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A few bits have surfaced on Square Enix's new Unreal Engine project that sees its debut in this week's Famitsu.
The project is revealed in an interview with Ryutaro Ichimura, who says that two years following the development of Dragon Quest IX, which he produced, he's "graduated" from the Dragon Quest team and is now working on a number of new titles. This original action RPG is one of those projects.
The game's platform has not been finalized, although the general idea is for it to be released on consoles. Depending on the timing, they may also look into a release on next generation platforms.
Famitsu shows just a few concept art pieces for the game. These include buildings that appear to be out of middle ages Europe, and middle ages European style characters.
Just from the looks, the game may appear to be "Westernish," but Ichimura says that it doesn't necessarily target overseas players. Rather, it's meant to represent a challenge where Japanese developers create an interesting game that is meant for worldwide release.
The development staff is working closely with overseas staff, though, as one concern is that the end result of a Japanese developer making a game set in an overseas environment might seem fake.
They're taking the approach of not forcing what they want to make into the game, but seeing what users want and going from there. For the past couple of years, they've been touring the world, conducting surveys of users, and redoing the specifications through test play. They're at the point where theY've finalized the basic research and technological aspects.
The game's core staff consists of around 35 people. Each area of development has just a few people. While the core staff has experience in RPGs, they need support from people with experience in action game development and network technology.
They'll be seeking out staff via a recruitment site which will open later this week.
http://andriasang.com/comz5i/square_eni ... first_art/
The art comes from a recruitment page that Square Enix opened up today.
The recruitment page is seeking the following positions:
Planner (Action) -- work on creating the specifications and data for the game's action, focusing on combat action
Planner (Writing) -- work on writing the text for the game and scenario
Planner (Level) -- work on level and field design via UnrealEngine 3, and positioning enemies, items and so-forth
Game Programmer -- work on areas like camera control and AI
Network Programmer -- work on such areas as matching and network synchronization during gameplay
3D Graphics Programmer -- work on real time 3D graphics realization and optimization
Physics Programmer -- work on in-game physics simulation and optimization
Animation Programmer -- work on 3D model animation
Art Designer -- background art (image and gadgets) and character and enemy art and design
Motion Designer -- work on game character motion
VFX Designer -- work on effects for action scenes, cut-scenes and so-forth
BG Modeler -- work on production of 3D backgrounds, also work on level design through Unreal Engine 3 editor
Character Modeler -- work on modeling for characters and enemies, taking artwork and going through process of high mesh, modeling, bone, texture and material
