FFVII: For All Gaia’s Children – Tribute to Abandoned Fangame Project *SPOILERS*

[Shademp]

Author & Director
Squall_of_SeeD, aka Tres, aka Twilight Mexican, aka Glenn

Director, Project Manager
Shademp

Character Concept Art
CrimsonSun

Music Composer
Adrian
​

This thread is dedicated to the non-profit FFVII sequel that a select few fans worked on, mostly during 2012-2014, that was ultimately abandoned without even a demo seeing completion. THIS GAME IS NOT IN (AND WILL NOT ENTER) PRODUCTION, so at this point we are not afraid of a cease & desist from Square Enix.

Any and every contribution to FGC now after its cancellation should be considered a tribute to a dead project and nothing more.

SPOILERS ABOUND IN THIS THREAD!

It is highly recommended that before reading beyond the first post in this thread that you read the 105-page plot draft for FFVII: For All Gaia’s Children, assembled by Squall_of_SeeD and myself. Spoilers for the entirety of the official Compilation of FFVII will be present as well.

The links below lead to Google Docs and Google Sheets documents. If you don't mind being spoiled about the timeframe of FGC and signs of how the main characters have changed, you can view CrimsonSun's concept art via the spoiler tag further down. Outside of that one exception, we recommend reading the full plot draft before viewing any other document.

Premise of FGC's plot:
It has been almost ten years since Meteorfall and seven years since Omega almost carried away the planet's Lifestream. The world of FFVII has been mostly at peace but now an old, red-clad foe is returning. Characters young and old, friends and enemies, must now unite against a common threat to fight for the fate of humanity.​

- PLOT DRAFT for "FINAL FANTASY VII: FOR ALL GAIA'S CHILDREN"


- Flashback Theatre
To read about what our main characters went through between Dirge of Cerberus and For All Gaia's Children, read the Flashback Theatre document.

- Locations, NPCs & Quests


- Battle System & Abilities Document

Spoiler: - Grid Battles Minigame

In this minigame, multiple characters are moved about on a grid and achieve Formation Attacks in order to defeat large enemies. This happens at least two times for the BC Turks (to emphasize their excellent team work), as well as for other groups in the game.

The intention behind the Grid Battle system was to provide players with an opportunity to control multiple Cait Siths, the BC Turks and the people of the Corel Desert. The idea never became anything more than a vague concept, and would likely have been scrapped because of slowing down the game rather than adding to the overall experience. The huge time gaps that existed between when the first Grid Battles happen would also be another reason to remove this minigame.

Nevertheless, here is the rather humorous "abstract concept" visualization of the minigame, as pictured back in 2012.

Spoiler

Move the Cait Siths to the green squares to achieve the finishing Formation Attack!

Formation Attack achieved! The day is won!

Formation Attack achieved! The day is won!

I always get a good chuckle out of the images above.

Spoiler: - Miscellaneous Notes on (a few) Monsters & Bosses

MONSTERS​

Nibel Bear
This creature plays a role in Nanaki's story in the On the Way to a Smile novel, and is its only canon appearance in the FFVII-verse.

The intention was to get a design for this bear so that it could be encountered and defeated in FGC. The descriptions of the Nibel Bear in Episode:Nanaki read as follows...

The monster looked like a bear with a long tail. No, perhaps it was a bear. Its whole body was covered with rusty coloured fur ... The dangerous claws on its two front paws, which could be seen under its fur ... “The weak spot of Nibel bears is their neck! Go, Red!” ... At a glance they could be mistaken for ferocious carnivores, however, creatures like these were often omnivores...

Foes in the Final Dungeon
In terms of monster encounters, something I wanted to see in The Seven Realms were references to Gackt's "Redemption" music video, thus implementing a fitting tribute to the music video so soon before your final confrontation with Genesis.

Recall the dancing, cloaked creatures in said music video?

Placeholder names: Guilt/Penance/Redemption/Sin or some such.
Very dangerous foes, causing annoying status effects and even being able to cancel materia for one party member at a time.

Another enemy would use an extravagant singer's mic stand, just like the one Gackt has in the "Redemption" music video. Remember Christopher and Gighee in the Northern Crater from the original game, the former of the two using a flute? I imagine the Seven Realms monster with the mic and an accompanying monster to be an homage to the silliness that was Christopher and Gighee.

BOSSES​

Summon Weapons
- Kronos is the Summon Weapon of Earth, able to slow down his foes by manipulating the desert sand around him.

- Ogopogo is the Summon Weapon of Water, but sails through the air as effortlessly as the sea.

- Giga Phoenix is the Summon Weapon of Fire.

- Shinryu is the Summon Weapon of Time/Space (appropriate since it emerges from space, requires other Bahamut materia to obtain and is found in Cosmo Canyon), but -- being a flying dragon and coming from Cosmo -- has some loose associations with Air and Fire as well.

- Raiden is our Summon Weapon of Air and Thunder.

Bizarro Chaos
It was never finished, but Dipsiel gave pencil to his interpretation of how a Lucrecia-Sephiroth-Chaos hybrid might look and produced this sketch.

- Items & Equipment


- FGC Soundtrack Draft
Only three experimental tracks were ever made. You can download the zip file here.

Spoiler: - CrimsonSun's Character Concept Art

All of these designs were made in the period of February-November 2014. The concept art is presented in the order of characters designed, from first to last.


DENZEL
Age: 16
Height: 170cm (Compare to Cloud’s 173cm)

Sketch – Color 1 – Color 2
Unused Sketches – Unused Coloring
The long coat is something we more picture Denzel using in his 20s. We never intended to age him quite that much.

Before moving on to the rest of Crim’s work we need to look a little at the Scavenger Edge, which wasn’t an original design by Crim.
THE SCAVENGER EDGE: Height 168 cm, handle is about 1/5th of the total length.
Finalized version (by Crim).
Squall_of_SeeD’s original rough design, sent to me on January 27, 2014.
Dipsiel’s refinement of the original rough design.
Placeholder name was “The Shark”.
Ultimately, much like the original Buster Sword, its design is based on aesthetics and not on practicality.


VINCENT
Physical: Age 34 (roughly)
Actual age: 64
Height: 184cm
Sketch – Color 1 – Color 2
Color edit was considered, more blue tone.
The change in costume after Dirge of Cerberus reflects Vincent TRULY no longer being a stone in the river of time. Without Chaos, Vincent is no longer immortal but he still has a high healing factor.
I suggested the name “Baskerville” for Vincent’s new weapon. Never spent time on finalizing the weapon design. Squall_of_SeeD originally pictured a shotgun, which is what we see in Color 1, though the sketch implies a more “refined” sniper rifle design.


MARLENE
Age: 14
Height: 157cm
Sketch – Color 1 – Color 2


VELD
Color 1 & Sketch – Color 2


TIFA
Age: 30
Height: 167 cm
Sketch – Color 1
Color Edit


SHELKE
Age: 26 (or 25, depending on exact birthday)
Height: 159cm (compare to Yuffie's 160cm)
Color 1 – Color 2
Shelke has grown since Dirge of Cerberus but is still short, only two centimeters taller than Marlene.


ELFE
Sketch – Color 1 – Color 2


CLOUD
Age: 31
Height: 173 cm
Sketch
A colorized version never saw the light of day.
All three sketches
Cloud B was favored by both Squall_of_SeeD and I. [Comment by Squall: "He looks like a fucking Jedi there."]


CrimsonSun's facebook, Tumblr and DeviantArt. All of this artist's work is amazing!

Spoiler: - Pixel Graphics

The little that was created in this department was made by a complete pixel art beginner who also considers himself to be somewhat artistically challenged. I am of course talking about myself: yours truly, "Shademp".

MAIN CHARACTERS​

The decision to aim for Chrono Triggers proportions with the characters was another manifestation of the projects over-ambition, when FFVI proportions would have been more manageable. Nevertheless, these sprite proportions below were always my vision. Quality differs greatly in the works below because pieces are not listed in order of creation, when I did in fact improve a lot over time.


Denzel
- Spritesheet
Animations:
- Walking Up
- Walking Down
- Walking Left
- Walking Right


Marlene
- Spritesheet
Animations:
- Walking Up
- Walking Down | Walking Down (Decreased Shoe Shading)
- Walking Left
- Walking Right
- Blinking


Tifa
- The only sprite


Cait Sith
- Unfinished spritesheet

MAPS/BACKGROUNDS​

- Aerith's Church
- Seventh Heaven First Floor
Just for kicks, here are Denzel and Marlene in Seventh Heaven during a playtest. This map also includes a hidden message in morse code.

OTHER​

- Cosmo Canyon Male NPC
- Cosmo Canyon Female NPC
- Moogle
- Treasure Chest (Crisis Core style)
- World Map Objects
From left to right, top to bottom: Kalm, Chocobo Farm (No Racing Arena), Bone Village, Mideel Houses, Ancient Temple Ruins, Gonaga, Unfinished Junon, Icicle Inn Houses, Wutai Experimental, Midgar Sector & Reactor Numbers guide, Unfinished Midgar.


One of the earliest things I did for FGC (early 2012) graphics-wise was actually to use the default graphics that can be found in RPG Maker VX Ace and recreate the FFVII world map for it. It took me the better part of a day.

- FFVII World Map (1:8 scale in RPG Maker VX Ace)
Yes, I am aware

Spoiler

that the northern continent looks like a gawking killer chicken. XD

A few more mock-ups of FFVII areas were made using the tiles that comes with RPG Maker VX Ace.
- Zack's Grave
- Edge Meteor Monument
- Seventh Heaven, Outside
- Seventh Heaven, Second Floor
- Mireille Detective Agency Entrance
...and half a dozen more not seen here.

Spoiler: - The FGC Logo

While the logo mock-up seen at the start of this post is always how I roughly envisioned the logo, it wasn't actually created until December 29, 2015.

For comparison, here is the color version vs color on a white background vs black-and-white vs black-and-white on a white background vs silhouette version.

Spoiler: Color

Spoiler: Color on white background

Spoiler: Black-and-white

Spoiler: Black-and-white on white background

Spoiler: Silhouette

The silhouette version is here to demonstrate how artistic skill would be required in order to make Minerva recognizable in a minimalist style, Amano-style or a mix of the two.

Spoiler: - FGC and Project Q & A: Shademp Edition

Q: Why will this game not see completion?

A: Too ambitious. FGC suffered the fate of countless J-RPG indie projects where inexperienced people tried to make their first game into their Final Fantasy magnum opus.

The vision, even when intended as a 2D game to be made in RPG Maker VX Ace, proved too large for such a small team with essentially no game design experience. It was a fun testing ground for those involved and we are proud of what we did end up creating.

Reviving the project is not considered a possibility at this point due to the amount of manpower and project management it would require, made more difficult by the project being a non-profit one that requires the involved to invest hundreds of hours on something in secrecy so to avoid a cease & desist from Square Enix. With FGC no longer being a secret project that pretty much destroys any possibility of revival, as the threat of a cease & desist would always hang over development.



Q: What does the title "For All Gaia's Children" mean?

A: Conceived by Squall_of_SeeD, the title is a play on the phrasing “For All God’s Children”. At the project’s inception it was believed that Gaia was the name of FFVII’s planet. However, even after research refuted this notion we decided to stick with the name, as the presence of the term ‘Gaia' in the title does not have to imply the name having a canonical presence in-game.
In the title abbreviation, S_o_S and I found a disagreement that remains to this day. I find the full abbreviation, ‘FAGC’, distracting and embarrassing due to the presence of the derogatory term ‘FAG’ in it while S_o_S does not experience this annoyance. Ergo, I always shorten the abbreviation to ‘FGC’ in my writings, while Squall usually retains the full abbreviation ‘FAGC’ in his commentary.
Alternate titles were thrown around, but nothing came close to feeling as thematically proper as "For All Gaia’s Children".
Not following the naming convention of the Compilation’s alphabetical succession (AC, BC, CC, DC) also helps identify the title as a project by fans and not an official Square Enix project.



Q: Could you tell us about the project's beginning, middle and end?

A: The man who originally conceived this FFVII sequel story is Squall_of_SeeD, aka S_o_S, aka Tres, aka Twilight Mexican. After mentioning the idea to me in late 2011, I made the bold suggestion to actually turn this into a game. This cooperation became a thing of magic from the start, as not only was it joyous to brainstorm how the story might be turned into a full game but we also discovered early on that we had similar visions for what should happen in a game to end the Compilation of FFVII.

For the most part we only exchanged ideas in text, and not much other content (such as graphics or game design experimentation) happened. Writing about game design is easy. Actually designing the game is tough as nails.

To our credit, very few FFVII fanatics could match our level of devotion to making sure that FGC aligned with the canon of the franchise, down to the most minute and esoteric details. The research prompted by this project even ended up spawning some articles for the TLS frontpage, such as "Is FFVII connected to FFX and X-2?" and "What is the name of FFVII’s planet?"

Early on I recruited my cousin, Adrian, to make the music for the game. While his heart was in the project (as he is also a Final Fantasy fan), his real-life occupations meant that only a few experimental pieces got made.

I have For All Gaia's Children to thank for making me learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, as it was necessary when I strived to create pixel art for the game. I had no experience with pixel art when I started out, and, in fact, I had not attempted any artistic endeavors in almost ten years when my attempt at graphics began. A lot was learned, and through great hardship, but -- as this thread has already shown -- very little was created in the pixel graphics department.

In the concept art department, it was clear almost as soon as serious investigations began that the art of CrimsonSun was the most compatible to our vision. It was the perfect meld between the official art by Tetsuya Nomura and that fan-made quality we aspired to. Crimson declined our first request for participation in February of 2013 due to a stressful schedule. Almost exactly a year later, we contacted CrimsonSun again with the request -- and this time Crim accepted! This cooperation resulted in the wonderful work that the reader has probably already viewed. =)

In early 2014, I also started learning RGSS3 so that I might code the game in RPG Maker. I learned a lot, and it was a less emotionally demanding process than creating pixel graphics, but I never reached the point of creating finished code for FGC. My RGSS3 journey essentially ended in summer 2014, alongside my graphics attempts.

By the end of 2014 I could finally admit to myself that the project was too ambitious and too exhausting to devote much of your life to in secrecy. That essentially marked the end of the For All Gaia's Children project.



Q: If the project ended in late 2014, why was it only revealed in January 2016?

A: The fault is all mine. The failure of the project first contributed to a launch into depression, and even when my vitality improved, it still proved too emotionally exhausting to revisit FGC and organize its burial. My deepest thanks to Squall_of_SeeD for being so infinitely patient with me.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

[This post reserved for future use]

 

[Claymore]

It's pretty damn obvious that a lot of thought, planning and passion was injected into this project. Believe me when I say that I've looked at hundreds of Final Fantasy games developed through various different incarnations of RPG Maker, but none have come anywhere near the dedication, worldbuilding and pre-planning that I can see glimpsed within the documents you have here. Though I'm a little confused on the actual story since I can't seem to find a short synopsis, I love the parts that I have read and seen within the other segments.

You mentioned that you hadn't come to a conclusion yet on the battle system mechanics, and I don't blame you, lol. Most sequels and games have you restart from level 1, but to have characters such as Marlene and Denzel battling alongside what should be high level characters would be quite ridiculous. I do love the concept of co-operation Limit Breaks and the Champion System, which would be a pretty neat thing to implement.

I love the look at the character artwork and the attempts at the pixel graphics and character animation. The overworld map and Aerith's church map pieces stand out for me - as again, that could only come through someone as dedicated as the community here. It's perfect.

It's a shame it was never revived or continued after your illness, but understandable because of the sheer weight and pressure involved in the formation of this project.

Awesome job though guys.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It's really tragic that a game with so much potential, and so many talented people involved in its creation, couldn't come to fruition, but SE would have stopped you. I really love everything you guys have done here.

 

[Shademp]

Thank you Claymore and Licorice for your posts.

Though I'm a little confused on the actual story since I can't seem to find a short synopsis

In response to this I added a short "Premise of FGC's plot" section right before the Plot Draft document. I keep it short because the details are best experienced when you jump into the full story. Thank you for your input. =)


For those who haven't, please take a moment to enjoy the frontpage newspost written by Tres. It is a thing of beauty and love. <3

 

[Claymore]

That is a very beautiful newspost.

Just downloaded and listened to the experimental tracks. Who composed it? They are really good. Especially digging Cosmo Canyon Revisited.

 

[Shademp]

Just downloaded and listened to the experimental tracks. Who composed it? They are really good. Especially digging Cosmo Canyon Revisited.

My cousin Adrian composed those pieces, following my general directions on what I desired from each piece. He is educated in music composition and music theory. He also is an experienced gamer and enjoys video game music. Unfortunately he doesn't have a "musician profile" online, so unfortunately I have none of his other works or work history to link to.

 

[Tennyo]

You GUYS

This sounds so awesomely amazing. I seriously love it. I was looking at the character designs and man, they really look amazing! I'm reading through the flashbacks right now and will read the plot later.

I wish you could keep going.

 

[Starling]

I really like that scene where Tseng assures Rufus that he isn't his father. It's very touching. That sketch of Elfe has a great pose. The concept art in general is nice, as I can see what's from existing designs and what isn't but still fits with the character, like how Vincent still wears old fashioned clothing even if it's different from his attire throughout the compilation.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

You picked up on the intention there with Vincent right away. I thought it important to give that bit of direction to Crim, that -- being of a different time -- Vincent should still dress differently even when cleaning himself up.

His idea of "distinguished" is going to differ from, say, Denzel's -- but still be good enough not to scare small children away.

Glad you liked that scene with Rufus and Tseng, by the way. Rufus was probably my favorite character to write in this, though I enjoyed writing everyone (some more than others, naturally, but they all made for a wonderful experience).

For me, the thematic nature of the entire story ultimately hinged on Rufus's character arc. From the beginning, I felt that whether humanity could survive was dependent on proving that Rufus could be a positive force. He has represented both the worst and best of humanity in FFVII's world, so I needed to prove to myself that he could integrate his darkness into his light -- rather than abandon his ambitions altogether -- while still being self-aware enough to recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with indulging those darkest aspects of himself without them at least being tempered by doing some good deeds at the same time.

I think a lot of FFVII fans never really bought his redemption across the Compilation titles, and, in fact, hoped to see him return to more villainous ways. While it was clear to me that this was never Nojima's intention, it was also clear that he still had ambitions that could bring him into conflict with more altruistic figures (Kitase and Nomura's take on Rufus at the time of DC supports this).

It was of utmost importance to me that Rufus be salvageable as a human being even while acknowledging the reality that there was still some of his father in him that needed to be squared with.

 

[Starling]

I agree that his overall portrayal post-FF7 is someone who genuinely regrets things he's done in the past and wants to make amends for both his mistakes and his father's. That said, there definitely is still room for him to end up falling back into old habits if he isn't careful about his ambition and desire to regain the power and influence he had before Shinra fell apart. In the end, even worst case he'd be a better person than he was before. While I still enjoy the occasional villainous portrayal of him post-FF7, I feel like there aren't enough where he's good and has clearly learned from his experiences.

 

[Entropy]

I find it ironic that today I came on the forums to see if there is any news on FF7 related game projects after not being on these forums in several years and I found this right on the frontpage!

I really like the writing and concepts you came up with for the story and as a game developer myself, I find it very awesome that you guys were willing to post all your ideas publicly online, I think it's very awesome and who knows, people might do something cool with the concepts! (I am already thinking of possibly incorporating some of it into a future project).

I was always wondering why there wasn't any announcement on a new title after DoC, so this also helped explain to me that it seems to have been more or less abandoned by SE. Were any of you guys on Adventchildren.net? I remember one year for April Fools, they posted a new game in the compilation series called "FF7: Era Clash" complete with game banner and all lol

I am planning on starting an FF7 game project in honor of the announcement of the FF7 REMAKE... I have always wanted to do something using my programming skills to share my appreciation and love for FF7. This would be a fully Virtual Reality experience using Unity 3D and new VR devices. If anyone is interested in finding out more about the project, message me or email me at [email protected]. Might just become another project that doesn't become fully realized, but hey! Cool stuff will be made regardless

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Thanks for the kind words, and good luck with your endeavor.

Quite a few of us were at AC.net, yeah. This site was actually founded by what you might call a group of AC.net refugees.

 

[Dashell]

Damn I love Marlene and Denzel's character designs. I'll have to brush up on the compilation to say anything about the script, but I'm digging the battle system as well. That logo looks so legit too, you could have fooled me into thinking this project was straight from Square with that one

I can see how this was ambitious and how it didn't come to be... it would be a shame to let it all go to waste though so maybe you could just publish it as a fanfic with some artwork or something?... idk


Also by any chance do you have the mid files in anything else but .mid files? Linux doesn't read midi files If not I'll figure something out.

I'll take a closer look later but this is really quite impressive. Most people just brainstorm an idea and it never comes to be but damn, you guys got far with this. even if it doesn't get past this point ,that really speaks volumes for your dedication

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Gracias.

The audio files should be in that zip folder as both the three midis and then two .mp3s and one .m4a. There should be two files for each track.

 

[Elessar]

Would have LOVED to see this, but you guys clearly mismanaged this project. But the good thing is that you guys realize it:

"FGC suffered the fate of countless J-RPG indie projects where inexperienced people tried to make their first game into their Final Fantasy magnum opus."

I really hope you guys don't give up on this thing you've got here. Well, give up on the title, it's stupid. "FAG's Children"? lol. But don't give up on the game itself. Shift it from "Canceled" to "On hiatus".

Shade, you mentioned learning how to use RPG Maker VX Nimbus 2000 or something. Keep at it. Look at source code for other games made on this thing. Learn from them and create a simple game. A very simple one to practice and learn at the same time.

Don't give up just yet. Look at this project in a few months time and reboot it with your new found skills.

 

[Team_Wingless]

Mismanaged? They weren't even getting paid! No one can catch a break in this fandom. I'm surprised they got to concept art.

So I read some of the stuff and it sounded like a pretty fun iPhone game. I honestly think you're getting too hung up on the whole "Final Fantasy" pedestal and have these huge standards for what you think this thing should be. Break away from the brand name, call this game "For All Gaia's Children," change names and leave the strange unexplained plot as is (like they didn't do that in Advent Children), make it waaaay smaller, and I'll play it.

Srsly I need something to do on my phone Final Fantasy 4 blows.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yeah, there are probably ways in which it's true (we were inexperienced after all), but I think that word implies we had funds to (mis)manage. We both continued going to our jobs, researching/writing articles (often related to our R&D for the game project, but just as often not), making an effort to gym, and dealing with family stuff (mostly in my case) even while starting from scratch about learning to develop games (mostly in his case; he got far more into the nuts and bolts of game building than I did).

Thanks to both of you for the encouragement to continue, but in all practicality, this is the end of the ride. It is for me at least.

I really hope you guys don't give up on this thing you've got here. Well, give up on the title, it's stupid. "FAG's Children"? lol.

Well, enjoy the next entries in your favorite series, AssCreed: Screed of the Creed and CoD: Fish Fry Friday.

 

[Shademp]

but in all practicality, this is the end of the ride. It is for me at least.

It is the end of the ride for me as well.

However, I still reserve the right to continued intellectual and creative brainstorming and discussion regarding the FGC concept. The mental gymnastics of game design is too appealing not to pursue, be it for a game that exists, could exist or never will exist.

I have not checked with Tres what he thinks on the matter so a disagreement might arise here, but I do not discourage anyone from creating art, music or even writing scenes for FGC as a tribute to this cancelled project. Keyword being "tribute". I will only fear the wrath and paranoia of Square if somebody starts making countless spritesheets and writing tons of code for the game, as then it might appear that the project is alive and that its deadness is merely a ruse. However I doubt that the mass creation of such content will happen because the TLS forum is dominated by franchise discussion rather than painted and programmed fan-creations.

Due to the unfinished state of For All Gaia's Children, its "contents" change every other time me or Tres look at it. Up until the last second before making this thread, changes and edits to the world building and scripts were made. Though we will try to leave the documents mostly alone now that this thread is public, we may make a handful of edits here and there to acknowledge newly discovered FFVII facts or to accomodate new personal insights about the game's direction. Consider it an act of "polishing the gravestone".



With the coming of the FFVII remake it is possible that (worst case scenario) entire character arcs and plot threads in FGC may be rendered invalid. If that ends up the case, we will acknowledge this.

I will continue my ramblings later, as I do indeed have a lot to say.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Agreement with that whole post.

 

[Claymore]

... but I do not discourage anyone from creating art, music or even writing scenes for FGC as a tribute to this cancelled project. Keyword being "tribute". I will only fear the wrath and paranoia of Square if somebody starts making countless spritesheets and writing tons of code for the game, as then it might appear that the project is alive and that its deadness is merely a ruse.

I really wouldn't be too concerned about this point. There are tons of FF games developed via RPG Makers out there if you search. Granted most are in different levels of completion (and most will never see the light of day aside from pictures and some demos) but still.

It's only really when money exchanges hands, or people start asking for donations, or professional hirings, that these things tend to blow up.

 

[Team_Wingless]

It's only really when money exchanges hands.

THIS.

Please everyone stop being afraid of getting mean letters from big businesses. You can essentially throw those in the garbage. Remember that Matel sued Aqua over Barbie Girl, but when they actually went through the court process it made them famous.

 

[Shademp]

I really wouldn't be too concerned about this point. There are tons of FF games developed via RPG Makers out there if you search. Granted most are in different levels of completion (and most will never see the light of day aside from pictures and some demos) but still.

It's only really when money exchanges hands, or people start asking for donations, or professional hirings, that these things tend to blow up.

I recognize and agree with this point. The reason I still maintain the tiniest amount of concern is because companies can be unpredictable. When I asked a person (who was both familiar with fandoms, legal procedures and company policies) about the legal and practical aspects of copyright for a project such as FGC, in short their reply was "Square interfering with FGC is unlikely but not impossible". All it takes is one grumpy, important enough employee for a c&d to happen.

Though not an example from Square, a fangame that comes to mind is Fighting is Magic, an extremely well-made 2D fighter starring MLP:FIM characters. The project was public for two years or so, being polished and even being presented at cons, before Hasbro decided to send in a cease & desist. In the case of Fighting is Magic, the argument was presumably that Hasbro didn't want their brand associated with violence (which is weird because MLP:FIM does have its fair share of violence). The project was also of a high enough quality that it could be confused for an official product.

While it is true that FGC would have been unlikely to ever reach Square-mobile-game level of quality, all things taken into account I could not shake off that tiny bit of fear for a cease and desist. That was enough for me and Tres to keep the project a secret for so long, with the intent of the finished game being our first reveal.

 

[Phantom]

All I gotta say about this project is...wow.

Okay, maybe not just that, but really it's impressive how much effort was put into this, and I really appreciate that ya'll decided to share this. I haven't had time to read the plot, but I'm deifinitely gonna read it between classes at school. I wish could help in some way! Maybe I can design something for poops and giggles.

The concept art is awesome. I love the line-art. All the designs look great.

Thanks again for sharing this great idea.

 

[Elessar]

Mismanaged? They weren't even getting paid!

I think that word implies we had funds to (mis)manage.

Money doesn't need to be involved in managing stuff. Money CAN be involved, though. You guys misinterpreted what I said. Not finding fault or anything. Just saying.