whoisethan 2026-10-20 00:00 ♥ 1
Dug up some trash, wish the battery deplted a little faster. Rushed upgrades but I can only get like 2 tech trash pieces per run (at most) unfortunately. chrome_ZaIwTvzX33.png
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → The Final Claw
By wheelsx and mrs-wheelsx
🤖 The developer uploaded this game to itch.io, and declined to answer whether AI was used or not.
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 27 | |||||
| Fun | 25 | |||||
| Innovation | 26 | |||||
| Theme | 26 | |||||
| Graphics | 26 | |||||
| Audio | 1 | |||||
| Humor | 24 | |||||
| Mood | 25 | |||||
Dug up some trash, wish the battery deplted a little faster. Rushed upgrades but I can only get like 2 tech trash pieces per run (at most) unfortunately. chrome_ZaIwTvzX33.png
I love these kinds of games, nice work with the progression model, so many choices and upgrades!
Awesome, your game is magnificent! I had a blast playing it, really cool stuff!
Interesting little game: functional graphics, good sound, easy controls, clear instructions for the player, and solid gameplay. Is there an end game? or is it just "keep playing until you decide to stop"?
Solid effort -- good work.
It felt a bit slow at first, but upgrading the claw made the game more enjoyable! I'd have liked faster progression and a higher density of buried tech. Having more things to collect would make deeper drops more exciting and rewarding. As it is, I can't see what's farther down, so I don't feel much incentive to send the claw deeper.
The game loop in this is soooooo satisfying. It took me about 5 rounds before I was able to collect more than 1 item but once I could get multiple things started to move along a bit better. Despite the simplicity of the concept, it actually encourages some good strategic thinking. Do I boost my economy at the cost of my speed of collection or do I do the opposite? Is it better to spend more time and battery searching for a motherlode of items or should I spend as much time digging as possible? Not going to lie, I played this for a long time and I really enjoyed it. The art was straight-forward and the music was a little repetitive, but the game itself was fun and that's the most important thing. Great job!
@digital-bacon Happy to hear from you, thanks for playing! There is no end game. That claw can get just stupidly funny ;P
@whoisethan @maximevincent @ao-85 @welovegames @human-writes-code Going into this jam we knew we only had 48 hours (busy all day Saturday). The plan was: 1) keep scope super small 2) have fun 3) submit a playable game. It sounds like many of you are actually having a little fun with it, and that is above expectations. Thank you so much for playing, it honestly means the world! If at least one of us hasn't played your game yet, I promise we are trying to get there lol. Hope each of you had as fun with this jam as we did!
ok its kinda fun but very random, you should be able to either move or there should be more stuff deeper. but its fun
The way the claw mechanics work is super clever; having to decide when to retract and snag the treasure makes every run feel important. It's a simple yet engaging little system that forces you to think about timing. Great job getting this concept finished for the jam!
Since it ultimately feels more like a fishing game, it would be nice to be able to move around while the claw is deployed!
@wolforce A/D move left/right but not while the claw is deployed. The general idea is... move, drop, retract, repeat until out of battery, then upgrade. There is more stuff the deeper you go. It goes way deeper than what is on the screen from the start of the round... you just need upgrades to get deeper and deeper. Thanks so much for playing! I am looking forward to playing your game as well :)
@eugenik It's good to see you! Thanks so much for playing! So glad you enjoyed it. I can't wait to play your game. With some luck, I should have a chance to play a little off and on throughout the day.
That was fun. The music kept getting a bit stuck in the browser. It’s like those arcade claw machines where you try to grab a toy—only here, it’s for real😄
I understood the concept quick, did not read the instruction at first as I do try to play tutorials or figure things out myself. The graphics are clear, the objective and type of game as well. The buying upgrades is not a new concept which has me not score innovation high- its used a lot in ld games and not attractive to me... They CAN be attractive, but the balance of the game is a bit off. The battery thing goes quite fast, reaching one piece every now and then was already difficult for me. There is however not a losing condition far as I played, which neutralizes the balance issues. I would advice to try and play test it more, keeping in mind with a game jam one wants to go fast to see more upgrades. Sometimes I thought the music either was about to crash or that the odd happenings were intended as an old tech vibe- I am not sure.
@loiclegrosfrere Thank you so much for playing and your suggestion. Our original inspiration was something like the arcade claw games, or the game Dungeon Clawler. But we did discuss allowing the claw to move left/right. We just didn't have time to play-test how that would feel after a few hundred levels worth of upgrades ;P Hoping to get to try out your game today. Looking forward to it!
Spending battery to send the claw deeper makes the upgrade loop sound more interesting than just grabbing whatever is closest. The comments about barely collecting anything in the first few runs suggest the opening could move a little faster. A glimpse of valuable scrap farther down might help tempt people into a deeper drop.
If you have a moment, I'd appreciate a rating on my latest game, [Robot Workshop](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/60/trashfight).
I had to stop myself from playing this for hours 😁 The music slaps and the game is pretty addictive in a good way. It really reminded me of that game where you dig for gold. I think it is some collective memory of our generation
I don't really have constructive feedback to be honest, this is just a good game and you two should be proud 😄
@lovecreep @lizz The music hanging was only happening in the browser during testing. The sound of the hang ended up sort of working with the music, so it was extreme low priority to fix. It probably had everything to do with how scene loading in the browser and how FMOD works internally.
@whoisethan @welovegames @human-writes-code @youpz The progression in the beginning is a little too slow, I was having trouble balancing a fast enough beginning vs. game breaking upgrades way too fast. More dev time would have meant exploring more options for progression curve
@wolforce @loiclegrosfrere I had a stretch goal of being able to steer the claw slightly, but didn't have time to try it out.
I appreciate everyone's feedback, and will keep it in mind if we decide to develop this into something bigger. I know I say that every time and we don't do anything with it, but maybe this time I'll follow through.
I really like how many options there are to upgrade. The beginning was very grindy due to being able to just get one quid per run. Maybe a higher initial battery capicity would have helped, since one would then be able to get maybe 2 pieces per run. Other than that I really enjoyed playing it, it really fits to the theme.
Screenshot 2026-10-23 003838.png - How big do you want your claw to be? - Yes!
That is what I call THE PROGRESSION. Very addictive, very fun. Endless game, endless fun. A M A Z I N G!
Hahah love it, I mean, what am I gonna do, NOT return to mining to see how this new upgrade performs, or NOT spend my money I just worked so hard to dig up?? Not likely. Especially when this music was made for digging.
And when I did finally tear myself away the music had a demonic meltdown and tried to assault me until I returned.
There's a few nice simple parts here and they are put together really well. That's what I love seeing in an LD entry! Great job.
hey, that was a pretty fun concept you came up with. I like how you quite literally made it "Old Tech" with technology acting as fossils. This was a funny and yet satisfying game. Thanks!
A nice little game with a clever interpretation of the theme. I really like how the bulldozer turns - minimalist, but efficient. The gameplay is simple, and I had fun trying to dig things out of the ground. In the end, it’s more or less like a fishing game adapted to the theme. Why not? The background music is good and fits the project well. Thank you for this experience and for your comment on my own game. I wish you all the best! ++
