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So I've been working on this for a few months, it's still in very early stages. But it's going to be a plot heavy JRPG, with a very unique story, strange and wonderful characters, and an art style that's low res (snes resolution) and low color (limiting myself to about 32 colors for the whole thing, just to give it a unique feel...with certain areas having a different palette for that same reason...)

The plot:
You wake in a cage, captured by a bone witch, who wants to steal your heart and use it for a spell. You plan your escape, and then a box next to the cage starts talking to you, telling you of a way out...

And that's when things get weird.

Some basics-
-Narrative first game design, where the narrative influences the mechanics and sets the puzzles and combat in the world. This means nothing exists in the game that isn't part of the narrative (characters, world design, etc).
-Enemies on the map similar to Ultima:Exodus (NES version) or Ultima: Avatar (PC/Amiga/AII versions), and they respawn every time you exit/enter someplace. When you hit the enemy, it goes into a side view turn based battle. Dungeons and caves and ruins, the enemies do not respawn, so you can clear floors and rooms/etc.
-Kawaii art style with a dark and weird plot that gives it (I hope) a very Tim Burton meets Adventure Time/Dragon Quest kind of feel to the whole thing
-Light and shadow based puzzle design
-A combination of heavy narrative plot and free form world exploration, using a chapter design and open world, where you can go off the plot to explore at any point. Also has several unique sections where you can do things multiple ways and get different results

I did a lot of custom JS for this...which was fun to do. So far, I've got about an hour and a half or so worth of gameplay, with the final game being about 24-40 hours or so, depending...which means it's going to be a bit before a full release. At least a year, if not more.

Scripts Used:
YED_TileD
Community Basic
KHAS_UltraLighting
GALV_LayerGraphics
GALV_MessageStyles
SRD_WalkCharBattlers for enemies (but not for actors)
YEP_EventSpawner
SVActorPosition
WAY_CustomOnEquipEval
HIME_PreTitleEvents
SRD_ALT_MenuScreen_Info
And tons of personal Javascript I wrote, scattered through events and small one shot plugins...

Tools used:
AsePrite for art
TileD for Mapping

Latest Demo on Itch.io
https://cupofstars.itch.io/the-heart-of-the-bone-witch