A quick update for those who don’t follow my discord or devstreams.

If the public alpha has taught me anything, Little Hellions needs online play. Like ~ good online play. From it’s necessity during the height of the pandemic, to simply bringing players together, it couldn’t be clearer.

But such a change is a massive undertaking, and why I have been noncommittal up until now. In order to make it happen, a complete overhaul of architecture will have to occur ~ and until recently that simply wasn’t possible for a solo developer like myself. But possibilities are opening up. Currently, I’m exploring Platform Fighter Engine; a framework built for Game Maker, the engine Little Hellions already uses. PFE has built-in rollback netcode and a litany of quality of life features. It’s a promising avenue since I wouldn’t have to switch engines!

I am currently pursuing external funding in order to support this change, be it finding a publisher, applying for grants and so on. Normally devs don’t share this sort of information, there’s a lot of inside baseball to it, but I think transparency is important in this case as ~for the time being~ updates for the current version of Little Hellions will slow down as I pursue these avenues.

I apologize that Little Hellions continues to be a slow production, but I truly believe it in the best interest of the game in the long term. Couch multiplayer ~as much as I don’t want it to be~ isn’t really a thing anymore. Of course, all versions of the game going forward will still support it, but I want to make the game accessible to anyone who is willing to give a try, even if they don’t have friends close by to play it with.

Nonetheless, thank you for supporting Little Hellions and drop a comment if you have any questions!

Until next time, Bomb Pig loves you! ❤️

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STABBY STABBY STABBY!

Professor Onion here, from Torment Labs ~reporting division~ part of the Schadenfreude network.

Today we are proud to announce the reopening of Stabbyland, which was closed for a time after rides were found passing inspection. Although it’s rollout will be a step-by-step process ~as many things are in the Underworld~ we hope you enjoy the available attractions for the time being. Attraction. One attraction. You’ll love it.

I’m looking for a publisher! Namely to help implement highly requested features, ie online multiplayer. I’m not making any promises but that’s the intention. It’s a laborious and time consuming process however, so information will become available as things develop! Please bare in mind I must remain relatively straight lipped about it for ~ya know~ legal reasons and stuff.

As for the rest of the update, my primary focus was to make gameplay more readable with various visual cues to help convey what’s going. Please provide feedback if there are elements of the game that remain difficult to parse visually!

📝Patch notes

Content

– Stabbyland added!
– New stage, “Clowning Around”.
– Swinging iron maiden trap type added. Jump-on or throw to make it swing around.

Visuals

– Shape language! Object types share simple shape silhouettes. Players are circles, shielding players are diamonds, and eventually candies will also have a shape (once I settle on one). What’s going on should be more interpretable at a glance.
– Dreadnoodle environment overhaul! Tileset completely revised. Background animations and visual effects added. (This is very close to the final version, the only thing to be added is the rest of the band.)

UI

– Offscreen players are indicated.
– Opponent throw direction is indicated upon charging a throw.
– Visual error addressed where the wrong charge bar color would be displayed occasionally.

Alright, back to the lab again, Bombpig loves you! ~ ❤

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Professor Onion here! Reporting from Torment Labs ~ a division of the Schadenfreude network.

First update with new content for a bit (rather than quality of life fixes) I’m looking forward to making that the case going forward. The new stage, ‘Just Pull For it’, is all about grabbing grapple points to move the trap around the level. I think it turned out pretty good! Lemme know what you think.

📝Patch notes

Onboarding

– I’m in the game! I give a quick primer for new players after character selection.
– Starting the Hellevator requires using it’s grapple-point. No more jumping in by mistake.

Stages

– New stage, Just Pull For It!
– Get To The Chopper removed (it was retooled into Edge Lords in the previous update).
– Pressing Affairs renamed to Locomotion. Narrow & Marrow renamed to Pressing Affairs.
– Geometry adjusted in Pressing Affairs.
– Platforms added to Hot & Bothered.
– Bone Yard stages sorted by difficulty.

Items

– The Wrecking Ball is now the Iron Maiden, look at this goober.
– Iron maidens rebound off the edge of the screen rather than wrapping.
– Item drop chances adjusted.

Visuals

– Trick-hooks are shown as long as they’re active. You’ll be able to turn this off in the options in a future update.

That’s it this time, Bomb Pig loves you! ~ ❤

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Professor Onion here. Gonna be brief with this one, I gotta eat BABY.

Your quality of life is going up! Check the patch notes below to see how. Additionally, there is an updated version of the demo, give it a try if you wanna give the game a spin (dunno why you’re reading this if that’s the case but hey I see you).

📝Patch notes

Input

– Keyboard + mouse support added!
– Pretty much all controller types supported.
– Completely revised control remapper.

Quality of life

– Players may drop out during character select.

Stages

– Removed ‘The Pit’ cuz it sucked, added ‘Edge Lords’.
– Schadenfreude stages reordered.

Visuals

– Players numbers are always displayed for increased readability.
– Adding post processing effects for lava & water. Not all of it is in there yet.
– Flippers are a little juicier to interact with.

Bugs

– Removed some crashes, don’t worry about it.

That’s it this time, Bomb Pig loves you! ~ ❤

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Patch notes

Features

– Added an in-game version of the LAB REPORT. Viewable on the hellevator.
– Improved PS4 & PS5 controller support. Please report any issues you find with older controllers.
– Improved usability of controller remapper.

Interface

– Simplified main menu tooltips.
– Updated hellevator interface elements.

Bugs

– Removed a crash triggered by power throwing a grapple point.

That’s it this time, Bomb Pig loves you! ~ ❤

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Hi everyone, Professor Onion reporting.

Little Hellions has finally launched in Early Access, ain’t that a thing. While it’s been a long road since development started in 2015, there’s still much to do before the game reaches 1.0. Bombpig and I will certainly be busy over the coming months so I’d like to outline what you may expect going forward.

Content & update schedule

Little Hellions will receive updates early each month up to 1.0. Patch notes or “Lab Reports” will publish here with content highlights, as well as gestures toward what may be in the next patch. Hotfixes may push early for particularly egregious bugs, but for the most part bug fixes will be rolled into the monthly updates.

Coming up

In-game Lab Reports

Lab Reports will be accessible in-game so you don’t even need to leave the Hellevator to hear what’s new. They’ll also include cute little anecdotes among other things.

More levels

Currently the level list for the Bone Yard (world 2) and Dread Noodle (world 4) are incomplete. I’d like to finish these up before tackling Stabbyland (world 3), which is currently not in the game. Were world 2 and 4 completed, the game would have 18 arenas as of the next update

That’s all for now everyone, Bombpig loves you! ~ ❤

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A new trailer has been released as part of 2022’s Gamedevs of Color Expo Direct.

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Congratulations to all the devs who participated ~ making games is hard ~ and thanks to everyone who came out to support us!

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Little Hellions is a competitive four player arena battler with a twist ~ players can’t attack. Instead players can “hex” one another, that is, trade places instantly. With enough spatial awareness and sharp timing, players can evade deadly traps while swapping opponents to their doom. The last one alive is the victor!

Trailer below.

Little Hellions is our first commercial project and has been in development since 2015. It’ll be available ~ when it’s ready. If you want to keep up, you’re already in the right place. Stay tuned for further development news as it comes. 🖤

For our presskit, look no further.

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