Another Crab’s Treasure massively exceeded the expectations of developer Aggro Crab, but investors have been reluctant to help the studio dream even bigger.
Indie studio Aggro Crab has lamented the funding maelstrom that pushed the team to scale down its ambitions despite the "runaway success" of its latest release, Another Crab's Treasure.
During a chat at GDC 2025, studio director Caelan Pollock explained Another Crab's Treasure sold "many multiples of what our bare minimum [sales forecast] would have been" after shifting between 600,000 to 700,000 units on a budget of $1.2 million, but noted that "huge success" (which included an Xbox Game Pass deal) hasn't made negotiating with investors any easier.
Another Crab's Treasure was financed off the back of a single investment from Kowloon and was self-published. Pollock described that approach as more "typical," but feels the financing opportunities available to developers have become increasingly muddled over the past year.
Pollock said Aggro Crab didn't think securing funding for its next project would be "that much of a problem" given it had delivered the goods last time out, and explained the studio was "all guns blazing" when it came to pitching investors.
Aggro Crab had been seeking between $3 million to $4 million in funding this time around, which Pollock explained would have allowed the studio to really "swing for the fences" and pay its modest team (of around 12 full-time employees) a better wage. The response from prospective investors was lukewarm to say the least.
Time and time again, the studio was told it was asking for too much cash, leaving them at a creative and existential crossroads. "One of the biggest challenges of being a studio that works off project investment—which is many indie studios—is that the window is always shifting in terms of what people are willing to fund," explained Pollock.
"I think it comes as a shock to some people to hear that there are budgets that are too low for some investors, as well as budgets that are too high. So, going into funding Another Crab's Treasure we increased our budget for that reason. We said lets put more into marketing, lets do real localization, QA—the sort of stuff that a very scrappy indie wouldn't necessarily do."
Pollock described navigating around those perpetually shifting goalposts as "frustrating," but accepted it's simply the reality of doing business. Right now, he believes the overall funding pot available to developers is getting smaller, but suggests there are also fewer investors willing to bet big on "ambitious, higher-budget triple-I" projects.
Instead, they want to ostensibly minimize risk by investing in multiple, smaller projects instead of taking a punt on a larger-scale prospect—even when it's being pitched by a developer that just hit a home run.
Aggro Crab believes smaller projects can also bring "peace of mind"
Where does that leave successful teams like Aggro Crab? "What we're doing right now is looking to change strategy and work on smaller games for a while" said Pollock, noting the team believes projects that require around one-year in the development furnace are more viable in the current climate.
It's a pivot that could also allow the studio to self-fund its work using earnings from Another Crab's Treasure. That said, Pollock remains confident Aggro Crab could secure funding for those smaller titles, but feels it's important to give his employees "peace of mind" by budgeting in such a way that projects won't "fall off a cliff" if the company fails to secure external investment.
Pollock explained having to downscale their ambitions in the wake of a critical and commercial success like Another Crab's Treasure has been a "morale hit," despite some of the upsides.
"For me personally, as a creative, to have really put our all into something super ambitious and for it to have paid off so spectacularly is exhilarating. So a big part of me is like 'damn, I want to just run it back' and create these really ambitious projects with sweeping stories," he explained. "Financially for morale, there are really good things about having a multi-year project because you know where your money is coming from for years—but we were also working on prototyping our third project at the same time as seeking funding and hitting these dead ends. We felt caged by that too."
Conversely, Pollock said it's also liberating to know that if a smaller project doesn't work out, it's not going to bankrupt the team. The issue with a longer three-year production cycle, he acknowledged, is that whatever you bring to market had "better sell." Even if, as Pollock conceded, it does "hurt a little" to perhaps place your magnum opus on hold, there's a sense that might be the safest way forward in an game industry that feels actively hostile to developers.
"Creating this monumental piece of work comes second to forming a good team that helps people make a living doing cool work they enjoy," said Pollock. "So I do think we were forced to make the choice to [downsize our next project], but I also think it was the right choice."
"Our spirits have been raised dramatically since making that decision. During the time we were spending working on this new larger project and jumping around from different funding talks, it was really wearing people down. Now, the new era of Aggro Crab is looking bright."