Inspired by the likes of You Throw Like a Girl and How to be Popular, Secrets of Charlton School is a small town interactive fiction game that casts you into the world of body swapping, transformation, corruption, hypnosis and magic.
You play a recent newcomer to the sleepy town of Charlton. When your sister appears to be struggling at school, you are tasked with getting to the bottom of what’s really happening to her, and finding a way to stop it. How you do this, and what you become because of your actions, is entirely up to you.
It’s a text-heavy adventure, with illustrative images of the town and its inhabitants peppered throughout. Full day and night system, quest log, inventory and spells, NPCs with their own schedules and motivations, and above all multiple ways to approach all the problems, based on how you want to play.
In terms of the adult content, it features mind control, corruption, m2f transformations, as well as different content for submissive, assertive, greedy and selfless playthroughs. It’s X-rated for content. There’s some sex scenes, but not every passage.
Updates will come when time allows - definitely a homemade passion project. For this reason, there won’t be a patron link set-up. If you really like it, you can give me a donation amount of your choice on my itch.io page.
Any bugs, typos or discussion, please direct to the thread on the TFGamessite website or on Discord. I’ll be the most active there. I’ll also keep the high-level roadmap there too.
Mitch Phillips has recently moved to the sleepy town of Charlton away from the big city, after his parents decided a quiet life was for them. What he didn’t realise was that not three weeks after moving, they would set out to Italy for an extended vacation. They left him to look after his eighteen-year-old sister, Emily, who was struggling with leaving her old life behind herself.
All he has to do is get Emily through her final year at school and make sure she gets the grades she needs to go to University. Then she'll move out and he'll be free. But Emily is struggling with her grades and her new school has some traditional views about what it expects from its students.
Faced with the prospect of failing her exam, Emily comes up with a novel solution. One that may help her pass her maths exam with ease, but may cost Mitch his very life.
Mitch - The protagonist. A twenty-five year old software developer who recently moved from the city to the small town of Charlton after his parents decided to relocate. He is balancing keeping his job, looking after his sister, and keeping his relationship going.
Emily - Mitch's eighteen year old sister. Back in the city she was top of her class, but now she's struggling to pass her maths exam. If she fails, it means she may need to repeat the last year of school, and Mitch will have to stay in Charlton another year.
Plus! A whole town full of characters, including bar owners, restaurant maids, school teachers, angry bosses, and more.
N/A
12/03/25 - 0.1.5 - Emily and corruption
This one turned out much easier that hoped. It is mainly making Emily more reactive, so no new scenes beyond Emily reacting to your antics. 0.1.6 will contain all new content for the PC to get up to, so for those waiting for all-new, might be worth waiting until the next release.
Content
Sibling Bond mechanic, where you can strengthen or decrease your relationship with Emily
Sibling Bond events, based on how your relationship with Emily evolves
Corruption has impacts on Emily’s description and personality
React events to things that you’ve done in Charlton as Emily, which will lower or increase your Sibling Bond.
Dennis date - Persuade Emily to go instead of you
Bug fixes
Fixed Liz dialogue options for Magic / Amulet in the library
Fixed Work Performance not raising when you work
03/03/25 - 0.1.42 - Bug fixes
Changes
The morning makeup event is now triggered if you’ve ever worn make-up as Emily, instead of wearing make-up to bed. So should be easier to trigger.
Typos fixed and a few continuity errors with Terrence, dreams and the Kitchen
Limited conversation options with Gladys, as she recognises the MC regardless of who they are.
Bugs resolved
Can’t transform into Flo if already her
Fixed Martin’s relationship reaction depending on how you respond in the bar
Fixed a number of bugs with stats and modifiers
Andrea appearing asleep if in the locker room if you haven’t made her sleep
Fixed a bug where there was no actions when talking to Michelle as someone other than PC / Emily
Unresolved
The dream conversation reappears in Liz's dialogue tree - It shouldn’t do, unless you’ve flipped gender. If so, that’s a known limitation with the current dialogue system
Drinking the potion at 100 femininity intending to reset femininity to zero will not reset it. Can’t replicate this or see in the code what might be causing this
Something is locking you out from being able to ask Annie out for a date at a certain point, but can’t understand how this is occurring
Liz tampering with the amulet still can make your femininity shoot up very fast. It’s intentional to a point, but probably a bit too much. Will keep it as is for now, until a balancing pass for Act 1.
Reagan not appearing at the hotel, but I can’t seem to trigger this.
There’s an <> error being triggered (possibly around the teaching Liz ward scene) but I can’t seem to reproduce it.
23/02/25 - 0.1.41 - Bug fixes
Didn't think I'd be getting a bug release out so soon, but a few things were raised that really impacted the new content. So enjoy!
Bugs resolved
Fixed an incorrect passage name for Gladys' research
Fixed drinking a potion and it not disappearing from your inventory
Fixed make-up / flirt skill bug, where flirting could go negative
Bugs unresolved
There’s a blank page bug apparently with Andrea. Get Andrea passport (male) > Give back > Learn Charm > Cast it on Andrea > Lure Andrea > Take passport > Change into Andrea. But can’t replicate.
22/02/25 - 0.1.4 - Dreams and events release
Content
Dreams for each stage of Femininity implemented
Compulsions (Perks) based on Dream outcome implemented (though no impact on the game… yet)
New Quest - Quest For Identity, unlocked with dreams. Try to hold on to who you were, if you can.
New Task from Liz - Search the library stacks for things that can help you counteract changes (Need to experience first dream to trigger)
Make-up system - With bonuses for wearing make-up. Can be activated as Emily once you’ve worn make-up for the first time.
New path for cheerleader bunking off school if already wearing make-up and blonde hair
Outfit system - With bonuses for wearing outfits. Can be activated either through Dennis date or cheerleader path.
Events and reactions from Emily, Michelle, Jake, Christina, Dan
Random encounter system implemented and used for when Andrea and breaking her work rules
Orientation, Femininity and Intelligence events as stats change
Bugs resolved
Fixed a loop problem with detention and assertiveness to do with Maths detention
Fixed a bug where no actions would appear for Elizabeth when inviting her over in the cheerleader questline
Fixed bugs with no actions appearing in Maths lessons
Known issues
If Multiple events are triggered for the same location at the same time, there’s some continuity errors. I haven’t thought of a good way around this yet.
When you click to the menu items from a countdown scene (like Dan, Annie), counts that as one step. Again, a fair bit of coding to resolve so leaving it in for now.
Saved games
There’s a bit of refactoring initial stats (as there usually will be in the content releases) so saved games for any 0.1.3X releases may not be compatible.
11/02/25 - 0.1.34 - Bug fixes
Resolved
Bug with the AV room that incorrectly assumes it’s night regardless of the time of day
Bug with being able to repeat the Dennis date at Fresh Pot
Bug with Andrea forget where the game wasn’t registering a non-Florence ‘forget’ spell wiping her memories of the passport
Bugs with Andrea - believe there aren’t any further bugs in this interaction, as can’t replicate any now.
Bug where you can cast Sleep Forget on Liz when you’re male
Bug where Reagan would still show up at the library after losing her book
Note - Save files from 0.1.33 should now be working. Please let me know if this isn’t the case.
07/02/25 - 0.1.33 - Bug fixes
Resolved
Save games - Save games going forward will now carry over for bug fix releases unless otherwise specified. For content releases I’ll flag if saves will work or not with the notes. Apologies for those with current saves that have been invalidated by bug patches
QuestState system upgraded - So that should eliminate any bugs to do with Quest States not being recognised by the game.
Fixed a bug with Logain Business Studies request - Bad Passage name, plus also time advancing to the next morning
Updated the Emily corruption advancement. It’s now a bit quicker, but reflective of the changes you make to the curses
Bug fixed where you couldn’t join the cheerleaders if you chose to think about it, then returned
Typos fixed
Unresolved
Option to learn about curses from Gladys missing - can’t replicate
Jennifer’s bear not showing after initial encounter - can’t replicate
Investigate Dennis and getting the key at school - can’t find issues
"lure Andrea back to locker room" while as the MC produces a blank screen - can’t replicate
There’s a bug where sometimes in the morning where you flip to female, but it still says ‘Use the amulet to transform back’ - Need to investigate this, but it’s not game breaking so on the unresolved list for now.
04/02/25 - 0.1.32 - Bug fixes
Typos
Fixed Jennifer-Annie dialogue in McTafey’s bar
Fixed Liz dialogue in library about asking for help with Prichard
Fixed Jackie stat fail where you can keep asking her about the key, but not advance time
Fixed still losing assertiveness when you uncurse the lunch food for yourself.
Unresolved
"Bunk off with Christina" is not firing the Salon event when you arrive at the salon. Can’t replicate.
Stats reducing below zero - stats code has got a bit spaghetti. I’m looking to refactor in the next release to stop this from happening (amongst other refinements)
02/02/25 - 0.1.31 - Bug fixes
Resolved
Error when entering Hotel Lobby at Emily in the morning (caused by undefined Andrea array)
Fixed error where dialogue wasn’t available to learn Ward from Gladys
Fixed reference to Emily’s hair colour being brown after change
Added back in a relationship gain in the prologue for Florence if you stood up for her
Fixed option to intimidate Andrea and keep her passport
Reported Typos
Unresolved
Bug around Assertive check being over the amount, but not registering (only working when exact). Can’t replicate
Bug where you can move time onwards when working at Night in Fresh Pot. Can’t replicate
Not changed
“spoilt” typo - It’s a British thing :)
31/01/25 - 0.1.3 - Conversations and relationships
Content
Charm spell implemented
New options for getting access to locations and resolving quests through skill options in dialogue and charm spell
Relationships screen overhaul, with hints on where to find characters and their current relationship status with the main character and your current form
Reagan and Britney now have conversation topics
Functionality
Refactored significant part of codebase, to make future content easier
Overhauled relationship system, so characters view of you (in whatever form) factor into interactions
Overhauled conversation system, to avoid duplication of dialogue and removal of conversations already had from options (some remain, as they may be critical for other options. Still testing some of these out)
Introduced dialogue options for skill checks, including system for not passing
Introduced an event system, triggering events under certain conditions
Tasks introduced (but not visible in menu yet) so track things that aren’t quests, but allow you to gain favour with NPCs
Known issues
The amount of options for Andrea interactions has led to some very complex code. I think I’ve got it working, but I’ll refactor this in the next major release. Save delaying this release another two weeks though, I’m going to leave it as it. Please let me know if you encounter issues.
There’s a known bug where you can get changed for your date, then do something else, and the game will still recognise you in that costume the next day at the date (presuming you’ve changed). Not addressing it in this release, as I’m reworking outfits in an upcoming release anyway.
Next release - 0.1.4 - Events and dreams
06/12/24 - 0.1.21 - Bug fixes
Styling errors when talking about the hotel job
Can progress when giving Logain beer as Emily
Logain school corridor dialogue should now be able to be progressed
Your Room image 5 should now render correctly
01/12/24 - 0.1.2 - Names and Genders release
New content
Custom names that work for Male and Female versions of PC
Everyone should acknowledge you as the correct gender and person
The world shifts if the PC becomes female
New content for Florence and Annie
Revised content for Andrea, Emily and Annie in Charlton based on who you are talking to
Stubs for upcoming content introduced for Emily and all female characters
Resolved Bugs
Fixed a bug with gym lessons after you’ve dealt with the PE curse
Fixed a bug with delaying transforming into Annie
Unresolved bugs
Blank screen with Jennifer dialogue reported. Still can’t replicate.
15/11/24 - 0.1.11 Act 1, Bug fixes
Fixed issue with being able to ask Gladys about Ward spell teaching multiple times
Fixed bug where you could get stuck in menus if you clicked on multiple ones
Fixed typo with telling Gladys about Stacey, and it dissapears after you’ve talked about it now
Fixed conversation with Stacey and Britney in Fresh Pot. Time moves by correctly (i.e. Doesn’t if you leave, does if you work)
Fixed bug with leaving for the salon if you didn’t pass cheerleading tryouts
Fixed incorrect reference to Michelle (not Emily) with Jake
Fixed Act 1 confrontation is you refused a deal
Emily’s profile now reflects her hair colour
Fixed bug where you couldn’t join the cheerleaders after asking for more time to consider
Fixed problem of being able to wander around Charlton as someone else the day after transforming
Fixed problem of being able to cause an accident in the hotel multiple times during a day
Fixed the repeat of dialogue options with Jennifer leading to farming femininity
11/11/24 - 0.1.1 Act 1, Bug fixes
Repaired broken link when agreeing to a date Dennis while at the library.
Repaired broken link on learning Ward from Christina
Time now passes with the talent scout
Corrected a italics tag styling for the school gym
You can now refuse a deal at the end of Act 1
Images for Your Street now displays online
10/11/24 - 0.1.0 - Act 1, initial release.
11/05/24 - 0.0011 - Bug fixes, typos and a minor change to the conversation with Christina to make the upcoming Act easier to implement
07/05/24 - 0.001 - Initial release of the prologue, running up until the end of Day 2
I want to say I'm very positive about this, and I am, but I still have some mixed feelings about this game.
It really stands out for being a proper "game" and not just a story. There's a mix of problem solving/exploration and time management.
The game design is excellent, and tight. No grind, all the choices are hard choices, and while you can mistakenly choose to do something meaningless, even that mistake matters.
The story is interesting, and the mechanics though not unique are different enough to feel very distinctive.
The writing is certainly functional. It's not special in itself but it serves the needs of the game well, is coherent and well proof-read (with a few exceptions) but it is not erotic and it's not trying to be. After a while it creates a good connection to the characters and the stakes feel real.
The sexy part - as far as it goes - is more in the submission, bimbofication vein, which I am fine with.
All positive so far.
What are the down sides then?
The problem with this game is also what makes it good. Choices can feel unforgiving sometimes. You really cannot just grind through this and hope for the best; you have to be thinking all the time, paying attention, making notes, keeping track of what lessons are on what days, making sure you know who is where at what time, and so on.
This means you really can't play this just to enjoy the story, and you are not going to get much pornographic value from this because it's just not made to do that.
Though it has a mind control, bimbofication theme with submission elements, it's always presented in a way that is ... intended to present those things as very negative and harmful, so you can't just lean into the story and enjoy that, you feel a looming "bad end" on the horizon with every step towards Charlton integration. This does undercut enjoying the kink somewhat.
As I said above, the stakes feel real, and that means you don't want to "lose" even though the kink would be more fun if you did.
Those aren't flaws exactly, but I think a lot of people want an easy route to access all the content in a game and that's why grind-games are so popular and successful, especially when the story is the main thing they want. Also, they may want a way to save the town while sacrificing themselves, and perhaps that's intended, but I didn't play to the end yet, so unsure.
There are some images, but they are rare, and mostly just character portraits and location backgrounds. I did enjoy the Magazine covers and the Compulsion icons.
If I have one niggle, it's that the first "more feminine" image of Mitch is quite a big jump and looks almost fully feminine rather than (say) non-binary with a leaning towards male.
If you like actual games and aren't looking for porn, this is a definite must try.
Please more Domestication, More Docile'ness :) Love to see The MC, Emily, and maybe others become Perfect Charlton Ladies too in every way he he More Interactions with Dan :) More Perfect Secretary Branch :) More Perfect Housewife Material :) More Emily Transformation Info Like Her Room, what she thinks of Her New Sister and so on :) More Submission to Teachers and people in Charge and Maybe The MC becomes Pregnant :) lol
Come on Update!! :) lol Your Game is one of my Top 3 Favorite :) if i could, i would go to Charlton he he
Aditional suggestions. Have more Dan Sexim. Treat us like the Women we become :) a Charlton Woman, with choices of Accepting his words and becoming more Submissive, Less Assertive and More like a Proper Charlton Lady he he. Maybe more conditioning to become a proper Charlton Mom to be and completely submit to Charlton and be the Perfect Woman :)
Super! One from best
Okay, so why this game is getting so many likes and good reviews with mere 20 mb size and no photo for any single scene? Answer is simple, game is focusing on the mental corruption part and that part has been executed almost perfectly. You can see the mental changes MC is having when faced to spells from the school, when he is not able to stop his curiosity in his sister's body, and so on. Basically, a man of 25 has been sent into body of a young girl in a school who wants to create submissive sluts or dominating sluts.
Most of the scenes are mental corruption with no images. But they are written good, for example there are gym activities where you can go good and under influence of spells be charmed by the men and start acting like slut. All these changes corrupt the MC in a natural and progressive ways. There are some paths too, I will say bitch or saint path, in bitich path MC will become a bad bitch, alpha of cheerleader, insufferable and next leader who would cast the curse and corrupt other girls for her own power, in saint path MC will be just solve the curses and be done with it,
Only con here is the lack of images and a general lack of sexual scenes. For example why MC is not doing masturbation or watchin porn to explore her new body? Why MC is not able to get new clothes and other things? Why scenes are written good but contain no images? Overall, I liked this game way more than You Throw Like a Girl, that game was not able to handle magic and corruption properly but this one is able to use them properly and if this game had some XXX rated scenes, I would say, it would have become one of the best story based game on this site but sadly dev seems to be hellbent to keep its X rating and not dive deeper.
This is definitely a high quality game, I've been playing nearly every version since it first released.
The only thing I don't like is how it stops being a M2F game. When it first released, the premise was that you (male) turn into your sister to help her/investigate her school. And even after you turned back into your male self your features in the mirror were a little more feminine. That was the end in the first release if I remember correctly. I really got hooked on that.
But after many updates it did expand on that... although in the way that you always remember yourself exactly like you appear in the mirror. Meaning the more time you spend as your sister and gain femininity points, the more your male self will shift towards being female. But looking at a mirror you never notice anything strange, you think you've always been this way.
To me that's a big con, as I really like the male protagonist having to deal with being female, but so far, as soon as you're past a certain threshold the game plays just as if you had started with a female protagonist, and being a girl is just normal like it has always been. So it effectively stops being a M2F game.
I felt a similar way when the reality shift in "YouThrowLikeAGirl" was first introduced, but luckily the developer made it optional in later updates.
Dear Dev, I'm in no position to tell you what to do, I'm sure you have a vision for this game, but I'll keep playing your updates and keep hoping there'll be a day when there's an update that let's you remember that you started male.
