Roadwarden is a game from Moral Anxiety Studios which, as far as I understand, is mostly just one person, who made the entire thing in ren'py. It's a cross between a visual novel, an old-school text adventure, an RPG, and a choose your own adventure book. It's set in a low-fantasy world and you play as a roadwarden, a kind of general dogsbody who runs errands and keeps roads clear of monsters and carries messages from village to village. Similar to the Witchers of the books/games of the same name, but with less of the power fantasy - you're just a regular person doing a job. You're tasked with exploring and assessing a remote and rugged northern peninsula to see if it's suitable for expansion and assimilation by the merchant guilds of your home nation. You have 40 days in which to do this in whatever way you see fit. Do you focus on your main task? Do you try to help the locals even if it goes against what your paymasters want? Do you try to find out what happened to the previous roadwarden, who seems to have disappeared? The more you explore, the more layers and knots you uncover, and it becomes clear that the forty days you have are not enough to do everything, let alone do everything right. The more I played, the more I absolutely loved it.
roadwarden feels like an elevated fusion of gamebook, solo rpg, adventure game and 'wandering' mechanics. it feels homely and charming in presentation while not stinting on the realism of the setting and frequent tense sections - its a tricky needle to thread balancing approachability of presentation with the needs of its narrative but it balances both with care, allowing the player to choose their approach (& dialling the tension of the experience) so you're drawn back even when things go wrong (& the game is paced such that there's plenty of scope for exploration & quiet moments)
