FFZ (Demo)

Description :
FFZ is a game in which I tried to emulate the atmosphere, rendering style, camera movement, and a couple of other features from the original Final Fantasy VII. It's still a bare-bones version of what it could be, but it allowed me to experiment with a few things.

It is based on a prototype I did a while ago. You can read a bit more about some of the initial decisions on that page. This version is in no way a final game, just a more advanced demo of something I wanted to try.

Features :
- Title screen, logos, and fake loading times !
- Player and camera movement on a still (but slightly animated) background !
- Two maps !
- Dialogue !
- Many resolutions support, all multiples of 320x240 !

Credits :
- Programming and Graphics by Piers Bishop (me)
- Church 3D model by Maelys Jusseaux
- Music is from FFVI and FFVIII, by Nobuo Uematsu

Future improvements :
- Of the two scenes, one is rendered in real time (street), while the other has baked lighting (church).  The street scene has a few performance issues (because of the amount of lights), but the church scene has a longer loading time (because of the baked lightmaps). I'm still unsure as to which one of these options I'd go for if I wanted to make a proper game out of this. The lightmaps also drastically increase the game's overall weight (so I don't even dare imagine if I were to do it for 50+ maps).
- The first thing I'd need to improve upon is figuring out an actual set of game mecanics. Probably mostly classic stuff like having an inventory and collecting items, and quests and cutscenes to progress the story. I'm still unsure about a battle system, it would have to fit with the story I'd want to tell and the character(s) within it. Probably minigames, since FFVII is so full of them.
- Obviously I just can't use copyrighted music for this, but I have no skills whatsoever in audio composition. I'd need to find someone I can collaborate with.
- And of course any general quantity improvements (more character models, more maps, more dialogue, etc).
- I'd also need to make things like the animations more "basic" in order to better fit with the general PSX aesthetic.
- In any case, I have other things I need to work on at the moment, so if I ever make a bigger project out of this it will likely won't be before 2021.