Thanks to Radigar, hian, ChipNoir from TheLifestream and NeithOF from GF to pointing out and translating this Japanese-only interview from last summer with Shinichiro Biwa, Planner of the Business Division 1 (the internal SE team making FFVIIR). He talks about the team's structure, workflow etc.
[Update]:
(and thanks to my bae Ishiro for pointing out the translations)
hian said:I'm looking over it, but it's pretty extensive and a big part of it is the person being interviewed explaining his work process, and the workflow/structure of the Div.1 team working on the remake.
But, here are some bullet-points :
- he talks a lot about having creative freedom, and that the people on the team have the room to pursue their passion and have creative input on the work. He says, even despite the it being a legacy title with a lot of immovable parts, if you have a good idea, you can walk up and make a proposal directly to the director.
He also speaks generally in a way I think that indicates a lot of work has been done, since when asked about naming some successes and failures of the project, he mentions having succeeded at creating levels with satisfying play(play the team felt satisfied with) for the locations he was in charge of.
For a person to say this would indicate that gameplay systems are firmly in place, since it wouldn't be possible to determine whether to be satisfied with how gameplay works in the levels if systems were not properly implimented.
- There's an interesting spot where he basically says that "while the current project (FFVIIR) is an RPG with action elements, and while we have the freedom to create the fields (levels) from a view of it being a complete action game, we cannot add action elements that do not match up with the original game, or the world (of FFVII) [li. It's not like there is an infinite amount of options to choose from].
This goes back to confirm the game is indeed an action RPG (and not a full action game as some had feared due to the listing that seemed to suggest otherwise recently). It also seems to suggest they're working hard to make an action RPG system that takes into account the systems and lore of the original game.
- He expands on the above point by saying that, even so (seemingly working off of the previous notion of the action elements being limited) that he was interested in creating a game (taking inspiration from other action games) where simply walking, or maneuvering the enviroment is fun and interesting.
The Japanese seems to compound into an idea that whereas the actual combat might not be that action based, he as a level designer is interesting in, and feels as if he has succeeded at making environments that express other action elements.
What I take this to mean is that while they see the actual action elements as they pertain to combat to be somewhat limited by the legacy of the older game, and the lore, they see other ways of expressing active play through the use of the enviroments themselves, which might suggest things like free-running elements, climbing, platforming etc.
- He talks about the transition from 2D to 3D, saying that there's an entirely new dimension (no pun intended) to the act of discovering things in the environment. While points of interest where obvious before, they might not be now, and so the environments are not just a matter of walking through; you now have to look around, search for things, explore with your eyes.
Those or more or less the only interesting parts, so I don't know if I can spare the time to really go in-depth and translate the entire thing word for word.
Source.
NeithOF said:I translated some parts of the interview that the guy on the TLS forum didn't. Keep in mind this is a rough translation, i am not fluent.
He splits the process of creating a location in 3 parts
Part 1: Interpretation of the locations he is in charge of from the original FF7 game
part 2: Planning modifications/additions and alterations to the location, then getting them approved through meetings as well as deciding how much resources are needed.
part 3: Actually implementing the above, then polishing up the location.
He says that because the story is already decided and the game has a linear progression (story wise) how to design a location depends on the battle scenarios that take part in it, from necessary character motions and actions to how vertical the area must be, the events/setpieces that will take place in the area etc, all are taken into consideration before creating the location
aka they use the original as direct reference on what will happen in each area, then adapt that to the new combat and additional events, taking into account how the characters will move and what actions they will have available etc then they create the location.
During the planning phase of a location they include all the elements that make up the game such as scenario, actions, terrain type, topography.
The resources ordered/asked for each location include everything, from experts on bug stuff, to character designers, scenario writers, cutscene directors, UI designers and motion directors, even texts for NPCs.
Once all this is done they of course can't just implement them arbitrarily, it is necessary to responsibly implement all the resources used and of course there are always issues and shortcomings that will be visible here and there so they promote revisions and when they move forward to the next location they keep in mind "how can we improve even more on this one".
For the above reasons the amount of work constantly gets increased but that is something that can't be helped/is inevitable since that's exactly what allows them to achieve what they really want freely. Even when keeping the games volume in mind the amount of work they have to do for each location seems as if you're making a game from 0 and because of that there is a lot of enthusiasm.
He also confirms that the planning phase for all locations is already settled, they have already entered the "building/making" phase and the locations are already taking shape, and getting closer to how they have imagined them every day.
Last interesting part, he was asked what is the most difficult time during work and he said
"When a great idea doesn't get realized as intended due to technical difficulties which then forces modifications on the initial plan, or when someone else comes up with a brilliant new idea which makes me feel bad for myself for not coming up with it.
Because when you're feeling like you have given all the great ideas you could come up with and then someone else comes with a new overwhelmingly good idea you feel the frustration."
Source.
[Update]:
Koozek you might consider updating the OP to reflect that this is a glorified advertisement to work at S-E, and that the FFVII relevant stuff is just describing what his job as a level planner is in a practical sense and not a reflection of what the current state of the game was, because nearly everyone in the thread is misunderstanding what is being communicated in the original interview. Like, just a thought. I know I'm probably obnoxious at this point.
You're getting posts like "Square is letting us know they're working on the game!" and "Wow, this game is never coming out," because people are seeing a lot what is seemingly early production "let's figure out how to approach this project" stuff that's being held up as an easy to understand, practical example of what kind of work his job entails, and assuming that that's what they're doing now. Without the context of it being a recruitment article, it's presumably an article for gamers to let them know about the state of the game (like the rest of the media posted on this site).
FFVII is actually only the subject of half of the article, although ostensibly his work on the game also applies to what he is describing as his broader experience at Square-Enix, etc.
(and thanks to my bae Ishiro for pointing out the translations)
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