Shady Job

Overview

Shady Job is a 1-4 player online co-op physics game from GAZE IN GAMES, the studio behind HELLMART. The pitch: the mafia hired you as construction workers to carry a body bag to the top of an unfinished skyscraper and bury it in concrete. Two problems. You have to build the way up yourself, and the body is not dead. It struggles, escapes, breaks your structures, and shoves players off ledges. Handle it roughly and it gets meaner.

It launched on Steam on September 10, 2026 at $4.95, currently on Patch 1.10.27, which added seamless friend joins through Steam invites, an FOV slider, and a 60 FPS cap. No split-screen exists. Everyone needs their own machine and a voice channel. Runs of the full game take a casual crew two to four hours; 100% achievements is a separate 10-15 hour project.

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Getting Started: The First Session

Run the loop until it's muscle memory

The whole game is one loop: grab, build, climb, bury. Grab the black taped cargo with one designated carrier. Read the site: find cranes, moving platforms, breakable walls and windows before you commit to a span. Path a single floor with short spans, test them without cargo, then move the bag. Climb with the plunger player ahead. Bury in the concrete at the top, keeping a pin on the bag while the last blocks go down.

Treat the first hour as practicing this loop, not touring the cartoon skyline. The landmarks (city view, cranes, the giant golden statue) are orientation aids, not side quests. Call floors by the numbers painted on the walls; official shots show floor 13.

The four callouts, agreed before the first pickup

Voice chat is effectively mandatory because the bag does not wait for typed sentences. Standardize these four words:

"Someone fell" is useless on a skyscraper. "Valentine, Down, statue side" starts a rescue.

Beginner mistakes to avoid

• Dual-carrying "for speed." Two people fighting over the bag is a documented escape trigger. One bag owner, always.
• Building the whole tower while the bag waits. The bag practices kicks on floor one. Never build ahead more than a floor or two.
• Swapping carrier mid-span. Handoffs happen on stable numbered floors only.
• Treating ice as a shortcut. Ice is a stop, not a slide. Path around it.
• Playing without roles. Four people building and zero people watching the bag is the origin story of every wipe.

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Core Mechanics: The Systems Under the Chaos

The bag is the boss, the timer, and the third teammate with no loyalty

The cargo (playtest nickname Punchy Bag) follows consistent rules:

1. Struggles while carried. The carrier's job is keeping their feet on a finished surface, not winning a wrestling clip.
2. Escapes on sloppy grip. Triggers include two people fighting over it, falls interrupting a carry, and using the bag as a ram through windows. An escaped bag is still the objective; it will not wait on your last plank.
3. Breaks structures. A span that holds three workers may not hold three workers plus a thrashing cargo. Builders must assume the bag is a wrecking ball with opinions.
4. Pushes people off ledges. High-rise work plus a shove is a wipe. The plunger lookout exists to watch for this.
5. Gets meaner with rough handling. Slams, yeets, and bouncing it down stairs teach it to fight. Gentle is faster than tough.

The Plunger Gun: Shoot, Pull, Release, Drop

The signature tool has four on-screen prompts and exactly four jobs:

• Shoot fires the cup. Legal targets: unfinished walls, the bag, and teammates about to leave the building. Shooting a wall then walking the line is how you start a climb instead of hoping a jump exists.
• Pull closes distance. Reel yourself to a wall, drag the bag off a drop, or haul a teammate back over a lip. Long Pulls move more than the target: they move the span, the carrier, and anyone watching. Release before the line eats a scaffold.
• Release is the safety. A plunger line can destroy a structure the same way a bad block can. Let go.
• Drop detaches. Use it when the cup is on a doomed plank or the rescue is already on the floor. Drop is not how you discard the bag off floor 13.

Say the prompt words in voice. "I am Pulling" is clearer than "I am using it."

Building: one mistake can destroy the entire structure

Bridges are physics objects. Weight and support are real. The rules that keep spans standing:

• Short spans, supported at both ends.
• Test a new span without cargo before the bag crosses.
• Never let the bag cross a bridge that is already bending.
• Break walls and windows to skip spans; a demolished wall is shorter and safer than a homemade bridge.
• Ride cranes and moving platforms for the vertical gaps. They swing slowly and predictably, which makes them the calmest transport in the game until the bag wriggles mid-lift.

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Progression Strategy: Roles and Party Size

Shady Job ships no classes. The roles are assignments your crew makes so the chaos has an owner, and the right split changes with party size.

• Duo: Player 1 carries. Player 2 builds and holds the gun. Plunger and Builder merge because losing the gun in a duo is losing your spare life. Tower 3 is the difficulty spike.
• Trio: Add a dedicated Plunger who works one floor ahead of the bag, not jogging in the carrier's pocket. A plunger one floor up can Shoot a recovery line before the bag clears the edge.
• Four-stack: Flex becomes a real seat: watching ice thaw timers, fan angles, item slots, and anyone about to step off a plank. The 4-player failure mode is not understaffing; it's everyone being a hero. Flex exists to say no.
• Solo: You are all four jobs. The only viable technique is the hybrid cycle: pin the bag (cup on a wall), place a short path, unpin, walk, repeat. It's slow and honest.

If someone disconnects: collapse back to the duo template immediately, with the builder picking the gun back up. Never leave the bag with a player who is also laying a crane span.

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Builds: Bag-First vs Path-First

Every floor is a choice between two legal strategies. Pick one per floor and don't mix mid-span; mixing is how the bag gets loose.

Path-first (default)

Builder and plunger scout ahead: break a window, ride a crane, place a short span, test it empty. Carrier waits on the last numbered floor with the bag. Move cargo only when Path is called. Slower at the start, faster after the first collapse you didn't have. Mandatory when: ice is on the route, electric hazards are live, drops are long, or the bag is already angry.

Bag-first (situational)

Carrier walks existing structure while the builder places the next two meters. Good on calm cargo and wide slabs, and when you're recovering from an escape and the bag is already ahead of your plan. Dangerous on cantilevers and moving platforms. The test: if you wouldn't stand on it during a shove, it isn't bag-first-complete. If the bag is already struggling, you forfeit the right to experiment.

Hazard adaptations

• Ice: stop, don't slide. Path-first around it. Never Pull a rescue through ice because it looks shorter, and never park the bag on a frozen plank to "keep it still."
• Electric hazards: call them the moment you see them and reroute. A stunned teammate mid-span is a two-person problem.
• Industrial fan: treat the blast zone as a no-walk zone until Flex calls the angle. Props (toilets, barrels) in a fan become projectiles aimed at your knees.

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Step-by-Step: A Full Floor, Done Properly

1. Answer the four questions before anyone moves. Where is the bag? Where is the next slab that can hold it without a heroic jump? What hazard sits between? Who is allowed to move? If the crew can't answer, nobody places a block and nobody yeets cargo.
2. Grab on a numbered floor. One carrier, hands confirmed on the taped cargo. If the bag is already loose, this is escape recovery, not a start.
3. Read the site. Find cranes, moving platforms, breakable walls, painted floor numbers. Thirty seconds of looking saves five minutes of rebuilding.
4. Path one floor. Short spans, tested empty. Then and only then, bag moves.
5. Climb and cover. Plunger Shoots a static wall, not the bag, unless the bag is the emergency. Rescue beats vanity scouting.
6. Handle falls with discipline. Call Down with name and direction. Stop the bag first: a loose bag plus a dangling teammate is how you lose both. One plunger on the person, not three. Shoot, Pull to a ledge, Release if the line starts eating the scaffold, Drop if the cup is on a doomed plank. Builders wait. Extra blocks on a stressed rescue path are how one death becomes three.
7. Bury on the roof. The job ends in concrete, not on a photogenic ledge. Keep a pin on the bag while the last blocks go down. If the bury needs a crane, bag last on, bag first off.
8. When you wipe, restart from the last stable numbered floor. Do not replay the highlight that killed you.

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Advanced Tips

• The bag's aggression is a resource you control. Rough handling is never worth the seconds saved. The crews that finish towers are the ones whose handling is boring.
• Pin before you build. A plunger cup on the bag turns it from an active threat into furniture for exactly as long as the line holds. Every rebuild under a live bag starts with a pin.
• Yank highways: on long vertical floors, the plunger player can pre-place cups at intervals so rescues and bag recoveries chain without repositioning. This is the difference between a 30-second recovery and a two-minute one.
• Props are tools, not litter. Toilets and barrels make ramps, counterweights, and blast shields for the fan. Flex hauls them; nobody kicks them for fun before floor 10.
• The sandwich is in your hotbar for a reason, but bag first. Food items exist and healing matters (the Sandman achievement wants 50 heals). Eat between spans, not mid-span.
• Seamless join changes the mid-run math. Patch 1.10.27 lets a friend drop in through a Steam invite without a lobby restart. When a duo becomes a trio mid-tower, re-assign roles before placing another block.
• 60 FPS cap is a feature. The physics are tuned for it. Don't chase uncapped framerates; the bag's behavior is more consistent at 60.

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FAQ and Common Mistakes

The bag escaped. Do we restart? No. The bag is still the objective wherever it ran. An escape downward is a carry from that floor, not a new questline. Stun it, drag it back, resume from the last numbered floor.

Why does the bag keep getting worse? Rough handling feeds its aggression meter. Slams, throws, and using it as a battering ram all teach it to fight. Carry gently and it stays manageable.

Can we play split-screen? No local split-screen, no couch co-op. Same room still means both players join online with their own clients.

Is matchmaking a thing? No formal matchmaking layer. Lobbies are built on Steam invites, now seamless with 1.10.27. This is a friends-and-voice-chat game.

What actually ends the job? The bag in concrete at the top. Not a ledge, not the statue, not the crane. Concrete.

Best crew size? Four, and the store page says so directly. Trios work with the Plunger seat properly staffed; duos work with merged roles and patience.

Is it worth $4.95? If you have a co-op group and tolerance for physical comedy, it's one of the easiest recommendations at this price on Steam. Family Sharing lets one purchase cover a household test before you buy four copies.

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Verdict

Shady Job is a physics comedy with a genuinely sharp co-op skeleton underneath: role discipline, standardized callouts, and the path-first doctrine turn chaos into completion. Crews that assign a bag owner and keep spans short will clear both levels in an evening. Crews of four heroes will teach Punchy Bag to hate them, which is also a valid way to spend $4.95.