Possum Sanctuary (a game for Seasonal RPG Game Jam #1)

[Slyonics]

Anybody see the RPG Game Jam thread for the upcoming Seasonal RPG Game Jam #1 hosted on itch.io? This is the thread where I will talk about Possum Sanctuary, the game that I intend to create and submit as an entry to this game jam over the next couple months. Right now I plan to do all this solo using music and sprites from asset packs that I legally purchased, but I would love to team up with other like-minded and highly motivated collaborators if available.

Previous Game Jam Experience
I've done a lot of game jams and I've worked with a lot of teammates. Back in the day, I would just shout my game idea into a chatroom until somebody with art and music skills showed interest, and then I would write a custom game engine for it from scratch and not sleep at all that month. This method stopped working a few years ago, and since then I'm mostly been doing solo dev using modified versions of the game engines I wrote when I still had that fire in my belly. My favorite is the homebrew RPG Maker engine that I created for Unfinished Fantasy.

This short (15 to 30 minutes) vertical slice of a retro JRPG dungeon crawler is available to play free through the web browser. It may take a few minutes to load, because I'm doing all this homebrew and it's a little janky, but it works well enough for me. Unfinished Fantasy is available to play free on my itch.io profile along with a few other entries that I've made for other game jams in the past. This is the engine that I will be re-using for Possum Sanctuary in the upcoming Seasonal RPG Game Jam #1.

Possum Sanctuary
What is this game going to be about? Well, that will depend on which theme gets voted in for the game jam. Personally, I hope it's 'Before the Sun Sets' because I have a neat idea where progress through the game world is gated not by keys, not by obstacles, and not by random encounters that you have to grind out, but rather by the amount of distance the protagonist can travel in a single day before her magical protective amulet triggers and teleports her safely back to sanctified ground before *THE CURSE* can activate. I will post more details and some progress updates once the jam actually begins on September 23rd.

[Slyonics]

Less than a week remains until the official start of the game jam! I am now joined by local composer and RPG enthusiast Angry Snail so this is now a team effort instead of a solo jam. I have a general mental outline of how this game will be structured, and I've implemented a brief (~5 minutes) playable introductory sequence to the game. I'll upload a video of the playable intro once the jam begins, just so that other participants know where I'm starting from. The majority of the game will be developed during the jam period, and I hope to have at least 2 hours of playable content ready by submission time.



Possum
A young woman with a mysterious past wakes up in a shadowy netherworld without her memories. She is a talented thief and master of disguise, and her playing style involves methodically probing enemies for weaknesses, infiltrating well-guarded strongholds, and grabbing everything not nailed down. Even hearts and character classes can be stolen with the right ability. Although she is fully capable of navigating the entire game world alone, additional teammates can be found and recruited to assist with obstacles and unlock additional content areas.

[Slyonics]

The game jam has officially begun and a theme (before the sun sets) has been selected! As promised, here is a video playthrough of the game engine and content already completed at the start of the game jam. This is the yardstick by which I will be measuring my progress throughout the duration of the game jam, which runs for 3 months during the season of autumn: