THERMAL SIGNATURE -- VOL. 1 : PEAK
Greetings!!
Welcome to Thermal Signature! This is a new blog series spotlighting the indie games lighting up the charts, defying expectations, and earning their place in your library. The first signature we’re picking up on the radar is Peak, the $5 climbing sim from Aggro Crab and Landfall that came out of nowhere and hit over one million copies sold in under a week.
That number isn’t a typo, by the way. Peak was built in just four weeks during a Korean game jam. If you haven’t seen it yet, the game is a chaotic, co-op-focused climbing experience designed with deliberate jank, physics-driven failure, and a bold disregard for polish. Then it launched and blew past a million sales in six days!
At its core, Peak is a game about, well, climbing! Players team up to scale strange, colorful obstacle courses using a grab-and-climb mechanic that’s all about timing, coordination, and the occasional betrayal. The visuals are low-poly and vibrant, the characters bounce and flail with exaggerated ragdoll physics, and every movement feels slightly wrong in a way that makes things endlessly entertaining.
There's just you, hands, cliffs, your buddies, momentum, and mayhem! That simplicity is the game’s strength; it makes Peak instantly accessible, yet surprisingly hard to master! You’ll fall a lot, but every fall teaches you something - like paying attention to your stamina bar! And once you figure out the rhythm, you'll be scaling in no time! But don't get too comfortable because the map changes, increasing that beautiful replayability! Not to mention physics-based, low-poly action is just always funny. I bet someone has ripped a “Fly, you fools,” quote at least once or twice! It’s also refreshing to see a game lean into its weirdness without apology. Peak doesn’t try to be cinematic or epic. It just wants to be a playground for movement and hilarious interactions!
What makes this success even more remarkable is the context. Aggro Crab’s previous title, Another Crab’s Treasure, was a content-rich, story-driven Soulslike that took a few years to develop. It launched to positive reviews, but it didn’t break the sound barrier, outside of those dope boss battle beats. And then came Peak, the chaotic jam game they didn’t expect to do much, became their biggest hit overnight. Even the developers seemed shocked. One of them posted on social media:
“Why did this stupid jam game outsell Another Crab’s Treasure… I’m gonna crash out.”
That moment of self-aware disbelief has become part of the game’s charm. But the truth is, Peak is no accident. It’s a perfect example of a game that knows exactly what it is. There’s no bloat, no filler, just a clean and fun design with some fun mechanics I will leave for you to discover! The game delivers joy in its purest form and for five bucks, that joy is worth climbing for!
Have you played Peak yet? If so, what are your thoughts? If not, what are your thoughts still? And what indie game should we heat signature next? Let us know in the comments below, drop the coords because your signal might be the next one we scan.
