First public announcement redux

So first off, I'd like to take this moment to introduce myself to everybody: Hi, I'm Nyxojaele- I live in Canada and have a boring job, and in my free time, I've found myself spending copious amounts of time developing video games and whatnot, instead of playing them. My computer knowledge is entirely self-taught, and I like FFVI too much to be considered healthy. Anything else you wanna know, feel free to ask^^

Beginning stuffs so nobody complains it wasn't obvious enough:
THIS GAME IS CURRENTLY NOT INTENDED TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. I DO NOT KNOW IF IT -EVER- WILL BE. MY LAWYER AND I ARE LOOKING INTO IT, AND WHEN WE HAVE A FINAL DECISION ON THIS, YOU WILL BE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT IT, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE. CURRENTLY, THE SITUATION IS GIVING ME REASON TO LEAN TOWARDS _NOT_ RELEASING IT.

I HAVE NO DESIRE TO PISS OFF SQUARE-ENIX (I LOVE THEM!), SO I'M TRYING MY BEST TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL OF THEIR INTERESTS ARE LOOKED AFTER, -BEFORE- MY OWN. I RESPECT THEM A GREAT DEAL, AND HOPE THEY ARE WILLING TO TREAT ME WITH A SIMILAR AMOUNT OF RESPECT.

ALSO NOTE THAT MY CURRENT GOAL IS TO ONLY MAKE A SMALL PORTION OF THE GAME. I'M THINKING SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES UP "UP UNTIL FIGARO CASTLE", OR THEREABOUTS.

I've decided that I'm going to start accepting outside help in a limited capacity- since I seriously want to finish this, I'm going to focus my own efforts entirely on the programming aspect- which'll mean that I'll need some outside
help for other things.

Basic NDA/Disclaimer that must be agreed to if you want to help (a more detailed one will be available on request, after I've put it together...)

* Recognize that this project is still intended to NOT be publicly released unless we receive explicit permission from Square-Enix themselves. I reserve the right to be in control of communications in this aspect- with feedback from other group members.
* No outside advertising for this project that hasn't passed by the Nyxojaele filter. I still maintain this as my own personal project, so I don't want somebody else going on about it behind my back.
* Works for this project shall be entirely original and created specifically for this project. You still retain your rights to the works, but are not permitted to use them for "other projects" (personal portfolios etc are fine). Additionally, full credit will be given for all works. Please note that it is not acceptable for ANY works to be downloaded from elsewhere- they must all be original works to which you hold the rights.

Positions where help is specifically desired right now:

* Concept art- Skilled art that maintains the same "feel" as the original game held is desired. Taking influence from (although not duplicating) Amano-sama's art is perfectly fine. Attention to detail is a must.
* Sound effects- High resolution recording of sound effects is desired- we can downsample later, but can never upsample for an increase in quality. Creativity is a must- how else can one create sound effects? Proficiency with an audio alteration program a plus.
* 3D models- Skill in both high poly-count & low poly-count in-game models. Cinematic poly-count model skills a plus, but nowhere near necessary. Cinematics will only be added to the game if a sufficient skillset can be acquired for the team.
* 3D levels- Architectural eye a must. Ability to create full 3d models of the original locations found in game- attention to detail a plus, but since this may be on PSP, we might have to budget our poly-counts.
* Texture artist- Skill with high quality, low/medium resolution textures- we don't want to be using up boatloads of memory for just textures.


These are just the currently desired positions for the project- if there's something else you think you can offer that will benefit FFVI3D, then please post here and let me know and I'll see if it's a viable option.

Since shortly before Xmas, I've devoted my game development time to a new project-- I'm remaking FFVI in 3D, using a freely available, well-maintained 3D engine. I have no desire whatsoever to ever market this or anything, but I'm hoping for a commercial quality game here, folks^_^v

Short of any research I'm doing into things, virtually everything is being done by myself. I do all the programming, 3d modelling, GUI graphics, etc.. The only things that aren't done by me (currently, this may change!) is the textures used for the characters, which are ripped straight out of the FMVs that came with the FFAnthologies re-release of FFVI, so as to preserve as much quality of the original characters as possible. Anything I couldn't pull out of those videos, I've made by hand myself. And altho there currently isn't any sound as of right now, the current plan is to remake as many of the sounds as possible, myself, and use the original (or orchestra!) music from various FFVI CDs... possibly going so far as to redoing the music entirely in my own (not drastic!) flavour.

My current goal with this project is to have a fully functional game for the first 1hr of gameplay MINIMUM. That means that anything that a player would logically expect to be able to do (and more!) in FFVI in the first hour, or thereabouts.. which means I'm going to have my work cut out for me as far as content goes once I get the programming in place;; Anything beyond the first hour, I will consider a bonus, and definately a worthy secondary goal.

Also worth noting is 2 more things: 1 being that I want the player to have the option to play in as classic a style as possible, for the old-school inclined, but also the option to play in a more up-to-date 3-dimensional manner, with moving cameras for cinematics, chase cams, and physics effects for some of the battle stuff. The other being, that I want all the internal calculations to be as accurate as possible as well, so I'm modelling those algorithms off of the original maths used, as posted in a couple of the major FFVI rom hacking documents released by prominent names on the subject.

So, those are the details, now for part of the reasoning behind this post (besides this being the first official announcement of this project that I've made..) I'd like to formally request some feedback on this project, in a general sense, as well as any helpful pointers as to where I might look, or who I might talk to, about a lot of the theoretical & internal information about the game.

I've already acquired myself FF3usME.exe for viewing a lot of the info, found complete in game world maps of both WoB and WoR, and have bookmarks of most of the really major sites about hacking the rom (such as Master Zed, Lord J, etc.. I'd have to hop onto my other computer to get a complete listing), and have my own personal notes about various aspects of the game as well.

I'm pretty confident about my resources, but I'm open to anything I may have missed, possibly some obscure ones.. But mostly what I'm looking for is some feedback/thoughts on the subject of my project.

Thanks~

ps. As a sidenote, I've been toying with the idea of possibly upkeeping a blog or something about the progress of this project, but I'm not sure if I'd be wasting my time or not. Thoughts on that?