I'm only six days late...hahahaaaaaaa...
I actually found out about this jam the day before it started, but due to a combination of job hunting + being unable to decide what I wanted to do + my apparently constant need for sleep I only really got a handle of what I wanted yesterday.
My big thing was trying to decide between making a game in Twine, Ren'Py, or RPG Maker VX Ace (all programs I've played with, but never finished a game in before). Since I'm primarily a writer and can't really do visual art, I decided that I'll be using Twine 2. Once I finally decided on that, my plot spiraled out of control.
Aurora Borealis is going to be a fantasy text adventure/RPG starring a player-named protagonist who lives in the tropical city of Jana and makes a living doing odd jobs for the local shrine to the goddess of magic. However, the protagonist has little talent in magic themselves (hence the odd jobs). One day, they check their mailbox to find that they have received a package containing a spell tome full of obscure weather spells and a vague but polite letter signed "Witch". Having little use for the spells, the protagonist shelves the tome in their bedroom...
...until two weeks later, when continuous rainfall has caused much of the town to flood. Desperate to save their hometown, the protagonist stumbles upon the weather tome and uses a drying spell, saving the town.
In Jana, it is considered rude to not thank someone in person when they have helped you. And the protagonist wouldn't have been able to save Jana without the Witch's help.
Thus begins the protagonist's epic quest for politeness.
I realized while I was brainstorming that my original four-act game plan was way too ambitious for this short of a time frame (especially considering my late start sobs), so I'm going to focus on the first "act" (i.e., the protagonist saving Jana from the flood). Hopefully, I'll be able to continue working on the game after the jam ends, and at the very least complete the story I have (kind of) planned out.
(As an unintended consequence, the name I chose won't make any sense, since it refers to something that would happen in the fourth act, lmao. Maybe I should change it. I thought of "Ettiquest" earlier today and literally laughed out loud, so that's an option.)