Evolution Dev Diary Translation (2020.02.09)

SOURCE: [http://www.sting.co.jp/www/evo/evodiary/evodiary.html]

Autumn 1996

	A draft for a Sega Saturn RPG to succeed Baroque (which we were working on at the time) comes up from planning. Around this time it was a sort-of "Swords and Magic meets Sci-Fi" setting, with battles leaning heavily towards a "simulation" style. We hadn't come up with Mag, Linear, or anyone else yet.
(Dec. 21, 1998. Entry by Tomita)

February 1997

	The draft was canned due to various circumstances. We wanted to reconstruct the world and story from scratch. The planning team came up with some more rough ideas.

1.) The protagonist is a ninja who battles with black magic

2.) The protagonist is a young member of the "Time Patrol" in a retro sci-fi anime 	setting

3.) A simulation RPG depicting the battles between the gods of humans and the gods of monsters

4.) One with a young prince touring various nations

5.) One featuring psychic powers depicting an older sister and younger brother on the run from an evil organization

6.) One with a lot of action where the protagonist is a young boy or girl who links their body to a mecha to fight

After consideration, we decided to use the final idea for the game.
(Dec. 25, 1998. Entry by Tomita)

End of February 1997

For a large-scale RPG, we solidify the setting and flow of the story, and decide on the characters. At first, the age of all the main characters was much lower (Gre was 40!) and the whole thing had a strong "childish" image. Also, characters' names weren't set in stone just yet. Linear was called Pandora. Besides this, there were many parts that, if compared to the final product, would have you say "This isn't similar at all". But that's another story.
(Dec. 28, 1998. Entry by Matsumura)

X/X/1997

We ordered a design from the designers in the company after finishing Mag's personality and background. At first we had arrangements to order a design from outside the company, but due to various circumstances and in order to put out something that is more our own brand, we decided to order a design internally. At this point, with the goggles, headgear, and clothes, it looked a lot like the Mag's final design. However, we hadn't yet decided on a design for the Cyframe, and working out how the Cyframe and user would work together would take a few days.
(Jan. 6, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

X/Y/1997

We developed a heroine character to travel alongside our protagonist, Mag. Linear Cannon. Linear's design was simple and was finalized without any major revisions. Changes from her original to her final design include her hair color (she was not blonde originally), and her thick-bottomed "escort sandals" used to be a pair of soft leather boots. Her loose-fitting outerwear and long hair are unchanged from her original draft, though.
	Sometime during development, the ages of all the main characters were raised. (Mag was 13 originally, but became 16 after the change.) However, the character designs were not changed to reflect this. The cute charm of chibi characters with contradictory ages came from this coincidence.
(Jan. 7, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

X/Z/1997

	We had put off developing Gre for some reason. Instead we developed the character and design for Chain, Heiress to the Gun family, eternal rivals to the Launcher family. She was a very popular character on the developer's side as well. A female staff member had even suggested we make Chain the protagonist. What's more, this suggestion was even considered by planning. However, the project continued as planned. It was too late to turn back now.
	Chain Gun, for reasons mentioned previously, also appeared and acted quite young for her age. Internally, there was a lot of conversation over this choice, but our current design concept for the main characters was to just go with something cute. In the end, the project continued as normal.
	Also, Chain's Cyframe design was decided on rather quickly.
(Jan. 8, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

Y/X/1997

	We had been developing minor characters at the same time. In the beginning, we did not consider a holistic balance and just made a bunch of different characters. However, we eventually had to refine each character's personality. We had a "dandy" middle-aged adventurer and a lot of weird enemy designs, but we decided it wasn't their time just yet.
	In the end, we had a sort of motley crew to join Mag, a couple enemy characters, and a few characters that would play key roles in the story. We didn't have many characters, but it ended up being enough for our story.
We decided to keep using the "temporary" names we had for minor NPCs (such as "old man" and "girl") to keep the focus on the main characters.
As for the characters we had to cut, there were a few that I still really liked, and I hope they'll show up in some form in another project.
(Jan. 11, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

Y/Y/1997

	We drafted the design for the female adventurer Pepper Box. We made an order along the lines of "sexy, wild, dynamite" to the designers and they delivered exactly what we expected. On the whole, the design was fine. We made a few minor edits (adding a riveted leather band, etc.) and ended up using the design almost exactly as we received it. She was probably the least popular character among our team, but she became one of my favorites. Originally, she was going to be an "oneesan" type character, yearning for Mag from afar. Later, we planned to have her have a sort of "straight man-funnyman" comedy dynamic with Chain.
	Around this time we started having problems with designing the Cyframes. We had difficulty coming up with unique and varied designs that matched their owners' personalities, and the large size and positioning of the Cyframes made the characters hard to animate.
(Jan. 12, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

Y/Z/1997

	We begin planning the layout and some small events for the town. At this time we hadn't decided on how the player would traverse the maps, so we limited planning to just outlining the placement of buildings important to the story. We also hadn't yet decided who would be in charge of the art, so I took it upon myself to illustrate how I felt the town should look.

(Jan. 13, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

Z/X/1997
	Around this time we had to decide on colors and the like. We decided on coloring Mag first. Since he's the protagonist, the usual "protagonist colors" were considered, but we decided against that in the end. We agreed upon a somewhat masculine color scheme for Mag. When we actually saw this coloration on Mag onscreen, it was clear this was the most balanced palette we could have made for him. We decided to use it for the final product.

(Jan. 14, 1999. Entry by Mastumura)

Z/Y/1997

	We began to consider designs for the mecha that will appear in the game. We wanted to avoid anything too realistic, and decided on a superdeformed design with realistic materials. Because the world design for Evolution was loosely based on a late 1930's aesthetic, we didn't want to make anything too "futuristic" looking for the mecha either, so we focused on a retro, practical look while still keeping it stylized. Additionally, considering that the Cyframes were created by a scientifically advanced ancient civilization, we had a lot of freedom to make some weird designs, too.

(Jan. 18, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

Z/Z/1997

	We finished outlining the story, but still had additional details to work out. Things such as minor character roles and the like. Around this time, we had given Linear her full name: Linear Cannon. We had stubbornly insisted on the theme of naming main characters after weapons, and while it was difficult to come up with appropriate names, I think the end result was worth it.
	Incidentally, Linear ("L-I-N-E-A-R" in English) means something like "straight line" or "straight ahead" in English, but I always thought the word had something to do with magnets since we call maglev trains "Linear Motorcars" in Japanese.
	On the origin of the name "Linear Cannon", there was some controversy over a publication saying it was related to the "smoothbore" cannons of a ship, but if anything that was just a liberal translation. It was not a mistake.

(Jan. 19, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

4/X/1997



(Jan. 20, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)

4/Y/1997

	Around this time, the test version we'd prepared for Sega Saturn can now boot. We used pre-rendered CG sprites for the characters and backgrounds. It was mostly a 2D game. We only used polygons to render background elements during battle scenes. Together with camera movement, it gave the battle scenes a quasi-3D look. Altogether it looked quite different, but what we were trying to make wasn't too different from what we ended up with.

(Jan. 21, 1999. Entry by Tomita)

May 1997

	We had difficulty with the specifics of the Cyframes (then called "Cy-arms"). We were going for a 1930's style world design, so we tried very hard to avoid using high fantasy imagery such as swords and magic.
	So, we focused more on a hand-to-hand action and emphasized the mecha aspect of the devices. From there, we continued to use the test version to work out the specifics of the game's systems.

(Jan. 26, 1999. Entry by Tomita)

June 1997

	Development on "Baroque" had been ramping up, so our artist and some people from planning were asked to help. We were without an artist, so a programmer asked me to make an explosion graphic for the test build. It's true that I was an artist when I first joined the company, but I hadn't drawn for years since joining planning. I drew the explosion, thinking "we couldn't even use more than 16 colors back then..."
	Of course, the explosion I drew is not present in the final product.

(Jan. 27, 1999. Entry by Tomita)

7/X/1997

	The battle scene in the Saturn test version grows more robust.

X/1998

	We finally decide on a design for the Launcher's butler, Gre Nade. Thinking about it now, it took us quite a while. Or, rather, we put it off for quite a while. We had a general outline of what we wanted for the design from early on, which consisted of a few key features. "Grey Hair", "Tailcoat", "Moustache", "Slim", "Tall". When we finally sent our outline to the designers, we instantly adopted what they brought back to us. Gre's character was originally based on a butler from the American TV series "B*tman". However, we wanted more of a "butler that fights alongside his master, forming a strong bond" kind of character, so he ended up more like a "Garris*n Tokida" from a certain robot anime. In any case, both this "Tokida" and Gre were based on the butler from "B*tman", and Gre ended up a very well-received and popular character. That our characters were so well-received made me very happy, and moved me deeply.

(May 13, 1999. Entry by Matsumura)