Hey there! I'm interested in joining the game jam, but I'm not experienced with ren'py or other visual novel engines, and my job has busy work weeks, so learning and adapting to a new medium may be a little hard for me at the moment.

You can technically make visual novels in RPG Maker MV, my engine of choice, and there might be a plug-in that implements more typical vn features like saving during dialogue.  But if that doesn't work, how many RPG Maker elements would I be allowed to use before it no longer fits the criteria of a visual novel? All else fails, I could see myself taking a similar approach to the game Mix Ore, which uses very brief sections of non-visual novel gameplay to give the player a moment to save their game.