Chrono Spiritual Successor Brainstorm Session (Come and join the fun!)

[Acacia Sgt]

I suppose a balance would need to be reached within the Writing Team then.

[idiotekque]

That would nice, but in execution... not that easy. Even on the mod writing team I was on, different people were writing the lore behind the different factions, and when those factions' lore connected? Like, if they went to war at some time in the factions' histories? Lots of arguing, lots of drama about how things should be. I can only imagine how much worse that would be when you have multiple people trying to create one cohesive plot and story.

Really, like with CT and CC (and likely almost every JRPG ever made), the project would need a lead writer, with a few other writers filling side points that don't directly affect the overarching storyline.

Not that my input means a whole lot, just some words of wisdom from personal experience.

[Acacia Sgt]

I wouldn't say it's bad advice. Having a Lead Writer is practically a must, in charge of not only the main aspects of the plot, but also to direct the other writers so their parts can be incorporated not only to the main plot, but with each other when it's applicable. I suppose one of the main problems is that when everybody involved are mostly left to deal with their parts on their own, most often than not they will clash with each other, which is why you need someone to supervise.

[tushantin]

Okay, so that settles it. If we go for game-development, here's what we need:

1. Game Design Document

A full-fledged (public) document detailing the story and game synopsis, game mechanics, resources required, how it impacts the market and consumers, ports and consoles, business-model, etc. Everything that needs to be done goes here first. Every other volunteer / hired artist and programmer will have to adhere with this, unless the head developers give an OK to something.

The document will give us a general idea of the game itself, as well as help us estimate the amount of time required to finish the project and monetize on the benefits / rewards. In any case, the document will be free to read for certain Compendium members (preferably those with 10 posts and above, and definitely safe from the eyes of Dark Serge and the like) so we can get quality feedback from the community.


2. Game Engine and Consoles

First we'll need to decide on what kind of game it will be. And judging by today's market, I'm strictly against basic RPG the likes of CT. I think we're better off making something better than CC, perhaps something similar to Devil May Cry or even a 3D version of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, because a lot of game engines have templates for that (including Blender Game Engine). The only difference? We'll have the Levels and Equipment system as CT did, and possibly along with a party of three with additional AI and even Online Play. Why? Because THIS will help us make the biggest splash in the market.

I mean think about it: depending on the genre, we can take advantage of the character-development potentials too. Have you ever seen Guile / Magus fly in-game when you're controlling them? Even if they're levitating, it's not more than 1 inch off the ground. We could theoretically have them float in-air in-game!

But the question is, what are we targeting at? PC industry or Mobile? I think the Mobile industry is gaining momentum currently so making a simpler game for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone -- and Google's Native Client Web-App technologies since Chrome-books are on the rise -- seems like a sensible idea. But if we decide on the PC market, we'll not only need to port for Windows, Mac and Linux (since Ubuntu is an emerging gaming market), but also for XBox, PS3 and Wii.

Depending on our targets, we'll need to design the game engine, gameplay and interface accordingly. If my current game idea (which I'll be independently working on) goes well, we could even incorporate that battle engine to this one. Story will have to take a side-step here, despite the fact it's important.


3. Business Model and Team Distribution

Now, here we'll do something that's totally unconventional, in light of copyright issue and the past problems faced by the Compendium before.

Firstly, the team will be distributed as efficient -- there will be Head Artists, Programmers, Writers, Developers, Accountants (not the math thing, but those that supervise the project and keep track of community contribution), etc. who will be working full-time, or set hours per week -- with volunteers and community helping the project gain momentum. When a certain Head developer screws up with an art or program, the volunteer can help fix that (and essentially get professional credit for contribution). We can also have a Head Writer divide other Senior Writers in writing different scenarios, then compile the rest into one script. Same goes for Art and other sort.

But what about revenue, you say? I mean, we will get money from sales (we'll need the Accountant / Head Developer to account for that), but there must be a plan to help the senior developers and artist focus on their work full-time / part-time, perhaps paid monthly. For this, we could start a Kickstarter after we have a decent Alpha demo and artwork, or any content, ready to show. That revenue can be distributed monthly as salary after the Senior members of the team have produced enough (and the Senior members are free to outsource work to Junior members if they like). Beyond that, or even alternatively, the team can be self-funded.

But what about the volunteers and junior contributors, you ask? They are getting credit after all, but those who have worked on the game passionately as hard as a senior member without expecting anything in return, shouldn't they get something out of it? True, in that regard, we could pay anything left-over from Kickstarter campaign to the volunteers after long-term accounts are done, and maybe even give minimum royalties from sales (wow, I sound like a greedy corporation director... would I make a perfect Square Enix leader?), and of course they'd have Beta access and promo codes for downloading the game for free... but I have something even better in mind, something that the volunteers, contributors, and even fans in general can benefit from he way Square Enix and other gaming studios never allowed their fans to. And here's where we get totally unconventional:

We release the base game engine programmed, complete with interface design (IF we aren't using Unity and such), as OpenSource, licensed by GPL or equivalent. Meaning, our hard work will earn the Seniors with sufficient money, and the fans, contributors and volunteers with agency and our own legacy. The assets can also be free to download (except for some REALLY AWESOME ones) from the website database for use with the engine. The next generation can simply use this agency, improve upon it, and release their own games -- whether original games or a direct not-canon sequel to ours, which we'll justify as "parallel dimension" -- and even sell those games to their liking (by following our pre-requisite guidelines and regulations) and earn their money (and the seniors can gain a percentage royalty from it, perhaps). Those games will also be referred to in the main website.

Why? Because we won't do what SE did to CE. We'll gladly encourage the volunteers to build upon the series we, as fans, work hard to create. We'll get imaginative and make use of every freedom-of-art we have to the best possible result.

Speaking of self-funding, there's another idea: We could use YouTube to generate revenue for the project. Put simply, every asset we create for the game gets recycled for videos. Either Making Of's, simple animations, FMV's, etc. This can also double as a marketing tactic.


In either case, I realize that ZeaLitY is currently unavailable due to hard times, but I'd like him to be a part of the development too.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Kickstarter would be the only realistic option. And we would have to have a demo or some kind of demonstration that the project was legit before we could even go to Kickstarter. That means we'd need graphics and some semblance of a story. Maybe even an interactive demo if we want to be above-average.

[Thought]

Idiotekque, to put things in perspective, I've been on the writing team for four different fan games over the years. The reason those games never got finished (ah, the curse of fangame projects!) is that the programming barely got started, if even that. Meanwhile, the stories would race to the 80-90% completed stages (to be fair, that excludes exact dialogue). We can debate how good those stories were, but the point being, that's not where projects like this get hung up: it's in the art and programming.

As for funding the project, as you noted, Boo-Man-G, the kickstarter would really need a proof of concept in order to get off the ground. That means a lot of hours have to be invested, first. How to pay for those hours? There are four standard options that I am aware of: get investors (highly unlikely for a fan game), use personal funds (not practical for a fan game), obtain a grant (not sure if there are any for video game development, but I wouldn't be surprised), or do it pro bono until the projects far enough along to turn an income. There's also a possible 5th (I've never heard of this being done, so that's why it's separate), but create a different product to draw funding for this project. That, though, sort of just begs the question.

The pro bono model is the one that is most likely to occur. That is a problem with fan games: lack of payment also creates a lack of responsibility. The solution is actually fairly simple: being a fan would have to be secondary. Desiring to become a professional would be paramount. Get some hungry (metaphorically or literally) college kids (oh good god, I just called them college kids! I'm old) who need to build up a resume. The key is to find people who would treat working on the project as a job, not something to do in their spare time as they feel like it.

Keep in mind, pro bono work doesn't have to go on for ever, just until a kickstarter can push it to a respectable level. Then, a "pre-order" model might be able to push it the rest of the way. I mentioned Project Zomboid: it's been getting pre-orders for a few years, which is directly funding its development and completion. There are established independent game developer models out there: we'd just need to figure out how they do it.

[idiotekque]

Yeah, I get that. Sometimes certain things take off faster and are completed, but that's not always the case. Like the project I was on, the programmers, meshers (by god we had some talented meshers), etc were really driven people and got a crazy amount of work done. We had a fair bit of writers getting stuff done too, but the drama happened almost entirely in the writing and there were massive holdups there, and a lot of people quit the team because of it. I can honestly say that the writing was the "hardest" part of that project, bred the most issues, and made the least amount of progress.

It's different in many cases, and I can understand that with fan projects (especially for such cult classic games like CT) you might have a lot more rabid enthusiasm and imagination in the dev team to write a new story as opposed to serious, consistent programming talent. All I was really saying in the first place is that calling writing the "easy part" isn't accurate at all.

But sorry, we're derailing the topic. I like what I'm reading here.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

So the question would be, what would we want to do (if anything) and what do we individually bring to the table? I'm in agreement with Thought here, pro bono is the only realistic option (he didn't actually say that, but that's the reality of things). Hypothetically, once we got graphical resources, the semblance of a concept, we could create a Kickstarter and ADVERTISE it as a Chrono Trigger spiritual successor.

If anyone has played Radiant Historia on the DS, it was a unique time-traveling RPG that many felt was similar to Chrono Trigger. Having actually played the game, they really weren't that similar... only in regard to the SNES graphics, enemies visible on the map screens, and the time traveling element.

I think time travel plot would be the route we'd want to go yes?

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, if we are to advertise it as a CT Spiritual Successor, it'd definitely has to have time travel. After all, that was a very important aspect of CT's plot.

[idiotekque]

No love for inter-dimensional travel?

It could be Chrono Trigger/Cross spiritual successor, lol.

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd say it's better to stick with one, or keep the other in a very minor role.

[Kodokami]

Radiant Historia features both, and pulls it off very well. I was also surprised at how emotionally invested that game made me feel despite its minimalism. If we're looking for inspiration outside of Chrono Trigger, then Radiant Historia is the next best choice.

Also, another similarity RH shares other than time/dimension travel: the plot is centered around averting a bad future. I think this is the way to go--averting some kind of disaster by use of time...

How about a time loop?

[idiotekque]

Yeah, I'd love to see inter-dimensional travel and time travel as well. Incorporating both isn't really going to make things too... busy, if it's done tastefully. I've never played Radiant Historia, but I guess that shows it can be done.

[Acacia Sgt]

I'll admit I haven't seen much of RH to know about using both concepts, but if it's already has been used, I suppose it could be feasible.

Also, another similarity RH shares other than time/dimension travel: the plot is centered around averting a bad future. I think this is the way to go--averting some kind of disaster by use of time...

How about a time loop?

Well, averting a bad future is pretty much a staple when time travel is involved. I suppose spicing it up would be a good way to deter from the norm. Though how could a time loop work here? Would all the range of the time travel have to be within the end points of the loop or would actually involve traveling outside of it?

[Kodokami]

Well, averting a bad future is pretty much a staple when time travel is involved.

...I deserve a facepalm for not realizing that.

Though how could a time loop work here? Would all the range of the time travel have to be within the end points of the loop or would actually involve traveling outside of it?

I was thinking something along the lines of Steins;Gate, where a character, in trying to avert some future event, has no choice but to repeat X amount of time until said event is averted. Kinda like those shows where a character repeats the same day over and over.

Of course, that sort of thing is a bit cliché now. We do need to "spice it up." In Steins;Gate, nearly every negative event fixed by the main character led to some other negative event occuring, which he then had to fix, which created another bad event, etc.

~~~

By the way, something that should be agreed upon: Would this production be a spiritual successor to the Chrono series as a whole or specifically to Crimson Echoes?