A claw slides left and right along the top of a prize cabinet on its own. Tap anywhere on the cabinet, or press the space bar or Enter, to drop it. The claw grabs whichever plush it is lined up with, and grabs thin air if it is not lined up with any of them. An empty grab costs a heart, and when the hearts run out the run is over. A grab that reaches a plush but lands well off its middle lets it slip back, which costs the prize and not a heart. The plushes come in three sizes: a big one is a wider target but slips more easily, and a small one is harder to hit but holds on. A heart plush gives a heart back. After every drop the claw is locked for a moment while the prize is carried to the chute, and the button glyph shows a padlock until it is ready again.
Tap or press space to drop the claw An empty grab costs a heart A heart plush gives one back
Keyword
How to play
A claw slides back and forth along the top of the cabinet on its own. Tap anywhere on the cabinet, or press the space bar or Enter, to drop it.
Four plushes sit on the floor. The claw takes the one it is lined up with, and it has to be close to the middle of it: a drop off to one side comes back empty. The claw's eyes look at whichever plush it is nearest, so you can read what it would take before you commit.
Reaching a plush is not the same as keeping hold of it. Land near its middle and the arms close and lift it away; land near the edge and it can slip straight back out of them. A slip costs you the prize and your streak and never a heart, and the mark left on the floor shows how far off the middle you were against the width that plush had.
They are not all the same size, and that is a choice rather than decoration. A big plush is a wider target and easy to line up, but it is heavy and slips out of anything but a good grab, and it pays less. A small one is fiddly to hit, holds on tight once you have it, and pays more. A heart is always the middle size.
An empty grab costs a heart. When the hearts run out the run is over, so drumming on the screen is the fastest way to end it. A heart plush gives a heart back, if you have one to get back, and it never banks a repair for a mistake you have not made yet.
The floor comes in rounds. Every prize you take leaves its slot empty, and a fresh set only drops in once you have cleared the lot, so the end of a round is one plush on its own and a longer wait for it. Some rounds are a full cabinet and some are a small huddle off to one side.
After every drop the claw hangs still for a moment while the prize is carried to the chute, then slides again with the button still locked. The button glyph shows a padlock for the whole of it and the little light beside it blinks while the claw is reloading, so you always know when the next drop is yours to take.
The claw winds up the more you catch, so the same window gives you less time to read it. How hard it winds up is the cache owner's setting. Your score is plushes caught, and nothing else: the dots, the shinies and the new friends are for the celebration and never change what the cache needs.
The moment you reach the goal your reveal is locked in and safe, even if the hearts run out on the very next drop.
Sound and vibration are both off until you turn them on, with the two small buttons above the cabinet. Vibration needs its own switch on, and what it does depends on the phone. On an Android phone the buzzes tell the moments apart, so a perfect and a miss feel different. On an iPhone or iPad you feel your own tap and nothing else, because that is the only thing iOS lets a web page do.
Want one of these for your own cache?
Build it in a few minutes, no account needed, and you get a link to put on your cache page.
Build your own Grabber cache