Learning how to make a pet system in Roblox Studio is a huge milestone for any developer, mostly because pets are the backbone of just about every successful simulator on the platform right now. Whether you're trying to recreate the vibe of Pet Simulator 99 or you want something totally unique for an RPG, having a little creature follow a player around adds a ton of personality to a game. It's not just about the visuals, though; a solid pet system involves data handling, smooth movement, and some clever UI work.
In this walkthrough, we're going to break down the process into manageable chunks. We'll start with the actual model, move into the scripting logic that makes it follow you, and then touch on how to manage the backend so the game knows which pet you've got equipped.
Getting your pet model ready
Before you even touch a line of code, you need something for the player to look at. You can go two ways here: you can build a pet out of basic Parts inside Roblox Studio, or you can import a MeshPart from a program like Blender. If you're just starting out, a simple blocky pet works perfectly fine for testing.
The most important thing to remember is the PrimaryPart. Every pet model should be a Group (Model) and it needs one main part that acts as the "root." This is the part the scripts will talk to when they want to move the pet. Make sure this part is front-facing so your pet doesn't end up following the player sideways or backward.
Once you have your model, place it inside a folder in ReplicatedStorage. Let's call that folder "Pets." This makes it easy for both the server and the client to see what pets are available in the game.
Setting up the movement logic
This is where things get interesting. You want the pet to follow the player, but you don't want it to be "glued" to them. It needs to feel fluid. In the old days, we used BodyPosition and BodyGyro, but those are deprecated now. Nowadays, we use AlignPosition and AlignOrientation.
These are physical constraints that tell the pet, "Hey, try to get to this specific spot near the player, and look in this specific direction."
You'll generally want to handle the movement on the Client (using a LocalScript). Why? Because if the server handles the movement for twenty different pets for twenty different players, you're going to see some serious lag. When the client handles its own pet's movement, it looks buttery smooth for the player. You just have to make sure the server knows the pet is there so other players can see it too.
Creating the offset
You don't want the pet standing inside the player's torso. You'll need to calculate an offset—usually a few studs behind and to the side of the player's HumanoidRootPart. Using a bit of math with CFrame, you can define a spot that stays relative to the player as they move and turn.
Handling the backend with RemoteEvents
Since we're moving the pet on the client side, we still need the server to actually spawn the pet and give the client "permission" to control it. This is where RemoteEvents come in. Think of a RemoteEvent as a bridge between the player's computer and the Roblox servers.
When a player joins or clicks "Equip" in your UI, you'll fire a RemoteEvent. The server catches that signal, checks if the player actually owns that pet (always keep your security in mind!), and then clones the pet from ReplicatedStorage into the Workspace.
A good tip here: set the pet's NetworkOwner to the player. This is a crucial step. By calling Pet.PrimaryPart:SetNetworkOwner(player), you're telling Roblox that the player's computer is in charge of calculating the physics for that pet. This is what eliminates that stuttering movement you see in lower-quality games.
Building a simple inventory system
A pet system isn't much use if you can't switch between your different animals. You'll need a way to track what the player owns. For a basic setup, you can use StringValues or BoolValues inside a folder within the player object. However, if you're planning on making a full game, you'll eventually want to look into DataStores or a framework like ProfileService to make sure players don't lose their pets when they leave.
Your UI should be simple. Create a ScrollingFrame, and for every pet the player owns, clone a little "template" button into that frame. When the button is clicked, it fires that RemoteEvent we talked about earlier to tell the server, "Hey, I want to use this one now."
Keeping it organized
Don't let your workspace get messy. Create a folder in the Workspace called "PlayerPets." When a player equips a pet, put it in a sub-folder named after the player. This makes it way easier to debug when things inevitably go wrong—and they will! Debugging is just part of the fun.
Adding some polish and "juice"
Right now, your pet probably just slides along the ground like a brick. To make it feel "alive," you need to add what devs call "juice." This usually means a little bit of bobbing or a walking animation.
A really easy way to do this without complex animations is using a Sine wave in your movement script. By changing the pet's vertical offset based on math.sin(tick() * speed), you can make the pet hover up and down gently. It's a tiny detail, but it makes a world of difference.
You can also add some particle effects when the pet is equipped, or a little "pop" sound. These small touches are what make players want to keep collecting more pets.
Optimizing for performance
As your game grows, you might have fifty players all with three pets equipped. That's 150 moving objects! To keep the frame rate high, you'll want to make sure you aren't running heavy calculations every single frame for pets that are far away.
One trick is to use StreamingEnabled, which helps Roblox manage what parts of the world are loaded for players. Another is to make sure your pet models aren't too high-poly. A pet that has 10,000 triangles might look cool, but it'll tank the performance of anyone playing on a phone. Keep your meshes simple and use textures to add the detail instead.
Wrapping things up
Figuring out how to make a pet system in Roblox Studio takes a bit of patience, especially when you're wrestling with CFrames and physics constraints for the first time. But once you see that little cube or cat following your character around the baseplate, it's a great feeling.
Start simple. Get a part to follow you first. Once that works, add the UI. Once the UI works, add the saving system. If you try to do it all at once, you'll probably get a headache. Take it step by step, keep your code clean, and don't be afraid to break things—that's usually how you learn the most in Roblox Studio. Happy devving!