- Patch 0.4.04 - 31 August 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers, I was recently exhibiting Crabmet over in Busan, Korea at BIC and noticed a few issues while I was there. Also shoutout to our buddies at Bada Games (the games Korean translators) for helping me out during the event.Fixes / ImprovementsFixed Credits not supporting skip after recently input code changes broke itUpdated Crab Hopper Text in KoreanFixed Afterburner not shutting down when it destroys the engineFixed bad normals on windy shader (storage tarps and flags)Made the hull damage indicators on the map a bit smaller but also randomise their rotations and made the mesh "pointier"Tweaked damage node positions on ladder and engine Tweaked parasite positions on engineTweaked navmesh around engine PerformanceSplit UI canvas' up to improve runtime CPU performanceFixed GC Allocations in input icon codeReduced GC Allocations in UI code Fixed smoke emitted b…
- 0.4.03 Hotfix 1 - 3 August 2026
This is just a quick one to fix up two mistakes in the english version of the contract. These probably regressed when the contract was converted from a graphic to localised text. FixesFixed spelling of Heinous Fixed capitalisation of FeudostateFxed LOD blending missing on small icebergs-Nick
- Patch 0.4.03 - 23 July 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers,Thanks to those of you who reported save corruption issues and to those of you who sent me logs I was finally able to track down and fix two of these. These fixes will not allow recovery of broken saves but SHOULD prevent future corruption, assuming there aren't other edge cases I've missed.FixesFixed case where keys in the hopper would corrupt saves of any kind. This would likely apply to all keysFixed rare cases where an empty or null object in the hopper could exist and would break savesFixed keys not showing any text when moused over, this would also spam logs and lower performance when it was occuring Fixed Journal fonts for some languages still falling back to the incorrect font giving it a stiff lookFixed a component being left enabled on some tank objects which when the tank gate was raised would trigger every frame also lowering performanceFixe…
- Patch 0.4.02 - 17 July 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers, I'm heading to Korea in August to exhibit Crabmeat at BIC so I wanted to get another round of improvements in before that and continue to improve whats already there. More Localisation ImprovementsJournal entries now have fully integrated localisation, so instead of a baked texture in english i'm rendering it all in engine with localised text. This was hard to get looking good for all languages, especially those that aren't mutually intelligible with English so please notify me if anything looks odd or is hard to read.The Patriotic/Not Patriotic text on the crab hopper is now localisedNOTE: This is using google translated copy as I wanted to turn this around quickly. Please notify me if it seems like it did a poor job. Don't blame my awesome localisers if it's bad, that's on me.CPU Rendering Improvements (Minor)The game is CPU bound on most machines du…
- Patch 0.4.01 - 18 June 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers, So after Bitsummit and watching players for 3 days straight I had some clarity around some issues with the game I wanted to address as well as noticed some smaller stuff I wanted to tackle. Navigation/Input Change Thanks to our discord community for helping find a bunch of edge cases and provide feedback to refine this. Allow the player to click on a significantly larger area to move including walls up to a certain height from the ground, hotspots still take priority if they are selectedThe true destination will be previewed as a low opacity footstepHotspot navigation reuses this and also shows the destination preview Footstep marker now changes to a slightly animated icon when player is running and will be marginally brighter, hopefully this makes the state distinction clearer*This change could still use fine tuning, so please report any funnyness you…
- Patch 0.4.0 - 1 May 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers, My apologies for the delay, the state has been working me hard and this patch ended up being much more work than anticipated. Future of CrabmeatThis is the last planned feature/content update for the game. I have been working towards getting the Steam Deck green tick which I believe I'm quite close to. Expect future patches to be improvements to UI for said Steam Deck approval and small bug fixes to resolve new issues introduced that I missed in testing. This is a Save breaking update!Flagging this upfront, I had to increase the save version of the game and was unable to write a compatibility tool to move saves forward due to some of the changes.What's New?LocalisationThe game is now playable in 7 Languages including, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish and Russian. The majority of text elements in…
- Patch v.0.3.23 - 17 March 2026
Just pushing out a small one to hopefully fully resolve this steam cloud issue. FixesActually updated Steam Plugin and validated a fix for it not initing properly and preventing saves from loading from the cloud locationIf after you get this patch your save is now incorrect it is likely because your save is in the non-cloud location, you can copy it across from DRIVE\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Searching Interactive\\Crabmeat\\ > DRIVE\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\userdata\\STEAMUSERID\\3671850Fixed key unlocking logic not using the mouse position so dragging wasn't tracing the scene properly.ImprovementsIn progress pass to improve steam deck compatability, UI size text should be unified and on deck specifically the text size is increased. This is WIP but i made sure there were no regressions so the progress could come in.Happy Crabbing, Nick
- Patch v.0.3.22 - 16 March 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers,This time a mid sized update fixing some issues raised by the community and also addressing feedback around the time limit. Time ExtensionSome players have asked for an "Infinite Mode" and I've also observed players running out of time due to getting distracted (ie. streamers) or just generally not understanding how to play efficiently. I don't believe infinite play is within the spirit of the setting or suits the scope of content available. However, bricking a save due to running out of time isn't a great experience. So I have added an in universe way to extend your debt (marginally) and time (significantly) once per run, when the timer is close to expiring. Don't worry about not finding it, it will trigger on it's own.Minor FeaturesAdded invert Y mouse optionAdded controls tab separate to game tab for input configImprovementsUpdated directive page 1 t…
- Steam Connection Hotfix - 13 March 2026
This is a potential fix for issues with Steam not connecting when the game boots up. If this fix sticks it will resolve save files not being loaded reliably and fix achievements not popping reliably. This has been an issue since launch so I really hope it works.-Nick
- Patch v0.3.21 - 12 March 2026
Hey Everyone, Just a small update addressing some more issues. I had to spend a lot of today on marketing work so I wasn't able to get as much done as I would have liked. Updated the bait refill station icon on the map to no provide ambiguious directionsMade the bait refill panel button brighter when blinkingAdded a sound to the bait refill panel button when it's active Improved Brachy/Paralomis surface rotations when they're on a pathFixed a bug in the audio occlusion (Only on some sounds) that caused some popping when they started playingI gotta wrap early but I'll push the same patch out to the demo tomorrow. It is also live for the demo.Happy Crabbing-Nick
- Patch 0.3.20 (Spoilers) - 11 March 2026
Hey Everyone, Thanks to everyone who's already picked up the game. If you haven't already please consider leaving a review, it helps a ton. Here's just a few fixes for lingering issues and a tiny bit of polish. Where it's relevant these changes have also been patched in the demo ImprovementsMade debt randomised, now it's unique to each playerReturn to menu now fades to black instead of instantly transitioning Can now pause slightly earlier during fade to/from black, pause is only locked during boss sequence and when the screen is 100% black ie. a loadFixesAdded a soft fix for weird nav if you try to go up the deck stairs while the boss claw is down, it's not perfect but it helps Fixed missing colliders in world making the player fall as they're being dragged in final cutscene Fixed refill station not handling save if you have refilled but haven't left yetReplaced buoy animation on winch…
- Crabmeat is a horror game about catching crabs—no, not like that - 11 March 2026
Crabs are basically the spiders of the sea. They've got too many legs and it's unsettling to see a swarm of them swarming toward you, or a single big one even if it's just minding its own business hanging out and being larger than I'd like. Crabmeat puts the unsettling nature of the crab to good use, crafting a short point-and-click horror experience out of being stuck on a boat in an ocean full of crabs... Read more.
- Crabmeat is Out Now - 10 March 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers, It's finally out, you can pick up Crabmeat now. Please leave a review on the store page if you do, every bit helps. Thanks to everyone who checked out the demo, gave feedback, sent bug reports or has been helping test in the discord. I'm going to keep my eye out for bugs or issues to fix in the short term, so please report anything you run into as the full game has obviously had less testing than the demo content. As for the future of the game many people have requested both gamepad support and localisation. Both are possibilities based on how the game does but right now I can only say I'd like to get them done. Happy Crabbing, Nick
- Demo Patch v0.3.19 - 10 March 2026
Hey Everyone, This is just another small patch, focused on recently polish work and bringng the demo build into alignment with the full game. Speaking of the full game release is very soon, check the store page to see the time in your timezone.ImprovementsUpdated inventory icons to better match games style, and more accurately reflect the 3d modelSome art polish around the ship Made map boundaries blend into the actual level geo and applied a gradient style so it's not dead flat, design goal is to increase ambiguity and improve aesthetic appearanceMove marker now scales it's clipping so it's more visible on far glancing angles FixesPause is now blocked by the Fader, this does introduce a little clunkyness as it's fading out/in but also prevents the pause screen from being visibly full black. More optimised culling zone detector 30% reduction in traces required on average Fixed issues wi…
- Demo Update v.0.3.18 - 5 March 2026
Hey All, This is just a quick update to fix some bugs we've found through testing and watching streams.Brachys now attempt a small backup when player is super close and they're not mid attack Brachys respond to gunshots nearby Fixed double click lock up (only noticeable if you hammered the double click)Fixed Brachys getting too close if they're approaching vertically Fixed brachys triggering aggro stop if they lose line of sightMade bait supply button blink if it can be usedAdded new map propFixed super busted volumetric lights on crab tank and colour/brightness desyncFixed not being able to draw if you hold LMB before signature UI appearsFixed Ladder text display not including repair state info and broken flagFixed ladder not being used if you try and path down the bottom from above
- Demo Update v.0.3.17 - 3 March 2026
Hey Everyone, Time for a medium sized update. Yet again we've jumped some version numbers as I've been testing with the community. Again the focus is mostly on stability and performance since launch is getting ever closer. Save Update Unfortunately this build does need to break saves in order to move to a more stable system going forward. This comes with me discovering some issues with how I was separating saves from the demo vs the full game and transferring demo saves to the full game. Added a save trigger to the demo when you succeed (so completed saves are actually where you last stopped and not when your last auto save was)Fixed game not handling save reload properly when exiting to menu or reloading to menu from death Opening Flow A new opening flow has been added. The changes are designed to help direct you a bit more as you leave the cabin for the first time and get to the bridg…
- Demo Update v.0.3.12 - 23 February 2026
Hey Everyone, Just rolling out a small one, Fixing some regressions from the previous patch and addressing the known issues.FeaturesSensitivity Slider (sorry this took so long to go in)Option added to menu"Camera lock on Drag" option removed as it's now redundantAny time the player is attached to a fixed camera hotspot (excluding the Hook Gun), sensitivity will not apply as we want to match "true mouse" position hereImprovementsSome props added to the bow of the shipThe game now fires a save event after you complete the cutsceneAdded some water fx to the trap Buoy as it moves through the waterBrachy AI now use a prebaked path to help them get up the ship sides much more reliablyBrachy AI also now have more nav links to vertical routesAdded a hard upper limit to dynamic physics elements positional and rotation velocities, hopefully this will prevent some of the extreme blow out cases. If…
- Demo Update 0.3.11 - 22 February 2026
Hello Fellow Penal Colony Workers,Update 0.3.11 brings a bunch of changes as I've both been working on getting the game closer to launch in 2 weeks and address demo specific issues. (We skipped versions as I validated build candidates) I want to thank everyone who's played the game so far and shared their feedback and experience. I especially wanna shoutout our testers on discord who have been testing builds and sending me bug reports. This project is mostly a solo endeavour so I could not get this far without ya'll
- Demo Update 0.3.8 - 4 February 2026
Hey All, Thanks so much to everyone who's played so far. Here's a small update to just resolve some visual issues and regressions since launching the demo. Fixed Janky arm animations, this used to be fine but i clearly broke it before releasing the demoFixed a few culling pop in casesAdded a few more props to the culling system, this should boost framerates a tiny bit in many casesExiting a hotspot the player will now attempt to maintain the rotation of the camera, so if you are facing right and then exit the you will still be facing right and wont have to fight the cameraFixed save data not being properly reset when you die in the case where that does not end the demothe player will now catch the bandages when they eject from the healing station, you no longer have to back up and pick them upthreat onboard indicator on ship computer now flashes when alertfixed a case where the ocean wa…
- Crabmeat Release March 10th - 2 February 2026
Hello fellow Penal Colony Workers,I'm happy to finally announce a release date for Crabmeat! You'll be able to play the full game March 10th this year! Keen to play the game right now though? The demo is available now! Check out this new trailer mitch and I put together to announce the date. Devlog 6. So what have I been working on? In the lead up to the announce we developed the new trailer (see above) and as part of that I needed to add a ton of improved lighting visuals and props to the ship to finally start detailing out a bunch of the dead space visually. I've also updated all our screenshots on steam. Here's an example showing off the refreshed lower deck. In general visual improvements and polish has been my main focus for the last month with a lot of the games features being locked in. For those following along optimisation has been an ongoing struggle as the games unique constr…
