Rappel the Porter by Reuh

[raw]
made by Reuh for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

You are Rappel, the porter for hire. Reach from the depths of your bag so your team can go down to the deepest parts of the dungeon...

Teams of adventurers hire you to carry their equipment, give it to them promptly when asked, and to diligently collect all the loot.

Since the appearance of the Big Hole dungeon, your services have been in great demand thanks to the perfect match between the dungeon's structure and your physical abilities.

It's still not that well paid, but it's the adventurers who die when you mess up, and thanks to the abundant loot and seemingly bottomless nature of the dungeon, your future employment is likely guaranteed.

Do your best.

screen.png

rummage-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter(2).gif

loot-ezgif.com-video-to-gif-converter.gif

Controls

...everything important with a mouse:

  • Hold left click to grab objects,
  • Hold right click to roll up your arm,
  • Use the wheel to rotate objects.

As well as:

  • Escape to exit.
  • M to mute the music (it may or may have not been made made in the last hour).

Known bugs

  • There may be cursor issues on the web version. Try the downloads if this happens to you.
  • Adventurers sometimes ask for objects that you were never given.
    • Some are lost due to physics glitching them out of the bag.
    • Some are lost for reasons that remain a mystery to this day.
  • Holding an item or moving up or down the bag at the same moment the timer ends in the looting phase can lead to unforeseen consequences.
  • More in the comments! Find your own bugs by playing yourself ;)

Fixed in the Fixed version

  • Broken score keeping when doing several runs in a row (tiped gold was not reset).
  • Workarounds for items lost due to physics glitching them out of the bag:
    • Reduced probability to request lost items during the fighting phase
    • Initial item placement tweaks to make them less likely to be yeeted outside the screen during the looting phase
    • Fixed some items being wrongly detected as overlapping and lost after the looting phase

Thanks for playing!

Everything is home-made:

  • Reuh and Houmgaor: programming, opening Godot for the first time when the LD started, being surprised when it didn't work as hoped;
  • Trocentraisin: music, sounds, doing pixel art for the first time during this LD.

Rough start, but it ended alright all things considered (':

Ratings

Overall 530th 3.421⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 516th 3.263⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 24th 4.27⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 194th 4.066⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 505th 3.513⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Audio 337th 3.446⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 167th 3.574⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 591th 3.324⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 39🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

Mirinae
08. Apr 2025 · 18:06 UTC
I think the game needs a tutorial, it was very confusing playing at first.
boboneoone
08. Apr 2025 · 22:47 UTC
I do like the concept and the hand art is hilarious. I couldnt figure out how to grab anything though, so I ended up just brute forcing my way to the bottom (I think). Great art and decent music.
jazzydingo
08. Apr 2025 · 22:48 UTC
very cool! the only thing that got me was it was confusing if i was grabbing an object or not since the hand doesnt overlap with the object. pretty fun game! they kept asking for water which i never had.
ZettaSimp
08. Apr 2025 · 22:52 UTC
I liked this one quite a bit, but a few glitches make it hard to play. Sometimes the adventurers seem to request items you don't have, and occasionally when taking an item back out of your bag the game doesn't seem to register it. That being said, the long arms and generally goofy concept was really fun, maybe even my favorite in the jam thus far. Keep up the good work!
Fireye
08. Apr 2025 · 22:52 UTC
I enjoyed this, though the mouse pointer detection was super bugged. Super neat concept, nice stuff!
Rachenite
08. Apr 2025 · 22:53 UTC
Interesting concept. The snake hand is funny. A little janky but has promise if more time is put into it. The repelling animations are cool
Limina Wayfarer
08. Apr 2025 · 22:54 UTC
Such a unique take take on it! I love how technically the "depth" of the backpack fits the theme as well as the little lore of why you're doing it in the first place. Very arcady, loved it!
AlpalcaLad
08. Apr 2025 · 22:58 UTC
really cool game and concept, thanks porter is a new inside joke with my friends now. I think we keep getting a bug where they ask for an item we were never given tho. Also glitched my hand outside the bag by accident and couldnt get it back in lol. With a bit more polish could be a great random steam game imo
bartholomheow
08. Apr 2025 · 23:03 UTC
Really cool and creative game, the mechanic is really fun and new! Still I was pretty confused at first, a simple tutorial would be nice (even a gif)
Akkadion
08. Apr 2025 · 23:23 UTC
A little glitched but very creative. I would rather let my whole party die rather than give up big sword lol.
Trocentraisin
08. Apr 2025 · 23:39 UTC
Wow, first of all, thanks everyone for the positive-despite-the-bugs-feedback.

Then, just to ask @zettasimp @alpalcalad to be sure this is an actual bug that was not noticed during testing and not intended game design, did they ask for items that was never to you, or were they items that were given, but you didn't have the time to put them in your bag / threw without it being asked in the first place / broke because you smashed a sword in a potion / got bugged out of the bag because of a random glitch in this (indeed) really glitchy game ? The former would be a bug, the latter is because the adventurers assume you have the item
ZettaSimp
09. Apr 2025 · 00:02 UTC
@Trocentraisin I couldn't say with confidence that the item absolutely wasn't given to me. I never failed to place any items, and I didn't even know destroying them was a mechanic, but it is more than possible that it glitched out of the bag at some point. The item in question was a blue potion, so there were plenty given to me by the point they requested it and I didn't have one.
🎤 Reuh
09. Apr 2025 · 10:01 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone! We've added a couple gifs, hopefully that makes it easier to understand.

@zettasimp @alpalcalad it's likely those objects were given at some point but ended up glitching out of the bag; Godot's physics engine hasn't been very cooperative unfortunately (and replacing it with something else would be out-of-scope for the post-deadline bugfixes). I've reduced the request probability of lost items as a workaround, hopefully it becomes less of a problem.
Houmgaor
09. Apr 2025 · 21:16 UTC
Thank you @zettasimp for your feedback!
There was a bug with the objects that could appear out of your screen, which is why adventurers requested them. The bigger item could not fit at all. We fixed it now, have fun!
Stef_Studio_7
10. Apr 2025 · 00:05 UTC
cool idea and i liked the pixel characters. Controls were a little wonky.
red
10. Apr 2025 · 00:06 UTC
Really unique concept, I think it would have been even better to have a deeper bag to further drive that theme, and I thought it was a bit strange that you could save items outside of the bag window. Other than that very cool!
jddoesdev
10. Apr 2025 · 00:10 UTC
I honestly had no idea what was going on here. There were quite a few glitches and it was really difficult to play, but with that being said, the pixel art was good, the sounds were funny, and the idea was solid and in line with the theme.
olsonexi
10. Apr 2025 · 00:22 UTC
Fun idea. I was confused about what I was supposed to do at first though. It would have been nice if there was some kind of tutorial.
xpoho
10. Apr 2025 · 05:19 UTC
![изображение_2025-04-10_121850473.png](///raw/d14/a3/z/6bd8a.png)

I have very long arms ^_^


Very innovative, good job!
HelloImBenjamin
10. Apr 2025 · 05:53 UTC
The bag mechanic was really cool, and I liked discovering how it worked. Super creative! Great job!
Juutis
10. Apr 2025 · 13:47 UTC
The concept was super innovative! The implementation is a bit janky but I guess that just adds to the charm. :grin: I encountered the same issue that's been discussed in the previous comments, that the adventurers were asking for items I didn't have (and couldn't possibly have). One instance was when I got one red potion and one blue potion in the beginning, and the adventurers asked for two red potions straight off the bat. I couldn't possibly have had two of them at that point.

Also, holding an item when the "organize your bag" timer runs out seems to glitch out the whole game:![Screenshot 2025-04-10 163648.png](///raw/f47/21/z/6be32.png)

Overall this was still a very fun (and funny! :grin:) entry!
ToSMaster
10. Apr 2025 · 16:28 UTC
I can just join in with the previous comments. It's a great premisse that I'd like to see explored more! The art style and dynamic music are very well done!
I gotta admit it took me a while to understand how to play, but a great game nonetheless!
Agraffs
10. Apr 2025 · 20:18 UTC
Good idea, the game is fairly original and could be really really good if continued after the jam. GG !
LDJam user 410492
10. Apr 2025 · 23:32 UTC
really cool mechanic! love it!
Ansible
11. Apr 2025 · 07:39 UTC
Really fun! At first I was just trying to push the items up before I read the controls.
Art is beaut and the music loop is nice. Breaking items on drag is a nice touch!
I got to level -9 with a nice profit
Jadener
11. Apr 2025 · 10:29 UTC
Really nice, funny yet simple in concept ^^
Sheepolution
11. Apr 2025 · 19:37 UTC
Lovely game with a nice use of the theme. The extremely long arm is funny, and I like the split view of your bag and you hanging there above the fighting dungeoneers. One complaint I have is that grabbing items is a bit annoying. Either the item is not being grabbed, or it lets go as you move back. I also feel like levels went by a bit too fast. But overall a good game with a nice tune. Great job!
Adam Martin
11. Apr 2025 · 23:42 UTC
Fun graphics and audio, but the grabbing was very tricky to know if I had grabbed something
Jahwffrey
12. Apr 2025 · 03:07 UTC
I really liked this concept but your implementation was janky! It was hard to move items and hard to get them be counted once out of the bag and it eventually broke entirely. I really like your idea though, it's very funny and dynamic and you did get alot of things right.
Sam Minh
13. Apr 2025 · 12:36 UTC
I absolutely adore this game! It is funny and a great idea. The best moments when I needed to go a level deeper into my bag to grab something.
A few parts of feedback: Items seemed to disappear on their own. Not just that they were destroyed, but I go a level deeper and go back up and they are just gone. I also did not like that they could be destroyed. I would have much rather they push each other out of the way or that you can lose hold of them.
The timing windows are very strict, I like the stress to make sure I can get the item in time but I would like more time to complete that task, even if they give me a very bad rating. Failing funnily is better than stopping the task outright.
Lastly I also got a request at some point to get an items I did not have. It might have to do with the bug that sometimes items just seemed to disappear.
Overall great entry, I loved it!
Houmgaor
14. Apr 2025 · 20:11 UTC
Sorry we had a packed week and could not answer all the comments as they were coming. Thanks to all your valuable feedbacks and encouragements, I will answer to some of you, but we read all the posts.

@juutis thanks for the bug description (and the legendary screenshot!) we have managed to reproduce it only once, so we don't what causes it. As it is rare we will leave it as is for now. Let's say that misusing a dimensional bag in overtime causes a space-time collapse :laughing:

@agraffs we actually discuss redoing the game with a better physics engine than Godot's default one, as it is the main cause of issues. So it just *might* happen.

@sheepolution thanks for the valuable feedback! The grabbing stops when there is too much force applied to the item (e. g: it is hitting a wall or many other items). However, Godot's physics engine tend to be a bit unstable, which makes the force to high with the dragging only. So yeah inconvenient bug, but not easy to fix without changing big chunks of code.

@jahwffrey items out of the bags are to be discarded and break :smirk: but thanks for the feedback!

@sam-minh thanks for your comment! Disappearing items are indeed an issue, so the game is not designed to be an infinite loop, and if you get a high enough score you can get the the winning screen (even with the bug). We fixed some bugs that were deleting the items, but some other persist. Bottomless bags are no trivial matter...

Thanks to all your constructive and (mostly) positive returns!
JHax
15. Apr 2025 · 09:50 UTC
Super creative idea, and a lot of fun to play! The presentation of the bag on the left with the actual adventure playing out in miniature on the right is great as well. A little buggy, as other folk have mentioned, but I'd been keen to check back on it in future to play a slightly less buggy version because the core of it is brilliant!
Pythorogus
15. Apr 2025 · 19:12 UTC
Original, fun, very good interpretation of the theme, one of the best games I tested at this jam!
LDJam user 372471
15. Apr 2025 · 21:17 UTC
Great game, great art, great humor. I especially love the hands wandering through the bag :joy:
The idea is really good, fits the theme well. The only downside war figuring out how to grab things with the hand
Color and Form
21. Apr 2025 · 18:32 UTC
mr. fantastic gameplay!