It seems as though FFTA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Tactics_Advance) wouldn't be that hard to remake if you did it correctly, aside from the tedious job of actually entering all the data for different attacks, jobs, etc. Am I missing something? The cutscenes are practically the hardest part!

You are missing a lot. Don't underestimate the amount of work necessary to complete any game. A quick look at happypenguin should show you how many games are out there that are partially complete and have been in development for months to years.

I realize there is a lot to do. But the basic game aspect of it seems fairly simple if you do it right. Adding in all the data and cutscenes seems like the most time-consuming part.

I think the hardest part of any strategy game like this would be the AI.

good point. although the AI's not that great (I think quite a bit of it is random). From what I can tell, I think every job is rated on difficulty (I think assassin is the highest). When it's the AI's turn, it finds the highest rating inside its range, does a small formula which involves level too, and then picks whichever unit poses the highest threat (it never seems to attack low-health units unless they're in dangerous jobs). What I find interesting is the formula that finds the shortest route between two tiles, and the shortest route to take on the world map between two locations.

The bulk of video game development is (and should be) spent on gameplay balance tuneing. Even the best designers in the industry will tell you this. If done right, this balanceing is invisable, its what most players take for granted.

All those character stats and abilities in Final Fantasy Tactics didn't just magicly appear in the designers head the way they are in the game. The game was played over and over again with the developers asking repeatedly "Is this fun?", "Does this feel right?", "Would it play better if we did X here instead of Y?".

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Original post by MSW The bulk of video game development is (and should be) spent on gameplay balance tuneing. Even the best designers in the industry will tell you this. If done right, this balanceing is invisable, its what most players take for granted. All those character stats and abilities in Final Fantasy Tactics didn't just magicly appear in the designers head the way they are in the game. The game was played over and over again with the developers asking repeatedly "Is this fun?", "Does this feel right?", "Would it play better if we did X here instead of Y?".

Exactly. Take, for example, Pac-Man. I could recreate the mechanics of that game in an afternoon. However, the difficulty in creating Pac-Man didn't come from the technical hurdles: it came from the iterative design process and the play balancing.

Another way to look at it is when painting: any half-assed "artist" can make a near-exact replica of Starry Night in a reasonably short time and nobody but a DaVinci expert would refute its authenticity. However, it took DaVinci alot longer, and alot more effort, to create the original from scratch.

If given full and perfect documentation of every feature in FF Tactics Advance, it wouldn't be too hard to recreate the game. However, it's nearly impossible to design an interactive product on paper and "get it right the first time" (despite what Pirate_Lord tries to tell people). Alot of it you'd have to make up yourself as you go along, and that's where the difficulty lies.

That's very very true, but what with the FFTA mechanics guide on gamefaqs, I can even recreate their random number generators. Add Cheat Engine hacking in, and it shouldn't be too hard to copy their numbers. It would be hard if you had to make them from scratch, but if you're just copying or redoing a game like FFTA, it's not that hard to find their values.

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Original post by RobotGymnast That's very very true, but what with the FFTA mechanics guide on gamefaqs, I can even recreate their random number generators. Add Cheat Engine hacking in, and it shouldn't be too hard to copy their numbers. It would be hard if you had to make them from scratch, but if you're just copying or redoing a game like FFTA, it's not that hard to find their values.

Is this something you actually plan on doing? If so, you wouldn't really be able to safely release it to the public. Directly ripping off game mechanics (down to the numeric values) would probably get you a cease-and-desist order and/or sued by Square Enix.

In addition, what's the fun in exactly cloning what has already been done? What you'll end up with is a cheap knock-off, a game that plays exactly the same but doesn't have the same FFT appeal. If you love FFT and want to make a game like it, why not use it as inspiration to create your own unique experience?

If this isn't something you actually planned on doing, disregard the above statements.

It's just an individual project to work on with some friends. We wouldn't actually release it.

If I'm going to make another version (as my and my friend have talked about doing), it's going to be pretty different. Debugging and tweaking are half the fun of making a game!