Catch the roober

Catch the roober is a single-player arcade game developed by Studio Null and released in 2023 for Windows and mobile platforms. The game presents a top-down perspective of a procedurally generated urban grid. The player controls a security guard tasked with apprehending a single, fast-moving fugitive designated "the roober." The roober moves autonomously, stealing virtual currency from buildings and evading capture. The objective is to intercept and tag the roober within a time limit, which resets after each successful capture. The game ends when the timer expires or the roober escapes the map boundary. No narrative or character customization is provided.

Gameplay mechanics are turn-based with real-time movement. The player moves the guard using the W, A, S, D keys (or on-screen directional pad on mobile). The roober moves simultaneously after each player input. The guard can perform a "tag" action by pressing the Spacebar (or tapping the tag button on mobile) when adjacent to the roober in any cardinal direction. The roober cannot be tagged diagonally. The guard has a stamina bar that depletes by one unit per movement and regenerates by standing still for two seconds. The roober has no stamina limit but is slowed by 50% when entering a building that has already been robbed. Tactical techniques include cornering the roober by predicting its escape path toward unrobbed buildings, using stamina regeneration to block alleyways, and forcing the roober into dead-end streets. The roober always moves toward the nearest unrobbed building, allowing the player to anticipate its route. Successful capture requires positioning the guard two steps ahead of the roober’s intended path rather than chasing directly.