Clawfish is a chill crane game in which you fish in an arcade

The Clawfish Arcade is accessible by train, a small boardwalk venue surrounded by dreamy fog and lots of clear, blue water. It’s only open to me, the lone wanderer who is free to jump rocks off the dock, talk to the local seagull, or stick coins into the arcade’s three crane games.

Clawfish, by developer David Czarnowski, was released in June with Wholesome Game Direct – a showcase for independent video games. I just downloaded the game a few days ago when it was listed as a recommended game on Itch.io, and was immediately interested. Although I’m not very fond of fishing now, I grew up near a lake in the middle of a town and spent hot days with my feet off the dock, fishing line in hand. There is something nostalgic about fishing games for me and I find it hard not to leave it at least

try out everyone I come across. Clawfish took the expectations I had for both fishing games and Crane games and combined them into a truly charming experience: a one-hour excursion from machine to machine on the empty docks.

an illustration of a sailfin herring with the text:

There is more to be done in Clawfish as playing crane games, each of which slightly changes the mechanics of fishing. (Though the gist of it has stayed the same: wrap your claw around a fish to catch it and throw it back into the sea.) The world has various small areas to explore that are accessible by boat and with which you can interact . I’ve already mentioned some of them: jumping stones, chatting with a seagull, and drinking tea from a vending machine. These are small details that give the world a special and unique feel, an alternate universe version of the dock on which I spent my childhood.

ClawfishThe main activity is of course the crane games. Overall, the machines are stocked with different fish, less than 30 of them. They’re not necessarily hard to catch like real crane games that often feel rigged against the player, but there is definitely one skill to be learned in order to perfect the catch. It is designed to be played in a single session so there is no save button – if you don’t catch all of the fish at once you will have to start over when you arrive at the arcade. And yet, while playing, I didn’t feel the pressure to hurry to catch all the fish within the time available to me. I found it to be a wonderful place for my lunch break where I can quietly catch fish during lunch. It’s like a little dreamy lunch break.

Clawfish is over on Mac and Windows PC. available itch.io and steam for $ 3.