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The way the game ended up cohering as I cobbled it together, the dagger is just like, something used for a right but gruesome purpose. If you trust the Queen's perspective, I think it's more anti-heroic, while if one does not, it's certainly villainous!

I was originally thinking of having a lot more innocent-type characters you could choose to take power from, but with the size of the map and the tone of the jam I ended up going with the two sympathizers. I still wanted  to incorporate the idea though that even righteous revolutions are not these pretty like, everyone slays the dragon and goes home type things . So, while they willingly join the Queen's cause, they do not survive. If I did a full polished version it might be different, but it works well enough here ^^

Thanks for giving it a go! I didn't have a lot of energy to put in to this one but I think it ended up quite alright regardless? Appreciate ya playing it! ^^

While it would be nice to have it officially on the record, I've always been kind of a stickler about such things, so I'll just have to accept it as the personal goal accomplished :P

That's okay! If you haven't used RPG maker much before or done much game dev in general this is a strong attempt, especially considering the rapid building constraints ^^

I haven't used Easy RPG deployment much, but it's surprised me with some of its behavior at least once, so that sort of thing happens!

I thought this was cool! Live A Live is one of my favorite games and I just recently beat the remake a little bit ago, and I think it is awesome to make something in the vein of it ^^

The mix of sprites and sounds reminds me a lot of classic RM2K scene, which is very nostalgic to me too :3

I wasn't able to get past the third stage, and was the thing on the ground at the end of the second stage supposed to be interactable? I couldn't get it to trigger. Either way I can see the arc of the thing and I think you should keep tinkering with it if you want to ^^

Thanks for playing! In trying to figure out how to do like aesthetically appropriate monster sprites for a rapid game I figured out a little process to uh process like a value painting into a the palette I like to use and at the resolution appropriate for RM2K? I used the same process for Night Queen's guard sprite and the 2 enemy sprites in Glorious Work ^^

I was going to make the map loop in both directions since than it feels more like a globe, but then given the limited palette I figured there wasn't like good enough landmarking for people to navigate very well and it would just be kind of a headache? So I limited the scrolling to the horizontal axis so at least you can sweep the map in bands if a player had to.

Night Queen I had more energy for and I had to start War of Overworld later in the day, and I think that shows, but I do like them both. Glorious Work (the practice game I did for the jam) makes it so I did end up doing 3 games in 3 days, and I was trying to do a fourth so I could have 3 jam eligible entries but I totally ran out of juice working on a bump combat system yesterday and had to hit the hay XD

Thanks for giving it a go! I'm relatively happy with how it turned out myself, given the constraints ^^

They do like 60 damage a round all together! How could one not chuck them into vanguard?? XD

Thanks! It's honestly a pretty cool exercise to try; having to sort of find the thing on its feet has been interesting to feel out.

Thanks for playing! :3

I am working on another today but I am starting later than usual and I am pretty depleted from work and stuff, but I'm giving it my best shot! ^^

Thank you! I've been wanting to try doing rapid games ever since seeing your sketches and such (which I admire greatly!) so it's been good to be a part of a jam where I can exercise that constraint!

Thanks again for giving Glorious Work a go :3

Thank you for saying so! I am frantically hacking away at another 1 day game right now, but I am happy this one turned out well ^^

I am pretty sure I know why the saves work that way! Since we're web deploying using Easy RPG Player like, part of that process is having the launched game in a default folder? And since deployed games will all be in a folder called "default", I imagine wherever those saves are stored puts them all in a "default" pool, and Easy RPG player looks at that pool when it's running in the browser. I don't think I am articulating it super well, but that's what I think is happening. It's not super important but good to keep in mind so one doesn't accidentally save over longer games from other pages and stuff!

Awesome! Happy to hear it worked out! Excited to check it out when I have the time ^^^

Thanks! It was a good experience to work on and it was interesting to sort of improvise where a game was going as I built it. It's a very cool exercise and I am happy you enjoyed the result! ^^

Thanks! Despite kind of slopping everything together the balance actually works pretty well in the game, so I am happy that held true for your experience ^^

The palette I've really been enjoying lately is Ekko-64 (https://lospec.com/palette-list/ekko-64) which is at jussst the right level of saturation I like. It's a really cool palette! :3

The instructions Razuth posted are pretty clear if you haven't seen them, though I know that every set of written instructions will read a bit ambiguous to someone at some point no matter how clear one tries to make them. If you run into trouble with it I'd be happy to help iron things out ^^

Just wanted to say thanks for writing these instructions out. I've done this before but it was kind of a shot in the dark and it's really good to have a list to go by!

Just from trying out the challenge it's a fun exercise! I'm super jazzed for the jam ^^

I'm gonna try and have my practice session game up today, I have to futz with a mechanic I was doing because it works like on the normal deployment but not in Easy RPG (I have an event that fires off of SHIFT input but it looks like Easy RPG watches the shift key in a different way the steps on the behavior of the normal deployment). Shouldn't be complicated, and it was good to figure that out in advance!

Since I've never made rapid games in Rm2K before I decided to spend the evening practicing making one to sort of get a process together for the jam.

The result turned out kind of okay actually! While it's not jam-permissable (since it was made prior to the start, of course!) I'll post it up sometime soon. Excited to start proper! ^^

A Mac build has now been posted, though I have to emphasize I do not have the means to test if it works or troubleshoot it if it does not! The engine I use apparently is pretty spotty with Mac support and that OS is outside of my scope of experience. I do wish I had a Mac so I could fuss with it more, since I would like it to just be a smooth deploying thing regardless, but fate says otherwise. If you could let me know if it works though, I would appreciate it, so I know whether to keep the build available or not? Or, if you'd just rather not bother with it, feel free to let me know too for the same reason.

Another possible trail that could be tried is a like, an independent launcher? I was doing some research and I saw this on the rpgmakerweb forums, though like above I can't perform any tests on it or say anything about how well or unwell it works; just sharing what I turned up in 10 minutes of sniffing around:

https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/threads/rpg-maker-launcher-for-macos-osx-3-3-3.17...

Part of its operation is giving permission to the OS to run a like, unverified app, and I don't know how comfortable / uncomfortable a Mac user would find that, but it's a possible solution if you end up interested in more RPG Maker games.

Let me see what I can do for a Mac build. I was doing some research on like additional things that might be needed but checking the deployment options in RPG Maker there is one for Mac? So I'll give that a try. I don't really have any means to test it since I don't own a Mac, but let me see if I can get one out here in a second.

I imagine the browser saving issue could be a Mac issue or a browser issue, I'm not certain. Let me look into that Mac deployment though.

Thank you for giving it a go, and I am happy you enjoyed it! ^^

Well, the intention was like, if collecting quartz out at the extremities of the machine is like pulling out a USB, I wanted to make collecting quartz at the heart of the thing more like pulling out a tooth. But the animation doesn't communicate that very clearly, and the blood looked better in white than the oubliette's black since they have opposite-colored tiles, but that can carry the wrong connotation, of course XD

If I make AGOT into a full game I'd probably make it clearer by:

1) Giving the player sprite an animation closer to something like the hefting animation in like Super Mario 2 or Zelda where like, the player is pulling something up overhead.

2) I want to make it so the player sprite is actually holding the quartz aloft for a bit in all cases, so the action is better communicated and more tangible.

3)The pained noises are supposed to be from Phlogiston, but you don't hear them at any other point in the game, so the effect sort of relies on a very quick inference that is easier to connect to the player character instead because they are visibly performing the action. An audio cue when you get Phlogiston's communications earlier in the game that could be reused / warped here would help a lot, or like a higher effort close up animation in a cut away, something like that.

I suppose the blood would still be white, and that will always have someone reading it a certain way, but that might just be an inescapable reality XD

Anyway anyway, pardon this being partially a note to self for a further release. Thank you very much for playing and I am happy if it entertained you ^^

I am happy you enjoyed it! I hope to keep improving my ability to make strong feelings / atmosphere come across in my work, though it is good to know it works alright presently as well ^^

Thanks again for giving it a go! :3

Thank you for playing! I appreciate it! ^^

I am happy you had a good time with AGOT, and feel free to post the guide! I have no real idea how many people are making it to the ending, but the ending is what I am happiest with, so if the guide helps more people get there than all the better ^^

I thiiink the only quest you are "forced" to do is escaping the oubliette, which forces you into being level 5. The only encounter that is stopping you from fighting Phlogiston at level 5 is the drone encounter, which can't be avoided and is between you and the switches needed to open the final hallway. I think the drone is balanced around level 12, I'd have to check the numbers, but you can probably beat it a little earlier with the right abilities and speed order? It's designed to quickly dump you in the trash if you're too low in order to point people elsewhere.

But past that, yeah, I don't think there's any other required encounters, just practically you need to be strong enough to beat the drone and Phlogiston. Given how some of the quartz is blocked by fixed encounters there is kind of a "soft requirement" of levels needed to get more levels, but I think you could possibly get from 5 to 13ish without additional fights if you're quick enough and the pathfinding works out in your favor.

I am happy you found a lot to enjoy in AGOT; I have always struggled to hold my creative stuff with positivity and the general reaction to AGOT has given me a lot to think about in evaluating my perspective. I'd be happy to have you try my other works as stuff comes out of the workshop, of course, and I'll keep an eye out for your things too! :3

Also, sorry for double reply, but I read the guide and I think it is good! The possible line through the game is a little flexible and this one is close to how I laid it out and ran it in my tests and how my playtest group approached it too.

Thanks for putting effort into writing it all out! It was fun, reminded me of like, reading GameFAQs back when I was a sapling? Very cool ^^

Good job figuring it out! It is designed the follow like the "intended line" of the game's "quests", but it is also the most readily leapfrogged I think?  That's just based off my feelings about it and not hard numbers XD

Good job doing all of the game's quests! Sorry to tie up more of your day with it, but awesome job all the same. If this was still the 80s or something you could probably send in a card and get like, a high score reward type thingy like companies used to do!

The treasure map location is not on the overworld! Though in retrospect, it probably should be? It's probably what people think of most when they think about a treasure map quest, and it would give more purpose to all of the overworld tiling that is largely set dressing. I'll stick a pin in that XD

I'll give the walkthrough a poke today if I can, off to a slow start so far this morning ^^;

Thank you for saying so! My appraisal of AGOT is probably off just from lack of exposure and like, the difference between my internal version and the external version? It's been a surprise that people seem to like it, though it's awesome it's been connecting with folks of course ^^

Thank you again for giving it a go! :3

Yeah! No sweat! I mostly use like the LibreOffice suite or google doc type stuff too; everything "mainstream" going subscription only or whatever just makes me sick to my stomach XD

The treasure map does have the last 2 quartz, but it might be trickier to figure out than intended. If you need a soft hint feel free to lemme know :3

Oh yeah no worries, I getcha, I could probably work the rest of my life and my published projects will never overtake the project graveyard I have had going since I was a sprout XD

Making sprites from scratch is very work intensive, but it feels really good to be like, totally in control of the visual presentation? At least, that's something I prioritize really highly. I think your stuff did a great job of capturing the era while having your own personality too ^^

I was feeling imaginative and couldn't help chewing on what Altima II could possible look like, it is pretty cool and I'd totally play another one?Maybe someday! :D

Mission complete! :3

This is a really cool little idea for a bump combat game! Combining it with like idle / click type games is an interesting idea, and the bosses were a good evolution of the rest of the mechanics. Good stuff!

Truly a world in crisis where an enterprising do-gooder cannot get a continental breakfast on the house QAQ

Beat the game! Got both endings for the sake of it and had a good time doing so. I have observed before but am still always surprised by how minimal a formula can be and still evoke interesting context? I enjoyed the contrast in the final city and thought the Memorial puzzles were clever too! The sprites were really awesome too ^^

To end on another food note, I am happy that gremlins do not steal rations or drain FP as they may have done in Ultima XD

Thank you for playing AGOT! As long as it was enjoyable in some way I consider it a success. Here are some quick replies to your comments:

-FF3 and FF4 were deliberate inspirations; I really enjoy working at like a 16 x 16 tile size and that era of console RPGs I'll always carry with me. I am still working on my playthrough of Franzen but it's a wonderful game ^^

-Ashleigh's name is less direct than the others, but you have the intended interpretation of its wordplay correct!

-The final boss's balancing was decided around not completing the treasure map and not defeating Guernica, so that's all groovy. There's no changes to the ending for finding all the levelups, so it's strictly up to the player if one wants to do so. If I fully polish AGOT, and there is a little more I'd like to do with it, I'd probably think of something to do with that.

-If you want to write a walkthrough for the game, I'd hardly mind! Depending on your format for it I could get the map images or contribute some notes, whatever would benefit the effort.

I appreciate ya making it to the end screen too, thank you so much again for giving it a go! :D

Yo that sounds awesome! Thanks for cluing me into it, I wouldn't have had my eye out for it otherwise. I'd be happy to sign up ^^

Dark Souls is great! From my perspective it's sort of a really interesting return to adversarial design that was accepted instead of rejected in a time where adversarial design was sort of regarded as a relic of when game design as a craft was in its infancy. It can be brutal but the adrenaline jolt of running into a basilisk is unbeatable XDD

I haven't published too much else of note yet; I spent a lot of time last year working on a collab project that hasn't released yet but I am hoping to get a few more things out this year, including a follow up to AGOT. The Dentata encounter is balanced around level 8 I think, but in playtesting I didn't like how one of my runners ran into it and the encounter kind of dragged so I added a way to beat it early. I haven't really published enough RPGs to get a good feel for the kind of structure I was trying in AGOT, where you're supposed to kind of run into gates and then find the "soft spots" you can get progress in in order to build power to get past other gates, but I am hoping to keep refining my design senses. Not to keep talkin' shop and stuff XD

Yeah! DQ is pretty close to my heart, so I had to include 'em in with the other undead critters ^^

RM2K is too, I pretty much grew up with the thing. The jam I built this for required using it and it felt really good to come back home to it after so long! Right now I am tinkering with a prototype in 2k I might end up moving to MV later down the road, if stuff pans out 🤔

There's room for improvement, there always is with all things, but I would like to stress I had a good time with it up until getting stumped at the end. I am not sure if the classic dungeon crawler loop is timelessly charming, and certainly a lot of classic dungeon crawlers do not appeal to me, but the tension of hunting through the dark for progress while slowly growing a party is always endearing to me and the heart of that is here ^^

I feel a little bad about running out of patience with the final puzzle, but the only things I would really want from it are:

1) Feedback on if a chosen teleport is right or not. The hint is pretty direct but applying how I thought it worked to the puzzle didn't seem to work,  and there's enough teleports that trying random combinations of 4 of them wasn't something I wanted to entertain in combination with #2 below. But also, this seemed appropriate to a classic dungeon crawling experience, which would have you in a situation like this at least once if not more, with even more abstract hints (if any!), so I did want to keep at it.

2) The only other thing that stopped me from wandering around and powering up while sorting out the puzzle is the (I think I remember the name  right, I was up late so sorry if my memory is spotty) Antiger + Antiger + Antiger enemy group, which readily seem to outspeed the party at level 30 / 31 and are fond enough of their group earth spell that they just sweep you up and dump you in a bin. I respect and fear them XD

Not to carry on, my intention isn't to bust your chops and I know jabbering on about red ink and tweaks and so on can be tiresome. I enjoyed playing and even grumbling about puzzles and certain random enemy groups being really tough feels authentic to the classic experience? So no sweat! You did a good job and I'll probably be rifling through your library over my vacation XD

No sweat! It should be a quick fix, and now it can be watched out for forevermore ^^

I have been considering joining teams more since I tend to prefer focusing on art assets anyway? I am questioning further participation in this specific brand of RM Jams though due to GenAI being permitted in the ruleset, but given the topic of my submission that's no mystery XD

I spent a lot of last year tied up with collab work so I am hoping to focus more on solo work, but if you see a jam coming down the calendar that looks good feel free to drop me a line. I might have time 👍

Unfortunately, there is a bug being caused by a missing image file that renders spells unable to be cast and the game crashing after combat. Looking it up it looks like the Timed Attack Core is missing its input arrow graphic file. Based on me hitting the same issue in my experience, the image file was probably discarded when the project was deployed from RPG Maker since the thing that auto removes unused audio and graphics does not have visibility on resources plugins are using. At least, not on MV, if I am remembering right, so I imagine MZ works the same.

I couldn't get super far because of that, but I really enjoyed the custom enemy sprites! Custom sprites and monster designs always get a big thumbs up from meeee 👍