The world of Ripholes in Rubbish takes place in a sketch book. The player takes the role as a sketched avatar in a magical animated land. Her goal is to find her lost friend, Arky.

Ripholes’ core mechanic is the player’s ability to rip and paste level elements and other game characters. Although the player can move and jump freely, they will not be able to complete all the levels without using their ripping ability.

The game is broken down into different levels, or sketchbooks. These levels are further broken down into pages.

The ripping ability’s first noticeable effect is that it freezes time, allowing the player to rip and paste anywhere within the main screen and within the same page as the avatar. The player has a limit of three ripped objects she can hold in her inventory at any time, and objects can only be pasted once they’ve been ripped into the player’s inventory. Ripping creates a hole that the player can pass through, such as on the page below or a page above if the player is standing underneath it. Ripping in white space will create only a hole, and the blank paper is discarded by the avatar.