Part-Time Familiar by MatthewDrake
(Embed version on Itch.io as Ldjam.com doesn't support SharedArrayBuffer.)

You are a familiar. Since your manifestation your goal has been to help mages complete their spells. You have yet to find a mage to give you a permanent role at their side, so instead you work on a contract basis.
Usually you help one mage in a month, but tonight you will help four very different humans at the same time. Balance their tasks, make decisions that will decide their fates, and earn your true form in the World Above... Or sink back into the Soulsea to wait to be summoned again.
Part-Time Familiar is a multi-path visual novel with multiple endings. It includes themes of death and loss, as well as one instance of Suicide by a character who cannot technically die.
Please note: In the Windows Version anything other than Mouse-click to progress dialogue seems to be bugged for the first Lysander/Zavidar scene, use your mouse to get through until you're 'safely' back in the Soulsea, and then spam that spacebar all you want.
Game takes about 10-20 minutes to complete, depending on whether you cut routes short or not. Completing it unlocks a freeplay mode where you can try other run combinations without watching the opening scene(s) again.
Tools:
- Godot 4
- Dialogic 2
- ClipStudio Paint
| Itch.io | https://matthewdrake.itch.io/part-time-familiar |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/part-time-familiar |
Ratings
| Overall | 466th | 3.675⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 772th | 3.256⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 906th | 3.013⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 163th | 4.213⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 594th | 3.725⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 665th | 2.895⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 383th | 3.788⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 30🗳️ | 66🗨️ |
All constructive feedback I have is a tad subjective, but I do think you could've made it a tad more involved on the parts where you HAD to make choices based on previous dialog (like the elemental you summon or the order of traps you scouted). That being said, this is just me and does not affect the game in any way :)
Great job!
I wonder what familiar did (that was called as a misstake) that it became part-time instead of full-time one. Sounded like most familiars get the job to work for one human... I guess it may be explained in one of the endings, not the one I reached.
One thing - text was a bit too small for my monitor. Also selection for the summoner would stick to top-left corner and be like small part of the screen, not centred. I guess, its because they are resolution sensitive. Other than those two things - everything else was really well-polished and I enjoyed the jorney.
@heytherewill Definitely would have liked more time to expand on it, I realised too late how much I had locked into the formula with the hero and villain characters and I wish I could have given them their own scenes alone from each other to get more involved with the characters and choices you make. It's given me a good understanding of how to plan games like this in the future though, thanks for your feedback. ^^
@saprina289 I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Funnily enough 'Soulsea mode' was originally because I couldn't figure out a way to make a save system but wanted to make sure people didn't have to sit through the opening if they wanted to come back and try other paths. Was delighted when I got the shortcut working, it felt a bit like I was making a cheatcode, haha. (it's ctrl+shift+s , in case anyone wants to try it out! ^^)
@batisdark Unfortunately I couldn't really decide what exactly the familiar had done to be in their current contractual / non-permanent basis, so it's not something that appears in any of the paths. It's fun to think about though, if I decided to do more I'd definitely want to expand their backstory. Sorry to hear about the resolution issues, I tried to fix them but couldn't figure out how to (The method I used for the main menu refused to work for any of the character selection scenes or ending pages ^^; ). I'm glad you still enjoyed it though! Thank you for playing ^^
I like the humor in the text, and it feels sometimes funny a dog figure acting a bit like a cat sometimes.
very interesting lore building here, I like that I can hover over words to know what they are.
they all have very distinct personalities Arthur, Lysander and Zavidar .... cant help but feel like one for each harry potter school.
there is an impressive amount of content in this
Graphics are nice, I like that you have an additional info upon hoovering over some underscored text, it makes the world alive. The game itself is a nice twist for the theme - being summoned. The mood is definitely here.
So I am going to give you score for the categories I feel I can decide, the rest is more for people who enjoy it much more than me. :)
Nice entry 👍
Not sure if it's just my setup (playing the web version on a macbook), but there were some long pauses/freezes. Also the text was quite tiny for my eyes - I wouldn't want it to cover the nice art, but it was a bit straining to be honest.
Here's a recording, though I don't think it counts as feedback if the game is a VN. I would have played through the Soulsea Mode if there was save and backtrack functionality like in Ren'Py. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEmrK6-aoR0