Square Enix stops Crono Resurrection!!

[ChaoofNee]

It was a remake of Chrono Trigger by fans for fans of the game.

Ah. Thanks.

It's sad, but not unexpected. The 2D Ocarina of Time project was killed too. Both looked interesting and those working on either didn't stand to profit in any way. Protecting their property is definitely fair, but seeing creative fan work get stifled is never fun.

I'd much rather play this than the PS port of CT, anyway. It sucks that it got killed, but anyone who didn't see it coming was lying to themselves.

It seems to me that most companies kill off fan projects when they realize the fans are doing a better job with their properties than they are themselves.
In their spare time, no less.

[MechDeus]

This is exactly why if I was to ever do a fan-creation I wouldn't say dick about it until I'm done, that way if I have to take it down from my own server it won't matter since it'll already be out there. Lord knows enough projects have been killed at the last moment that anyone that's making a fan project should know better then to publically say anything.

It seems to me that most companies kill off fan projects when they realize the fans are doing a better job with their properties than they are themselves.

If companies don't stop people from releasing un-licensed products then they run the danger of a license turning in free domain, which can hurt them a lot. It can often be nice seeing fans doing all sorts of cool things with licenses that the companies who own such aren't doing (Quake III DBZ full-conversion was damned interesting) but I understand why the companies have to step in.

[AaronChance]

It seems to me that most companies kill off fan projects when they realize the fans are doing a better job with their properties than they are themselves. In their spare time, no less.

Seems to me that only the Japanese are hyper sensitive about this. There are fan projects for Doom, the Ultima series, Maniac Manison, etc... most have the blessing of those who own the rights to the properties. Yet in Japan there are a number of people who make games based on anime/manga and sell them without being taken down by the owners of the original properties.

[Chux]

I'd much rather play this than the PS port of CT, anyway. It sucks that it got killed, but anyone who didn't see it coming was lying to themselves.

I lied to myself every time I loaded that page.

And while we're at it, damn it looked good for a fan work.

[mollipen]

Seems to me that only the Japanese are hyper sensitive about this. There are fan projects for Doom, the Ultima series, Maniac Manison, etc... most have the blessing of those who own the rights to the properties. Yet in Japan there are a number of people who make games based on anime/manga and sell them without being taken down by the owners of the original properties.

Yeah, Japan is rather odd about this. They are hyper-sensitive about certain things - for example, they are uber-bitchy about fansites or reproducing things on the net - yet they have a huge fan-created comic market where artists write stories based on well-known characters, including hardcore sex ones, and make money off of doing so, yet companies don't work to stop them.

[Dipstick]

There are fan projects for Doom, the Ultima series, Maniac Manison, etc... most have the blessing of those who own the rights to the properties. Yet in Japan there are a number of people who make games based on anime/manga and sell them without being taken down by the owners of the original properties.

id has killed off a number of projects that reuse their art assets, either directly or indirectly (the one I remember was Quake Generations, which was a Quake 2 mod from several years back). There are also several Doom remakes out there that are kosher, and the key difference is that they do not redistribute any of id's original art assets (they only work if you have a copy of Doom to begin with).

I think it is something with game companies... or, at the very least, the anime industry in Japan does not do anything about it. There is a whole cottage industry for fan-made manga (pornographic and otherwise), and there are also several fan-made games out there too... so I really do not get this.

However, this entire "rehash" movement really irks me to no end. I hate it when companies do it, and I hate it when fans do it. If they have the time and the talent to do that (expecially with the level of quality some of these projects are reaching), they should just do it with original content!

-Dippy

[Six]

However, this entire "rehash" movement really irks me to no end. I hate it when companies do it, and I hate it when fans do it. If they have the time and the talent to do that (expecially with the level of quality some of these projects are reaching), they should just do it with original content!

Creating original content is much more difficult than simply rendering some characters and plugging them into a world and story that belongs to someone else. It's like drawing a character from a comicbook as opposed to creating a meaningful character yourself.

The project did look nice and might have been fun to play, but it's not a huge loss to anyone - we got some nice screens and a trailer and the team got some experience doing whatever it is they did.

And if so many people really care enough then someone will try and pick up where this group left off, keep the project secret and do what MechDeus suggested.

[Dipstick]

Creating original content is much more difficult than simply rendering some characters and plugging them into a world and story that belongs to someone else. It's like drawing a character from a comicbook as opposed to creating a meaningful character yourself.

The project did look nice and might have been fun to play, but it's not a huge loss to anyone - we got some nice screens and a trailer and the team got some experience doing whatever it is they did.

And if so many people really care enough then someone will try and pick up where this group left off, keep the project secret and do what MechDeus suggested.

Recreating the game is no trivial task, however -- while all of the design work is done, all of the actual production still has to be done by people capable of doing it. They had to have competent coders and artists to get that project to where it was. They have the talent to product original content -- maybe it would not have been nearly as polished as whatever they were working on, but they could have done it.

MechDeus is on point, though. You need to just sit tight and work quitely until the project is finished, but the allure of getting every Square fanboy's attention by going "ZOMG CHRONO TRIGGER REMAKE" is too much for some people to ignore. The other option would be to make the entire project open-source (and I mean the entire project, art assets and all), so even if the project gets jacked by The Man anything that was done is already out on the Internet (and once it gets out there, there is no way of getting it off.)

-Dippy

[AaronChance]

id has killed off a number of projects that reuse their art assets, either directly or indirectly (the one I remember was Quake Generations, which was a Quake 2 mod from several years back). There are also several Doom remakes out there that are kosher, and the key difference is that they do not redistribute any of id's original art assets (they only work if you have a copy of Doom to begin with).

ID also said that re-using their art assets was a no-no pretty early on when the Doom user mod scene got big, so any project that still did it deserves to get pulled. Not quite the same thing as retooling the game from the ground up like this is though.

However, this entire "rehash" movement really irks me to no end. I hate it when companies do it, and I hate it when fans do it. If they have the time and the talent to do that (expecially with the level of quality some of these projects are reaching), they should just do it with original content!

Because no one, or far fewer people, would play it. The DBZ mod Mech mentioned before was retooled and released with original content only, but far fewer people played it because DBZ was the whole draw. Some doujin makers go on to make all original games, but only after they've built up their popularity using other characters.

[MechDeus]

The DBZ mod Mech mentioned before was retooled and released with original content only, but far fewer people played it because DBZ was the whole draw.

That one got plugged with a Cease and Desist only a couple days before launch, but the beta had already been out for a while at that point. It got delayed a couple weeks because they had to make new character models and icons, but since they basically made just a flying deathmatch game it was real easy to fix up and let people put the DBZ models back in. They got a bit lucky there and didn't have to ditch all their work while being so close.

You need to just sit tight and work quitely until the project is finished, but the allure of getting every Square fanboy's attention by going "ZOMG CHRONO TRIGGER REMAKE" is too much for some people to ignore.

Exactly. I've been talking with a friend about a TC for a game that deals with another game but we've also already agreed that no mention of the engine being built on nor the final design will be posted anywhere on the net. If we don't finish it (like most fan projects) then no one feels let down and if we do then we can't be stopped until people already have it on their HDs. Sure, we'd lose a lot of internet press that way but better to release something softly then nothing loudly.

And don't worry, if we do go through with the whole thing it's not a remake but an expansion on things glossed over.