Three of a Climb Devlog #8: Claw Machine

Welcome to devlog 8 of Three of a Climb, my isometric mobile stair climber made in Unity. In devlog 7 the skins were still locked. Now you unlock them with gambling... I mean, by playing a little arcade game: a claw machine.

How it came together

1. Modeling the machine

I didn't model the machine as one mesh, but as separate parts: rods, claw, fingers, joystick and button. That way every piece can be animated on its own in Unity.

2. Testing with cubes

The first tests worked, but there was one problem: I didn't have a crate model yet, so the prize was just a cube.

3. Modeling the crate

The crate's colour shows the rarity of the prize: green, blue, purple or gold.

How it works

1. You pay 100 coins. 2. You aim on both axes of the machine: first the width, then the depth. 3. Hit the crit zone on both, and you get a much better chance at rarer skins. 4. The claw grabs, the crate flies out of the machine, and you get the unlock animation. The prize is always a skin you don't own yet.

Drop chances

A perfect aim makes a Legendary skin 25 times more likely. If you only hit one crit, the odds land somewhere in between.

Making it feel heavy

When the machine drops in, it falls along k². It speeds up the whole way and stops dead, with no easing at the bottom, so it hits like something heavy:

float k = t / fallDuration;
transform.position = landPos + up * (1f - k * k);

On the same frame, the goat gets squashed flat, the camera shakes and the phone vibrates.

Sound effects

The sound effects aren't final yet. I got them from a free sound library, and after devlog 4 we all know how that went. If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments, or I'll try to make my own.

See you in the next devlog.