GAME CLEAR No. 133 -- The Dark Queen

The Dark Queen (2023, PC)

Developer: merritt k
Publisher: merritt k
Clear Date: 5/9/23

You must recover.

A couple weeks ago, merritt k tweeted about a little game she’d made in RPG Maker. She noted it was the first finished product she’d made with the software she had long been familiar with. Perhaps because of my own recent return to making little games (however dinky and quaint they may be), I found that particularly compelling and bought it straight away.

Per its description on itch.io, “The Dark Queen is a short (about 20-30 minute long) narrative game in five parts based on a dream.” It uses stock assets and seems to have at least partially been made as an exercise in learning to use the software. That’s the kind of shit I’m talking about, frankly.

merritt’s runtime estimate is just about right, so I was able to easily finish the game in a single sitting. What I found was enjoyable and thought-provoking in more ways than one.

First of all, I am only familiar with RPG Maker by name, so I was super curious throughout about what merritt’s exact toolkit was here. But the finished product certainly is a polished and bug-free little RPG. I reckon if you want to make a game where you walk around, talk to people, and get in turn-based battles, RPG Maker probably takes care of a lot of the boilerplate. That’s pretty appealing! I was also impressed with some things like scripted sequences, intermissions (for lack of a better word), and interactability of various objects. I couldn’t help but wonder how those things were managed in the software.

I did not, however, play the game as a matter of strict curiosity about RPG Maker. If anything, that was only of mild secondary appeal. I played it because someone whose work I enjoy and admire made something new and I wanted to see what it was about.

And the answer to that in some sense is titular. The events of the game concern the eponymous Dark Queen and, to spoil things slightly, the consequences of her theft of the protective treasure known as the Sun’s Heart from the Fairy people.

Each playable character responds to this catastrophe in their own way – whether it be anger, stoic bargaining, or nervous perseverance – and their outcomes perhaps reflect the usefulness thereof. Of particular interest to me is the fact that the bleakest setting resolves with the most optimistic outlook. The finale also offers further perspective into the preceding events with the benefit of hindsight and a final reckoning with that title character.

What this all meant to the author I can’t claim to know and wouldn’t dare to presume, but it’s affecting stuff regardless. And it strikes me as remarkably personal. I couldn’t imagine producing and releasing something so close to the heart to the ~3 people who read this blog, let alone merritt’s considerably larger following. Admirable indeed and perhaps a good reminder that people actually like it when you show your humanity in your work.

I also feel like there’s a slight sense of humility in the way merritt describes the game with respect to its scope, which I understand but also find unnecessary. If anything this game is also a nice reminder to me that a small finished project is worth a million ambitious daydreams, been-meaning-tos, and gotta-get-back-tos.

On that note, talk to you later. 👾