Vanguard Party (Indev)

Welcome to the Vanguard Party!

It's an RPG, intended to include features such as mystery dungeons, timed-hit actions, town management, a charming cast of characters, and some deep and mysterious lore. The current version of this game is a very early in-development snapshot. Check it out anyway... you big goofball!

Explore the ruins of a post-cataclysm world as Rook, a robot who just woke up. Meet Tally, Exper, and the other inhabitants of a fledgling community built atop an abandoned farm. Join the party and delve into ever-shifting dungeons to rescue and recruit friendly survivors, collect resources and treasures to grow the community, and search for historical truth - what happened to the world and to the progenitors? - all while discovering your potential and who you want to be.

You can now play through a prototype of the prologue. Talk to Exper, choose your starting Affinity, and climb your way up Breezy Knoll while learning how to defend, attack, and use items. Then, join up with Tally to make your way through the Shady Shortcut before facing the miniboss Cloaked Figure.

Basics: Use WASD to move. Press E to pull up your Dice Diamond, which displays your Techs, which are your available attacks. Choose a Tech with a single WASD key, and press Spacebar to use it if an enemy's in range. Watch the timing bar at the bottom of the screen, and press Spacebar when the white timing indicator is as far right as possible without going off the edge. You'll use this same timing input when defending against attacks, too. In dungeons, your goal is to find the stairs and advance to the next level or sublevel. You can also find and pick up items, a few of which are usable. Press Spacebar with no menus open to perform a quick basic attack instantly. Hold Shift and press a direction to rotate in place without moving or using a turn. Hold Shift and Space together to pass time quickly.

Menus: R opens 'R'egulations, or general settings - take some time exploring all these, but note that the Help and About menus are very out-of-date. F opens 'F'ound Items, your inventory, where you can inspect or use items to heal, lower your Temp, or restore the Charge of your Techs.

Overworld: This is in a very rudimentary state. Walk around with WASD, run by holding Shift, and press Spacebar to interact with some things.

The game's natural, pixel-art-friendly resolution is 640x360 (360p), which is "Window scale 1x" in-game. The other available resolutions are 1280x720 (720p, Window scale 2x, the game's default) and 1920x1080 (1080p, Window scale 3x).

Development start date: Aug. 3, 2026 Inspired by the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Mario & Luigi series of games, among others.

Found a bug? Comment below, or send it to qclod@proton.me.