AMA Questions and Answers! 🦀

On July 3rd, we streamed an AMA on our Discord, answering questions you players submitted throughout the week!

Below is a list of the questions and answers from that stream. If you don't feel like reading, or just prefer to listen, we also recorded the stream and have it posted to view on the Secret Mode YouTube:

Now, let's get into the thick of it.

Answering questions, we have Denis: Game Director, Ivan: Art Director, Julia: Programmer, and Mido: Community Manager.

Q: Why Crabs?

Answer:

Denis: because of the amazing theory of carsinisation. In case you're not familiar with it, the theory of carsinisation is that eventually everything evolves into a crab. It may be half meme, half science, but there are organisms that are not from the crab family that ended up developing crab-like features.

So it was a great fit for an evolution theme where organisms around you end up evolving into a crab while you have the agency to evolve into a crab or not.

Q: What sparked the idea of carsinisation being the primary focus in the game?

Answer:

Denis: It was quite a random spark that came just a day after concepting the core of the game. I was thinking about what could be a nice theme for an evolution game, just so that its branding is not "just" evolution, and the carcinization theory popped up in my mind. 5 minutes after, the name of the game was decided, and it never changed.

Q: What inspired you to create the game?

Answer:

Denis: The "core" inspiration was simple: I love Spore, but I don't feel the execution was ideal, and the first and second phases were the only ones that gave you a feel of evolving your own animal. To the point that a lot of people kept replaying those over and over, which, some differences aside, is basically a roguelike structure. So, what if WE were to make that game where every run you evolve into a different animal?

Q: When do y'all, roughly, plan on releasing on other platforms?

Answer:

Denis: Well, all we can say is we're already looking into it. Some dates have been floated; fingers crossed it can be soon.

Q: Will you be making more content that emphasizes the roguelike experience, like a skill tree of some sort?

Answer:

Denis: Assuming this question is about a metaprogression stat/unlocks tree: The philosophy of the game is NO to permanent stat upgrades that carry over to following runs. We have a different structure than survivor-likes intentionally. We don't want the player to end up beating the game just because they ground enough metaprogression points. We want to incentivize the players to learn the details of the ecosystem, the evolutions, the enemies, and adapt. This is why the game gets harder and not easier every time you beat it, because we want to keep you constantly challenged and learning, rather than just granting you victory because you played a lot.

Q: How have you solved the sprite changing dynamically to show the different evolutions?

Answer:

Julia: Really great question! Every body part is its own separate art layer (meaning the arms are drawn separately from the body), and we put them into spritesheets, then we plug them into animations. Each body part is its own GameObject on Darwin's character. We developed our own constraint system (designer-friendly, SO-based), which is assigned on each body part to determine what visuals should be enabled/disabled.

Q: Will future cosmetics always be behind a pay-wall/DLC?

Answer:

Denis: This one is a surprising question, as the majority of cosmetics we have (and are planned) can be unlocked for free. The only exception to that so far is the supporter pack, which is just a way for people who really appreciate the game to give a bit more back to the devs. But the plan is to keep releasing cosmetics with free updates, and we haven't decided yet if we want to add cosmetics to DLCs too.

Q: Will you ever go into, say, dinosaur or prehistoric animal evolutions as well?

Answer:

Denis: It is a possibility that has been discussed. We already kinda have one with a new specialisation. We still don't know if it will happen and how, but it is one of the coolest potential big additions.

Ivan: I have to say that I would love to have tiny T-Rex hands or a pterodactyl beak or wings, as evolutions would be cool too.

Q: Have you considered adding more fantastical elements to the game? Considering how we fight Crab'thulu at the end of each run, it's not too big a jump in logic to be able to breathe fire.

Answer:

Denis: That's a fair question. I would say the rule of thumb is that we will keep a goofy but real-nature-basedtheme. We allow ourselves some extra goofiness and absurdity in not-so-relevant details like the hatbirb, but we feel like if we open the gameplay and evolutions to the fantasy and start breathing fire, we will lose our identity, and we will be merged with the many other spell-casting roguelikes.

Q: Have you ever considered color options for Darwin?

Answer:

Ivan: Yes, originally i thought of Darwin as blueish because it's a water blob looking for their place in the exterior, so a blueish color was their original color. Maybe we could explore different colors for different origins.

Denis: A little hint in the game is that the splicing that takes place in the game is underwater because Darwin is coming out of the water.

Q: Will multiplayer be added?

Answer:

Denis: We'll answer this one to give a bit of visibility of the complexity of adding multiplayer to single-player-structured games. There is this meme that you just need to tick the "allow multiplayer" checkbox in Unity or Unreal, but to the surprise of no one, it is not that easy.

All this to say, working on multiplayer would require a massive restructuring of code and huge redesigns. So not a straight yes or no answer, but more of an informative note that it just cannot happen anytime soon.

Q: What's your favorite Pokémon generation?

Answer:

Ivan: I loved Pokémon Black, I feel it's the best in story, Pokémon music, and pixel art sprites, but my favorite Pokémon is Gengar from the first gen.

Julia: Honestly, I was never much into Pokémon; as a kid, I was more into Crash Bandicoot.

Denis: I would say, I'm with Ivan regarding gameplay and narrative being very peak around that era of Black and White, though the nostalgia factor makes me want to choose the first gen as it was the first that I played.

Mido: Pokémon Pearl, pure nostalgia from the Nintendo DS. I would say Richu is one of my favorite Pokémon.

Q: If you could recreate EIC in a different gaming genre, which would you pick and why?

Answer:

Julia: I love overcooked, so I would make it a cooking game.

Ivan: I feel EIC could work as a card game where you build Darwin using different evolutions and Point of Interest cards.

Mido: I'm going to follow up on it; it could be interesting to properly explore turning the world of Everything is Crab into a TTRPG where everyone starts as Darwin, but everyone gets to change how their character looks and plays.

Denis: Can't think of a better fit than a roguelike right now, to be honest. But I'd love to see anyone try to make it a romance visual novel :P

Q: Are there plans for custom difficulty modes, like sandbox?

Answer:

Denis: We are looking into making a sandbox mode. This isn't a confirmation that it's coming anytime soon, but we are looking into developing a sandbox mode with many options.

Q: What was the hardest part of making the game?

Answer:

Ivan: In the art department, it was creating all the different evolutions as separate sprites, adjusting each one to fit all Darwin animations, and making sure they still had a readable silhouette. And then implementation.

Julia: EIC started as an idea to test the waters of releasing a game on Steam, but when we noticed our friends and family who tested the concept were hooked, we decided to put more focus and time into it. Since at the start we wanted to develop quickly, we used some plug-ins that, when the project expanded, continued to make developing certain features harder than we would wish for.

Mido: For me, very early, when we didn't have help in the QA department, just getting into it and making sure everything got tested properly, meaning very thoroughly.

Denis: From the game design side, I would say making an alternative playstyle and win condition into an action roguelite.

Q: What's something you chose to leave out of the game that existed before you released the demo/version 1.0?

Answer:

Julia: Something that comes to mind is a Lycanthrope Genetic, allowed day and night, Darwin, that would have different evolutions and stats; we just couldn’t balance it to feel good in the end.

Q: Do you have plans on improving Endless mode?

Answer:

Denis: Endless is something we are keeping an eye on for potential improvements. It is not our number one priority, as we feel we can still improve the base game, which, in time, will improve Endless too, but it is something that is being considered.

Q: Can we have an endless mode in the challenges?

Answer:

Denis: Could be. Full visibility as to why it didn't happen, the amount of complexity that goes into balancing Endless by itself is non-trivial, given that you can play it from pressure 10 - 20 with different degrees of difficulty. If you add on top of that being able to play it in the environment of each current challenge and future challenges, it means the number of things to test and balance skyrockets.

Q: What is something that you have not yet worked on or even discussed adding to the game but think may be cool? Or personally want to see in the game, but no one else on your team sees your vision?

Answer:

Ivan: If HatBirb has evolved into evolving different hats, maybe Darwin can too...

Julia: I think something really cool would be adding Unicorns and dragons.

Mido: We already have hats; how about sunglasses?

Denis: That would be too much of a spoiler... 👀

Q: Discord Rich Presence when?

Answer:

Julia: It's a potential feature we deprioritised a while back but now that we have a similar feature of Rich Presence in the Twitch extension, it's possible we could revisit this, good suggestion!

Q: Will there be fully stationary (plant) evolutions? (Eg maybe attract creatures or get nutrients from a large range)

Answer:

Denis: This was a consideration for a while; chlorophyll was, in fact, one of the first evolutions ever conceived, but we never found how to actually execute on it properly while keeping the rest of the game balanced. If we ever find out how to do it, we could go for it.

Q: Will you ever consider different base starting characters with different stats and appearances?

Answer:

Denis: There was a consideration for having small differences in the starting Darwin or the starting ecosystem based on the Genetics picked, but that feature was deprioritized and is sitting in a box in the basement. It could make a comeback if we find an elegant way to execute it.

Q: What's everyone's personal favorite evolution?

Answer:

Julia: I don't want to be boring, but there is an evolution that I will always go for: Cheek Pouch.

Ivan: Visually, I love antlers and snow dive skin evolution, and always take them no matter what.

Mido: I fell in love with Nomadic when I first saw it.

Denis: I really like the idea of Scavenger. The fact that there are many ways to achieve the bonus progress, like cornering enemies to die to their chasers rather than attacking them yourself, or just going around getting the scraps of food.

Q: Which boss tastes the best?

Answer:

Ivan: I think Crabtaur could make a good BBQ, but I also think Shellephant could make a good sashimi.

Julia: Crabtaur steaks!

Q: Does carcinization affect flavour? eg, do higher tiers of crabtaur taste more like crab than beef?

Answer:

Julia: I'd say yes, I can see it.

Q: For how long do you see yourselves working on EIC? Will the game continue to receive new free / paid content beyond the next year?

Answer:

Denis: Yeah, we've already spoken about it, and it's in the roadmap too, but we're planning to support Everything is Crab for at least a year after launch. This includes lots of free updates and at least one paid DLC.

Q: Will there be an option to go down into the mines or fly into the sky, where there may be new enemies or something similar?

Answer:

Denis: If it were to happen, that would be DLC material due to the complexity. Can't say no, but it is not the highest priority for a DLC

Mido: I think it would turn into a very claustrophobic situation if you were in a mine and some beewears were to start chasing you.

Q: Will there be new biomes?

Answer:

Denis: It is one of the higher priority considerations for big content updates, but there is just so much we can do, so it is fighting against other cool content updates that we also want to do. It is something we would like to do, but it will take a bit of time.

Q: Does the team have plans to add to the roadmap interactive objects, new mobs, new mob interactions, new events, seasons, new POIs, new mechanics, new biomes?

Answer:

Denis: Yes to almost all of them. We are looking to increase the ecosystem richness in many ways, and the only limit is basically development time

Q: Do you guys plan on making an evolution that benefits from rain instead of being debuffed by it?

Answer:

Denis: There is no immediate plan to make that happen. It is a cool idea, so it could happen at some point!

Q: While developing and balancing the game, did you ever consider adding some way of creating offspring, laying eggs, etc. And if not, would you be interested in adding it to the game as a way to have a build that can continue after death by playing as one of said offspring?

Answer:

Denis: Yeah, it has been considered many times with many different evolutions. The only limitation is technical, as everyone would love to do it, but the amount of work to execute it would be dramatically higher compared with other evolutions. It would imply that those little Darwins can be handled by the AI and know how to properly execute every attack, dash, and ultimate in the game.

Q: Is it possible to have a feature to Zoom In or Out, by, let's say, rolling the mouse wheel up or down?

Answer:

Denis: So, zooming out, no, as that would provide gameplay benefits that we want to limit. if we did want to add it, it would be tied to an evolution to be able to see more. Zoom in, we don't think it would be so helpful for the majority of people. If we see a lot of people wanting it, we can look at it as an accessibility thing or a default.

Q: How did we decide on the gamepad controls?

Answer:

Julia: Some team members like me are keyboard and mouse players, but we tested it with players and what they wanted it to be assigned to. So it was tested, and we played around with it.

(Was it difficult to balance on the gamepad compared to the keyboard and mouse?)

Denis: To some degree, yes, but the goal was not to balance, so it works on both, but to get it to work similarly, so there were no functional advantages to them.

Q: How long did we spend making the game?

Answer:

Denis: So production with the whole team started in August/Spetember 2024. So, almost 2 years ago, we made the game in like 1 year and 7/8 months.

Q: How do you rate the success of the game, and did it do as well as you hoped?

Answer:

Denis: We rate it as 👍👍and we thank you for your support. It went as well as, and better than, we imagined.

Q: Will there be an implemented storyline alongside just evolving?

Answer:

Ivan: Oooh, I would love to do that, but that's something I cannot promise. I'd love to add some lore and story about what happened to Darwin and other animals in the ecosystem.

Mido: There are a lot of different parts that I would love to explore. Especially with the POIs, like the Stone Calendar, where does it come from, why is it here, why did someone need to measure time, and why do you get to make the day longer or shorter?

Denis: I would also love to visit it at some point. It's just we don't have a structure; there's a bit of lore here and there, but we don't just want to spill lore. So if we find a structure where we can tell a story and it fits the game, that would be great. Otherwise, it will remain a narrative in the environment, like the splicing being underwater.

Q: Who's the best player out of the devs?

Answer:

Julia: I would love to say me, but I always go for visuals, I mean, honestly, I want Darwin to look pretty.

Denis: So then, Julia, you're looksmaxxing, which is the important part of the game.

Mido: I remember right before 1.0, I was QAing and got stuck on pressure 3, and Denis called me out for it. Then I got stuck on pressure 13, and Denis called me out for it. It's funny, Denis is great at judging when people are stuck, but I've never seen him play.

Q: Will there be more monsters in the game?

Answer:

Mido: Before you answer this, let me set the tone: there are no monsters in the game, just animals.

Denis: Yeah, clarify monster. All of them are beautiful animals who are just trying to survive in their ecosystem, even Krabken. He's just very misunderstood.

Denis: But yeah, there are new animals coming.

Q: If you could pick any animal to put in the game, what would it be?

Answer:

Ivan: Oh, I would say something like a rhinoceros, which was one of the first beta animals, and I want him back.

Julia: I think I'm going to go back to unicorns, but Denis says they're not real animals.

Mido: My owl with night goggles, one day it will be real.

Ivan: I think there was also a discussion about adding a monkey, but we already have some pesky animals. [like Pilferret]

Q: If there were no constraints, what evolutions from an animal would you like to add?

Answers:

Denis: Maybe a giraffe, because of how difficult it is technically to make the long neck happen, but how cool of an idea it is.

Ivan: The same one. The neck makes it very challenging. But if I had to choose a different one, maybe something related to birds or something related to fish.

Julia: I'd really love to have something related to honey badgers. I don't have a fleshed-out idea, but I love them so much.

Mido: If we were about to, Echolocation, like bats. If we could make the game very dark and just echolocate forward, that would be interesting.

Q: Will we be able to evolve to have some of the other animals' attacks? Ie, the poison cloud the Beewears + have.

Answer:

Denis: There are some of them we are already looking to include, but I won't spoil which ones.

Q: Certain desert animals have evolved to eat cacti. Is this something we will see in the game?

Answer:

Denis: I would say if we were to do more vore-type abilities, then maybe. But I feel there is a bigger space to cover than something so specific.

Q: Any plans to add evolutions dependent on Darwin's sizes?

Answer:

Denis: We've played with this idea many times. One of the reasons we do not go too much into the big size archetype is because there is already a fair amount of super for it, same with small, so we're trying to help archetypes that are not so obvious for players. But at this point, we need to add more size-related genetics, maybe something like gentle giant or mega-monster that requires you to be gigantic would be an interesting one.

Q: Will there be additional evolutions in the mushroom side of things?

Answer:

Denis: It is not one of the highest priorities; it's already quite powerful, especially now that herbivore and vegan benefit from fungi. We believe it's in a good spot, but when we start adding evolutions everywhere, fungi will probably get one, but it's not one of the archetypes that needs help right now.

Q: Is the lethal + lethal mushroom real?

Answer:

Denis: Unless there is a bug, it should not exist because there is only one lethal modifier that can appear in a round.

Q: Were there any evolutions that were off the table from the start?

Answer:

Denis: There is nothing off the table, per se. If they're off the table, it's because after researching it, we couldn't make it work technically or find a way to make it funny. But we didn't go "We're never doing cat-like features," we just need a way to make them fun.

Q: Do you regret releasing the fin evolution on release?

Answer:

Denis: That's a really good question. So, I cannot answer this one really well without more context of future plans. It's more useful than people think; it's just underutilized. I think it is a perception thing where it bans some of the powerful evolutions.

Q: Will there be more challenges that exclude the Chosen genetic in the future?

Answer:

Denis: It depends. The only reason why weban gentics or evolutions in challegnges is because they do not work with that challenge. For example, if a challenge says you can't roll three evolutions and chosen rolls three evolutions, then they are not a good combo, and it would be removed from the pool.

Q: Are there any challenges that you wanted to be in the game, but it didn't work out?

Answer:

Denis: There is one that comes to mind, but I'm not going to mention it because it may still happen. There are many, though; there is always a lot of content that we wish we had the time to put into 1.0, which is why we keep supporting the game.

Q: Will we be getting new POIs in the future?

Answer:

Denis: Yes, POIs are another one of the things we keep investing in, as it will keep increasing the variance of the game. There is a sweet spot for POIs, and I believe we can keep adding them to increase the richness of the game.

Q: Can I please have an in-game pet?

Answer:

Ivan: I mean, that's something that visually can be done, but I think it's more something that will technically need to be solved.

Denis: Maybe... we're leave it there..

Q: Are you happy with the current state of environmental hazards?

Answer:

Denis: If you ask any designer of my game if they're happy with something, they're going to say "mostly yes, but..". And that is the answer here, mostly yes, or we wouldn't have shipped with that, and we would have spent more time polishing it, but I think it's something we can improve.

Q: When are you releasing Darwin merch (marketable plushie asap plz)

Answer:

Ivan: yeah yeah.. about that, I think there is a task that I need to get on with.....

Check out Secret Mode channels for all the big news for Everything is Crab, and for extra insight from the devs, follow Odd Dreams Digital on X, Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, and join the Discord!

Carcinisation - a form of convergent evolution where non-crab crustaceans independently evolve into a crab-like body. 🦀