunities for creating original games sustainably.

ProbablyMonsters has described its strategy around building focused AA games with AAA sensibilities. What does that phrase mean internally, and how does it shape decisions around scope, budget, production values, and player expectations?

David Reid, ProbablyMonsters Chief Marketing Officer: For ProbablyMonsters, making AA games with AAA sensibilities means applying a high bar for craft, visual identity, player experience, and execution to an intentionally scoped project.

We are not trying to imitate the size or feature sets of the biggest games in the market. We use the experience our teams have gained making AAA titles to identify what makes each project special, invest deeply in those defining qualities, and realize them at a premium level.

That discipline shapes every part of development. Scope is built around the experience we want players to have and what the game truly needs to deliver on that vision. We invest where we can make the greatest impact on the player experience, rather than adding features simply because players might have seen them in a larger game. Under this approach, players should expect a focused, memorable game that values both their time and their budget.

From a publishing and positioning standpoint, what made this the right game to lead with in September? Based on my time with the game, it felt almost like an extraction looter but with PvE focus.

David Reid: Crimson Moon is a strong expression of our strategy because it has a very clear sense of what it wants to be. The team focused its ambition around visceral melee combat, a distinctive Gothic High Renaissance world, a heavy metal-inspired power fantasy, and an experience that works equally well solo or in co-op. We saw players connect with those qualities immediately when we revealed the game at PlayStation State of Play in February, and that response has continued as more people have had the chance to play it.

I can understand the extraction looter comparison from your SGF demo. Crimson Moon is built around replayable, mission-based runs where you’re pushing into dangerous districts, fighting increasingly challenging enemies, and unlocking new abilities, weapons, armor sets, and other ways to build your character. There’s real risk to each run as well, because if you suffer a “True Death,” you’ll lose much of what you acquired during the run. So there are certainly elements that fans of extraction and looter games will recognize. At its core, Crimson Moon is a PvE action-adventure RPG, whether you’re playing solo or co-op.

From a publishing standpoint, that combination gives us something we think is very distinctive in a crowded fall. And at $19.99, we think we’re giving players a lot of game for their money.

Will the game be fun to play solo or should you ideally bring a friend along? Are there matchmaking features?

David Reid: Players will receive a complete, satisfying experience whether they play solo or with a friend. Cooperative play is optional, and encounters are built to scale. Playing with a friend adds shared tactics, a joint life pool, and opportunities to create synergistic builds, but the core combat and progression are designed to work for both solo and co-op players. The replayable missions can feel quite different depending on whether you tackle them alone or with another player, and we encourage players to try out solo and co-op.

The game supports online co-op and cross-play. Players join a co-op session from the Sanctus Clypeus hub. Co-op sessions can be created via a friends list or via online matchmaking with another player who has a publicly available session.

September is an extremely busy release window for games. Why does ProbablyMonsters believe this is still the right time to launch Crimson Moon, and how do you think about standing out without relying purely on avoiding competition?

David Reid: It’s rare to find a truly quiet release window in today’s market. Every game is competing for attention and, more importantly, for players’ limited time. We believe the best way to compete is to make a game with a clear identity and an honest value proposition, and then reach the audience most likely to connect with it. 

Rather than trying to compete with the largest fall releases on scale, we are leaning into what makes Crimson Moon distinctive: its Gothic High Renaissance setting, heavy metal soundtrack, fast and relentless combat, replayable missions, and optional co-op, all at an accessible launch price of $19.99. Standing out is not simply about finding an empty date. It is about giving players a clear reason to choose your game when many other options are available.

ProbablyMonsters is both developing and publishing Crimson Moon. What are the advantages of an integrated development and self-publishing model when it comes to marketing, positioning, community feedback, and launch planning?

David Reid: For Crimson Moon, having development and publishing working closely together has helped create a strong connection between the game’s creative vision and how we bring it to players. Our publishing team is involved throughout the process, working alongside development on positioning, audience strategy, platform relationships, regional planning, and launch execution.

That close collaboration helps us represent the game authentically in the market and set the right expectations with players. It also creates a direct line for insights from community, media, platforms, and other partners to be shared with the development team as we move from reveal through launch.

Ultimately, the advantages are speed and alignment. The teams working on Crimson Moon can stay closely coordinated and make thoughtful decisions about how, when, and where we introduce the game to players.

Crimson Moon seems designed to hit a specific middle ground: handcrafted, premium-feeling, and ambitious, but not trying to become an endlessly sprawling live-service game. How do you communicate that value proposition to players?

David Reid: We communicate it by being very clear about what Crimson Moon is. It is a premium action-adventure RPG built around replayable, mission-based combat. It has a defined story and a complete experience, but that doesn’t mean the experience ends when the story does. Dynamic enemy compositions, difficulty modifiers, and equipment progression and customization give players reasons to keep coming back. We’ve priced the game at $19.99 to deliver strong value for a focused experience.

For us, premium is not defined by the largest world, the longest campaign, or the highest budget. It is defined by the quality, distinctiveness, and satisfaction of the experience from the moment a player picks up the controller. 

The company’s portfolio also includes Nekome: Nazi Hunter, which has a very different tone and fantasy from Crimson Moon. How do you build a cohesive publishing identity when the games themselves are intentionally distinct?

David Reid: We want to make games for all kinds of players, so we see the differences across our portfolio as a strength. A cohesive identity does not mean every ProbablyMonsters game needs to share the same genre, tone, visual style, or even appeal to exactly the same audience. It means giving each game the freedom to have a distinct identity while holding ourselves to a consistent standard for craft and execution.

Crimson Moon is a one-to-two-player Gothic power fantasy built around replayable missions and combat mastery, while Nekome: Nazi Hunter is a single-player revenge story built around stealth, close-quarters combat, and a grindhouse-inspired presentation. They're very different games by design.

Over time, we want players to see ProbablyMonsters as a place where they can discover original games with strong creative points of view. They may come to us for one type of experience and discover something completely different with our next game. For us, that's what a cohesive publishing identity looks like: not a single creative mold, but a consistent standard for distinctive, well-crafted games.

For Crimson Moon specifically, what audience signals have been most useful so far, whether from reviews, previews, wishlists, community response, trailers, press feedback, or genre comparisons?

David Reid: No single metric tells the whole story, so we look at audience signals together to understand who is responding to Crimson Moon, what is drawing them in, and whether the experience delivers on what we’re promising.

The State of Play reveal gave us the first large-scale signal that the combination of action-adventure RPG gameplay, heavy metal influences, Gothic visual identity, and co-op was connecting with players. Since then, wishlists, trailer and social engagement, and community growth have helped us understand the scale and composition of that interest. At the same time, conversations in Discord, reactions from creators and media, and the questions players ask give us a more qualitative view of what is resonating and where we need to communicate more clearly.

Hands-on play has probably been the most valuable signal of all. At SGF and our virtual preview event in July, we saw people respond strongly to the art style and, especially, the feeling of power in combat. There's an important difference between someone liking a trailer and someone putting down the controller and wanting to play more. Seeing that happen gave us confidence that the experience itself was delivering on the promise of the marketing.

A lot of studios are trying to find a sustainable path between indie development and blockbuster AAA production. What do you think the market opportunity is for AA games right now, especially titles with strong art direction, clear genre appeal, and disciplined scope?

David Reid: We believe premium AA represents one of the most significant opportunities in the market. Development costs and timelines at the AAA level have increased dramatically, while independent teams continue to show how powerful a focused creative vision can be. Between those two ends is a missing middle where teams can combine disciplined scope with premium execution.

That model is especially relevant because players have more games available to them than ever before, but no more time. A title does not need to be the largest game in the market to succeed. It needs to know what it is, deliver on that promise exceptionally well, and reach the audience most likely to value it. Disciplined scope and investment can make it possible to take creative risks on original IP while building games in a more sustainable way. This is not about replacing AAA or independent development. It is about rebuilding a valuable space between them.

Looking beyond Crimson Moon, what lessons from this launch will shape how ProbablyMonsters approaches future releases, including Nekome: Nazi Hunter and the company’s broader publishing growth?

David Reid: Every release adds to our understanding of how players discover, evaluate, and ultimately choose to spend their time and money on a game. With Crimson Moon, we’re learning what captures attention, what turns that initial interest into deeper engagement, and ultimately what gets someone to buy, play, and recommend the game to others.

The important thing is to carry those lessons forward without assuming there is a single formula for success. Nekome: Nazi Hunter has a very different creative identity, audience, and value proposition, so our goal can’t be to simply replicate what worked for Crimson Moon. It’s to take what we’ve learned about players, channels, the market, and where our investments have the greatest impact, and then build a strategy around what makes Nekome distinctive.

With every release, we should get better at understanding who we’re trying to reach, what will earn their attention, and how best to bring that particular game to them. Over time, those lessons compound, making us a better publisher and helping us build ProbablyMonsters into a brand players associate with distinctive original games.

David Reid, Chief Marketing Officer at ProbablyMonsters

Interview conducted by David Jagneaux