Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2023
Paws of Coal
Developer Gamechuck
The miners of Rabbit Burrows are falling ill, and it is hurting production. As an eminent scholar of the Animal Kingdom, Charles Quill has been summoned by the Crown to help them solve the outbreak. The miners know and respect the young scholar, but there seem to be other things at play. From the Steam store page
70 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Jul 14, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
90
LovedLoved
60 positive · 7 negative
95% range 80–95%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 60 | 7 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
69 of 76 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 70 · most liked firstA small game where you do some light detective work, but the majority of the gameplay is still reading, which brings it closer to the visual novel genre. While the character can be controlled with any device, only the keyboard has the right command prompts when you come across something intriguing. It is also possible to play using a mouse; use the left click to move, and the right click to interact. The only restrictions are that you cannot run and that no names are displayed when a mouse is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It breaks my heart to write such a review, as succinct and incomplete as it will inherently be. Upon the game's opening, I was delighted by its writing. Its soft flow amidst a grim din of plague captivated me instantly, and I knew I would be in for a delightful experience. Even better, after a little over an hour of gameplay, Paws of Coal presented me with a moral decision so organic in its conception, I really needed to take time to consider my options and discuss it within the game's world. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I love narrative games, this is usually not my style. It has lots of text and I mean a lot and you have to follow many details closely. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a pretty smooth experience. Story is easy to follow, characters are interesting and the whole "if Watership Down was a story of scientific research written by George Orwell" vibe speaks to me, especially because all the characters look manually animated which is always a plus to me. The main mechanic of getting the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →EDIT: game does not crash anymore, but path is still extremely buggy. It now somehow sequence breaks and forces you into a path where the strike ends in failure, despite it ending in success earlier from your actions. Still cannot rec, as this path is STILL not working properly. seems like a fun game, however, one of the main lines is game breakingly bugged. If you accept the magistrate's letter of employment, the game will crash. There is no work around. This is a major story decision. It's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The rabbit miners are sick and on strike, the factory owners want them to go back to work, and we're a hedgehog stuck between sides! Playing part 2 of Paws of Coal right now at twitch.tv/ancastasia, come hang ⚒️ #indiegames #pointnclick
unlabelledView post →It seems like a neat detective game, but at the moment i cannot progress due to a bug that crashes the game whenever I try to end the conversation after accepting the letter from Orville. Update (May 5th): The developer has been working on bug fixes, but unfortunately I still cannot progress. While the investigation might be branching enough that I could still get the information I need without getting the letter from Orville, it is very annoying to be locked out of options because of crashing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →okay so Paws of Coal might be janky, but the pros outweigh the cons by more than a ton. here you've got a charming yet mature plot about an outbreak that might put a stop to all the mining rabbits' hops and flops, and we don't want that. while the mystery itself won't take you long, the social distress and elaborate worldbuilding in the background will have you returning for more. there's one correct solution, but different way to get to it. will you betray a just cause for the sake of a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very nice narrative game, driven by clever writing. It's definitely worth the price, you will not waste your time if you play it. It has a cute cartoony graphics style and some of the characters are nicely animated. NPCs have character and are fun to interact with. The idea of solving problems in this particular way is interesting to explore. "The painting overhead, by L. Kusevic, shows your father holding the world in his paws." "Atmospheric parasitism? I'm a blazing genius."
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I picked the game up for $1.50 USD. I recommend it for those who like reading and story rich games. It DOES NOT work well on Steam Deck due to the control scheme. I swapped to Windows PC with mouse and keyboard and it was fine. The themes here are about oppression (prejudice, capitalistic/master-servant) and the way groups & individuals react in situations of societal and/or systemic challenge. It's compelling as food for thought or as an opportunity to ask oneself as the player what one think…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A short (~3 hour) game centered around solving three logic puzzles in the style of detective work, intermixed with some intriguing scruples choices that shape the outcome of the story. A fun graphic style, well-suited music, and all around immersive experience. The biggest appeal is the novel implementation of how the logic puzzles are solved. This is a really fun mechanic that I hope to see more of in the sequels. (I think there are planned sequels, no?!) A little too soon to tell how…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A short and sweet adventure game revolving around a single major mystery, and a few smaller ones. It features cute animal characters, but be prepared for some serious reading, detective logic, science, philosophy and ethics as you go through the dialogue, evidence, research, details of characters' daily lives and workers' rights questions. A fitting release for International Workers' Day.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Awesome game! The art and animations look really nice, like an old school hand drawn Disney movie. The world feels rich, environment and character interactions are full of thoughtful world-building. The puzzle solving mechanic feels just right: testing your understanding without being too revealing. This is a hard balance to strike, but this game pulls it off. Lastly, there's the prevailing whimsical humor. The game made me laugh out loud, something that seldom happens to me. All in all, a most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyable overall, despite some minor hiccups (I had to reload the game a couple times via the Autoload feature because I lost control of my character). Plus points for the lovely writing style, the case building system, the handmade art style reminiscent of Watership Down and the subject matter of workers' rights. Cure, not coal!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A well written and surprisingly complex investigation into the possible cause(s) of a mysterious illness in a mining colony of anthropomorphic animals. There's a surprising amount of world building, a demand for genuine deduction and even a socio-political struggle to involve yourself with. I love it! Playtime: about 2 hours.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a clever little puzzle wrapped in a almost lovingly in depth slice of world building. Every hand painted frame and thoughtfully written word is couched in a setting that feels alive, in spite of having only this small glimpse of it. This is a single truffle of delectable detective work. The method of building your "case" is novel. It takes risks, where it can. So, good game, over all, worth the price of admission.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a short and fun game. The world and characters are interesting and distinctive, and the puzzles are fun and relatively easy but satisfying. I really liked the animations, the art style and the writing. I was mostly intrigued by the deduction mechanics and the game delivers. You can still technically stumble upon the conclusion by brute force but number of clues and conclusions makes that not viable. It's a nice compromise between keeping everything in your head and your character…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lovely little game. (Review made for Steam Awards 2023)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros -Fantastic world building. Really top notch. - Well written dialog and characters - Great art-style for the characters. Think old school Disney or Don Bluth. - Can be played entirely with the mouse although there is some caveats. - Pleasant music, fits the theme very well but can get repetitive. - Chill and relaxing to play, no difficult puzzles just collect clues and then made a deduction. Cons - I had a bit of struggle moving the character, frequently when clicking for the character to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is lacking polish and perhaps a bit anticlimactic, but as a prelude it has me very excited for Trip the Ark Fantastic. The writing is very compelling, with much more nuance to the characters, setting, and themes than most games bother with, and a level of depth to the world that I haven't really seen much beyond sprawling RPGs like Pillars of Eternity or narrative masterworks like Disco Elysium. It is just a prelude, though, so most of this world isn't actually realised yet. There…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A delightful deduction game that's hopefully proof of concept for a lengthier follow up. The player gleans clues through conversations and books to diagnose a handful of problems and ailments. Not only is the script very well written, but the characters animations are adorable in every way. My heart melted when I realized my cute (but slow) hedgehog scientist could do a spin dash to zip around the map. So cute! The only complaint is it feels more like a demo than a full game. Please make more!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paws are a good way to spend a gamer's evening. Take the role of an academic hedgehog in his quest to find the cure for a mysterious rabbit illness. Is it caused by their long hours of working in mines? Or does it have to do with their nutrition? Whatever the case, the aforementioned sickness has triggered the miners to strike. And the resulting crisis may only be the introduction to political tension on a global scale. The game involves a lot of reading, but as the content is generated in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lovely little game. The good: -Lovely animation and art -Writing is good -Most importantly, the detective part is not too convoluted but neither is it too obvious. I think the game really struck the right balance. I changed my mind multiple times throughout. The mediocre: -I found navigating the stairs a bit annoying -The music, though lovely, could be better. It was either quite loud or silent. The bad: -Only thing that slightly bothered me was that it seemed to promise more story than it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved this game and want more. I really liked the main character and the mechanics and choices. I read online that the developers have another game they're working on with the same character and mechanics, but that it has been put on hold while they work on other things. If, by some chance, they read reviews, I hope they'd consider breaking down the larger game into short chapters like paws of coal, so that each is a smaller project and we could have more Charles adventures sooner. I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The art is charming, but where the game really shines is writing. Despite the relatively small size of the game world, it's packed full with flavorful dialogue and intriguing details. Minor technical issues aside, the biggest problem with the game is that there just isn't enough of it. The story teases elements of the larger world in a way that makes you hungry for more, but the game unfortunately ends fairly abruptly after you solve the outbreak. Still, the pieces are all there. If you were…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is very short and very simple. This means nothing though when I am an adult who is used to games with more depth and complexity. This makes it perfect for younger audiences like kids, and would have been perfect for when I was a child. Even if its in the same design, I would gladly even play sequel games to this story as there is a lot of potential world building!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bugs everywhere make it impossible to beat the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dialogue and reading make up the majority of this adventure game, where you interview characters and collect information about a sudden illness that plagues the rabbits. I really liked the mechanics of coming to conclusions. Eventhough I combed through almost every interaction, the game lasted me about 3 hours. I know that there are multiple endings, yet I think the replayability of this game is not that great. But it was fun playing it once! --> Wait for a good deal.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is such a cute game. I'd definitely recommend for the price. The detective work is fun. There was a bug that caused the game to crash, but that has been resolved.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A nice little game, with a cool detective mechanic.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I snitched and got paid 10/10 would snitch again
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is incredibly cute, and I love the way the investigation mechanic works! I FEEL LIKE A REAL DOCTOR IN THIS GAME! | Paws of Coal First Look 🦔 #PawsOfCoal #PointAndClick #AdventureGame #IndieGame #AdventureGames #IndieGames https://youtu.be/S3gk6VsLe0g via @YouTube
unlabelledView post →Paws of Coal, though short, is quite the fun detective game. There is really only a few things to solve and a lot of people to talk to. The systems and controls in the game can be a bit confusing to figure out and with it being so short, by the end of the game I didn't feel like I had enough time to sit with it and learn how it was supposed to work. But the writing is where this game shines! Everyone feels unique and has their own charm, fitted perfectly for their individual species. There is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After retrying a few times I can confirm the game is completely bugged due to me saving it, so I'd have to restart to finish it. Bug with the game save meant it counted my ongoing investigation as 'submitted' when I reloaded the game. So any new discoveries can't be added nor can I do anything but give the dr incorrect guesses based on partial info. Not sure how that happened but the clues page just looks wrong and doesn't show me any selected clues anymore, and I can't select or unselect any…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyable investigative game with an interesting storyline revolving around work in a coal mine and how it effects everyone.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The controls are clunky and somewhat buggy, but serviceable. Got soft-locked by choosing particular dialog options that should've been mutually exclusive - after having interacted with everything, I just don't have enough info in my journal to come to a logical conclusion.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Adorable art and cute characters. Relaxing music in the background and mysteries to solve! Worthwhile but short. Looklng for more from the dev,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More reviews like this one [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45764125/]here! At the time of writing I've played many detective games, and this is far and away the best one. The writing was excellent, the hand-drawn, old-school animation gave it an incredible feel, and it require the most actual thinking and deduction of any game I've played so far. It's honestly brilliant and I completely recommend it. In Paws, you play as Charles, a porcupine, who's doing research in a coal mine…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great art and a good, short story. Kinda buggy but not unplayable.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a very cute game that has some clever and even funny writing. It touches on things not often seen in computer games: class struggle and scientific method. It does succesfully bring a taste of both. Since the main character needs to process similar information multiple times to deduct the truth, his animal interlocutors are varied and interesting. Narrative choices are strong, subtle and eye-opening. Class struggle is illustrated by workers strike, and shown not to be a clear-cut…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A really well written puzzle game with nice dialogue and characters. The setting feels like a snapshot of a much bigger, living world with it's own history and culture that makes all the dialogue and books much more interesting to read. The game is very text heavy but it all plays into the simple and engaging deduction game play where everything you read provides some information to help you solve the central case without ever feeling dry or tedious. Depending on your reading speed and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Small interesting game, though the journal can be confusing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its peak good plot, dialog, prose, art, pacing. meh ui and engine. the only real complaint i have is the scope of the game, but given that its very reasonably priced, its not really an issue.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The indie game of the day is Paws of Coal, a fine, albeit janky, deduction game framed in a well elaborated world of talking animals and pratchettian prose. Help a botanist cure rabbits and maybe assist in a revolution before the tea cools. #cozygames store.steampowered.com/app/2368860/...
unlabelledView post →Fun! Lots of reading, but I like how this game logically solves the mystery! I didn't experience any crashes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For the price it's a pretty good deduction game with a lovely aesthetic, but it does lead you too much to the right conclusion. Towards the end I mentally thought I had two options, one of which I was almost certain of, but the other was an option, but the game just plain said "nah, that's the solution" so not a fantastic deduction game, but a good time and certainly for the price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm quite impressed and given this is basically a prelude to a bigger game, it makes me quite excited for the full product! If you like the sound of this, you probably will.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Adorable! I enjoyed this cozy game. It was very straightforward, nice side scroller, and the storyline was easy to follow. I loved figuring out the mystery and while short was perfectly priced!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute game, there is few small things it couldve done better (mainly the soundtrack), but nothing major
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Frustrating controls which do not work. I was able to use my keyboard to walk briefly, and then that stopped working. Clicking with my mouse will only move me when my journal is open, except for occasions where I right click and then immediately move to interact with either the books or the Doctor. I can't get to the door to get out of the Doctor's office, as I either walk past it to read the books on the desk, or walk the other way and begin another exchange with the Doctor. Not worth my…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paws of Coal is different to what i had expected. From the description i thought it was gonna be a kind of detective game, where you walk around questioning people, analysing stuff and then putting the clues together. It kinda is that but very very shallow. The big question of what or who caused the outbreak was very on the nose and i only kept investigating the issue because i couldn't believe it would be this easy. The game is also a bit tricks to navigate, it took me a while to get the hang…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but it is a fun little detective game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely loved this game, from the lore to the story in general- I loved the genuine scientist/detective mechanics with finding evidence, making deductions and doing research with every ounce of information at your disposal. The only thing that made me disappointed was that it ended so quickly! I was enraptured by it all, fully ready to see more and then entering the elevator- it simply ended. Granted, I understand that games, especially ones this well thought out and written, are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute 2d art, nice narrative game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved the game, it made me think, but not too much! I did not find out everything from every one but I still managed to get the rabbit pandemic under control. The world has a very good design and the graphics are a lot of fun. The game is small but the world feels really big. I hope that this game gets expanded with more titles!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Paws of Coal is a visually stunning mystery game set in a world filled with cute animal characters, each with their own unique personality. However, what sets this game apart is its intriguing and relevant political plot. It tackles themes of worker's rights, government responsibility, and the dynamics of power. The game forces you to make difficult moral decisions and choose sides in conflicts between the management and the workers, while discussing the issues of unionization and government…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Art style and graphics are pretty charming and the music is beautiful. It has lot of text, but it is well written and enjoyable, if you are into adventure games..
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very nice old-school style adventure game, with a colourful cast of characters, multiple ways to solve the main mystery (leading up to multiple different endings) and lots of silly humour. If you like Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island, you might like this one too!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute little detective game. Audio and visuals create a heartwarming experience. The clues and reports mechanic works quite well. It's overwhelming at first, and there's a lot of text to swallow, but eventually it grows on you. Game's overall still rough on some edges, but it does the job of making you feel like a detective. Glad to see another Godot game on Steam.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An awesome little gem of a game with hypercute visuals and an engrossing storyline. Highly recommended!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a really interesting game. One can see that there is a ton of work done in worldbuilding. While the game looks like kid's game it has a very political depth. I would love seeing more of it. I really love the music and the art. The dialogue seems a bit off with different fonts describing the words the characters say and their feelings and so on. I really love a concept of getting to a conclusion, and having a scientific hypothesis. Just think this part could have been maybe different in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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