How to make a pet system in roblox studio is one of those things that every developer wants to figure out eventually. Whether you're building a simulator, an RPG, or just a hangout spot, pets add that extra layer of personality and progression that keeps players coming back. Let's be real—seeing a tiny cube with a cat face floating behind you just makes the game feel more complete.
The good news is that you don't need to be a math genius or a master scripter to get a basic system running. Sure, you could get really fancy with pathfinding and physics, but for most games, a simple "follow" mechanic is all you need. In this guide, we're going to break down how to get your first pet following a player without it glitching out or flying off into the void.
Getting Your Pet Model Ready
Before we touch a single line of code, we need something that actually looks like a pet. If you're just starting out, don't worry about making a high-poly 3D masterpiece in Blender. A simple Part will do just fine for testing.
- Open up your workspace and insert a Part.
- Resize it to something small, like a 2x2x2 cube.
- Rename this part to "Handle."
- Group it into a Model and name the model "BasicPet."
One thing you absolutely have to remember: Make sure the part is NOT anchored. If your pet is anchored, it'll just sit at the spawn point while your player runs away. Also, turn off CanCollide on the pet's parts. If you leave it on, the pet might bump into the player, causing some weird physics glitches where your character starts flying or spinning uncontrollably. Trust me, it's a headache you don't want.
The Secret Sauce: AlignPosition and AlignOrientation
Back in the day, we used to use things like BodyPosition and BodyGyro. They worked, but they're officially "deprecated" now, which is just a fancy way of saying they're old and Roblox has better tools for us. Nowadays, we use Constraints. Specifically, AlignPosition and AlignOrientation.
These two constraints are basically what tell the pet "stay at this specific spot near the player" and "face the same direction as the player." It makes the movement look a lot smoother and less robotic.
To make this work, we need two "Attachments." One will go inside your pet's Handle, and the other will be created inside the player's character when they spawn. The pet will constantly try to match the position of the player's attachment.
Scripting the Follow Logic
Now we're getting into the fun stuff. We need a script that handles what happens when a player wants to "equip" a pet. For the sake of simplicity, let's make a script that gives the player a pet as soon as they join the game.
You'll want to put a Server Script inside ServerScriptService. Here's the logic we're going for:
First, we wait for the player to load in. Then, we find their character. Once we have the character, we clone our pet from ReplicatedStorage (make sure you put your pet model there!) and put it in the workspace.
Here's a rough idea of how the code should look:
```lua game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player) player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character) local rootPart = character:WaitForChild("HumanoidRootPart")
-- Clone the pet local pet = game.ReplicatedStorage.BasicPet:Clone() pet.Parent = workspace pet:SetPrimaryPartCFrame(rootPart.CFrame) -- Setup the attachments local attachmentCharacter = Instance.new("Attachment") attachmentCharacter.Visible = false attachmentCharacter.Parent = rootPart attachmentCharacter.Position = Vector3.new(3, 2, 3) -- This offset puts the pet behind and to the side local attachmentPet = Instance.new("Attachment") attachmentPet.Parent = pet.PrimaryPart -- Add the constraints local alignPos = Instance.new("AlignPosition") alignPos.Attachment0 = attachmentPet alignPos.Attachment1 = attachmentCharacter alignPos.MaxForce = 20000 alignPos.Responsiveness = 15 alignPos.Parent = pet local alignOri = Instance.new("AlignOrientation") alignOri.Attachment0 = attachmentPet alignOri.Attachment1 = attachmentCharacter alignOri.MaxTorque = 20000 alignOri.Responsiveness = 15 alignOri.Parent = pet end) end) ```
Notice the Vector3.new(3, 2, 3)? That's the offset. If you leave it at 0, 0, 0, the pet will try to occupy the exact same space as your player's torso, which looks messy. By playing with these numbers, you can make the pet hover over their shoulder or follow closely behind their heels.
Making the Pet Feel Alive
If the pet just slides around like a static brick, it's going to feel a bit boring. You want it to have some "juice." A quick way to do this without complex animations is to add a little bobbing motion.
You can do this by updating the attachmentCharacter.Position inside a loop using a sine wave. It sounds math-heavy, but it's really just one line of code. Using math.sin(tick()) will give you a smooth up-and-down value that repeats. If you apply that to the Y-axis of your attachment, your pet will gently hover up and down as it follows you. It's a tiny detail, but it makes a huge difference in how the pet feels to the player.
Handling Multiple Pets
Eventually, you're not going to want just one pet. You'll want a whole inventory system where players can equip three or four at a time. When you get to that stage, you'll need to adjust the offset for each pet.
Instead of a hardcoded Vector3.new(3, 2, 3), you might have an array of positions. For example, pet #1 goes to the right, pet #2 goes to the left, and pet #3 floats directly above. You'd just loop through the player's "EquippedPets" folder and assign each one its designated spot.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
When you're figuring out how to make a pet system in roblox studio, you're going to run into bugs. It's just part of the process. Here are the big ones I see all the time:
- The Pet is heavy: If your pet model is massive, it might actually drag the player down or tilt them over. You can fix this by making all the parts in the pet Massless (there's a checkbox for this in the Properties window).
- The Pet disappears: If you're cloning it on the client (in a LocalScript), other players won't be able to see it. Always handle the actual spawning and physics on the Server, even if you use a LocalScript to trigger the "Equip" button via a RemoteEvent.
- The "Flying Player" glitch: I mentioned this earlier, but seriously—check your collisions. If the pet's Handle has
CanCollideset to true, it will push the player. Since the pet is trying to move toward the player and the player is being pushed by the pet, you get a feedback loop that usually ends with the player launching into the stratosphere.
Taking it to the Next Level
Once you've got the basic movement down, the sky's the limit. You could add a leveling system where the pet grows larger as it gains XP. You could add particle effects that trail behind it. You could even script it so the pet plays a specific animation when the player stands still.
The inventory system is usually the next big step. You'll need a way to save which pets the player owns using DataStores. That way, when they leave and come back, their hard-earned Dragon or Mega-Neon Cat is still there waiting for them.
Creating a pet system is definitely a rite of passage for Roblox devs. It combines modeling, CFrame logic, constraints, and server-client communication. It might feel a bit overwhelming at first, but once you see that little cube successfully chasing your character around the baseplate, it all clicks.
Just take it one step at a time. Start with the movement, fix the collisions, and then worry about the fancy UI and gacha mechanics later. Before you know it, you'll have a system that's just as good as the ones in the top games on the front page. Happy building!