‘Peak’ Developers Call Roblox Game ‘Rise’, Formerly ‘Cliff’, A “Slop Ripoff” And Encourage Players To “Pirate Our Game” Instead
Developers Aggro Crab and Landfall Games have decried Roblox’s Rise (formerly Cliff), a game that takes more than a few inspirations from their co-developed game Peak. Upset over the “ripoff” and the microtransactions therein, the developers encouraged gamers to pirate Peak, rather than support the free-to-play alternative.
Taking to X, Aggro Crab games brusquely declared, “tbh would rather you pirate our game than play this microtransaction-riddled @Roblox slop ripoff.” They then showed Pew Studio’s Cliff, featuring a very similar art-style to Peak, along with their lobby also being an airport with two travelators.
Peak‘s co-developer Landfall Games — under “Team PEAK” — reposted the message and added “Cosigned.”
In reply to another X user pointing out they couldn’t afford the game, Landfall went even further, encouraging, “Pirate it bro [heart emoji] once you get a job you can get it on steam if you wanna support.”
Three days later, X user @heyitsszpigoz raised the developer’s attention, asserting, “hey @AggroCrabGames. Lately after the backlash, the roblox ripoff ‘CLIFF’ decided to rename itself to ‘RISE’ and replace their graphics (which are still, AI generated) to propably avoid all criticism, and still its a average roblox slop ripoff riddled with microtransactions.”
Sure enough, the URL for Cliff redirects to Rise. The game’s description reads, “Inspired by Only Up, Peak and Mountain Climbing (Special thanks to those amazing creators! [heart emoji]).” Per PC Gamers’ report, this description was present even before the game changed its name.
If you search for “Cliff” on Roblox, Rise appears as one of the top results (at this time of publishing). A handful of other games without Cliff in their name also appear, such as what appears to be another imitation of Peak called Peak (Climb or Die). PewStudio has made no public comments at this time of publishing.
So, how far do the comparisons go? Developed by Team PEAK, a collaboration between Aggro Crab and Landfall Games, — Peak has become a viral sensation since its launch on June 16th. Setting itself apart from more serious climbing games, players need to climb a mountain, after a plane crash, and get to the helicopter at the peak.
Armed with only the items strewn across the beach and what they find on their adventure, players need to carefully navigate the randomly generated map; avoiding hazards and each other’s errors and mischief. Proximity voice chat only adds to the experience, be it planning and communication, or hearing your friend scream as they fall into the foggy abyss.
Gamers enjoy the challenge and hilarity, at a time when successful indie co-op games such as Lethal Company, REPO, and Content Warning (also by Landfall) are being dubbed ‘friendcore’ games. This is also called ‘friendslop’ to detractors, or in cases where a game tries and fails to achieve the aforementioned’s quality and success.
For comparison, Cliff — which launched only nine days after Peak, becoming available on June 25th — is free to play, with players also climbing a mountain with colorful friends. Like Peak, players land on a beach with a backpack to carry multiple items (such as apples and other fruit to restore health and stamina), and consume stamina to clamber up vertical surfaces.
Cliff’s microtransactions, however, include items players would usually get for free in Peak; some even at the start.
While there isn’t an exact conversion of USD to “Robux” (due to more expensive packs including more of the virtual currency), we’ll calculate based on the closest exceeding bundle — which in this case is $5.00 for 400 Robux, exceeding all individual purchases, and 62.5% of what players would spend buying Peak.
For 200 Robux, players can get a climbing pickaxe in Cliff (now Rise) that uses 50% less stamina. A starter pack with multiple healing items is 160 Robux. The 129 Robux Golden Apple doesn’t have an explanation with what it does. While piano access and parrot friend (both 49 Robux) isn’t explicit in whether players can take the items up the mountain with them.
In-game, some luggage on the beach requires Robux to open, holding useful items therein.
At this time of publishing, Rise boasts more than 82,000 favorites and exceeds 27,000 likes on Roblox. Peak has reached an all time concurrent player high of over 114,000 on Steam, with 79,748 users — out of a total of 85,297 — leaving a positive review.
