(Spotted) LiEat - WOLF RPG editor

(...Will update this once I have more info)

http://lieat.ifdef.jp/

(Reference) Game creator special: SUDA51 - [toco toco]

A Look at the Japanese Game Preservation Society - [HG101]

"A look at the Japanese Game Preservation Society's laboratory in Tokyo, as guided by Joseph Redon. This organization works to preserve Japan's software, which, like software from all over the globe, was initially distributed on rather fragile medium."

This is an excerpt from John Szczepaniak's DVD "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers"

In 2014, HG101, launched a kickstarter that would attempt to tackle the untold history of japanese game developers. As John put it:

"Fly to Japan in September, hire the best Japanese/English interpreters money can find, and then - using my extensive list of contacts - make stuff happen. Interview as many developers as possible in less than three months, with a focus on undocumented information and developers who have never been interviewed before. Transcribe the English interpretation, then edit, design and create the most extensive, most comprehensive, most ambitious book about video games ever envisioned. This epic tome will contain trivia and stories of Japanese video game history never documented anywhere else in English."

...While the endeavour turned out to be a bit of disaster with a particular associate, the end result is an incredibly rare and unique look at the game industry overseas. 

If you grew up, playing any of the famous 16-bit jrpgs of the 90s, this is definitely worth a look.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/books.htm

(Spotted) Ara Fell - RM2k3 - Badluck

(Really busy this month...Will update with more info later on)

(Archive) Duplicity - RM2k - GamingGroundZero

(From Choin Heap - "RPG Maker oldschool recs" by Darken May-18-2014)

"This… isn’t even a game! It’s a movie of sorts. The story follows an operative battling the corporations and conspiracies that follow him. Lots of twists and turns. Takes place in a cyberpunk future where robots and hacking are the centerpiece. Very Ghost in the Shell, It does actually have an ending but hints at a possible game based off of this. Overall I really enjoyed the effective cutscene direction and planning. There’s a lot of well done parts."

Download

(Spotted) Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - Reveal Trailer

(from Polygon by Allegra Frank - Jun 02, 2016)

"Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is now in development from developer Lizardcube and publisher DotEmu. The adventure game is a current-gen spin on the classic Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap, originally released for Sega Master System in 1989.

While Sega and original developer Westone isn't involved in the remake, Lizardcube said that it's working closely with the Wonder Boy series' creators on the project. The French studio's take on The Dragon's Trap features a decidedly different look from its 27-year-old predecessor, as seen in the teaser above. The graphics are hand-drawn, and the soundtrack has also been reimagined, the developer said.

Like the original, though, players will spend the Metroidvania-esque action-platformer as the shape-shifting Lizard-Man, who changes between six different forms, from a mouse to a piranha. There's no release date yet for Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, but Lizardcube is planning to bring it to Windows PC and consoles."

(Spotted) Alone - RM2K - RMN

"ALONE is a short 20~ minute game created on June 7th (2015), in only 8 hours, by iddalai for the "RMN Birthday 2015" event held at 'rpgmaker.net'.

It deals with frustrations you may find in internet forums, click here for a more detailed explanation, though I'd advise you try the game first.
While using many RPG characteristics, it plays more like a puzzle game with trial & error and a bit of metroidvania-ish exploration.

The game actually wasn't supposed to have a name, but became known as ALONE..."
Via RMN
Mirror Download

(Spotted) Actual SunLight - RMVXAce - Will O'Neill

(from HG101 Article by Jonathan Kaharl - May 1st, 2016)
"CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses depression and suicide.

Indie gaming has been involving for a good while, and one of its most popular subgenres in the western world has become the narrative game. Many of these developers are more interested in telling a story than presenting a traditional game for a player to have fun with, and it's been met with mixed responses, mainly due to how so few of these developers understand how interactivity with their chosen medium can change the experience. But it's unclear all these developers even think things that far through. Some are so focused on capturing an idea or feeling that all the flaws in their title can't take away the sheer impact.

Actual Sunlight is one of those games. It is also not a happy game by any stretch of the imagination.

The designer, Will O'Neill, grew up in Toronto, Canada all his life, working not in any sort of videogame related field, but a creative director at a communications agency that had no real reach outside his home city. His real dream and passion was not in gaming, but in writing, creating a very darkly comedic and biting style founded in his own depression and self-loathing. To this day, subtly is not his strength, but sheer, unrelenting honesty at the cruel realities that surround us and his own many shortcomings, or at least as he sees them. His weight, a sense of lacking skill or talent, no significant others. These qualities, mixed with his crippling depression, made his twenties, as he describes them, a "black hole." Sometime in his early thirties, his issues finally piled up, and he ended up nearly killing himself, though didn't go through with it in the end.

Actual Sunlight was O'Neill's attempt to capture something beautiful about life in one of the ugliest times of his life. Picking up a copy of RPG Maker and playing with it for a bit, he eventually found a way to make the medium he's been familiar with as a player work for him as a storytelling tool."

Actual Sunlight on Playstation Store (PS4, PSVita)
Actual Sunlight on Steam

(Spotted) Metal Tear - RM2k3 - Cancelled

Via Youtube

The Final Fantasist: A Conversation With Yoshitaka Amano - [USGAMER]

Amano's rendition of FFVI's world revealed a far grander and more fantastic vista than the humble Super NES was capable of rendering.

COVER STORY: The artist who has given life to so many Final Fantasy games speaks about his inspirations, the difference between fine and commercial art, and his current projects.

"The first time I saw — or rather, noticed — Yoshitaka Amano's work was when I stumbled across the Nintendo-published U.S. strategy guide for Final Fantasy VI, back when we in America thought it was actually the third Final Fantasy..."

"... It stood out from shelves by avoiding the hypertrophic musclemen and garish explosions typical to 16-bit American game packaging. In their place instead appeared a delicate, almost impressionistic rendition of a young woman with flowing hair reclining in the cockpit of a gnarled, angular machine. Despite the cover illustration being largely obscured by a huge red block from which the book's title screamed in shiny gold letters, I recognized the subject of the painting immediately: This was Terra perched atop a Magitek Armor, an artistic take on Final Fantasy VI's stunning introduction in which we meet the story's central character as a brainwashed servant storming through a mining town atop powerful armor in service of an imperial army. "

Via USGAMER