Just yesterday, we were telling you about Terry Cavanagh’s great little roguelike game, Tiny Heist. Cavanagh’s games are all so great, though, that they deserve much more than one article about them. Even the games he considers to be throwaways can be entertaining for an entire afternoon, if not more. That’s why I’m here to tell you about his burger stand simulation, Grab Them By The Eyes.
Grab Them By The Eyes is a beautifully simple game. You play a burger stand owner who has presumably held a monopoly over his street corner for years before some hipsters open their own competing stand, Filthy Burger. Since there are two burger stands competing for the same corner now, you have to do something to stand out. This is where the signs come in.
When it comes to street food, grabbing people’s attentions is of utmost importance. In Grab Them By The Eyes, this is exclusively accomplished with neon signs. While there are two burger stands in the game, there is only one sign shop, so you and Filthy Burger are fighting for the same sign options. This is the main game mechanic in Grab Them By The Eyes.
Every day, there are a limited number of sign options you can buy, which can include new slogans, new effects, and new borders. If you’re lucky, you can also buy extra “frames”, which allow you to put up more signs in a day. Each different sign configuration gains you a certain amount of new customers, with new sign aspects always being the most lucrative. Once you’ve queued up the signs you’re going to be advertising with, you can start the day, which consists of watching customers choose you or your rivals, depending on how good each of your signs is. This goes on for a week, at which point whoever gained the most total customers wins.
That’s pretty much it, which means you can play a full game of Grab Them By The Eyes in just a few minutes. Like Tiny Heist, Grab Them By The Eyes is available to download for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, but you can also just play it through your browser’s flash player or grab the source code. Like all of Terry Cavanagh’s games besides VVVVVV and Super Hexagon, Grab Them By The Eyes is free, so you have nothing to lose. Go check it out (and maybe check out some of his other games) and report back.
