Steam indie bestseller PEAK's developer recommends pirating the game instead of playing a Roblox ripoff

The co-developers of the viral co-op indie game PEAK, Aggro Crab, recently spoke out against a Roblox clone on X on August 4, 2025. The developers urged fans to pirate their indie title instead of playing what they dubbed a “microtransaction-riddled Roblox slop ripoff.” Co-developer Landfall Games backed up the statement with a simple “Cosigned.”

The Roblox clone in question is named Cliff. The game bears resemblance to PEAK's character design, Steam description, and promotional art. The team behind Cliff has admitted on their Roblox page that their project is “inspired” by PEAK and another similar game, Mountain Climbing.

But beyond “inspiration,” the game replicates PEAK's gameplay mechanics. Players spawn in a third-person hub and continue into a first-person climbing zone, with similar spawn points and square stone columns. But inspiration aside, what possibly bothered Aggro Crab was Cliff’s aggressive monetization: a pickaxe for $2, a $1.29 golden apple, and a $1.60 starter pack.

Despite the monetization practices, Cliff has garnered substantial traction, attracting over 4.8 million visits and 7,000 active players on Roblox. But this isn’t a one-off problem. Roblox clones have been a mainstay on the platform, with titles like CraftBlox, Hogwarts Castle, and Fortnite Battle Royale Simulator, just to name a few.

While these clones seem harmless on the surface and seem to copy blockbuster video games, the aggressive microtransactions are often aimed at exploiting younger audiences. But this story isn’t without a silver lining, as the developers of Cliff, PewStudio, responded to Aggro Crab’s statement.

PewStudio announced on its official Discord server that the game would subsequently be shut down at the request of PEAK's developers. Despite this, a myriad of PEAK clones on Roblox continue to exist indicating the popularly of the sub-genre created by the title.

PEAK exploded on the Steam Store on June 16, 2025, and sold 5 million copies on the platform in the first month. The game quickly amassed an all-time peak of 114,492 concurrent players by July 6, and averages 60,000 to 70,000 concurrent players daily.

According to SteamDB, PEAK has a 93.05% user score, with 77,713 positive reviews on Steam, crowning the game with a “Very Positive” status.