San Francisco — Change isn't easy. Square Enix learned this during the development of the WiiWare-targeted "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King." At GDC last week, Square Enix shared some lessons in a panel entitled "WiiWare Project Lifecycle: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, The Little King."
"My Life as a King" Designer, former "Final Fantasy XI" and "Front Mission Online" server programmer and self-proclaimed "token English speaker/programmer" Fumiaki Shiraishi and Producer Toshiro Tsuchida told a packed crowd they quickly discovered Square Enix's traditional development tactics -- which produce the sprawling epics beloved by gamers worldwide -- weren't going to work in this decidedly atypical development environment.
"With "Final Fantasy VII," we established a process for developing high-quality games," said Tsuchida. "All our games since then have been developed with a similar process." Additionally, Tsuchida humbly suggested the traditional process could be preventing some creativity at Square Enix.
"Creators need to be creative," he said.
What is Square Enix doing to make sure that continues to happen? Read on to find out.