Developer Sraëka Lillian has embarked on a project to release a new, short RPG experiment every week, focusing on deconstructing and reimagining common conventions found in classic role-playing games. These "miniature RPG experiments," available on Itch.io, often come with detailed design notes that offer insight into Lillian's creative process.
Many contemporary RPGs, particularly those made with accessible toolkits, can feel similar due to their reliance on established conventions. These often include archetypal locations like the starting village, the forest labyrinth, or the bustling city, as well as recurring gameplay elements such as tutorial quests or singular shops and inns within towns. Lillian's "sketches" playfully engage with these familiar structures.
Some of these experiments are more whimsical, like "Mencollector," where players have a limited time to gather characters scattered across a map. Others more directly dissect specific RPG mechanics. For instance, the "Keep Wishing" sketch explores the trope of castle infiltration as seen in early Final Fantasy titles. Lillian notes the tradition of castles in the series "opening up as you find keys, letting you sneak into vaults, unlock prison doors, and sneak into kings' bedrooms through oblique routes," often without combat encounters and relying on level design for challenge.
Another example, "Shortest Path," uses high random battle difficulty to encourage players to seek out shortcuts. Lillian explains the design intent: "The idea was for the dungeon to have, in addition to its visible main entrance, several hidden entrances which are discovered by progressing through the dungeon. The path from the main entrance to the objective is much farther than your meager resources will take you, and success requires finding a closer entrance to shorten your path through the dungeon."
As of this writing, there are 31 such sketches available. Lillian's approach is characterized by a willingness to experiment and iterate quickly, a philosophy she outlines in her notes for "Butterfly's Big Knife Fight." She expresses a desire to overcome anxieties about work quality, stating, "when people lack these anxieties, or rather when they share them but aren't deterred by them, I feel something sort of electric. It looks charismatic, graceful, fearless... It makes my world feel bigger, like more things are possible... I want that fearlessness for myself. Like anything else, I guess, if you want it, you have to work at it. So I guess I have to post another game next week."
Lillian is also the developer of "Cataphract OI," an RPG where players escort a character through a dungeon against a clock while managing their exposure to environmental hazards. Her weekly sketches offer a more focused and experimental look at game design principles.