As the debates continued without resolution, the timetable was also affected. This created a standstill between the engine and game development teams, because if the engine’s specs couldn’t be finalized, neither could the game’s. As a result, we spent a considerable amount of time prioritizing all the different requests and ended up not being able to determine the final spec requirements. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that it would be impossible to fully satisfy all of these needs. Because we were so focused on creating an engine for next-gen hardware that could be utilized across all platforms, we made the mistake of trying to accommodate every single project that was in progress at the time. (this is also important for later)Īnother issue was the universal engine. Murata noted that the engine was tuned to deliver a very “cool” look or “anime-like” look to its visuals.Īccurate physics, for examples, were expressly not a priority of the tools, but the ability to create “cool looking” motion was. In a list of requests from Square Enix's developers that Murata presented, “Extensive use of character close ups” and “Stylized expressions” topped the list. Minor side note here: This same engine was also being used for FFXIV 1.0 (it will come into play later so keep it in mind).Ĭrystal Tools was designed to cater strongly to the demands of Square Enix's developers. for lack of better words, a big expensive turd. Let's proceed with the development problems FFXIII faced which in turn affected Versus XIII. Basically SE announced both titles before they even started developing them (crazy I know). We can safely assume that both games were stuck in pre-production/conceptual phase until then, both waiting on the engine to be completed despite both having been announced an entire year earlier. December of 2009, FFXIII is released for PS3 in Japan.Īs you can see from this timeline, the engine of Versus XIII and XIII was completed in June of 2007. Demo releases alongside ACC in April and from April until June 2009 the team makes changes to the game based on the feedback received from the demo. January 2009 - December 2009: Development of the Xbox 360 version begins in January. The team creates a demo to be included in the Japanese edition of FFVII: Advent Children Complete which was to be released in April of 2009. October 2008 - December 2008: The title is planned to be a PS3 exclusive in Japan, so priority is given to that version. SE announces the game will also release on Xbox 360. July 2008 - September 2008: Alpha version completed. October 2007 - June 2008: The development of the game itself officially begins It is also made to support PS3, Xbox 360, PC and to a lesser extend Wii. In June 2007, development of the White Engine, renamed Crystal Tools engine in the meantime, is now complete. July 2006 - September 2007: The team is downsized to allow the scenario team to work on the story, world and characters of the game. Once again, their work is then interrupted, this time to create a graphics engine for the PS3: The White Engine (Later renamed Crystal Tools engine).
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