Vanjeev

A creature-bonding adventure in a desert inspired by India

Vanjeev is a story-driven creature adventure set in Marudesh, a desert land inspired by Rajasthan.

You arrive in the village of Retipur for the summer. The same night, the threads of light that bind people to the jeev (the creatures of the land) start to snap across the sky. By morning a jeev has gone wild, and your grandmother, the last Sutradhar of the village, falls into a sleep no one can explain.

Choose one of three young jeev and set out. Cross the dunes to Sonkot, restore its dry stepwell, and face the people cutting the threads.

What you do

• Calm wild jeev in turn-based battles, with jeev that charge, dodge and strike across the arena
• Time your strikes: press Space as the rings meet for a stronger hit
• Tie a sutra (a thread) to bond with a jeev instead of capturing it
• Meet 18 jeev drawn from real Indian animals: the Bengal fox, the peacock, the chinkara, the star tortoise, the Ganges river dolphin and more
• Watch them grow: raise your jeev until they evolve
• Explore a desert village, a small town, an old stepwell and a wrestling akhada

Controls

• Move: WASD or arrow keys (hold Shift to run), or click where you want to go
• Talk / confirm: Space, Enter or E
• Skip dialogue: Tab
• Menu / back: Esc
• In battle: press Space when the rings meet
• A gamepad works too

Best played on a desktop browser (Chrome or Edge). Your progress saves in the browser.

This is Chapter 1

Chapter 1 is a complete story on its own and the start of a longer one. The rain is coming to Jalvan next. Follow the page to hear when Chapter 2 arrives.

Credits

Plant, rock, texture and sky assets: Poly Haven (CC0). Music: CC0 tracks from OpenGameArt by CleytonKauffman, yd, Centurion_of_war, obscure music and Emmntt. People built with MakeHuman (CC0).