One of the fantastic things about RPG Maker is the plethora of games of different genres it can create.

With a little imagination from the creator, games are able to explore territory away from the titular genre, spread their wings and open up multiple avenues of creative expression.

This jam attempts to embrace that concept by challenging creators to make a non-RPG in RPG Maker.

What constitutes a non-RPG? 

My online research has yielded a controversial topic of debate of when a game is defined as an RPG or something else. The boundaries and implications of this are somewhat fuzzy and lines can easily be blurred.

When is a game an RPG; when is a game NOT an RPG? It's not easy to define, is it? Take FPS for example: Do you play in first person? Yes. Do you shoot? Yes. There you are, you have a first-person shooter game. Unfortunately, RPG is much more complex a genre to define. One could argue that you are even 'playing the role' of the shooter in any FPS. You could easily fall down a rabbit hole arguing semantics on this topic.

For the purposes of this jam and to make things simpler, I am going to exercise a very lenient stance on what you can get away with here. 

More will become apparent as you read the sections below.

Examples of non-RPGs made in RPG Maker

• A Visual Novel such as Clinical Trial or Cold Front.
• Survival horror such as Mad Father or Ao Oni.
• A side-scroller such as LISA.

Any or all of the above are examples, yet still they retain some RPG elements in their core mechanics. What I am trying to get at is I would like to see people make something that isn't a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy clone. I hate to put it in such blunt terms as that, but I am willing to do so here for the sake of clarity.

Theme and challenges

To maximize creator freedom, I have elected not to theme the jam because I believe challenging creators to create something non RPG is potentially restricting enough in and of it's self. I really don't want to put you in a strait-jacket. That means you can pick any flavor of game you fancy. Medieval romp around a fantasy world? No problem. Sci-fi shooter filled with blasts and betrayals? Sure - go for it.

I will, however add some completely optional challenges, like so:

1. Financial hardship - One of your characters is broke, skint, pepper mint, brassic, on the bones of their backside. However you want to word it, they are struggling financially and the game reflects this in some way.
2. Unique saving mechanic - Do you have to go to the bank and make a deposit to save your game? Call mom or even visit the W/C to make a checkpoint? The quirkier the better!
3. Wordsmith villain - The main villain is a bit of a gadabout and has a very unorthodox way of speaking. Could be Shakesperian prose, rhyming slang OR EVEN BLOCK CAPITALS AS IF THEY HAVE A DEEP, BOOMING VOICE! Anything that differs from regular dialogue would be great.
4. Mute protagonist - This one speaks (or rather doesn't) for itself. The power of speech? Linky boy's doing alright for himself last I checked.
5. Laundry - Any reference to anyone in the game doing or about to do laundry.

Rules

1.  You can make any genre of game as long as it is NOT (at it's core, at least) an RPG. Again, iterations of this are vague, I know. Just choose an out of the box idea and roll with it, without stressing about this one too much.
2.  You may use any of the commercial RPG Maker engines you own (2000, 2003, XP, VX, VX ACE, MV, MZ and Unite)
3. No need to wait for the start of the jam, crack on with it now if that's your preference.
4. You may choose a challenge, do them all, do some or ignore the job lot - entirely up to you. (Not a rule, but meh...)
5. You can use any DLC/Assets/Plugins you have the rights to in your project. Please remember to credit authors/artists/creators as per their usage terms somewhere in your project i.e credits roll at game end/start or in a readme.txt in the game folder.
6. Conform to the EULA of the RPG Maker engine the game is created in.
7. Abide by itch.io's Terms of Service.
8. Your submission MUST be SFW (non-adult). NSFW and 18+ adult-only projects are not allowed in this jam. Things like kissing, flirting, non nude comical spanking for example are all fine, just don't push the boundaries.
9.  You CAN submit your game to other jams, but please don't bring pre-existing games or games already submitted to other jams here.

Things to avoid

1. Random encounters - I think this is the biggest RPG trope, but you never know. I will ALLOW a degree of leniency in that forced fights now and again for plot purposes will be fine as long as they are somehow symbolized and not completely random. Just stay clear of running into random fights on the map like in Final Fantasy.
2. Excessive dialogue - This does not mean you cannot tell a good story. I urge you to find alternate means of delivering your game's narrative, like explorative note acquisition and lore unravelling evident in the Souls series, for example. I am aware that if you choose to create a VN this one might be tricky, however I am sure you will find creative ways to get around this. I believe in you.
3. NPCs everywhere - Yes - you need some support characters, but dotting the game with useless one-liner NPCs that have no bearing on the story are an RPG mainstay and a big no-no here.
4.  Any other RPG heavy trope such as having lots of party members, scaled down overworlds and town-dungeon-plot-town-dungeon-plot game loops.

Contact

Questions? Thoughts? Reach out to me here on itch and I'll endeavor to respond as quick as I can. I do not do most social media so if you want a place to chat, consider opening your own unofficial discord or something. Anyone that chooses to do so has my blessing but please note all admin and responsibility lies with the person/group instigating this and I will NOT be participating on anything that occurs in social media I do not use.

Prize

For this, my first game jam, the prize will be limited to 1st place only.

The prize will be a Steam Key for RPG Maker DLC up to $10 of their choosing.

I will contact the winner after the jam is concluded and send a Friend Request via Steam to safely and securely deliver the prize. Feel free to unfriend me afterwards if you do so wish.

To be eligible for the prize the winner MUST have a valid Steam account.

For future jams, depending on how this goes, I will look to expand the prize pool. The goal for now is just to get some unique ideas floating around and our creative juices flowing when we try to tread away from the beaten path.

Good luck everyone and more importantly have fun!