Comedy climber Peak was conceived in a hot tub and developed in an AirBnB

Peak, the comedy climber that is currently climbing its way up Steam's Most-Played games, was actually conceived in a hot tub in Sweden and then brought to an Airbnb in South Korea for a month-long development jam.

Peak, which has already obtained more than 1 million sales in just the week it has been available, has gained an incredible amount of attention within the gaming community recently, as clips of the strange characters called scouts have been circulating on various social media platforms, causing the game to spread like wildfire. For those who are out of the loop, Peak is a cooperative climbing and survival game developed by Landfall and Aggro Crab.

Players assume the roles of stranded nature scouts who must ascend a perilous mountain to escape a mysterious island. It has gained quite a lot of popularity for the value of proximity chat experiences, funny encounters/setbacks, and overall comedic approach. Peak hit a staggering 102,799 concurrent players.

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Speaking to PC Gamer over email, Aggro Crab studio head Nick Kaman said, But how did the game begin? Peak was pitched initially in a hot tub in Sweden almost a year ago, with the concept being much more vague and closer to an open-world survival game.

However, the developers got excited about the idea of a group of lost scouts on an island, "and the macabre slapstick that can come from that."

Four months ago, in February, three Aggro Crab developers and four of Landfall's developers headed to an Airbnb in Seoul, South Korea, where they spent a month building the foundations for what is now Peak.

"We brought our computers to an Airbnb in Hongdae and locked tf in for a month," Kaman said. "As soon as we landed, we beelined straight for the nearest IKEA and spent the day assembling office chairs and desks (that were donated to the local indie scene at the end of the month)."

"Basically any given moment was either working on Peak or getting food while talking more about Peak," Kaman said. "While it was pretty intense, it was also the most fun I've ever had working on a game."

"On a silly multiplayer game like this, the player experience often mirrors the development," Kaman said. "Most of the design was driven by the question: 'Wouldn't it be funny if THIS happened?' And now every TikTok I've seen of a great moment in Peak reminds me of the great moment we had while implementing it."

Check out Peak on the Steam Store here.