LudumData

HatchLink - Your Pocket Pet Friend by SiENcE

[raw]
made by SiENcE for Ludum Dare 57 (EXTRA)

HatchLink: Your Tiny Digital Friend

Screenshot 2025-04-10 013044.png

What is HatchLink?

HatchLink is a delightful self-contained digital pet simulation that fits entirely in a shareable link. It's like having a little friend that lives right in your browser, waiting for your tender care and attention.

How It Works

The coolest thing about HatchLink is that the entire game - including your pet's current state - is embedded in the link itself!

Tap the Share your HatchLink button and share this via message, email, or any other method, and your friend can paste it into their browser's address bar to welcome a clone of your pet into their care.

Have Fun!

Take good care of your digital pet and watch it grow through the different evolutionary stages. Remember that your care quality determines how well your pet develops, so keep those stats up!

Visit HatchLink Nest home for more information!!

Link https://crankgaming.itch.io/hatchlink
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/hatchlink-your-pocket-pet-friend

Ratings

Given 12🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

ToSMaster
10. Apr 2025 · 15:22 UTC
This game is technically impressive. I assume it's not done in a "traditional" engine, rather some webpage to embed? The idea of an interactive LD page would be intriguing to see more of.
An interesting take on the theme. A four hour game sure is a bold move in a jam.
muriel
10. Apr 2025 · 22:18 UTC
I really like this type of games, well done !!!!
Flying Dog Fish
10. Apr 2025 · 22:21 UTC
This is a very interesting concept but not much of a game. You're not seriously expecting people to play this for four hours just to get the egg hatched?
oxnh
10. Apr 2025 · 22:24 UTC
Very cool idea being able to share the games state with a link. The timers seem to run out too quickly for such a long game. Even though the shareable links is a pretty important feature I feel like this type of game would be better suited to be something you can have running in a designated window on your OS. Like that farming game which runs at the bottom of your screen. It wouldn't be on the web anymore, but I'm assuming all the logic to encode and decode the state of the egg/pet would still work. Also this is totally my fault but I couldn't see any of the special characters, guess I needed the font installed on my system. So yeah interesting tech demo but I'm sorry I don't have the patience to keep this thing alive.
🎤 SiENcE
10. Apr 2025 · 22:25 UTC
It's an idle game.
Defrag
10. Apr 2025 · 22:35 UTC
I'm intrigued by the thought of sharing my little dude with friends, but I felt like the game moved rather slowly while still requiring pretty constant input. I was away for what felt like 5 minutes and by then my egg had died. Is there a way to speed up the development? Or is there a way to meet the egg's needs in a longer-term manner?
toreskovic
10. Apr 2025 · 23:04 UTC
Neat idea to have the entire game contained in a shareable link. Not sure if it's just my browser or if the game is slower-paced but I had it open for about half an hour and the evolution progress bar didn't seem to move for me.
🎤 SiENcE
10. Apr 2025 · 23:09 UTC
It takes 4hours overall. Sorry 🙈
Butterflan
13. Apr 2025 · 11:15 UTC
Okay I'm so sorry, I just don't feel like it's a game at all. Neither the link with the jam. It's really reaaaaaally slow.
Really, sorry.
🎤 SiENcE
13. Apr 2025 · 12:19 UTC
Jam? Thats why it’s „Extra“ Category.

Cheers
Skyeward
13. Apr 2025 · 12:51 UTC
The balancing is fun, and I liked the fact that the interactions change when you get to a new stage. Being able to share via a link is also a cool thing to include. The timer feels way too slow to me though, you have to wait a long time and you don't get a massive pay off for each stage.

Some suggestions:
- Make the timers shorter (like 1 min per stage tops)
- Don't show all the stages on the bar, then when you do evolve to a new stage you're getting a surprise/new art which is more of a pay off
- Variable evolutions? This is a bit more complicated, but it would be cool if I could make decisions which affect what type of creature it grows into
LDJam user 221097
13. Apr 2025 · 17:38 UTC
Ooh, it's interesting to see this kind of 'out of the box thinking' entry. And it's very cute!
Turquoise Moon
14. Apr 2025 · 21:10 UTC
I like the idea! Maybe there could be a mini game to play with your pet that speeds up the time when you do well? That would help the wait time and make it more interactive.
Ammonit
16. Apr 2025 · 11:28 UTC
Ohh, I really missed the egg-hatching animation and such. But overall, it turned out to be an engaging and captivating thing!
Static_Leap_Studios
21. Apr 2025 · 17:20 UTC
Cute and innovative! I figured out how to get past stage one and stack modifiers by sharing the link with myself, but couldn't move the chick to the next stage.
Daniel Alhadeff
21. Apr 2025 · 23:08 UTC
Really cool game! I've been waiting someone to make a tamagotchi style game for LD - love the execution.