Game Jam - Rapid Prototyping

This post contains Spoilers 
I needed a break from my larger projects, so a short 2 day game jam seemed like a quick fix. One thing that stood out is I've become better at programming in RPGmaker. I've found more effective and efficient ways of doing things, and often have more complex ideas go right, rather than the usual spending hours trying to figure out what I did wrong.  

I wasted too much time trying to use the built-in graphics of MV, as soon as I switched to the Vexed Enigma sets I've bought the rooms came alive. 

My biggest goal was to make something short enough that could be finished within the jam, but also have enough details that it felt like a world. Obviously, there are many ways the narrative could be extended. The game is a rapid prototype not a polished final end project. 

Typically for a jam, I usually design a map and then make a story to go with it. This time I started in my sketch book and starting to think of the story. While I was at work I had this idea of someone trapped in a room (yes this is very much a constant theme in my work) talking to someone through a translucent glass wall. Originally, there wasn't going to be another person, only a figment of Six's imagination to help her get out of the room and make her feel less lonely. This was partially inspired by World War Z, the part of the story where the one character believes they are talking to someone on a radio, when there was no one there. Sometimes we do better when we think there is another person or sometimes we actively try to be less negative about a hopeless situation when there is someone else. When things are bad, you find strange ways to cope.  Obviously, I got rid of the imaginary person, but still left in part of it, because Drainy was the other character that got cut.  There's still the line about 'good old reliable drainy." Even with planning, writing was stream of consciousness. 

I wanted to make it so every part of the room could be investigated. If you spend a lot of time in one place, you end up both knowing it and not knowing it. 

My next goal was to make choices matter. One of the biggest choices is that you can choose to never engage with Venti. You can end up escaping without her. There are smaller choices like, Steve won't come with you if you don't feed him, and if Venti doesn't look through the computer you won't get an explanation for the dream and stats on which part of the population the plague had a greater effect on. 

Obviously, if I had more time the rat friending mechanics would be a little more than just feed them. I'd work in that you can starve to death in that room because those boxes are gonna run out. Or in Venti's case, she only had water. So that's about 1 month she could live in that room. 

For some reason, music I added did not want to play immediately. The files aren't large, and I've had no issue with that in previous RPGmaker projects.