When The Best War Games spoke to developers at Aggro Crab, the team behind Another Crab’s Treasure, taking a dive into the lore of why firearms can operate underwater was understandably a priority. In Another Crab’s Treasure, an upcoming underwater Soulslike game, the player takes on the role of a crab after the cast-off trash of the human world becomes the most critical resource of crabkind. That includes not only the trash fashioned into shells by the hermit crabs, but the weapons they can use to defend themselves and their haul. Although players won't find it scattered along other weapons in the game, protagonist Kril can pull out a Glock whenever he needs to solve a problem.
Studio head/art director Nick Kaman and creative director/narrative lead Caelan Pollock explained the inclusion of the handgun, designing shells for Another Crab's Treasure, and how they approach post-launch ideas as an indie studio. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Kril's Handgun in Another Crab's Treasure
Q: About that gun. How did it go down? How fun is it? Am I just going to be going around shooting enemies?
KAMAN: It's up to you. I don't think it's that fun. It's fun once, you know. It does just kind of kill anything you need in one hit. Much like a gun would do, but I don't know. If something's giving you trouble, that's what it's for. I don't really expect people to play the whole game that way, but you can if you want.
POLLOCK: At the end of the day, we weren't really questioning "Is the gun a fun way to do a whole playthrough?" Like, for a certain kind of person, maybe, but at the end of the day, it's something that's in there. That is a tool that you can use to bypass combat that you don't want to do. It's the ultimate difficulty option.
KAMAN: It was initially added because we were just like: "Wouldn't it be funny if Kril had a shell that was a gun, a Glock handgun?" Then, we were right. It WAS funny. And then we thought, wouldn't it be really funny if the gun was in the accessibility menu? And we were right. It WAS funny.
What we didn't expect was that accessibility people - advocates for that community - also thought it was really funny. They thought it was a great feature. I ended up doing a talk about it at the accessibility conference up in Redmond, and the lesson here is that accessibility should be fun, right? Like it shouldn't just be: "We can make a button that lets you skip the boss." Isn't it more fun to shoot it in one hit? That's it. That's the point of a video game. If you're going to take away an aspect of it, do it in a fun way.
Q: Was there ever any serious consideration about how a gun works underwater?
KAMAN: There's a lot of things that we did not consider about how it works underwater, and that's okay.
POLLOCK: The gun shooting is the gun's special ability. It's the Shell Spell, which is a function of Umami. The currents of the ocean kind of recall the past functions of this ocean trash, so that's why you can shoot the gun. Just don't throw guns in the ocean. We don't want crabs getting them.
Shells in Another Crab's Treasure
Q: What was your approach when designing the many different shells found in Another Crab's Treasure?
KAMAN: Honestly, the approach was just: "Okay, what's a piece of trash that this crab could fit its butt into?" You know, that gets pretty difficult. You've got soda cans and other types of beverage containers. Then you run out, and you have to get really creative. We've got a little over 60 shells in the game. I think we have 69. Exactly.
POLLOCK: Nice. Why didn't we use that as a marketing point?
KAMAN: Yes, we have 69 shells. You kind of start there, and then you think: "What’s a move this shell could have?" Because every shell has a Shell Spell. And if nothing is obvious about it, you just make a new Shell Spell.
Q: There was a time when you were just sitting around thinking about what a crab would stick its butt into?
KAMAN: Yeah, mostly me over the course of about two years.
POLLOCK: People are always just posting random ideas in our Slack. It was the same with Going Under, a game where you can wield just about any office junk as a weapon. Ideas come very quick. There are a lot of them, and they're very fun to come up with. It's ultimately pretty challenging to decide on a shortlist.
Q: Can you talk about one or two of the most difficult shells to design?
KAMAN: I feel that the difficult part is the ability. I would say glass shells were annoying to design, just in general, because we wanted them to be a shell that breaks in one hit. It's a pretty sh*tty shell. But we ended up making an ability for it that shoots down glass shards. If you get hit while both shards are active, then it doesn't break the shell. It just breaks the shards and the enemy takes damage, so those ended up being pretty fun. There are a lot of shells. There are shells that explode, shells that you can use as a decoy - lots of shells.
Another Crab's Treasure DLC?
Q: Last question, can you talk about post-launch plans?
KAMAN: I don't know. We have some plans for post-launch, but at this point, we're just going to see how it goes.
POLLOCK: I've learned better than to start talking about a post-launch roadmap before the game is even out. As an indie dev, the success of the game can just make such a huge difference as to what you can or can't do.
KAMAN: We can say we've already started on the next one.
POLLOCK: We are working on our next game already. But we're at least going to be sticking around and fixing the bugs at a bare minimum. There's content that we'd love to do, but we'll have to keep you in suspense on that.
[END]
Another Crab's Treasure
- Released
- April 25, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
As Kril the hermit crab, you’ll need to wear the trash around you as shells to withstand attacks from enemies many times your size. Embark on an epic treasure hunt to buy back your repossessed shell, and discover the dark secrets behind the polluted ocean.
TRASH OR TREASURE?
In this undersea society, trash is not only a way of life, but a valuable resource, used for everything from fashion to firearms. But with the presence of trash comes a mysterious infection known as the Gunk, which could spell doom for the entire ocean.
LEARN FROM NATURE
As Kril explores the ocean, he'll gain a variety of Umami Techniques—powerful attacks learned from the denizens of the seas. Punch your enemies with the overwhelming might of a Mantis Shrimp, ensnare them with the horrifying Bobbit Worm, and much more.
UNEXPLORED DEPTHS
The ocean goes deeper than one can imagine. Fight your way through kelp forests, coral reefs, sand castle cities, and even the unfathomable darkness of the deep-sea trenches, all in the name of getting back your prized shell.
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Crude Humor, Language, Use of Tobacco, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Aggro Crab
- Publisher(s)
- Aggro Crab
- Engine
- Unity
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
