Hellpet

by rayne
co-authored: @breadley, @coffie, @retonymy
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.68
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.57
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.79
Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.04
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.19
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.45
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.52
They're coming! I'll need to use the forbidden spell to summon a mighty... cute dog?

With great dogs, comes great responsibility. Take care of your hell pet and survive the massive waves of enemies. Feed it, give it something to play with, and give it a bath to remove all that yucky ectoplasm.

​Made for the Ludum Dare 55

@breadley as Art Magician

@retonymy as Particle and Technical Art Conjurer

@coffie as Code Sorcerer

@rayne as Design Wizard

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If it's not loading, try the itch page!
https://matiasparedes.itch.io/ld55

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Tiles by cainos
Music by Shononoki
VFX sprites from Kenney.nl
Sounds from freesounds.org

Comments36

gold.daniel16 Apr 2024, 02:54
Visuals are fantastic, the idea of taking care of a summon with your spells is a unique twist. The audio was missing or bugged for me. I also ran into an issue where I could not walk, but could still cast spells.
JudJudson16 Apr 2024, 02:57
Hi! I think your game embed is broken - we had this issue when we initially uploaded too. If you have "data caching" enabled in your project settings, the embed on ldjam.com probably won't work. In Unity, go to Edit -> Project Settings.
In the project settings window, click the "Player" section on the left side. There's a set of tabs at the bottom half of that menu; click the third one, it should say something about "WebGL" when you do. Data caching and the compression style are in there!
Vantalogic
Vantalogic16 Apr 2024, 02:57
Fun game really great and fun gameplay loop
Tinker117516 Apr 2024, 02:58
The pet himself was very cute, though I found myself struggling to figure out how to get him to fight the enemies. I would die before I could get a couple of combos out to try to see if I could tell him what to do. Not sure if I just didn't understand what I needed to do but still loved the animations and the design of the enemies, the pet and the summoner!
Lopez-Victor16 Apr 2024, 02:59
Fun game original, loved the mood. Biggest problem I had was that the orbs doesnt get absorbed every time and me and the Pet became stuck between.
TavEVIl16 Apr 2024, 03:01
Hellpet is the goodest boy.

I love the concept and the art in this is awesome! Casting abilities feels really satisfying.
Great work!
coffie16 Apr 2024, 03:02
Thanks for playing @gold-daniel. I'm glad you liked the visuals! The art folks are insanely talented.

It's unfortunate that you encountered that bug though. I saw it a few times but couldn't figure out why it happens in time :frowning2:
Pusheeneiro
Pusheeneiro16 Apr 2024, 03:03
A great variation on the Tamagotchi and Summoning theme
coffie16 Apr 2024, 03:05
Thank you very much @judjudson! I'm kicking a new build with those settings. Fingers crossed!

(In the meantime, the game works on itch.io!)
JudJudson16 Apr 2024, 03:10
@coffie I hope that's the problem! I've done the ludum dare twice now and I think *both* times I initially uploaded the build with that setting enabled and PANICKED. It's always nice when the solution is quick and easy :)
Rustywolf16 Apr 2024, 03:13
I love this mechanic, and it doesnt hurt that the dog is super cute either
comigor16 Apr 2024, 03:18
Great idea and execution, congratulations!
Sometimes I got stuck into the energy collectables or in the corner of the screen with the dog.
breadstick
breadstick16 Apr 2024, 03:27
Super polished and pretty game! I love mashing those helldivers-like input combos as enemies creep towards me... lots of great moments as I got slammed around or the dog fell asleep while I was in a corner, boxing me in to my doom.

Great summoning UI--really nicely made!
bearcage
bearcage16 Apr 2024, 03:54
Adorable dog = top marks from me!

This was a fun one, I like the theme and had fun with the spellcasting mechanic. I eventually got myself cornered behind the dog with one baddie too many, and down I went, but I had a blast along the way and got to say the phrase "summon a bath for the dog" which is great.
BenjaminW16 Apr 2024, 06:26
Nice idea. I think the pet could patrol a bit more, very lazy hellpet. I liked the idea of having to remember combos and stuff, fun minigame.
TheKatMol16 Apr 2024, 15:56
Fun game and surprisingly challenging.
Kirass16 Apr 2024, 22:59
I like this game! You guys are great!
MartenJ17 Apr 2024, 10:23
Nice idea with the pentagram summoning magic. A lot of game I saw so far had a pentagram (Ours likewise), but thats the best game so far, that used it in a intresting funny way. And great Artwork!
Personally I would made the player a little bit faster, but maybe I'm just bad gamer :D
coffie17 Apr 2024, 10:57
@martenj Thank you! Both artists in this team are insane.
You know, I feel like the player should be faster too. If we were to fix things in our little game, I'll do that. And a smarter pet! :dog:
Maks Night DLC
Maks Night DLC17 Apr 2024, 12:00
Cool arts and idea, but the dog started attacking me from the start. And this kind of spellcasting is good, but for another kind of game.
Ru_mey17 Apr 2024, 13:02
Fun game and idea! I did have a problem with the orbs, but overall i liked it! And I loved the way you made the pentagram work.
CallMeTy17 Apr 2024, 13:05
A very fun and cute game :) Fun game mechanics and nicely polished. Good job!
LDJam user 147386
LDJam user 14738617 Apr 2024, 13:13
Gorgeous artstyle! Great work :)
At first I got scared when I saw all the numbers and I was like "ohh dang do I have to memorize these...", then you THANKFULLY HAD A SPELL BOOK TYSM
I love the summoning mechanic, wonderful take on the prompt
coffie17 Apr 2024, 13:19
@ru-mey funny thing with the orbs! They work as intended, but you can't collect them if mana is full. This is an issue on our (my) end because we should certainly make more clear why the orbs can't be collected. Certainly something else to add to a post-jam version (if it ever happens!)
isayneigh
isayneigh17 Apr 2024, 13:22
Really love the art style and the concept. Reminds me of my first game at LD46, Slotbot Arena, with the whole mechanic of needing to press keys in the midst of battle (albeit, your art is significantly better haha).

I like the use of numbers for the spells, i think that keeps it simple enough to manage, but not as difficult as typing letters out whilst moving.

I had trouble actually fighting, but i think that's because I suck lol.

Do any of you offer your artistic services freelance? Would be interested one day for some games I have planned in the future. Maybe even our current LD55 game if we were to re-do it.
coffie17 Apr 2024, 13:27
@isayneigh aw thank you! Honestly I suck too. I'm pushing for a post-jam version!
As for the freelancing offer, I pinged the art wizards about it ~
Fuzzy Eddie17 Apr 2024, 23:05
Vibe is cool and the main mechanic is interesting. I kept getting tripped up by the fact that I can't move when the spells are open. I didn't end up finishing.
CourtneyLapin17 Apr 2024, 23:08
Charming lil game. Fun slinging spells while keeping your doggo happy. Altho by the time I got used to the spells, it felt a bit easy. But overall, very nice work!
konstantinreed18 Apr 2024, 06:08
Very pleasant graphics and effects. It would be good to introduce mechanics gradually; dealing with several at once is challenging. Encountered a bug where I couldn't pick up the pluses to increase health. The idea is excellent; I'd love to play a polished version in the future.
Chiara Sanviti
Chiara Sanviti18 Apr 2024, 21:24
The idea was very original, doing combos was fun, but to be honest I'm not very strong with numbers, I would have preferred Wasd or arrows. The loop was a little slow, but still enjoyable
kanity
kanity19 Apr 2024, 20:03
What I really really love is the art. It looks so professional!
The animation is also great. I noted how wizard falls on collision, that's cool ^^

The Web version of LD page feels cropped:

There is no such problem on itch.

I played this entry right after another game, where I had to input arrow keys for spells, so it was a smooth continuation of gameplay for me :D The way I had to stop moving to look in the book to cast the spell made it harder though.

Thankfully my dog destroys everything even while sleeping xD
Wolfier
Wolfier20 Apr 2024, 03:33
We should of summoned a better dog, this boy just wanders around randomly and abandons me to my fate. Maybe you could add in a spell that has him attack everything nearby.

Interesting game, Cerberus is best hell-doggo though.
sami822
sami82220 Apr 2024, 18:19
Very nice game and very pretty graphics!
Brainbetter
Brainbetter21 Apr 2024, 21:57
This game is so cute! I wanted to like my dog even while he was standing around letting me get eaten, or mauling me because I couldn't cast the food spell.

The spellcasting starts out quite tricky for the number of enemies in wave 1; in a post-jam version, I'd love to see a slightly gentler difficulty ramp to ease players in. But still, best doggo.
Galen Skibyak22 Apr 2024, 22:50
A really stylish game with fun mechanics but I did find myself getting stuck between a dog and a hard place a lot of the time. I wish I could use the right keyboard instead of just the one above the keys but they didn't seem to work for me. Overall though, really fun and unique!
LDJam user 273626
LDJam user 2736263 May 2024, 13:00
HE'S SUUUUCH A GOOOOD BOOOOY!!!
Super cute tomigachi simulator with a hellishly fun twist! It had a decent learning curve... HAD to memorize the key combos. But after I got him taken care of, then memorized the blow everything up button... I had enough mana laying around to keep it up. Cycled through bathe, feed, play, then prep the bomb till the spawn. Rinse repeat. Super cute game!

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