It is said that perfection is overrated and that creativity works best within some boundaries.

In this game jam, we are going to throw away our perfectionism and just make something stupid and fun, test some ideas, see what works in practice and what doesn't. And we are going to use primarily what's already provided by default with RPG Maker. All those default RTP assets!

Don't try to make some serious, polished masterpiece. Definitely don't treat this jam too seriously and have fun! Make something stupid and fun and/or creative and out-of-the-box for what you usually make. Maybe even something that people would tell you RPG Maker isn't supposed to make. Like a platformer. It most likely won't be much good, but you can learn things doing it that you can use in your serious games.

And try to make it funny.

Whatever you end making might be janky, ridiculous, might not even be much good. But you can learn the most when you try to step out of your comfort zone!

You have 16 days to make a game with any version of RPG Maker that uses primarily default RTP assets of whatever version of RPG Maker you end up using. But don't feel like you have to use all of them. Simply use however much time you can spare for this event!

Choose one Theme for your game.

You have to include your chosen Theme in your game in some way, but it doesn't have to be there in a major way. So long as it is included in some way, it could just be one scene or be referenced in dialogue. This is just to give people direction and to help everyone get into the spirit of this event!

Themes:

1) Epic Quest To Take Out The Trash

2) Tomb Dungeon

3) Hero's Mentor

4) Chaos Magic

5) Cat Quest

6) Dark Lord's Pet Dragon

7) Divine Intervention

8) Door On The Left

9) Tiny House

10) Royal Ball

Bonus Challenges:

As always, these are optional, take them more as suggestions!

1) Use whomever is the default protagonist of your chosen RPG Maker version (Reid or Priscilla for MZ, Harold for MV, Eric or Ralph for VX Ace etc.) as the protagonist of your game and give them an annoying sidekick.

2) There's a part in the game where the protagonist has to defeat a slime monster.

3) Include a flashback scene in the game.

4) Include a puzzle in the game that is somehow themed around number 8.

5) Have this line of dialogue show up somewhere in the game: "Fool, you can't defeat me, I am a god!"

Rules:

1) You can only start working on the actual game project after the jam's submission period starts, but you can start planning and creating/gathering assets and other resources before that time.

2) Your game has to be made in any version of RPG Maker (2000, 2003, XP, VX, VX Ace, MV, MZ, Unite).

3) You game has to primarily use the default RTP assets of whatever version of RPG Maker you use to create your game.

4) You CAN use custom assets, but they should be mostly supplemental to the overall game or limited to certain scenes. This is mostly meant for tilesets and character sprites, custom music and sound effects can be used without any limitations and RTP assets can be edited freely.

5) You can use scripts and plugins.

6) You can only use assets you have the rights to use, you have to abide by their Terms of Use and give credit if the Terms of Use of said assets require it. AI-generated assets are allowed, if you disclose their use on the game's project page. This applies even if these originally AI-generated assets are later edited by you. That said, this is only a requirement if there are any AI-generated assets in your game. It doesn't apply if you've used AI-generated images as inspiration or if you've simply asked ChatGPT for coding advice, for example.

7) Abide by the EULA of whichever version of RPG Maker you use to make your game.

8) Abide by itch.io's Terms of Service.

9) Your game has to incorporate one of the Themes of the game jam, at least in some small way.

10) Don't treat this jam too seriously and have fun! Make something stupid and fun and/or creative and out-of-the-box for what you usually make. Maybe even something that people would tell you RPG Maker isn't supposed to make. Like a platformer. It most likely won't be much good, but you can learn things doing it that you can use in your serious games.