Создатель Another Crab’s Treasure объяснил, почему копирование Dark Souls вредит индустрии. Современный рынок видеоигр, по его словам, всё чаще заполняют проекты, вдохновлённые играми FromSoftware, и это постепенно становится проблемой.
Aggro Crab creative director Caelan Pollock believes that the widespread use of the term soulslike drives developers into a cycle of endlessly reproducing solutions from the first Dark Souls. He emphasizes that "the best game of this type has long been created," and it remains the original Dark Souls, so attempts to copy it in every detail are pointless.
According to Pollock, the strength of the original lay in its deep imperfection, which ensured the game's strong response from the audience, influencing the entire industry. When other studios mechanically repeat elements such as stamina management or the item return system after death, the result is often faceless and devoid of its own identity. Instead of developing ideas, developers are increasingly clinging to the formal features of a "souls-game."
Pollock calls Another Crab’s Treasure a way out of this vicious circle. The project abandons dark fantasy and tells the story of a crab surviving in a polluted ocean and using plastic waste as armor — a direct reference to the problem of climate change. According to the developers, the studio deliberately took a risk, hoping that players would be ready for a new interpretation of the familiar formula.
