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Contents
Developer InterviewsIn 2011, Steven Applebaum offered to help us reach out to Claw developers and has since managed to contact and interview three people who had worked on the game at Monolith: 
Ken's career spanned decades, and long before working with Monolith, he was involved in several Disney classics, among others. He passed away in 2023, aged 97. Rest in peace. Pre-release MaterialsBack in 2006, Grey Cat came across some Claw production artwork, specifically one image of La Roca, plus sketches of a Cocker Spaniard soldier and Red Tail. The latter is heavily based on N.C. Wyeth's illustration of Billy Bones from Treasure Island, as TaurusII pointed out: 
Prior to the game's release, some concept art was also published at its official website, including color images and pencil sketches for different levels: Many of these are quite interesting: note in particular an earlier iteration of the Tiger Island tileset (see left). It was eventually repurposed for the level 9 front layer. Since Monolith's earliest materials on the Claw website mention 16 levels among planned features, the above concepts sparked some speculation as to whether they could possibly represent cut content, the boats and rural landscape (coincidentally, the only sketches not available in high resolution) being obvious candidates. There is no evidence towards any of this, however (and, notably, no trace of extra levels in the Claw Design Bible), making it rather unlikely that they were ever anything more than a number in the initial feature plan. Moreover, Grey Cat found several screenshots from various pre-release builds of the game: 
Presumably, the images from Dark Woods are from an earlier phase of development, judging by the different UI elements. The other three sets bear more resemblance to the final game, although the Shipyards color palette was quite different then, while the swinging rope in the Footpath clearly used a placeholder image. For the record, the final version of Claw is build 60, while the screenshots listed above show builds 10, 15, and 26. As of today, none of these (or any other alpha/beta versions of the game) are publicly available, making them the holy grail of the Claw community. The closest we got to finding it might be this photo, courtesy of game designer Kevin Lambert.
Fan Creations
Fan art by Freya and Keith the Cat: Fan art by snow-jemima:
And last but not least, here's another gem from her: a comic, depicting what might have happened if Claw met Jack Sparrow. Who's a better Pirate?
The most interesting by far, though, are these absolutely amazing art noveau drawings of subsequent bosses:
As it turns out, it is indeed possible to create even better Claw art, and it seems, despite the game being nearly a quarter century old, that there is more of it than ever before. So much in fact, that we opened a separate page to host the amazing works of TaurusII and Haruka_VII. Anything less would be a disservice to their talent and passion for Claw.
The brilliant Claw fan art to the upper left was created by Henrique Lorenzi. You can open it on his DeviantArt gallery by clicking the link at the very top of the list above.
Music from the Claw soundtrack has also had several guitar covers. The short, but memorable amulet motif is particularly popular, as is the La Roca theme (which most would probably consider the definitive one for Claw). Nestalgica's metal rendition of the La Roca theme is a personal favorite. Speaking of which, thanks to Garadares for making the Patreon request (and for generally doing an excellent job scouring the internet on the lookout for all kinds of Claw fan creations). Jazz Jackrabbit 2 TilesetSteven Wakeman, though he had made a couple of Claw custom levels in his own right, is actually much better known as a great Jazz Jackrabbit 2 level designer. Among others, he created a level (and tileset) called Contention back in 2003. From a Claw fan's perspective, it's by far his most interesting one. In short, that's a Jazz Jackrabbit 2 version of La Roca!
To play the level, unzip the archive into your Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installation folder. Then launch the game, select New Game, Single Player, Home Cooked Levels and choose Contention from the list. Have fun!
Watch a perfect score playthrough here, courtesy of the designer. To try it yourself, extract to CUSTOM, as with any other Claw level. Box CoversA collection of box covers from the game's retail distribution. If anyone has scans of other distributions (or higher-quality ones of the scans already here), email me them. DVD Edition (provided by Randy): 
American Edition: Polish Edition (original release): Polish 2006 Rapacious Edition (by Zuczek): Russian Edition (provided by woohoo):
Australian Edition (provided by Brad): Korean Edition: Hungarian Edition (provided by EMIYA): Hebrew Edition (provided by ShimurIsrael): And finally, here is a CD scan from a different Hebrew edition (provided by Smoke). A Claw Sequel?The game's credits sequence certainly wastes no time teasing a potential sequel, telling to "be on the lookout for Claw's adventures to continue into the 3rd dimension..." right in its second line. Obviously, that 3D follow-up to Claw never happened. However, a prototype briefly features in a 1999 demonstration video for Monolith's LithTech engine, providing a rare glimpse into how it could have looked like.
According to Kevin Lambert, game designer on the original Claw, one of the main concepts involved an ability to transform between several forms, from a tiny kitten capable of running up walls and crawling through passages, to a powerful bruiser that could crush enemies and even break down some structures.
Even a draft of the box cover was prepared, further suggesting a fairly advanced stage of the project. Legal issues (curiously, expired license for the Claw character was cited) put an end to it, though. Assets were repurposed for Nikita: Mystery of the Hidden Treasure. Rapacious Edition
While ultimately Techland's sequel never saw the light of day (at least, not using the Claw intellectual property), as the Polish publisher of the original game, the company did release a special edition of Claw in August 2006. Beyond the game CD, the package included extras like caps and beach balls, and on the disc (besides pirate-themed wallpapers etc.) there were 20 custom levels, some of them created by the people behind this site. Naturally, it also came with new box art: Translated as Captain Claw: Rapacious Edition, this special version retailed for the equivalent of 16.50 US dollars in Poland. Unfortunately, boxed copies are now very hard to come by, available only at exorbitant prices (if at all). Internet ArchiveClaw was released in September 1997, making it more than a quarter-century old. As such, nearly all of its fansites created over the years are not available online anymore (nor is, for that matter, the game's official site). Which is too bad, because many of them, like Meezo's or Finn's websites, were an important piece of community history. However, all is not lost: thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine, much of that history can still be explored. Using the website is simple: type the address of the page you are looking for and press Enter to display a calendar listing of available copies. Usually, you will be able to choose between dozens of snapshots from different dates. Of course, as the name indicates, you can also use the Wayback Machine to "time travel" and see how currently available websites, including the Claw Recluse, looked in the past. Starting from 1996, nearly one trillion pages have been archived, and beyond that, there are also separate repositories of books, audio, video, images, and software.
Mobile Claw
There are only five levels in this Java version, Township being the last one. The final boss resembles Le Rauxe more than Wolvington, however. KRIPT4 uploaded a full playthrough on YouTube, which you can watch below: And here is how the victory screen looks like. Rather unassuming, but oh well. Monolith Store
Long, long time ago, back when Claw developers still frequented the game's official forum, and the Monolith Store was still operating, a Claw T-shirt could be ordered there. Separately, it was priced at $15, while a bundled purchase together with the game itself cost $43. As much as we love Claw and its art, we have to admit the shirt does not seem that special. White does not go very well with the Claw logo, which itself hardly looks amazing. It appears that black would have been a much better fit there. 
You may be curious about the exact release date of Claw in September 1997: the 5th, 9th, and even 30th (obviously just a placeholder, end-of-month date) are often listed, depending on the website you check. So, which is correct? An official press release from Monolith, announcing the game's availability on CD and DVD, is dated September 9. This is also corroborated by Brian Goble's notes in the Monolith plan files, and the day before (i.e. September 8, 1997) is the date listed in However, as of September 5, Claw was already shipping according to PC Gamer, which is not necessarily a contradiction (the DVD version was never available as a separate purchase and could have been finalized slightly later). Ultimately, the answer is whichever date better fits your definition of release in the era before digital distribution. Still, 9/9/97 is undeniably cooler, what with cats having nine lives and all. If only Monolith made Claw two years later... Also, take a look at this advertisement for Claw:  Strangely familiar? Very much so, if you remember the infamous bathtub ad for Blood, Monolith's 1997 cult classic FPS (and the studio's first game). Higher resolution scans of both advertisements can be found at the Blood Wiki, alongside other items of interest even to non-Blood fans, for example an excellent article on Monolith's history. Miscellaneous
Speaking of other Monolith games, the mysterious statue located in level 12 is actually a reference to Blood's Gill Beast. Meanwhile, an optional level in Shogo: Mobile Armor Division involves finding a lost cat using a squeaky Claw toy. It even says Magic Claw, and can be kept by the protagonist for the rest of the game. Blood II in turn contains posters featuring the box art of Claw, Shogo, and Get Medieval (alongside dozens of pop-culture references). Finally, Claw and Blood have another thing in common: their lead characters are both voiced by the amazing Stephan Weyte. His dialogue lines for Caleb were even reused in Claw custom levels: Raid on the Spanish Armada and The Poisonous Caves, by wisztom and BorisHR, respectively.
Furthermore, another Claw minifigure appears to have been created at some point (see left), though we have no information on where it was available -- if at all. Perhaps you know something about it, or have other Claw curiosities to share? By all means please do, preferably on Discord. A small collection of random odds and ends that did not seem to fit anywhere else. 
Did you know that...
© 2004-2024 Grey Cat, Zuczek and Teo phil. Site best viewed in 800x600 using Internet Explorer or Firefox. |
Not only has Steven done a great job on the interviews and transcripts, but Matt Hayhurst has also sent him some Claw production materials. There is a veritable treasure trove of character art by Matt himself (notably, including some for the sequel that never came to be), plus cutscene frame sketches in the minimalist style of well-known storyboard artist Ken Mundie:
Claw is a game that lends itself well to the art medium. Here is some fan art that has been done over the years, starting with Freya's (whose mother was an active community member back in the day, and together they made quite a few 
It's also worth taking a look at snow-jemima's sketches. To the left, you can see one of them, and the whole package can be downloaded 
It may be well past the 20th anniversary of Claw's release, but the game still lives and so does amazing new fan art, like that of TaurusII. Her work is mostly focused on the game's bosses, especially Red Tail, and easily deserves a special mention.
Well, suffice to say if we were to choose the single greatest piece of Claw fan art ever, it would just have to be from this series here. There are more to come, too. In the meantime, you can take a look at TaurusII's 
TaurusII's works are from 2017-2024, snow-jemima's mostly mid-2006, while Freya's and Keith's date back to the earliest days of the community. Through the years, there has been much more fan art from Claw fans all around the world (unfortunately, the list got shorter due to expired links):
Now, how about some music? Long-time community member V. N. was kind enough to share this awesome Claw beat created by her brother:
Back when Contention was created, our community could merely dream of custom tilesets for Claw levels. That changed, of course, with the 
Italian Edition (provided by SugheroGame):
Meanwhile, in late 2007, a sequel to Claw was announced in Poland by the original game's local publisher, Techland. Kapitan Pazur 2 was to be a 3D game as well, due for release the following year. Several screenshots were published as part of the reveal (see below):
In late 2004, developer MaxArtists remade Claw for the Sony Ericsson line of mobile phones, including the D750i, F500, F500i, K500, K500c, K500i, K506c, K508c, K508i, K508i, K700, K700c, K700i, K750, K750c, K750i, Z500a, and Z520i models. Take a look at some screenshots:
Have you played DzjeeAr's 
If you ever dabbled with Claw level design, you might have noticed traces of assets that were either cut or, more likely, planned but never actually made. One of these is a listing for a plasma sword, i.e. a fourth elemental powerup. However, the CrazyHook mod allows for adding custom assets, and Pejti has done exactly that, creating 
Besides a photo of some pre-release CDs (
