Crabhouse (not Clubhouse!), a relaxing app about a gathering place for crabs, releases for free for iOS

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-07-08 10:34 (JST)
Translated by. Ari Clark

*The name of the app has changed to Crabhome after the publication of this article.

On February 7, Gaibako released their new game, Crabhouse, exclusively for iOS. The game is available for free, so it won’t cost you anything to get to know these crabs.

Crabhouse/Crabhome is a game about a mysterious house where crabs hang out together, developed by GAI, an artist known for their tribal-style designs and highly-detailed, intricate artwork. When the game starts up, it shows the inside of the Crabhouse, which is rendered in pixel art. A bunch of crabs inhabit this room, equipped with a sparse smattering of furniture. The number of crabs increases whenever another user playing on a different smartphone visits your Crabhouse. There seem to be various types of crabs aside from the standard red ones, including green crabs, pink crabs, and disappearing crabs.

To the sound of soothing background music, the crabs recite 39 different bits of trivia and striking insights into what it’s like to be a crab, such as appealing to players with arguments like “I’m a nice crab!” (so please don’t eat me), sharing their crabby dreams like “being on display in a restaurant in Chinatown”, and lamenting the cruelty of all-you-can-eat crab buffets. Judging from the content of their idle chatter, the Crabhouse is visited by all sorts of crabs, including crabs who want to be eaten and crabs who would rather not be. Between the background music and the appealingly-drawn crabs with their variety of pixel colors and sizes, it makes for a relaxing virtual sanctuary.

Unlike the original Clubhouse app, the game has no method for conversing or communicating with other human beings over voice chat. This is a Crabhouse, not a clubhouse. It’s a place where you can kick back and relax for a while as you contemplate the crabs gathered in your Crabhouse and listen to the unfolding of their silly little conversations. There are also a number of locations that react to the screen being tapped, and the game is equipped with a function to switch between day and night. According to a tweet from GAI, the game was created within 3 days because they had no idea how to use Clubhouse.

Crabhouse/Crabhome is now available in Japanese for iOS, along with the original app that inspired it.