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The studios behind Peak, Aggro Crab and Landfall Games, originally threw the game together at a breakneck pace during a 4-week game jam. In a recent interview at GDC, Aggro Crab studio head Nick Kamant told PC Gamer editor Ted Litchfield it didn't just help them switch gears to smaller projects—it also helped them realize co-op was "very much our thing now."
"We worked on this game with another dev studio, which is pretty uncommon, right," said Kaman. "This is way more in their wheelhouse. They made a game the previous year called Content Warning that also did super well, and was kind of one of the first friendslops out there."
When the two teams decided to collaborate on a follow-up, Aggro Crab did so with the assumption that it'd be a one-off learning experience. "It was just kind of a side hustle to see where it goes and learn from them," Kaman explained. "I consider [Peak] very much our thing now, whereas before, it wasn't our thing at all. We thought we were a character action studio."
Aggro Crab's previous game, a soulslike/3D platformer mashup called Another Crab's Treasure, was well-received but left the team burned out after three years of development. After Peak, on the other hand, Kaman felt energized: "There's so much that hasn't been explored yet, and there's so many interesting things you can do in the context of social games."
That feeling led to an expanded scope for the upcoming Crashout Crew, which releases later this week. Kaman says it's more Overcooked-inspired than friendslop, but there are some aspects carried over from that style: examples he gave include proximity voice chat, an unorthodox choice for a top-down game, and mouth animations that trigger when players use their mics. "It's kind of an experiment. Can we push it a little more toward friendslop, and does that enhance the experience?"
Kaman said he understands that not everyone will prefer the studio's new style. "If people miss Another Crab's Treasure and are like, 'Why are you guys a friendslop studio now?' I'm sorry, I get it, you guys want that side of us. But right now for us, this is just more exciting."
