BUH BA BAM!

On the outer edge of the Kingdom of Arete, four paths converge at Blackout Tavern: a cunning thief, a quixotic knight, a fiery martial artist, and a noble-born mage. Will their stories reveal the secrets of the legendary Aletheian Ring? Or will the heroes' foibles and biases keep the truth from their grasp? Is there, perhaps, something more important than truth alone?

Default Controls

Below are the keyboard and gamepad controls for the game. Mobile devices are supported. Controls can be changed by going to Main Menu > Settings > Config > Rebind Keyboard Controls (or Rebind Gamepad Controls).

General Controls

	Mouse and Keyboard	Gamepad
Movement	WASD or arrow keys	D-Pad
Confirm	Enter, Z, or left-click (MB1)	A
Cancel	Esc, X, or right-click (MB2)	B
Menu	Esc, X, or right-click (MB2)	Y
Dash/Walk*	Shift	X

*Auto-dash is enabled by default and can be toggled in the settings. While auto-dash is on, holding Shift will force you to walk. While auto-dash is off, holding Shift will allow you to dash.

Battle Controls

	Mouse and Keyboard	Gamepad
Boost	PageDown or E	RB
Unboost	PageUp or Q	LB

If the current character has equipped multiple weapons, move your cursor to the Attack command and press left or right (A or D) to cycle through weapons.

Cutscene Controls

	Mouse and Keyboard	Gamepad
Fast Forward	PageDown or E	RB
Message Log	PageUp or Q	LB

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About the Game

BUH BA BAM! is a turn-based RPG inspired by games like Octopath Traveler, Live A Live, and Bravely Default.

• Use your wits to tactically wear down the enemies' Shields, and Boost your attacks to give the fiends a nasty wallop!
• Each character features a different playstyle, so it's up to you to adapt and make the most out of their unique skillsets!
• Get to know the four heroes better through visual-novel-style cutscenes and party banter!

This game was developed by Define Games as a submission for the RPG Maker Themed Game Jam #11: Tavern Stories game jam (July 17, 2025 to August 26, 2025). However, we intend to continue working on the game after the jam.

The game will have four chapters (or "episodes"). Currently, Episodes 1 and 2 are complete (though we may update assets and continue polishing in the future). There is about two hours' worth of content at the moment. The rest of the script is written (about 18,000 words total), and we already have some assets for the remaining chapters. Please check back on this itch page for updates! We'd also appreciate it if you left a comment if you find a bug, spot a typo, or just want to share your thoughts about our game!

Also, if you are playing on your browser, you may notice a slight delay as assets are pulled up as well as frame drops in a few areas. If you would rather not worry about potentially encountering these issues, we recommend downloading the desktop version at the bottom of this page.

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About the Developers

Define Games is a small group of three developers from the United States and Canada. We've been friends for over a decade and would often muse about making a game one day, but we'd inevitably run into hurdles. At some point, we decided to stop putting it off, and we used this game jam as an excuse to finally make a game. This is the first game that the Define Games team has developed (both as a group and for each of us individually).

Brustache is the pixel artist (for custom sprites and graphic alterations) and main map designer. Loves Nintendo games and all things pixel art. He struggles with his ever-growing gaming backlog, but give him a project and he will give his all into it. He’s an avid watcher of seasonal anime and is very invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Grand Staff is the key character artist for the main cast. He is an avid mobile game player who is weak to hot anime women. When he's not busy rolling on the next banner or working, he's at the gym or cooking/baking. He's single.

Professor Weej (or just Weej) is the writer and programmer. During the day, he is a lawyer whose career choice was inspired (perhaps foolishly) by the Ace Attorney games. Off the clock, he's a simple cat dad. He's not single.

For more details about what each of us contributed, please see the Credits section below.

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Credits

Click to view credits

Production

Developed by Define Games
Brustache
Professor Weej
Grand Staff

Project managed by Professor Weej

Created with RPG Maker MZ
Yoji Ojima (main programmer)
Enterbrain
Kadokawa
Gotcha Gotcha Games

Programming

Event scripting by Professor Weej

Battle scripting by Professor Weej

Additional event scripting by Brustache

Plugins from VisuStella
Yanfly
Arisu
Olivia
Irina

Additional plugins* from Caethyril, Tsukimi, DaedraKyne, and FeniXEngine

Writing

Script by Professor Weej

Art

Character designs by Grand Staff

Character portraits by Grand Staff

Custom character sprites by Brustache

Custom map assets by Brustache

Custom UI assets by Brustache

Custom item assets by Brustache

Skill action sequences by Professor Weej

Additional system icons* from Caz

Additional monster sprites* from Chalkdust

Additional overworld arrow sprites* from Aphotic and Mozumin

Additional actional sequences* from AkraticHuman

Map Design

Prologue maps by Professor Weej

Episode 1 maps by Brustache

Episode 2 maps by Brustache

Sound and Music

Jazzy Style Battle by Takayuki Amanuma

Jazzy Style Street by Takayuki Amanuma

Additional SFX from ZapSplat.com
aaj_3387_CrazySaxSounds1 (Repeating saxophone ascending riff, fast) by Adam A Johnson

Additional SFX from FreeSound.org
DM_150_AMin_SAX_RIFF_4.wav by zuluonedrop -- https://freesound.org/s/243876/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
Vibraphone Chord by jack_urbanski -- https://freesound.org/s/495674/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Playtesters

Bra_Ket

A_Very_Avery

Special Thanks

Professor Weej: To my partner, Avery, for supporting me through this endeavor.

*For more information about what specific additional assets we used, please see below:

Additional assets

Plugins

Hide Gold by Caethyril

No Damage Flash by Caethyril

FilterControllerMZ by Tuskimi

Actor Inventories by DaedraKyne

Chapter Select by FeniXEngine

Others from VisuStella

Art

Pixel Fantasy RPG Icons - MV RTP by Caz

Pixel Fantasy Icons Letter Buttons by Caz

Some monster sprites by Chalkdust (https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/chalkdust-resources.47335/)

Floating Arrow sprites by Aphotic, modified by Mozumin (https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/floating-arrow-sprites.150284/)

Some action sequences modified from AkraticHuman (https://akratichuman.itch.io/as-basics)