Chase of the Ruby
A commoner in the divided Skylands of Hershia steals the kingdom’s sacred ruby and falls into an apparently endless abyss.
Chase of the Ruby gave the Calgwinverse a compact, character-led release: a social divide, one impossible theft, and consequences that push the player into the unknown.
The situation.
Set in the divided Skylands of Hershia, Chase of the Ruby follows Rosalie, a 23-year-old commoner living in poverty while elites possess superpowers. Her decision to steal the kingdom’s holy ruby turns an unequal world into a personal, playable conflict.
The game was a Brackeys Game Jam 2022.1 submission and is also labelled ‘Calgwin Origins: Hershia & Harthwaite’ on the release page. That makes the title both a small jam release and a node in a broader connected-world experiment.
What I did.
I led creative direction, game development, writing, and production with the W15I team.
I focused the game around Rosalie’s perspective and a single catalytic decision rather than trying to explain all of Hershia at once. The team then shaped that idea into a concise jam release.
From the game.
Two gameplay captures pulled from the Chase of the Ruby itch.io page.
Hershia after dark
A town scene establishes the place Rosalie moves through before the missing ruby drives the story forward.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.io
The search for the ruby
A story scene shows the theft driving the game's immediate conflict.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.ioHow the work unfolded.
Anchor the world in one protagonist
Made Rosalie’s theft of the ruby the player’s immediate reason to understand the social split in Hershia.
Use consequence as structure
Built the apparent endless abyss after the theft as a narrative turn that could carry the player beyond the initial premise.
Ship a concise jam RPG
Released a short, single-player RPG Maker game for Brackeys Game Jam 2022.1 rather than expanding the setting past the deadline.
What happened.
Chase of the Ruby released for Windows as a Brackeys Game Jam 2022.1 entry. A player also left a public itch.io comment praising its writing, which was encouraging for such a compact story-led build.
The game stands as a completed chapter in the wider Calgwinverse, centred on Rosalie's decision and the consequences that follow it.
What I learned.
Perspective makes a world legible
A large setting becomes easier to enter when its inequality is felt through one character’s stakes.
A compact release can carry continuity
A jam game can point toward a wider universe without trying to contain all of it.
Small responses still reveal what landed
The itch.io comment singled out the writing, giving the team a useful signal about what a player remembered from the short release.
Related links.
Repositories, demos, event pages, posts, and other places connected to this project.
- Chase of the Ruby: itch.io release pagePremise, author attribution, game-jam entry, genre, and public player comment.
- Brackeys Game Jam 2022.1: itch.io eventEvent link supplied by the game’s release page; event availability may change.
- W-15 Interactive: games catalogueCurrent first-party framing of W15I's games and story-world practice.
- W-15 Interactive on LinkedInW15I studio profile and team context.