Long ago, you were known as The Possessor-- a feared pirate who would claim all in your path. Magical items were your particular specialty, always curious to see how they would transform or change you.
But that time has long passed-- as have you. As a spectre tied to their ship, the most action you find nowadays is scaring off any opportunistic adventurers. Time blurs into an endless ocean, days slipping into months into years…
Until one fateful morn, when a priestess of the Allmother comes to you with a peculiar request.
Heya, second time ever trying one of these gain jams, first time actually getting a project out. It’s a transformation-based visual novel heavily inspired by The Pirate’s Fate.
It’s far from finished, only showing the first few possible locations of one of the routes, but I’m still very satisfied with what I’ve made in this time.
I definitely intend to add CGs, sound, as well as more routes and transformations as time goes on. But, as it stands, I’m on the verge of collapsing after pulling an all-nighter to finish this haha.
(And yes I do realize it’s a bit silly that I chose the more macro-focused route to showcase the game, but it does show off some fun divergences and still involves some nice weight gain nonetheless-- and I’d already gotten too far in development before I realized the humor in the situation lol)
Man, I really like The Pirate’s Fate, and this game just scratches that itch I’ve had for a long time. I hope after Gain Jam finishes, you will have a full-blown version. A lot of people can support you, though I can only support it by purchasing it on Steam (Russia sucks). So yeah, the game is still far from complete, but what I’ve seen in the demo is really promising.
D’aww, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Pirate’s Fate was so much fun for me, so I definitely wanted to pay tribute and make something like that myself. (I was originally going to show Filio on screen as a talksprite much like how TPF does it, and show proper CG’s for transformations, but I had made concessions for the time constraints of the jam haha)
I definitely do intend to work on this more after the Jam, I just need a break since I uh… definitely pulled an all-nighter to finish what I did finish lol (it was like 10 am by the time I published the game ) Maybe I’ll try and put it on Steam too, who knows.
Sort of? Not every transformation will be a furry one, but I’m not exactly going to signpost when a transformation will be furry or not. Sorry if that’s not your cup of tea.
You know what will be fun and interesting? Transformations into monsters. You can already become a dragon and a vampire (wink-wink), which means you can continue in this Fantasy-like direction. In addition, the game setting is much more interesting and there is a huge scope for ideas for transformation!
Oh yeah, definitely. I have a few other transformations in mind I didn’t implement because of wanting to keep the scope of the game jam relatively small, but leaning into a fantasy theme will definitely be something I’ll keep a focus on once I’m ready to start working on the game again.
D’aww, thank you!! I do definitely plan on finishing this, I’m just going to take a break for now; two-week-long game jams are absolutely exhausting for me (I’m used to month-long jams, exhausting as they are lol). That, and I’m making the incredibly foolish decision to do another jam that’s starting tomorrow (because I’m enamored with the theme of it-- Halloween, my favorite holiday!).
But, I definitely intend on working on this more. I want to finish the Dominum route at the very least, but I would love to implement the Obsequium route as well.
Glad you like it! Definitely going to work on it more when I’m done taking a break.
The Dominum route is going to have a more macro lean, but still with plenty of places to gain weight, of course. Once that’s done, I’ll get to work on the Obsequium route, which itself will have much more of a weight gain lean, so that’ll be fun.
Just wanted to add my own vote of approval here. Obviously it still has a ways to go, but the artwork is cute and I like the character interactions. Macro is a close second after weight gain on my list of favorite things, so I’m not complaining about the development order here.
One thing that I’m slightly confused, or perhaps intrigued, by is the fact that we’re asked to name the ghost at the start of the game. Cyren (to use their default name) may be the POV character that we’re nominally controlling, but they’re by no means a blank slate or player self-insert. They have their own thoughts and motivations, their own backstory from their past life and afterlife, and even a typical pirate-y accent that surely won’t match the player’s own manner of speech! Honestly, Filio feels like the more “relatable” of the two main characters in this early portion of the game, although I assume the plan is to eventually introduce other characters that can be possessed instead.
Mind you, I’m not necessarily criticizing the choice to ask for a custom name. I’m just curious about what the reason for it was, or if you have something clever in store for later on, a la Earthbound.
I’m glad you liked it! And yeah, macro is actually my personal favorite kink, so it’s nice that I’m going to be able to actually make content with it after having such a dry spell trying to look up such games online (or at least, games that focus on the macro’s perspective over the micro’s).
Regarding Cyren’s name, I do get that it’s a bit weird that you name someone who has such a defined backstory (Though, to be fair lots of Final Fantasy games do it-- even 10 does I believe!), but I thought it would be fun to give the player a sense of putting themselves into the story, even if a bit tenuous given the fact they’re clearly not a blank slate (And also I was rushing to get the game out on time-- how many times was poor Berstseem get typoed as ‘Bersteem’? lol).
In my head, it’s meant to signify that you’re playing the part of Cyren, given the decisions made in the game (With some jokey exceptions) are meant to be you feeding them-- pun unintended --to Filio (Sort of like signing a contract, saying “Whatever happens to this lady is your responsibility”, lol). You’re possessing her to help get over her nerves and indecision, after all.
I do intend on having more characters that can be possessed, even with the ultimate focus on this story being on Filio and her transformation at your hands-- since that’s a fun thing to play around with, especially when the actions in this game often have fun and weird consequences for the characters and their waistlines. There’s a brief scene in one of this build’s routes where you do end up possessing someone else-- it’s a personal favorite of mine!
I also intend on making a small party for the group like Pirate’s Fate-- though likely on a smaller scale-- like maybe just one or two members outside of Cyren/Filio just because this is a smaller project and because I want the focus to be on Filio’s transformation-- but I do want to be able to have fun other transformations for other characters as well (It’ll also be route dependent, with Berstseem joining you in this route and a currently unseen character joining you in the Obsequium route).
This is a cool introduction to this world, and I was surprised by the number of transformations present considering the time constriction. The mystery spells fit the theme perfectly, it’s refreshing to have a set of options in a visual novel that don’t blatantly spell out where every path will go. You’ve made a choice, but was it the right choice? Only one way to find out…
I checked out and finished it, and I have to say, I love it. It’s exactly what I wait from something like this. Even if it was only a few minutes long, it was great. I happily await continuation!
A decent start for a characterful VN. Sorely wished for some music or sound effects just to help refocus the scene as they ran on a mite too long for my liking. The possessor element was intriguing and the untrusty NPCs was a fun and fitting reveal.
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Would be happy to see this continue post-Jam with a little more to the presentation to hook and immerse the reader within the tale you’re spinning.
The bar on the side is a good idea for showing the character’s stats and progression throughout the story. The idea of playing as a character “piloting” another is a fun twist on the “choose-your-own-adventure” style of gameplay. I’d recommend easing up on how often dialogue is broken up by textboxes. Ex: [I think…][…uhh…][…this might be a bad idea] versus [I think… uh… this might be a bad idea]. Breaking a character’s dialogue with textboxes is an effective way to simulate a pause, but it should be used sparingly as a highlight, and punctuation should be the standard go-to for a character pausing throughout their dialogue. Having no sound is a bummer as well, some ambience and sound effects for certain moments of the gameplay would’ve definitely helped a lot. Overall a good start for this project!
) Maybe I’ll try and put it on Steam too, who knows.