If there’s one word that defines CLAWPUNK, it’s chaos, and not just in the flashy, over-the-top combat or metal-blaring soundtrack. It’s in the way the game lets you play. Developed by the wonderfully named Kittens at Timespace, CLAWPUNK is a 2D action platformer that doesn’t just tolerate aggressive play—it thrives on it. I got hands-on time with the demo at GDC and chatted with creative director Jamie White about how this cat-fueled fever dream came to life. The short version? It’s a rogue-lite brawler where the platforms are as breakable as the rules.
From the moment the demo loads in, CLAWPUNK wastes no time letting you know what kind of game it is. You’re dropped into a destructible playground with three of the game’s nine feline warriors—each with their own stats, weapons, and attitude—and given free rein to smash, dash, and claw your way forward. Dash is agile and fast, Candy has a long-range weapon and solid balance, and Buck is the tank of the group, slow but devastating up close. There’s no hand-holding here, no drawn-out tutorials. Just movement, mayhem, and metal.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
What makes it work is how open it feels. It’s a raw, fast-paced platformer that doesn’t punish you for playing “wrong.” You can blaze through every level, dodging fights and hunting speedrun lines. Or take your time and wreck every piece of scenery in sight. The design supports both, and according to Jamie, the team leaned into this freedom on purpose. They saw through testing that both aggressive and evasive approaches felt fun and viable, so they built the game around that idea. “If you want to bash everything you see, you can,” he told me. “If you want to speedrun and avoid everything, that’s an option too.”
CLAWPUNK boasts a surprising amount of character depth.
That flexibility is immediately felt. Levels fly by quickly, and boss fights hit fast, but it never feels rushed. The pacing just keeps the action tight and constant. And thanks to the roguelite elements and procedurally generated environments, no two runs feel the same. Enemy spawns, traps, and layouts all shift based on how you tackle the zones, and the game adapts based on your chosen order. It’s the kind of system that creates just enough unpredictability to keep you on your toes without losing its rhythm.
There’s also a surprising amount of character depth. You’re not just controlling nine cats with different stats. They’ve each got their own flavor. You’re part of a gang of outcasts fighting to reclaim a city that’s been purged of cats by Mr. Fuzz, a former ally turned corrupt villain. Jamie explained that the story kicks off after Mr. Fuzz betrays the group and rises to power, exiling all other cats in the process. “The goal is to liberate the city from gang warfare and corruption,” he said, framing it like a grimy, feline revolution.
The cast is where that energy really comes to life. Hacks is on rollerblades and never stops moving. Jinx rides a hoverboard, like something out of Back to the Future Part II. And Larry (who immediately became my favorite) bounces around on a pogo stick like a total maniac. “Larry’s the wild card of the group,” Jamie told me, laughing. “He’s crazy.” I believe it.
You can switch between cats at will mid-run, but once one dies, they’re gone for the rest of that attempt. Jamie described it as a kind of survival strategy: rotate freely, but be smart about which characters you burn through and which you save for later. It adds a surprising layer of planning on top of the moment-to-moment chaos. Later in the full game, you’ll be able to equip collectible cards to each cat to modify their abilities—up to three per character. If you want to make the slowest cat the fastest, you can. “It’s about breaking the rules a little bit,” Jamie said, “and allowing players to make the cats their own.”
CLAWPUNK is creative and exciting in every way.
That philosophy shows up in every part of the game. CLAWPUNK doesn’t just allow creativity—it pushes for it. The destructible environments let you carve your own paths. The character-swapping makes every encounter feel tactical. And the cards encourage build-crafting and experimentation in a way that rogue-lite fans will immediately appreciate. What starts as a tight action-platformer quickly becomes a playground for whatever kind of chaos you want to create.
The soundtrack rips with an aggressive, dirty mix of industrial metal, punk riffs, and synth stabs that perfectly match the retro-futuristic world. It’s got a gritty 80s/90s energy that feels pulled straight from old cartoons, dystopian sci-fi, and underground zones. The team calls it a “love letter to all the games, TV shows, and movies that have inspired us over the past 30 to 40 years,” and yeah—you feel that influence in the DNA of every pixel.
What I love about CLAWPUNK is how it commits to letting players break things. Break the rules, break the level, break the expectations. It’s a platformer that dares you to ignore the platforms. It’s fast, flexible, and plays like a high-speed brawl you’re constantly rewriting in real-time. Whether you’re the kind of player chasing world-record runs or someone who just wants to jump in and bash buttons for an hour, CLAWPUNK finds a way to reward you. It’s chaos, sure. But it’s your chaos. And I’m already ready for more.
Wishlist CLAWPUNK on Steam now.
