'Don’t toil away on the things that don’t really matter': Peak creator says its rapid development cycle has 'proved that there are definitely different, but maybe better ways to make games'

Character holding out a Tick in the Tropics in Peak — (Image credit: Landcrab)

Red Dead Redemption 2 has some of the most precisely represented horses in the videogame industry. They have multiple distinct gaits, a realistic sense of weight, and miraculously, their little Arthur Morgans shrink in the cold. It's an admirably attentive but kind of stupid detail touted as much by the game's fans as its detractors, and it says something about triple-A game development that real man hours were poured into horse testicle simulation in a game as massive as Red Dead.

Peak is somewhere near the opposite end of the spectrum. It's a small, focused idea, and originated as a four-week game jam project the team was hoping to push out and immediately move on from. They decided to stick around and support it a bit more when the game started selling like hotcakes, but co-creator Nick Kaman told Game File there's still a lot of value in a short, sweet development cycle.

"Peak for me has kind of proved that there are definitely different, but maybe better ways to make games," Kaman told Game File. "My prescription is: don’t spend three years. Don’t toil away on the things that don’t really matter. Like, figure out what your game’s about and focus on that."

Kaman explained in the interview that Peak proves demand is there for smaller-scale games, even if financial barriers stand in the way of the developers trying to make them. "Anyone can make that next hit game and find success. There’s always gonna be the playerbase and people who want an amazing game, right? That’s not going away. What is going away is opportunities: publishing, funding, mid-sized studios and small studios who can sustain that."

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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