Home > Maple Blade

Controls

• Click inside the embedded game, then press SPACE to start.
• Use the ARROW KEYS to move. Talk to people by walking into them, face-on. Press SPACE to advance the dialogue.
• Hold SPACE to draw your sword, then use the ARROW KEYS to aim, then release SPACE to strike!
• Press SHIFT to release a firefly!
• Press Z to zoom out.
• Press X to perform a Forbidden Trade (careful!)

About

Maple Blade is a roguelite mystery-dungeon style exploration game, in an autumnal forest full of vengeful spirits– where the randomly-generated dungeon walls are tombstones and trees, which can be chopped and burned to solve puzzles and explore freely.

Because it’s turn-based, it can have some intense combat, but it’s never stressful, because you have plenty of time to chill and plan your next move. The ambience and art are meant to be relaxing :)

The combat mechanics are like stretching and snapping a rubber band, where the player draws their sword, selects their target, and then lets their attack fly. Time progresses when you attack, so a big part of the game is reading the field and predicting future enemy movements. The spirits all have different movement styles– some only go in specific directions, some chase after the player, some throw fireballs and start forest fires, and so on. Imagine if chess was really easy lol

Setting & progression

There’s some light RPG elements, with a small story and cozy setting– the remote tourist town of Duckwood, whose ancient Sage Grounds have gained fame for their beauty, history, and ghostly mysteries. Little do the tourists know– in the autumn dusk, the Sage Grounds are haunted, and extremely hazardous.

The heroine, Maple Montressor, is stepping into the role of Purifier, handed down by her sister. Taking up the family sword, she sets off on her first task: to rescue the shopkeeper’s cat before nightfall.

After the cat is saved, the shopkeeper opens her souvenir stand, which sells hats for the cat (an excellent suggestion from my buddy Noel) giving the player some “non-essentials” to aim for. The game opens up into a more non-linear structure, with lots of different puzzle-style tasks for the player to complete in the Sage Grounds at their own pace. They can immediately go after difficult combat targets, or grind for money to spend on magical items that make them more powerful (i.e. fireproof, able to walk on water, etc), or spend time chatting with the townsfolk to hear rumors and hints about their goals.

A big design goal for this game was encouraging “player expression,” where players feel agency and creativity by approaching and solving problems their own way, rather than being forced to just “get good” at the designer’s intended solution. The shops and items are a big part of that, and there’s a lot more of it I want to add, too.

Development

I started working on Maple Blade in late June, but it actually takes its turn-based movement mechanics from a phone game I made in 2018, while I was still living in Japan! It was called Oystre, and was more of a puzzler, similar to PuyoPuyo or Mr. Driller, where the player navigated a research submarine through hordes of sea monsters. Oystre was about 90% complete when it ran into major technical issues as a result of its engine, a Flash-based platform called Stencyl, and I decided to cut my losses and come back to the concept in a better engine.

Years later, after attempting to draft an updated “Super Oystre” in Godot (an excellent free & open-source engine), I realized the aquatic setting was making everything a lot harder (underwater stuff is hard to draw and color!) so I started thinking about alternative settings. One time in 2018, while hiking in the densely wooded mountains near Inuyama, I got kinda lost as the sun was setting, following a trail near Jakkoin temple, surrounded by hundreds of Jizo statues peeking out between the leaves. It was a slightly spooky, slightly adventurous, and extremely beautiful moment. I knew I couldn’t make a game about that moment specifically, but I wanted to see if I could reflect some of its ominous autumnal beauty.

Learning Godot has been tricky (it’s the first time I’ve written this much code by hand) but extremely rewarding. Using the engine reminds me of building this website in raw HTML / CSS in Notepad++, in terms of its lightweight approach and (occasionally brutal) simplicity. There’s a ton of great tutorials out there by far more talented devs than me, and they’re the real reason Maple Blade exists!

Full version!

A full version of Maple Blade is on the horizon! I’m targeting a Christmas 2025 release. It might cost like three dollars.

Here’s all the stuff I’m trying to add to the full game:

• An original score, currently in development by composer Tim Myers and Chicago’s own PCPete :)
• The third chapter of the story, which begins once the player has completed all the Task List items, and involves the tall temple building seen in the title screen
• A big boss fight!
• More magical shop items at Boldy’s Corner
• More hats at the Gift Shop– I want the inventory to rotate, so there’s tons of hats on sale at various times
• Maybe another sidequest or two
• A cute sentimental ending with a credits roll
• A way to save your progress– might not be possible in HTML5, who knows?
• Various improvements / additions to dialogue, graphics, bugs, framerate, etc

It’s a lot, but the finish line is in sight. Thanks everyone for your encouragement, testing, bug reports, ideas, and for playing and sharing my little game :)