Hello again, creators, and welcome to another rendition of RPG Mania!

RPGs like Final Fantasy, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger have stood the test of time. With sprawling worlds, unique characters and epic tales of world-ending cataclysm, this genre has always opened up so many possibilities for fantastic story-telling and intuitive gameplay.

Many games have also borrowed from this genre, resulting in a vast catalogue of games that incorporate RPG elements and make them a core part of the game.

Hopefully by the time this jam rolls around, most of you will have used the concept jam to do some pre-production for your game (assuming you're starting a new entry). As RPG Mania is fluid between iterations, jammers can also choose to work on a jam game they've previously been working on for RPG Mania, in order to incorporate new mechanics, further develop their ideas and work toward a more polished result.

Rules:
- Following the conclusion of the concept jam, this jam will run for a month. Submissions are due on the 1st of February - late submissions are completely acceptable, but require an admin to post. The voting period then goes for two weeks. As always, jammers are encouraged to post their progress in Discord throughout the jam in order to get feedback from the community.
- Any jam submissions intended for RPG Mania VIII must be done specifically for RPG Mania, but are fluent between iterations. If your entry is submitted to a different jam (not related to RPG Mania), it will be disqualified. However, you can use any assets you have available to you as long as you have the rights and/or licensing to use them.
- Jam games can be created in any game engine you have at your disposal (Unity, Unreal, Godot, RPG Maker etc.) or without the use of an engine, and the style can be whatever you choose, be it 2D, pixel art, 3D - the world is yours to design.
- All game submissions must be free to download and play until after the voting period is over. After the voting period is finished, you are free to do what you want with your game.
- Final submissions do not need to reach any specific threshold of completion; you can submit a game that is nothing but an intro, or a combat system that you are proud of. Always remember you can continue your game into the next jam. The intent is to keep learning and having fun!

The optional theme for RPG Mania VIII is:

Happy jamming everyone!

Links:
Discord server
Concept jam page