By Keegan Vulgamott
Imagine a plane crash that leaves four people stranded on the bottom of a massive cliff face; the only option is to start climbing and foraging through passengers’ lost luggage scattered among the mountainside to find food and equipment.
This may seem like a horrible, scary, and impossible situation, but actually, I’m describing the newest hit indie game “Peak,” which has currently sold over 8 million copies, according to playertracker.net.
The gameplay offers people a unique cooperative experience that digs into a deeper trend in gaming and the rise of an almost forgotten genre, couch co-op.
A type of game that focuses on friends working together. These games used to be played on the same screen while sitting side by side, but now, with easy voice chat, you don’t have to be on the same couch anymore.
As of late, AAA developers and multiplayer game developers in general have been hyper-focused on making the next “Fortnite” with massive multiplayer shooters and other competitive game modes that pit players against each other, but recently, games like “Peak,” “It Takes Two,” and “Overcooked,” just to name a few, have been reviving a genre of games that allows people to work together to achieve a common goal.
“Peak” is just the latest in a line of games that have started to captivate audiences with the joys of working together, and in the post-pandemic era, it has shown how gamers are moving towards rewarding game developers for a revival in the genre.
What’s “Peak” and what’s cooperative about it?
“Peak” is a climbing-focused game where a group of four (or fewer) has to scale a mountain after a plane crash. They start on the shoreline next to the crashed plane and have to take stock of what resources they have as they begin to scale the first cliff-face, which serves as the game’s introduction.
This area (named the Shore) has minimal climbing challenges and no major hazards for players to get comfortable with the game’s mechanics. They must scour luggage scattered around the ground and on the cliff side to get essentials like food and climbing gear.
They travel through different ‘biomes’ of the mountain, starting at the shore, then scaling a forest-like mountain filled with vines and plants that can poison players. Then, reaching the freezing alpine, where players must be wary of the freezing cold and huddle together at times to keep warm. Eventually players reach a lava-filled caldera at the core of a volcano.
After scaling those different environments, they reach the peak where they must light a flare and wait for the arrival of a helicopter. The visual style is low-poly, highly stylized, and cartoonish, which starkly contrasts the game’s narrative and speaks to the real meaning of the game.
Cooperation is almost a necessity as players can pull each other up and let down ropes they find to support their climb and reach the peak together. Players can boost others up the side of jagged outcroppings.
The game further imposes this idea of cooperation, as in-game voice chat is proximity-based, which means if you walk far enough away from your friends, they won’t be able to hear you.
For example, you have just reached the top of a huge drop-off and feel a sense of relief, only to hear your friend’s scream next to you fade as you see their cartoonish character fly down the drop with a granola bar in hand.
Seeing your buddy fall 100 feet, while tragic, is hilarious as their voice becomes quieter the farther they fall. Likewise, accomplishments are even more euphoric as you help your friend who can’t reach a certain area and they help you, building a deeper connection to each other and the game itself. Since the typical gameplay loop can last well over an hour, reaching the peak of the mountain and escaping gives players a deep sense of achievement and euphoria.
How are the trends moving?
“Peak” is symbolic of the revival of a trend that has taken over. “Castle Crashers,” a prominent couch co-op game from the early 2000s, was among the last to really dig into the genre, and it hasn’t been until these games that we’ve seen the trends come back.
This is due in part to a new societal gaming movement, where people lost a lot of connection with others, especially their friends, and lost a social outlet. Additionally, this trend can be tied to players becoming more distraught with the toxicity in mainline competitive games.
Streaming culture shows this juxtaposition by highlighting how malicious communities around these AAA titles can be and the fostering of connections between streamers playing games like “Peak” and their more inclusive groups.
Why does this matter to gamers and developers?
“Peak” shows game designers and gamers alike a deeper societal swing since the end of the pandemic. It shows that the couch co-op genre is being revived by indie developers and gives people a sense of companionship they’d lacked for a long time. Indie studios have the unique ability to take large risks.
These risks, in turn, show large companies how they can take advantage of the trends and heavily influence the gaming world. In a broader sense, there’s a shift in what people are playing and feeling in a world where competition has dominated games. Co-op games show us that shared victories can be just as, if not more, rewarding.
Just like in “Peak,” when the odds are stacked against you and you find yourself dangling off a cliff, a little help from a friend can go a long way.
Featured photo by Keegan Vulgamott