Hellgineers
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)
Stay in touch
- Join for free on Patreon for devlogs and behind the scenes!
- Sign up for my newsletter to get the latest info first!
- Follow me on twitter/X for daily updates!
- Join our discord and hang out with other fans!
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 $2.97 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Steam keys available for HellgineersJun 13, 2024
- Hellgineers coming to SteamSep 16, 2023
- Hellgineers 1.3 + Web Demo (again...)Mar 31, 2023
- Hellgineers 1.2Mar 28, 2023
- Hellgineers 1.1Mar 28, 2023
- Web demo up and running!Mar 25, 2023
- Hellgineers is out!Mar 22, 2023
Comments
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Thanks for the Game 😉
thanks for the game! i'll try it out!
No Pico cart?
Cart with source is for patreons only I'm afraid!
Also, not distributing and png cart for this game since it requires mouse to use which most(!) handhelds don't have :D
Hi! We played your game on stream and really enjoyed it!
what a delightful play through! Thank you so much, I had a ton of fun watching!
Looks incredible! Too bad I can't play it on my Miyoo Mini Plus :(
Thanks! Yeah, a lot easier with mouse controls :D
Isn't this just poly bridge in the pico engine?
if all games where you build bridges and test them are “just poly bridge” then yes 😂
I’d like to think that Hellgineers has a few tricks up its sleeve and an aesthetic and tone that makes it stand on its own legs
Nice graphics. The pop up commentary is a nice touch.
Can I play this in Pico-8 or does it run as standalone app?
it is a standalone app!
didn’t this used to be free?
nope, but I sometimes have a demo up
baught this to play it on my lil handheld console. but cant find a .p8 file.. is their a reason? you released your other games in cart form.
Never uploaded the cart due to the fact that the game is mouse/keyboard control. Not playable with just dpad and buttons I'm afraid
The Miyoo Mini supports simulated mouse input! Would really like to play this game on there!
cursed collision ends in broken menu items where you fail and succeed at the same time, allowing for extra menu item to appear allowing you to gif in the workspace
When will we see dlc/sequel? Need moar 10/10 hell bridge game plz
glad you like it! I’m more into making new games than continuing on old ones, did you check out my other stuff?
Bridge game is not the only game in this universe?! And even newer games yet to come?! Unending growth! I will most definitely check out your other projects my dude!
Discovered a glitch where at enough speed you can clip past road...
After it happens, nothing changes about the bridge, still structurally sound.
yeah, there are some limitations to the physics engine. Hence the name of that level - terminal velocity! :)
so fun. good job!
thanks, glad you like it!
do you need to have the pico8 to play?
nope, this game is standalone!
was this made in pico8?
yes, that is correct
Awesome!
just commenting to commit to buying this when i’m money-safe
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.
Hi there, glad to hear you like it!
Not interested in doing any porting atm, but thanks!
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
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.