And a Bit About Climbing

I continue to hold that climbing over debris is cooler and scarier than being able to jump over it.

So how, from a design, art, and programming viewpoint, do we make this happen?

I suggest some sort of "attach" key (be it a separate key, mapped onto whatever key "uses" or "picks stuff up," or simply something that happens when you run your character into debris he can't walk over). While "attached," the character can only climb up and down (so we'll need the 'W' and 'S' keys free for this- pick up/use should be remapped to 'R,' and to enter or exit the carriage, the player should just press 'R' as well).

Also while attached, the character's sprite needs to change from two linked sprites (mouse-movable torso and keyboard-controlled legs) to a climbing animation that can be cycled forwards and backwards.

We'll need to figure out what button works best for climbing (I think the 'automatically changes to climbing when the character runs into a climbable obstacle' idea is best, so that the player will be able to carry objects up debris when necessary) as well as how to tell when the character should stop climbing and return to a normal character state.