Questions for the Crimson Echoes team

[ZeaLitY]

I'm putting the interview feature together, so now's the time to ask questions to the Crimson Echoes team.

(You won't get an answer until a week after CE is released, since that's when the feature comes out, so don't bother with "IS MAGUS GONNA KILL A DOOD!?!?!?!!?!??")

[FaustWolf]

Where did the CE team get the inspiration to do this? How did the idea come about, and how long has the project been in development?

[ZeaLitY]

Aha, that one's fortunately all taken care of in my part of the feature already. I posted it in the Buzz / Release Planning thread if you want to check it out.

[Zephira]

From the looks of it, this hack has been in development for a few years. How did you keep the team together that long? Were there any members that stayed throughout the whole project, or was it 'passed on' to others when the original developers got too busy?

[FaustWolf]

Hmm, as a last question, I'd ask if the core CE team members have special plans now that Crimson Echoes is finished. Chrono Break? Crimson Echoes II? A hack covering a largely unexplored era in Chrono history?

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

How did the overall story process begin?  Did you run into any creative bumps as you went along?  How different is the finally product from it's first incarnation (for instance, the demo)?

[Setheus]

Is the CE team truly happy with their creation? I also think FaustWolf has a good question =) I would like to see those questions answered as well.

[teaflower]

-Who's idea was it, in the first place? Like, who decided, 'Hey, let's make a ROM hack that's sort of a bridge between CT and CC!'?

-Will there be more from this game, like a potential sequel or something along those lines? Or at least getting the Crimson Echoes Dream Team together to make another hack?

[Shee]

How much of the hack was created through event manipulation and how much of it was hex bit and byte type nonsense?

I say nonsense only because I don't understand it.

[FaustWolf]

Given the recent evolution of Chrono Crisis into Chrono Ark and the reasons provided as explanation for that event, what advice does the CE team have regarding internal communication structure for ambitious fan projects? Any best practices for making sure everyone's on the same page?

[ZeaLitY]

It was almost a non-issue for CE, since only one person was actually coding the game at one time. But if you examine the CE forum, by volume it's one of the bigger forums on the Chrono Compendium. We posted often.

The project needs a champion or perhaps a duo to coordinate all the activity and swat down bad suggestions or implement new ones, so it's sort of a case of the Byzantine Empire. If you have a good emperor, the rest of the system works well; you conquer lands, grow themes, and promote trade. But one bad emperor can lose the entire empire, and when the project champion isn't active for whatever reason, things can get messy unless there's a good system in place.

With Crisis, it sounds like Chains wanted to be in control of every decision and piece of work, but wasn't nearly active enough to make that possible. So, without a good idea of what they could or should do, the team had nowhere to go. With CE, the plot was cleanly laid out, so coders and mappers could create areas even if the directors were missing in action. There's enough final scene tweaking and polishing done that it's almost stupid not to map things out in advance for the reason of "avoiding revision work when the directors come back." And if the directors are always missing, perhaps they don't deserve to be calling the shots on the project to begin with.

[FaustWolf]

If it's a spoiler or anything don't worry about answering it till later, but what's the significance of the words "Glass Rose" spoken by a sleeping character at one point in the game? Is it a special item? Or just something to add to the surreal mood of that sequence?

[ZeaLitY]

Just a hidden item that triggers an easter egg scene. There are a lot of easter eggs.

[neo-fusion]

Is there plans to attempt to tell what happenned to Crono and Marle after the Fall of Guardia (I hope this doesn't fall in the one category that is a no-no)

Also, can you say the question was asked by Neo-Fusion. Since that's my main alias every where else.

And if that question is a no-no

Will there be any cameos of Compendium Staff or users in the actual game?

[Mr Bekkler]

After it's realeased, will the CE team release a Player's Guide, 1995 style, with every boss stat, tech, item, plot advancement, and all easter eggs listed in detail?
(If not, somebody should get on that idea. It'd be sweet. As a matter of fact, I'm going to draw/Photoshop a cover in a non-anime style, just for fun!)


Will the game give any spoilers away that you learn in the previous games? As in, could it stand alone or would you HAVE to play through Trigger and Cross to get it?


Will there be any Cross Cameos? PC or non? (You don't have to answer but I had to ask!)


Will the term "Crimson Echoes" be used in-game?


Was there anything animationwise or eventwise that you really wanted to do but couldn't? Or perhaps anything that was compromised by the restrictions of Temporal Flux? (If the answer to that gives anything away, I'd rather not hear it actually unless it was in the afformentioned Player's Guide)

Edit:

I wanted to reword the questions but didn't want to make a new post.

1. Will the game's story stand alone?
2. Did Temporal Flux have any restrictions that you would have liked to overcome but couldn't?