The Plumber Thing
A downloadable meat chunk for Windows
A horror puzzle metroidvania where you guide a plumber looking for a reported leak deep underground in the Myceline Monarchy, Brooklyn, NY. Find the leak, fix it, and return to the surface!
Made for the Click-or-Treat Halloween bundle:https://twitter.com/halloweenbundle
Controls (Mouse + Keyboard only atm):
A/D - move
Space - jump
Esc - toggle pause/map view
R - respawn from last checkpoint
E - toggle edit mode
Left mouse button - adjust design in edit mode
Enter/Control - confirm design in edit mode
WARNING! Contains:
- Body horror
- Gruesome elements like blood
- Arachnid-like creature designs
Made using Multimedia Fusion 2 by Clickteam.
Purchase
In order to download this meat chunk you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
Comments
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i know this game is a bit old, but i just found this game a few weeks ago and had fun with my first playthrough. there's a problem with your save erase function, it doesn't clear the coin flags so any coins you had collected stay collected when you restart the game on that slot after "deleting" it.
had to go hunt down the save file location and delete it manually :(
Wow, this is actually an incredible game. I mean it is funny, but the mechanics are really good and the puzzle are designed well. The ending screen made me laugh extremely hard. I was absolutely not expecting that reference but it's perfect.
Definitely going to go around and collect everything; the self-modification mechanics are really fun to mess around with. ^-^ super cronenberg bros
I'm at my wit's end here and consulting videos to try to progress.
In this video the uploader collects girth powerups at the 1:48:21 and 2:36:13 marks and ends up with 18 girth. I've collected each of these and am only at 16 girth, and I'm at a complete loss as to how to progress. Are puzzles like the red button lock gate at the start of the blue area (3:03:53) possible with 16 girth? Is there another girth powerup that's currently accessible with some combination of walk/jump/eat/stick?
Any advice would be helpful.
https://imgur.com/a/ECxPyD9
Here's my current map.
I've nerfed the amount of girth you can get because girth ended up being a *really* powerful upgrade that trivialized some puzzles. The game has been balanced so that you shouldn't need more than 14 girth to get everything; however, that particular blue room was initially set up badly (and the layout seen on the AuthorBlues video is the old, bad layout); there should be more vertical space for maneuvering there.
However, there's also a semi-unintended trick for that specific room - once you enter, the golden teleport activates, so you can teleport to it and skip this particular puzzle. It's not the intended solution but might save some frustration.
Is the blue room in question solvable with 14<=girth<=16 and the walk/jump/bite/stick powerups, or do I need to look elsewhere to progress? To be direct, when trying to deduce the necessary steps for solving this puzzle with 14<=girth<=16 girth and only these powerups, the puzzle seems impossible.
That the old layout had to be changed to be three tiles high makes me strongly suspect what the intended solution is here, but with the constraints of a 2x3 body layout, I simply can't see how this is doable without the delete powerup. After scanning videos to determine where to get delete, this seems like the bottleneck I'm going to have to surmount, which creates an unsolvable problem (if I am correct).
I'm aware that I could be making some flawed assumptions that have lead to incorrect conclusions, but at this point I'd like to be told explicitly whether this is solvable with what I have. Discounting speedruns, which I don't want to watch because their times suggest they feature game-breaking exploits, every upload of this game I've found (I've scanned through every playthrough I could find) solves this room either by abusing girth or the teleportation room mechanic.
Gonna be honest: this game reminds me a LOT of BOXBOY! and the other games in that series. I loved those games so this one was pretty fun!
Definitely confusing, but made it through eventually! 44% completion, managed to make it with probably less than I should have had. 14 limit and the four main upgrade parts.
Thanks for the fun game!
I'm stuck after getting the first upgrade (legs). I can't figure out how to get to the destination on the map. The red section is blocked and I can't progress any further right than the screen where you get the legs. Is there something I'm missing about the legs that would allow me to walk through a one-tile-high space?
Okay, made it to the purple area, but I can't figure out how to progress. Got a few coins, but I can't figure out how to go beyond the teleporter or above the central column.
I feel this would be better as a linear puzzle game instead of a Metroidvania. I discussed this whenI reviewed Antichamber, a game that did a similar thing: A Metroidvania is based around seeing a barrier and recognizing you can't pass it until later, but puzzle games, by their nature, obscure whether you lack a necessary upgrade or just aren't smart enough to figure out the puzzle; the question of whether you can pass the barrier isn't obvious. This potentially leads players to ignore solvable puzzles because they think they lack the means to solve it while futilely bashing their head against a puzzle that is impossible.
The only "Puzzle Metroidvania" I've seen successfully pull this off is Toki Tori 2, which did it by having no formal Metroidvania upgrades or hard barriers; the only barrier to going off the beaten path is your ignorance of the puzzle mechanics. But if you're replaying the game or are very clever, you can sequence break anywhere you like.
Have you played La Mulana 1 +2 or Environmental Station Alpha? Those are some of the best games ever made imo and are puzzle metroidvanias. Puzzles in metroidvanias can often double as "secrets" which really makes things interesting- especially when they involve lore, world structure, or map knowledge as a part of the the puzzle.
Hey,
The game seems to be completely broken on Steam Deck. No matter which resolution I choose in compatibility settings, the screen is severely clipped. I manage to check "Full Screen" in the pause menu, but it only works temporarily, until the next restart, then the clipping is even worse. Secondly, controller mode is fucked. The game barely recognizes button presses, and when it does they seem to be inverted? I push left on the Dpad and I walk right, for example. Secondly, when I use the K&M setup, Edit mode doesn't work properly, I tried mapping left mouse click in every different way, but nothing happens.
Was really looking forward to play this, but in this shape, it's unplayable on SD.
Edit: regarding the Edit mode issue: it seems the "hitbox" of the cursor is broken for me, only the lower left edge is actually recognized
Ah; I hadn't considered how the game'd behave on the SD because it's not on Steam. Thanks for the report! I have some suspicions as to what causes the issues you're experiencing (apart from the gamepad issues); unfortunately I'll be away from home due to holidays but once I get back, I'll see if I can fix those clipping problems.
I have conflicting feelings with the game. It starts hard, but at some point just becomes easy, also I'm not a big puzzle fan, a friend gifted the game to me. In the end, I think it's an ok game that is a little rough around the edges. Maybe some people that love puzzle heavy games are going to love it. 
Great game! Here's some UI suggestions:
- Adding more hotkeys, ex: C or Spacebar to confirm, Esc or E to close, G to toggle the grid, and the number keys for selecting upgrade types.
- Selecting E from the Esc menu switches to edit mode.
- Scroll wheel to cycle between upgrade types.
- Click-dragging from blue squares to the edge to preview an upgrade, and then releasing to apply upgrades, or maybe adding the WASD keys to apply upgrades?
- Basically it would be nice if I didn't have to move the mouse around the whole screen to do edits.
I've no idea what the official rating for this would be, but the game contains splattering blood, body horror (including spider-like transformations), meaty squelching and such. It's very cartoonish in style, but especially the sound design has been too uncomfortable for some, so do consider this before buying.
One of the coolest games I've played this year so far, really interesting and flexible main mechanic explored to surprising depths. I'm not the biggest puzzle fan and generally not very good at them, but this one was just the right difficulty for me and I love how there are multiple solutions to many of the challenges.
I had a similar issue with this as I had with ESA, which is constantly running into dead ends after clearing several rooms and then having to go back having found nothing of use, something that hinders the joy of exploration I usually get from good metroidvanias. It's a bit different here because there's a lot of puzzles that require creative thinking, meaning it's often hard to tell which ones are solvable and which ones are outright impossible until I come back with the necessary upgrades. I was also not always sure if my solution is intended or a cheese, e.g. using the momentum from walking which carries over for a bit after entering and exiting edit mode.
Overall it's a bit rough around the edges, I assume due to time constraints, but for something made for a small Itch bundle I didn't expect to spend a good 5 hours on it and have such a good time.
Can you add save data management? I wanted to erase a save file to make a new one and i had to look through all my folders then so i could delete it manually.
Other than that though it was a wonderful experience, as you can probably tell from the fact that i want more than 3 total saves lol. Great job :)
"- MAJOR FIX: The top-right corner of the map had been rendered pretty much inaccessible by accident"
Ahh, not going insane.
One very small nitpick is that I think the jump upgrade could have a more distinct button. I sometimes used it when I actually wanted to use the legs, although I've gotten more used to it by now.
I'm sure you've noticed, but the metroidvania aspect can make it hard to tell whether a certain powerup is required or I just need to try harder. Although the only time I've felt stuck (aside from trying to get to the top-right corner) was before getting the sticky upgrade, ended up doing something similar to hotfist's clip. On the other hand, now that I have some size upgrades, I've run into the opposite issue. It feels like I'm cheesing puzzles that were supposed to be harder, because I can often just build a path directly to the checkpoint or coin.
Other than that, it's great. Haven't beaten it yet but it feels like I'm approaching the endgame.
Yeah, I've noted the jump/walk buttons being a bit annoying like that; same for the lack of progression indicators. Thanks for the feedback!
As for the size upgrades, I've noticed the same issue. In general I don't *mind* the player being able to cheese some puzzles, but with full powerup set it gets a bit much. I'll probably try to either find a way to disallow that via puzzle design or tweak the numbers in a later update.
The combination of body horror, mario and metroid is absolutely amazing, and the title screen was such a great gag.
Some feedback - It's REALLY easy to press R by accident. I'm guessing you don't want to add remappable controls or controller support, but maybe add a "long press" for R to respawn - could even have mario vibrate for a sec before he pops while you hold it as a little warning and it could look really hilarious.
The menu never moves from the top left, so this can occasionally make it extremely difficult to work your way up into the top left.
WASD is sort of supported for moving out parts in edit mode, but it seems especially in the early game to lose the cursor and this confused the heck out of me at first as I was just trying to use the keyboard or controller with keyboard keys mapped to it.
I was able to squeeze through this gap in the green area -
https://clips.twitch.tv/MistyStormyAubergineCorgiDerp-I0vdKdNfV7IiDZOi
I have no idea if this was cheese or intended, but if it's cheese I have NO IDEA where I was supposed to go. I feel like I've been able to proceed normally from here, though, but that power up down there, sticky, keeps respawning.
Overall experience was just amazing though. I'm having so much fun with it, and excited to finish it. I'm still kind of awestruck that somehow this combination of my favorite things - body horror, mario and metroid exists and was made by the creator of my favorite game ever and was just so goddamn fun.
Thanks a lot for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it!
For the controls suggestions, my initial plan was to have support for keyboard-only & gamepad input, but dropped those plans due to lack of time. My intention at the moment is to return to those features once I've rested a bit from the development, though. The WASD input you mentioned in Edit Mode is leftovers from this attempt to support non-mouse input, just left unfinished.
The route shown in the clip is indeed unintended, but in a way I'm glad it works because the game as it is lacks any guideposting so it's probably fairly easy not to know whether a given approach is correct or not. I might try to help with this a bit with later updates. The respawning powerup is definitely a bug, though; whoops.
Two questions:
1. Which resolution did you use in Compatibility? Everything I tried was - like you said - clipped. I managed to check the Fullscreen option in-game, but on the next start up, it was clipped even worse.
2. How did you manage Edit mode? No matter what I tried, the game didn't register the mouse clicks. If I choose gamepad mode at start up, the controls barely work and seem to be inverted?! Pressing right makes me walk left for example.
0) I've been playing version 1.4.1 of the game, if all else fails, maybe try downloading that earlier version?
1) I have it set to 1920x1080, and I have the "Set resolution fo internal and external displays" option checked. I don't even see a full-screen option in-game?
2) I've just been playing by mapping the steam deck controls to keyboard + mouse. There was no gamepad support for the version of the game I was playing.
---
So I downloaded the latest version to play with it. Looks like gamepad support is, indeed, totally borked. Left stick down works, left stick right is left, and up and left do nothing at all, haha. Restarted the game, disabled gamepad input. Controls as follows:
Set dpad/left stick to WASD for movement
Start = E for edit mode
Select = Escape for map
A = space for jump
B button = R for restart
Right stick = mouse, R2 for left click
Just gotta' use keyboard + mosue control mapping and it seems to work fine still. And try unchecking the full screen box. You might have to launch the game in desktop mode if it's off-screen. Good luck friend!
