Developing a 20 year dream game

Hello! My name is Arthur. In this article I will tell you about developing a visual novel Final Fantasy IX: Children of Terra (hereafter "Children of Terra"), an unofficial spin-off of the original Final Fantasy IX.

Contents of the article:

Not just for fans

Initially, I planned to create a sequel to Final Fantasy IX, but in the end the novel became, among other things, a prequel to the original game. The plot is structured in such a way that even those who have not completed FF9 will understand it.

Background of creation

I was introduced to Final Fantasy IX in 2004 thanks to a pirated copy on Ps1 from RGR. The game impressed me so much that I was inspired to create a sequel. It all started with fan fiction in a 48-sheet notebook, but in 9th grade I learned that the game was developed by the Japanese company Square. So I started learning Japanese in hopes that when I grew up, I’d show my ideas to Square and they’d say, "Great, dude, let’s make a sequel."!":D It was a naive dream of a teenager, and with age I realized it, but the desire to create a sequel to my favorite game did not let me go.

In 2017, I discovered the world of visual novels made by the Russian-speaking community. I got acquainted with the genre earlier, but then I didn’t know how popular it was in our country. I think we have Endless Summer to thank for that. People made mods for the game, then their own small projects, and later held competitions and “jams”. Their experience inspired me, and I realized that this was my only opportunity to fulfill my dream.

First steps

Development of Children of Terra began in the winter of 2018. First I wrote the script. Hemingway said the first draft was crap. And I completely agree with him. My draft was terrible, but it was the first step towards a dream. Subsequently I rewrote it several times.

In July of the same year I created the VK group. I set the release date for July 7, 2020, the day when FF9 should turn 20 years old from the game’s release. That is, I planned to create a large-scale project in just 2 years! This is the mistake of every novice developer who does not know how to assess his strengths. But then I didn’t understand it.

Then I started choosing a game engine. After a lot of searching I chose Ren’Py. It’s free, flexible and easy to learn.

I’m putting together a dream team

Graphics are one of the main elements of a visual novel, so I started looking for artists. Believe me, this is another quest. Some artists do not draw to order at all, others do, but slowly. Still others quote such a price that it makes your hair stand on end. Therefore, if you decide to create a novella, you have three options:. The first is to find ideological people who agree to draw for free. The second is to draw it yourself, and the third is not to whine and pay the artists, which is what I did, but I decided to save money on this, and, as you know, the miser pays twice.

The first sprite appeared https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/hello-fortune-casino/ on my team. I’ll keep his name a secret. He agreed to draw for 300 rubles/sprite, but my expectations were not met, and after the first work our cooperation stopped. If someone thinks that 300 rubles is a ridiculous price for such work, then he will be right, but at that time it was a lot of money for me. In addition, it was supposed to make more than 50 sprites, as well as various poses and emotions for them.

At that time I was already communicating with the artist Valeria under the pseudonym Lyuvnezh. The first time I tried to attract her to the team, she rejected my offer due to lack of free time. But after seeing Mikoto’s sprite, Lera apparently took pity on me and agreed to help.

Then I was lucky enough to meet another wonderful artist and fan of the series – Anastasia under the nickname Aitsen. She created a logo in the style of the Final Fantasy games and drew in-game items.

At the same time, I was actively looking for background artists. This is how Anatoly appeared in my team under the nickname Aiko. At that time he was working on other projects, so he could not draw quickly. The search for background workers continued. Over time, I managed to attract several more artists to the novel. This speeded up the work, but entailed another problem – the lack of a consistent style between the backgrounds. To get out of the situation, I assigned a specific location to each artist.

Another important aspect of any game besides the plot and graphics is the music. I was lucky with this, the composer found me himself. Angelika Karatushina was inspired by the project and wrote more than 100 tracks. Several of them were recorded using live instruments and vocals. Her music conveys the atmosphere and mood of each scene well. The soundtrack contains both original compositions and remixes of tracks from FF9. In addition, Maria appeared in the project under the nickname Philomela. She wrote and performed the end credits song.

An equally important role in the project was played by Dmitry under the nickname White Rabbit. He not only gave me important feedback before the release, but also eliminated all the typos and nonsense in the text.

I would also like to mention coder Artyom from Ruzura Interactive, who helped implement two mini-games and a gallery.

Release version 1.0

Hurry and you’ll do harm.

Japanese proverb.

Less than a year left until the release of Children of Terra. Due to the lack of a large number of backgrounds, I thought about postponing the release, but my promise in the group to release a novel for the 20th anniversary of FF IX did not allow me to do so. This is how I learned an important lesson: never make promises, if you’re not sure you can hold them back. In the end, I couldn’t think of anything better than using third-party backgrounds. Everything was used: stock images, art on request on Google, and even backgrounds from foreign novels. You can’t do this and now I’m ashamed of it. But at the time it seemed to me that it was better than making players wait another year or two. It would be possible to release the novel in parts, as some developers do, but personally I don’t like this approach at all. I don’t even watch anime and TV series while I’m on, because within a week I lose interest in them. So in July 2020, the release of “Children of Terra” version 1 took place.0.

Judging by the reviews, those who were not familiar with the original game were more delighted with the novel than the fans, and there were two reasons for this: the non-canonicity of some events and characters. Well, I agree with both. Therefore, after the release, I released several updates in which I tried to quickly fix my mistakes, and a year later I completely deleted the build in order to thoroughly improve the game.

It may seem that I rushed the release, but on the other hand I received tremendous feedback. Especially from streamers who agreed to go through this creation. Since there were few such people, I think they are worthy of personal mention. Ilya from the Raziel de Mortis channel, Anton and Nina from the That Same Frosty channel, Slava from the Wheel channel and Vlad from the vladizay channel.

Therefore, my advice to you: do not be afraid to release your games into early access or at least make demos. This way you will at least learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your project.

Work on mistakes

This time I gave myself not 2, but 4 years to develop. Why 4? To release it for the 25th anniversary of the original game, of course 🙂 But now I’ve decided that even if I don’t have time to finish the novella by July 2025, I’ll either postpone the release or release the game in parts. There is a little over a year left until release, but development is in full swing. Five new artists have joined the team; you can see their wonderful works in the VKontakte group. So far this is the only platform where I promote the game.

What to expect in version 2.0

I would like to apologize to those who have already completed the first version and are waiting for Children of Terra 2.0. Some changes are radical, but this was necessary for the sake of the canons of the original. And if you compare the original and new versions, I personally think that the plot has become much better. Basically, I expanded the story and reworked the personalities of individual characters, but there were a couple of global changes. Also in the game there will be several mini-episodes available after completing the main plot, new mini-games and approximately 60 CG arts, which were deprived of version 1.0.

Plot

Speaking about the plot of “Children of Terra” I could say: “An exciting adventure awaits you in a fantasy world and blah blah blah…” But, firstly, this is idle talk, and secondly, it’s not true. No, of course there are adventures in the game, but that’s not the point of the story. The plot of the novel tells about love, freedom, war and friendship. About how important it is not to lose humanity. About destinies crippled by war. About the struggle between one’s own will and duty. This story is about life itself. And in this regard, “Children of Terra” is not too far removed from the original. Final Fantasy IX also had similar themes. The novella complements and expands them. To put it simply, “Children of Terra” is a touching story that will make you laugh and cry, and the ending will leave you with pleasant feelings of warmth and slight sadness.

(Non)linearity

I originally developed Children of Terra as a linear novel, but as a result, the game introduced choices that affect the overall course of the plot, but not its ending.

Battles

Despite the specifics of the genre, the game contains battles. You may accidentally miss some if you followed a different course of events. Others happen according to the plot. Since “Children of Terra” is, first of all, a novel and there is no leveling or other elements inherent in the JRPG genre, I made the battles based on the principle of simple puzzles. It was a pleasure working on them. And most importantly, no grinding or random encounters 🙂

Mini games

There are several simple mini-games in Children of Terra. Some are woven into the game’s narrative, others will become available after completing the main story, such as "Quiz" and "Thimbles". And as the game progresses, you can collect a collection of cards. In addition to their visual value, the cards contain information about the game world, and collecting all the cards unlocks a mini-episode about the collector.