The title screen for Episode 1: Tale of the Transmogrified
An indie side-scrolling platformer, featuring 3D pre-rendered art similar to Heart of Darkness and Donkey Kong Country, created and published by Megalithic Mainframe for PC release on Steam and itch.io. The first episode, "Tale of the Transmogrified," was released in late 2021.
The game follows the adventures of Shawn Maxwell, who falls into a deep hole one night and discovers an underground world populated by monsters. Shawn befriends the Muties, who are spritely, fairy-like creatures that give Shawn the ability to transform into one of four different forms. Each transformation boasts a different gameplay mechanic required to beat the game.
Shape Shift Shawn features several vibrant worlds, challenging level design, and dozens of monsters seeking to kill Shawn in a variety of grotesque ways.
This game provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Despite being a 2D sidescroller, the game's art style imitates the mid-90s craze of SNES and Sega Genesis platformers that made heavy usage of pre-rendered 3D art.
- All Hallows' Eve: The game takes place on Halloween night, and the opening cutscene shows Shawn out trick-or-treating as the Atomic Avenger, his favorite cartoon superhero.
- Amusing Injuries: Shawn's death sequences are played off as humorous, thanks to the Bloodless Carnage of the game, as well as the fact that Shawn never truly dies - as horribly mangled as his body can become, the Muties can (mostly) repair Shawn's body back to its former state and allow him to continue from the last checkpoint.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Whenever Shawn steps into a boss fight, the Big Sister Muties that Shawn has rescued will combine their power to grow Shawn to gargantuan proportions, putting him on slightly-more equal footing with the enormous size of the boss.
- Asshole Victim: Things do not end well for Marvin, as he keeps consuming dead Muties until the process transforms him into a towering, emaciated skeleton, his personality hollowed out by an insatiable addiction for more Muties.
- Badass Arm-Fold: Every level ends with a close-up of arm-folded Shawn.
- Balloon Belly: One of the creatures Shawn can transform into is a blue anthropomorphic balloon. He starts out small and deflated, but the player can inflate to several times their original size by jumping repeatedly. This ability allows the player to defy gravity and float around the level, but they must take care not to pop Shawn by moving too close to any sharp surfaces.
- Breath Weapon: One of the creatures that Shawn can transform into is a fire-breathing dragon. While transformed, Shawn can use his fire breath to destroy most enemies, as well as various obstacles in the level.
- Cliffhanger: Episode 1 ends with Shawn frozen in a solid block of ice and Marvin eating Shawn's unwitting parents alive.
- Collect-a-Thon Platformer: The player is encouraged to collect all of Shawn's lost Halloween candy on each level, as well as golden keys and glowing power orbs. The golden keys unlock bonus levels, while the power orbs are held in reserve until boss levels, where they can make Shawn's boss form even more powerful.
- Growing Muscles Sequence: One of the transformations in Shape Shift Shawn has Shawn turn into a muscular yellow ogre. While in this form, he can effortlessly plow through most regular enemies, but he also has the ability to destroy the level itself, smashing through solid walls and floors.
- Hollow World: The majority of the game takes place in a previously-unknown, underground world. Shawn's main goal is to make his way back up to the surface.
- Hollywood Acid: Giant, acid-spewing grubs lodged in the ceiling are one of the obstacles Shawn has to avoid in the bug-themed levels. If Shawn happens to be standing underneath, his flesh is instantly melted off, leaving nothing but his skeleton behind.
- Human Popsicle: Episode 1 ends with Shawn being frozen in ice, presumably to be freed at the start of Episode 2.
- Jerkass: Shawn's neighbor Marvin begins as a petty neighborhood bully, before graduating to killing Muties and becoming addicted to eating them.
- Power High: Marvin, the main antagonist of the game, becomes addicted to the high from consuming killed Muties. Doing so also causes his body to grow in size, becoming gradually less human with each growth.
- Shape Shifter Mashup: During boss levels, Shawn will transform into one of six possible forms, formed by combining two colors of Muties (depending on which Big Sister colors he rescued earlier). The new form represents a super-charged, extra-large version of Shawn that equally combines two transformation abilities together.
- Squashed Flat: Shawn can be flattened into a pancake if something heavy lands on him. Mysteriously, his eyeballs remain floating in place before clattering to the floor.
- Stripped to the Bone: The player can suffer this fate in level 2-5 (The Nasty Nursery), which features eggsacs filled with ravenous swarms of small bugs. Getting too close to one of these will cause the sac to burst, sending bugs out in every directions. If any of them touch Shawn, they will eat him alive, leaving nothing but his skeleton behind (though his head, looking down at his body in horror, is left mysteriously intact).
- Stumbling in the New Form: Every time that Shawn undergoes a new transformation, he complains about how uncomfortable his new body feels. In particular, when he transforms into a slime creature for the first time on level 1-4 (Court of the Corrupt), he bemoans the loss of his arms and legs.
