Cupiclaw wants to do for claw machines what Balatro did for poker
Gamescom is exploding all around us, but there is still time to lower a pincer into the pile of Steam indie game announcements and reel up the occasional treasure. In this case, it's the demo for Cupiclaw, which is possibly the first ever "roguelike deckbuilding claw machine game". You know how Balatro made you feel about Joker cards? Well, this game wants to make you feel the same about claw machines. It's a terrible turn of events, frankly. I'm sorry for inflicting yet another potential bingeplay upon you. Here's a trailer.
The setup is that your character, Morris, has dropped his wedding ring in a claw machine, the classic first act twist in any Shakespearean tragedy. Specifically, he's dropped it in the arcade's most expensive claw machine. To earn the means to operate said ultra-pricey claw machine and retrieve the ring, he'll need to play all the other claw machines, converting his winnings into funds.
Why Morris doesn't just ask the arcade manager to open up the first claw machine and fetch the ring directly is a question for the soon-to-be-thriving Cupiclaw subreddit. Perhaps the arcade manager is a calculating Lothario who wishes to seduce Morris's spouse, while he's off playing at claw machines. Perhaps Morris's spouse is the manager. The moral of the story is: never let your spouse use a claw machine.
Anyway, in order to muster enough cash to scale the claw machine hierarchy, you'll also need to "level up" each individual machine by spending a portion of your earnings to restock it with new prizes, this being the deckbuilding aspect of the game. Prizes range from larger, plusher stuffed animals to puzzle pieces which earn you a bigger payout per piece, the more of them you amass.
The actual operation of each machine is straightforward - use A and D to move the claw left and right, hit spacebar to lower it. There's a timer to worry about, but if you rush you might accidentally bag objects such as crumpled soda cans that lower your final score. Like the
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