Hellgineers
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Help the minions of the underworld across bubbling pools of lava with rickety bridges and non-regulated constructions. Will you go for the easiest route, or test your skills and aim for the coveted skulls? Return to completed challenges to perfect your builds!
Hellgineers is a content packed game made in PICO-8 with hours of gameplay. Get max rank on all the challenges, or just relax and play around with the fun physics and quirky characters.
Subscribe to my Patreon for more games like this, but cheaper!
Features
- Try your best at 40 challenges of increasing difficulty
- Enjoy easy to use building editor
- Use different materials ranging from roads to hydraulics
- Optimise your builds to get the highest rank on each level
- Record and share gifs of failure and success
- Find your flow to chiptune soundtrack and sound effects
How to play
Build a bridge (or something similar) that safely gets the minions of the underworld to the other side of a chasm . Increase the rank of your construction by staying within budget, or grabbing the tricky-to-get skulls. Different demons require different strategies to solve each challenge - so put your thinking cap on!
Use the mouse to select levels and click buttons.
- build - select a material and use the mouse to add segments to your construction
- move - hold X on the keyboard and use the mouse to move a node
- delete - right click segments to remove them
- look around - hold left mouse button down and move the mouse to pan
- change material - press Q to quickly swap between materials
- copy to clipboard - use the copy button after testing
- paste to editor - ctrl/cmd + V
- options - ENTER to mute music, set volume, etc
Credits
Design/Art/Code: Johan Peitz (@johanpeitz)
Music/Sound: Vav (@VAVMUSICMAGIC)
Font: Somepx (Somepx)
Many thanks to my supporters on Patreon for making it possible to keep making games like this. Subscribers get each game cheaper as soon as it is out (plus source code, early access, and all that jazz)!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3.95 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Hellgineers 1.3 + Web Demo (again...)59 days ago
- Hellgineers 1.262 days ago
- Hellgineers 1.162 days ago
- Web demo up and running!65 days ago
- Hellgineers is out!68 days ago
Comments
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Hey dude, I just want to say that I love your game. I was curious if you'd be interested in porting it over to the Atari VCS? If you're interested, I could give you more information and get you in contact with a few people at Atari.
any chance you'll do that sale again? By the time I finally decided to get it, little demons rose from the depths and carried away the numbers and then laughed at me...
Not sure when, but there’ll be a sale every now and then
MY PROWESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS! HELL HATH NO ENGINEERS LIKE ME!
how do i play the demo?
nvm i bought the game
Amazing game, it’s both silly and complex and I love it ^^
Close to getting blue skull on every level, in the meantime enjoy this fun one :D
keep it up!
satisfying
Hentai sucks, play hellgineers
Hi mate, I'm absolutely loving this so far. Im about 15 in! The only thing I'd mention is I'm having real trouble with the move node command. I don't have my mouse handy, so I'm using the track pad. Dont know if that's a problem, but it's very rare that i can get it to work. I basically just have to delete a node if it's in the wrong place.
Thanks, glad to hear you like it!
The move node is a bit finicky because nodes are stuck to bridge segments who can't exceed their max length. So if a node is sent between segments that are already at max length, it becomes very hard to move. This was discovered a bit late in the process and unfortunately I couldn't really do anything about it. In retrospect I should probably have cut the feature and just relied on deletion.
Ah, I see! Gotcha. Thank you for the explanation. No problem at all. I'll stop trying to use it, haha.
I'd love to know a little bit more about the physics behind it, do you have a write up or anything? I can see how the gravity/ stability works for example but it would be cool to know about what dictates the chord/ rope breaking force. Do you calculate tension or is it more of an impact force?
Sure! Basically I add up how much all connecting segments wants to move a node. Then as a specific threshold it breaks. :)
Nice, I've got you :D Very inspiring, I'd like to try my hand at something similar. Thanks again, and congrats on the release.
Thanks! Verlet integration is really fun to work with. Very straight forward and the results are always entertaining. :D
Here what I based my original code on -- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42609279/how-to-simulate-chain-physics-game-...
Imagine using hydraulics
nice
Great game!
waow
This games great!, just finished all the levels (need to go back and get perfect scores on some of them). I really loved the ghost ones, here's a cool swing I made.
Only thing I would say is that it would be nice to be able to save level designs.
Great solution to that one!
You can save constructions: Hit the copy button after completing a level and then paste into a document.
Then copy paste back into the editor when needed. A bit cumbersome, but it works...
finished every level in the demo with a blue skull! really neat game, will probably buy it when i get some more money :)
well done!
sames
demo was amazing
glitched the game by spamming wood… now i'm stuck in the lava but not dying (never knew I could prevent burning by building a laggy bridge)
+ overlaggy and overly pricey ancient knowledge
kinda scuffed lol
Haha! Great way of solving that one!
interesting and fun game sir, continue with the great job!!!
Barely!
so cool
I never learned the ancient knowledge, but rope bridges work pretty well
Really cool game Music kinda reminds me of doom.
Reminds me off lemmings!
HAHA, a RAMP
Beautiful!
nice game!
very noice
Very cool game love the concept.
an inspired piece of work!
this game is awesome!
Holy hell this is amazing! And it was even made in PICO-8, incredible!
After the 12th level, the stages quickly begin to pick up in difficulty. Before that point it's sort of easy. It gets really frustrating >_<;
In spite of my apparent skill issue, it's still a great game to pick up and play. The bridge physics definitely have weight to it. And the player feedback of having certain parts of the bridge flash and "stress" when the design is slightly faulty is fantastic.
Also, the concept is funny. I explained it to my mom and she told me it was like a fever dream.
Good game! :-)
Great sound!! Awesome game :)
Very good game !
The demo is good! I don't have the money for the full game, but the content of the demo was really nice and the gameplay works well!
Soo cool! I loved the pixel art :3
Thank you very much for the raspberry pi build! All the best for you and I hope your game sells like hot cakes!
Played a few levels on a pi 400. So far, so good ;)
Very fun, highly recommended.
I love it! The graphics and music are amazing, I love how the bridges bend and buckle before they break :)
Thanks! <3
you ought to have aestus in the ablative, and I'm not really sure if the historical infinitive is what you were going for even though the subject-deponent verb agreement is theoretically correct
words can't describe the wonder this game truly is, enjoy the gif
what a wonderful collapse!