I've played many things and seen many interesting scenarios before on Ludum Dare, but I don't think I've ever leveled up a hamster, so I do have to applaud you on that. It's fun to mash the right key and watch the hamster speed up (did cramp up my hand after a while, yikes!). I'd like to see some variety visually - maybe the hamster can change color, or run around in different environments after a certain amount of distance. One additional question - if the exhausted hamster can just rest for a few seconds and restore his endurance meter, why upgrade endurance at all? In any case, thank you for sharing your game!

I'm kinda blown away how long I played this without stopping, haha. The center bit-crushed GIF sells the entire thing, and honestly the stat juggling / "don't stop" gameplay makes this weirdly fun despite how intentionally simplistic it is. Great job on this theme!


I love your hamsterrrrr

@instanttrain The reason for endurance is that it’s still a penalty in having to wait for the hamster to slow down all the way and wait 2 seconds, not to mention the faster you go, the quicker your endurance is depleted so to get to really fast speeds, you have to upgrade endurance eventually (unless you’re just a button mashing god ;) ). I’m glad you liked it and I hope you port your game to mac or web so I can play it !

Lol, my game also has a hamster wheel.

wow i had the same idea

In a lot of ways this feels like an idle game except that it demands your attention always, there's certainly an interesting graphical direction with the compressed real world image with the sprite drawn over it, perhaps the rest of the screen could be altered to be more in line with that aesthetic?

I found myself wanting to watch the hamster go crazy fast once I got its speed high enough and felt that the mouse controls for the menus took away from my mashing of W and the right arrow to reach max speed, perhaps the upgrades could have been mapped to some button presses when you made enough loops instead of needing to open a window with the mouse, that way the hamster animation is never blocked by anything and if you're still building up speed you no longer need to take your hand off the keyboard to upgrade

I love how easy it is to get sucked into seemingly simple games like this. Even though I'm hardly doing anything, there's something very enjoyable about it all. And I love the hamster gif.

Nice rotoscope style animation!
Yours is my favorite game so far.

Funny coincidence:
Prior to deciding on my own concept, I had debated making a game almost identical to this one...
That is, a game based on leveling up a hamster (with a menu system).

Essentially the only difference in my mind, was that the hamster would earn sponsorships from spoof companies (bubbly cola, speedy beans) to pay for upgrades; also, that there would be a little square dedicated to displaying the hamster's current facial expression (varying levels of intensity).

@kassie-kitsune yeah that is a good idea, i found myself mashing with one hand and trying to navigate to the upgrade panel with the other on the mouse so maybe hotkeys or something

@carson-bentley I’m glad you liked it ! I thought I was doing something wacky but it seems like a lot of people had similar ideas; I’m glad the execution of the idea went well ! Hamster expressions and spoof companies are also cool additions, I just went with keeping it simple this time around

that was so fun and the upgrape mechanic got my grind going, couldn't stop. Great game overall :)

This is shockingly addictive, for as simple as it is. Never in all my years of jamming have I been so focused on simulating a hamster, let alone for fifteen minutes straight, and that is *delightfully* different. The looping bitcrushed-into-oblivion "gif" of the hamster in the foreground speeding up ever-more as you go faster and faster is fantastic, the music sets the tone somehow perfectly, and the constant juggling of stats to try and maximise your runtime and XP gain before getting tired is surprisingly compelling. I have no complaints here - excellent work!

At its core its reminiscent of idle games. Strongest point imo is the unique graphic style you got going. The video with the art over top looks unique and very interesting. I would also move the upgrades from a pop up style menu to buttons underneath each stat so that one can keep going without needing to break the rhythm of play that is what will help retain players.

It makes fun but i can´t say exactly why. Got it to 120 Meters!
At one point the sprite has 5 legs though....

Cool idea!

I think I need a doctor... 5/5

ahah very good idea

good idea)

I quickly got addicted to this, nice and easy to get into and very hard to put back down again. Upgrade cycles seemed nicely timed so I never had to wait too long before upgrading again. Music loop got a little repetitive in the end, but that is no major issue.

Really cool game xD

Nice little game, I liked the intense button mashing. Reminded me a bit of cookie clicker which I also spent way too long on. Good Game!

Nice :)

Never thought I'd try to push a hamster to see just how fast it's tiny little fluffy legs can make him move. But dammit, did I enjoy it! Cool concept and art style.
Run little fluffy buddy, run as fast as you can! :)

It's very entertaining, and fits very well with the theme!

@cliffracerx I’m glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback! I found myself addicted to playing it as well when I should’ve been working on it :)

@unhandyred That’s the highest level I’ve seen so far, even farther than me ! Very impressive 😂

@narffy @vsi @slothinatorgames @loligxp @apfel @bridgeonastick thanks for the feedback!

Pretty original idea, though it gets quite boring kind of quick.

@codehacher123 I wanted to add a tournament mode where you could fight other hamsters in battles of speed, acceleration, and endurance but that was out of the scope for the timeframe. The leveling system also isn’t as addictive to all. Thanks for the feedback !

This is definately an interesting concept for a game, using the image to do the art on top to get the animation was amazing, the idea of trying to balance speed and endurance kept me going for a while so in terms of gameplay I did enjoy this idea.

Definitely had a few moments of "this is my life now"
Simple but addictive game that could get me hooked for a while. Felt as though I owned a tamagotchi again. "Must keep the hamster going!"
Music was entertaining, I never got sick of it but I appreciate adding the mute option in there. Excellent work!

Nice game! The innovation is fun and the actual video of the real hamster wheel is great. I have a hamster and honestly sometimes I think about these ideas!\

Maybe make it an idle kind of game where you can level and autofarm.

@thevideogamester Thanks for your feedback! If I were to update it, I would definitely add a way to upgrade without opening up the menu as it does stop you from playing to open up the menu. You are right.

@skiwee if you upgrade duration enough you could get a to a certain speed and then leave it on idle for a while 😂. But yeah that would be a cool route I could take

@zepapa yeah i definitely had a few times while making it when i was just like, okay I’m really making a game where you level up a hamster this is totally normal

@asimov I know what you’re talking about and the middle ‘leg’ is actually supposed to be the tail, but I completely see where you’re coming from

I just managed a hamster... and as many others above: I enjoyed it! I dig the simplicity and managing/upgrading mechanic, it's a strangely mesmerizing experience altogether.

Many things have been said before, e.g. the clever choice of art over image, which was new to me; I'd also love to have a hotkey/upgrade button as you and @kassie-kitsune mentioned. I was wondering whether it would be possible to frame the game somehow after I read about your tournament idea, maybe sth like story("why am I doing this to this hamster?"), races, managing a team of hamsters, etc. would be worth pursuing for further development? (this experience really got into my head, did I just write "managing a team of hamsters"? :grin: ) Seriously, great job!

@unhandyred: Whaaaat?!? :rofl: :thumbsup:

@nyubi Those are all great ideas ! I’m working on another project called Escape Path which is like a cave adventure where every choice you make impacts the story, but maybe eventually I’ll come back to this !

Nice game! It's pretty simple, but still I like it because it's not just like an idle game. I also liked the little animation of the hamster, it was cute.

I just loved your take on the theme! I managed to last a bit over 9 minutes and travelled a bit over 250m.
There's something hypnotizing about this game. :laughing:

@gamedev-and-architecture @mateusboga thank you ! it definitely gets addictive and keeps you engaged

Why does this game draw me in so? Hard to describe, or even understand why it's so endearing. Is it the crazy rotoscope gif? Or maybe it's the music, which rocks, did you make it, it's perfect, could have used it during the jam to keep me going! Great job!

So this is how it feels to be a hamster, uh ? Cool. It was weirdly addictive haha. How did you managed to get this almost 3D lookish sprite of an hamster ? Did you use a real video or something ? I liked it anyway :)

Cute hamster! Did not find there was any gameplay hook to make me want to keep playing. Animation on the hamster was weirdly slow? for a game about trying to go "as fast as you can". Would like to see all the metrics displayed as part of the gameplay, something about the hamster and the wheel to show how fast is is spinning or accelerating could have gone a long way. Great job!

@eldogg yeah I made the music! I used the online program soundtrap to make it, it’s easy to use but definitely took a while to make the song

@dotsquare yeah my friend took a video of his hamster running on sunday and I took keyframes from it, cropped it, converted it to 128 x 128 pixels, converted it a gif, and then opened the files in pyxel edit and made the hamster animation over it. I used this tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfVidxYIsY by @miziziziz he has some great stuff

@snowinn Oh I see, that’s a very cool technique ! Thanks for the explanation :)

@rhoff95 what browser did you use to play it? It shows the speed on the right side and if you press the right key, you will go faster. The gameplay hook is as you go faster, the hamster will level up and you can see how upgraded the abilities are once you level up and see the various traits such as acceleration. The animation starts out really slow, but you’ve got to smash that right key and it will go faster, even really fast.

@snowinn yes it speeds up, but would have liked some visual effects/feedback rather than numbers. It is also not possible to look at the hamster and the numbers at the same time. In games like sonic where going fast is the goal, you can see the legs blur, sounds change, particles, etc.

I introduced my brother to this. The game is afoot

Fun and simple game. Got to over 1200m total distance. Would be kind of nice if there was some sort of goals to work towards to give you a sense of accomplishment, e.g. some sort of achievements so you can have goals but the game is still open-ended. It's fun just to watch the pixel hamster get faster and faster. I found it funny how intense the music was for a game about a hamster wheel.

@unhandyred I’m so glad you two like it so much ! you’ve gotten further than I even imagined anyone would go 😂 true mvp

@empty-set yeah i just ran out of time unfortunately but definitely a good idea to add greater incentive to keep going further

Good concept, and I love your technique for getting the graphics.
A little more visual feedback and gameplay variety would be nice.

It's a refreshing clicker game! Very fun but also very tiring. There should be an upgradable automation. I like how you used a real image and put pixel art on the hamster. Expand on it and it could become the next thing in the incremental subreddit!

@shaolin-dave @marbles thanks for the feedback!

This is an addictive game. ONE TIP: You could speed up the hamster animation according to the speed for more realistic feel. Great one man

I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection

Really nice game! I loved the animation of the hamster, that was a clever idea but, as others said, I'd love to visually see him speeding up / slowing down - I missed the satisfying feedback. Otherwise, nice game!

Good job :joy:

@tamail what level did you make it to? the problem i’m seeing is that the hamster speeding up or slowing down isn’t as clear during the earlier levels with the low acceleration and speeds, which may add to the confusion people are having. I know I could’ve added more visual effects, but the hamster clearly does speed up and slow down if you upgrade them enough.

You too have a hamster game! Very well executed, though it would be nice to have a bit more challenge.

Love hamster games :D

@mykola @tommy thanks for the feedback!

I probably played more than I should xD I love how you can see the real hamster under the blue one :P

1046 meters with Hamster level 42. Nice game, i love the hamster and the system you created. This can become a nice idle game.

hahahah! this game is brilliant. I love how ridiculous the premise is. 11 hamsters / 10

Really fun, found myself wanting more and more levels haha. Great entry, really unique and simple. Good job.

Nice one :smiley:

This is amazing. I can't believe how long it got me to play for. Well done!

@spyranteros yeah I realized that but I submitted it like a minute before the deadline so oops ;)

@seth-tal thanks, I’m really glad you liked the ridiculous premise, I had no idea if people would like it or think it’s too weird
@jbduenol Nice job! @matthewjd389 @fonics thanks for the feedback! I found myself playtesting it for longer than I should too

Hahaha this was such a funny concept and a blast to play, I got to a few hundred meters but wanted to speed up and lost my endurance a bit too fast to upgrade it :( Very unique take on the theme haha, good job

Well, that was a ridicules premise :D The art was pretty basic but I liked the pumping soundtrack. Kinda fit's the humor of having a rotoscoped hamster in a wheel running into total exhaustion. Game play wise, it felt like a combination of a survival game crossed with a clicker game. Both not my favorite genres in a game jam. So, good call to combine those two to at least try to make something more fresh and fun. My interest did dwindle pretty fast though due to the repetitiveness of the mechanics and possibilities to actually interact with the game. Still, it was fun enough the first time around :) Keep it up!

Yeah @duke I’m not a huge fan of idle games either but I thought I added a little more engagement and I ran out of time for some of the other features I wanted to add in the game, but I like how it turned out. Thanks for the feedback!

This is a good joke ^^ Completely in the theme for sure. It remind me some old games I played on my amstrad cpc464 with which I destroy my joysticks button. I just play enough to see the animation speed up of the hamster. Then more in rythm with the music. Funny.

Haha, pretty funny stuff!

Kinda lacks the depth of clicker games (even though it really isn't even a one). There is a complete lack of any goal to aim for really. If you wanna go for a good single try, only get endurance. If you wanna go far in a long run, balance all the stats. Really basic and void of any strategy.

This was my first sprint.


Obviously would need to also run in the background. A classic trope for idle/clicker games. Actually, weirdly enough it kinda does run even while on an inactive tab but the timing is way slower.

The upgrade menu should be open all the time so the whole UI would need some reordering. Currently the best way to play was to just keep it always open (cause you could still click the speed increase button) which then hid the main focus of the game, the hamster.

So I think it could have been made better by first of all just making it one shot so that you can't do another run (without restarting) if the endurance runs out. Then add way more stuff and attributes that can be bought (varying prices too)! At least a thing that would replenish the used endurance. Maybe something like upgrades to the wheel so it would accumulate "currency" faster. Maybe even bring hydration to the mix. The possibilities are endless!

The control setup also was super awkward too. Having just one key to do the speed increase while everything else was mouse controlled was not great. And made it even worse that the selected key resigned on the right side of the keyboard. Especially bad while playing on laptop.

The color selection could have been improved too. The hamster itself looked fine but the UI didn't really. Pure primary colors on the endurance bar (never a good look) and was that even the default Unity blue on the background? :nauseated_face: Your color selection on the itch page was more harmonious and thousand percent better looking even.

Anyway, good job! :thumbsup:

Haha, what a fun and to the point idea for an idling game :'D

@matootsy @trexxak thanks for the feedback!

@antti-haavikko thanks for all the constructive criticism ! The game can theoretically run in the background if you get your endurance really high and then get it up to a max speed and let it run at the speed for a while (but like you said pretty slow compared to upgrading acceleration or max speed). I like your ideas for new features or making it more like an idle game. I agree with the controls being kind of awkward but I would rather stick with the right key being accelerate and having keyboard shortcuts for the upgrades. It makes it more different than just another clicker game. As you pointed out, the colors look horrible everywhere except for the hamster gif. This was definitely a case of don’t put too much work on the last day. Thanks again !

Nice game! Plays really well and is well thought out, the graphics arent amazing for the UI however, I understand that a time frame of 2 days is very challenging! overall, well done!

@snowinn Yeah it seemed to run in the background, kinda. The time was just ticking much slower than if it was active. And I didn't mean shortcuts for the upgrades but just have the menu be "open" all the time and then the running key could be something more natural like space (or even any key).

@antti-haavikko thanks again for the feedback ! I really enjoyed your snake game

This shouldn't be as fun as it is, but... it's really fun. There's something so satisfying about mashing the right arrow key and watching him speed up and up and up. My best single run was nearly 500m, but I'm sure if I could be bothered to sit there and grind for hours, I could rack up some serious distance.

I concur with those who said that some sort of achievement system would give you more incentive to keep playing. I'd also suggest an autosave system so the user's progress is persistent between gameplay sessions, and you can grind away a bit at a time.

As it is, it's a silly game, but it works. Nice job!

@f1krazy thanks for the feedback! I like the autosave idea, I’ll have to look up how to do that for future projects

You owe me a new right arrow key! On a serious note, this game is very unique and surprisingly fun to play.

@flying-dog-fish hahaha thanks man!


I played this for far longer than I intended. Quite addictive and funny. Music is great, and the virtual hamster is really cool. Surprisingly good game for how simple it is. Good job

Edit: Put a leaderboard in this and you have an instant classic

@kuro I like the leaderboard idea! Thanks for the feedback !

These kind of games is what I love about game jams. They really explore a fundamental thing and completely focus and rely on that. This is super cool in it's simple form. Also really think it's funny how you made the video into the gif for the hamster.

Faster, FASTER. This game really maked my day <3.

https://gyazo.com/fa5f5f77514a0419505299fa7aa4c42b

The only flaw is that if your hamser is really fast the waiting time at the slowing down fase is really long ):

This was really fun! I would have liked to see unique animations as your speed increased rather than just speeding up the animation, and new upgrades that unlock over time. Still, great job!

This ended up being way more addictive than it had any right to be.

I was stuck... in the compulsion loop. *rimshot*

@leon-oost your hamster was zooming!! Nice job! Thanks for the valuable feedback, I did do things to try and make it so it would slow down faster if you had a higher acceleration but I guess I needed more.

This rules!!! I never realized how desperately I needed a hamster simulator in my life!!

 THis is glarf hamburger jr i love him verry much. he proved them all wrong, hamster really can run marathons

@pee-thief @jenny-bourke thanks for playing my game on your stream! that was really awesome!

Oh god the art is great lol, this is just scream how much the game can be simple and just as fun, great Entry! made it to level 29 before giving up

Poor hamster ;)
Although general rules is clear for me, I didn't get the main goal of the game - is this run max distance without stopping? Or maybe just run total distance as far as you can?

I also would suggest some improvements:
- though it's really hard to make cool visual in such game genre, I would like get more graphics feedback from hamster and wheel generally: maybe some effects, working with camera and so on
- there are soo many letters and digits, and it's easy to get confused. I would make speed info as speedometer / some other visual kind of speed representation. Remain cycles to level up can be also converted into something visual, like filling circle image; and so on..

Still, good job!

@dcrdro The final goal isn’t set in stone because the game goes on forever, so you can decide based on what you upgrade if you want to try and become the fastest hamster, or run as long as you can without stopping, or run the longest total distance, etc. Thanks for the suggested improvements, the UI and graphical feedback could definitely use some work

hahaha :smile: Nice game!

1000 hamster levels closer to death

Cool idea, very cute hamster :) I made it to level 60 so far:


@exilegl thank you for posting your score and I’m glad you enjoy the game!

@jasper-hansen OH MY GOSH WHAT?!??! I can’t even believe that anyone would’ve played my game for that long to get to level 1000 😱!! You have truly earned the rank of the Legendary Hamster God. I don’t think anyone’s going to come close to that. Thank you so much for playing and commenting, you are truly the GOAT.

I thought I was doing well until I saw @jasper-hansen do 1k!

Like others said, it'd be cool ( if you continue to develop ) to see

Dial / Bars / Visual things instead of numbers.

The hamster stops / whizzes around the wheel if you let the endurance bar max out, but the ability to slow down should be possible, so it doesn't.

Add a database/leaderboard :smile:


@johnnysix I think you did very well, @jasper-hansen is just something else 😂. Thanks for all the suggestions, I especially like the idea of the hamster going too fast and whizzing around the wheel.

Nice haha. Got my pro strats using both the D key and right arrow to accelerate twice as fast :P

Small nitpick, the synth bass instrument seems to be a little off in terms of quantization/timing, especially when it first kicks in. Everything else seemed fine though, so probably just that one instrument is off.

@ddrkirbyisq Thanks for the feedback! That’s a neat strat too, hadn’t thought of that! :D

Wow, this is a fantastic take on incremental games! The Right Arrow and leveling up encourages the player to stay and play, and the music really makes you feel the intensity of the running. I love how the "play" and "support" itch.io buttons refer to the game as "The Awesomeness"! Thanks for recommending this game to me!

@peace-of-cake-games Thanks for playing ! I’m glad you liked the ‘awesomeness’ :)

@jasper-hansen Foolish mortal! You dare challenge me?

but for real, I spent 2 hours training a fake hamster to break the sound barrier... I need to get a life

@unhandyred @jasper-hansen You guys are the best 😂 2 hours well spent, you have reclaimed your throne

@unhandyred haha, nicely done...

Really funny game :)

I played this way longer than I want to admit. Is the time supposed to reset when you run out of endurance, though?

I was actually thinking about Miziziz(iziz?)'s tutorial when I saw the RL hamster overlaid with the tracing :laughing:

@rubixnoob13 I’m glad you like it! The time is supposed to reset, it’s if you want to keep track of how long you can run without stopping or can be used for things like how fast can you run 1000 m, etc.

Hamster gotta go fast.


Not the first hamster-on-a-wheel game I've played on this jam, yet I continue to be impressed by how different each game with the same concept can be. This one is simple and to the point, but with a lot of value for anyone that wants to get a highscore. I found a lot of satisfaction by constantly leveling up, watching the cute pixelated fellah go faster and faster. The animation was too adorable!

Very engaging experience! Thanks a lot for sharing it around! :whale:

@moski thanks for the kind feedback!

[We played your game on stream over the weekend!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/781046795?t=02h26m36s)

This is a fun little idle game that weirdly felt anything but as I was absolutely ABUSING my right key in order to get up to speed. :smile: I kind of like that there's no fail state, makes it a much more chill experience. Nice job all-around!

@coleslaughter Thanks for playing my game on stream ! The notification of ‘why are you running’ was perfect 😂. The animation is rotoscoping, I got my the idea to make the game from my friend who went a video of their new hamster zooming in the hamster wheel.

Pushed the Hamster to over 100. Mission accomplished! What...? No, didn't play this way too long. What are you talking about? XD

@cedric86 😂 IT’S OVER 100

This game initially made me chuckle at the pure concept of it, but what really got me into it, was the music. Pretty interesting concept I'd say. Good job :)

¸hahahahha great concepthahah but managed to break it with 2 keyboards. Game is really fun , short and sweet. Overall a really nice entry with really innovative take on the boring and stale clicker genre. The small problem I have really is with UI color palette. Maybe you should use some pallete generator for your next game. But overall well done!

@nikolavuk Yeah I was rushed for time at the end (saved too much for the last day oops) and didn’t get to making the UI look good. Thanks for the feedback!