Crystal Tools - Development

Development

Beginning in 2004, Square Enix decided there was a need to create a common 3D data format, and as a result a Research and Development Division was established in September 2006, with Taku Murata as the manager.

At the 2007 Game Developers Conference, Murata noted that the development of Final Fantasy XII used proprietary software to allow "real time display" of the game on a television to see immediately and precisely how the game would look.

At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, Murata did a presentation called "The Technology of Final Fantasy" during which he revealed that they had been working on a game development engine called "White Engine", and it had already reached Version 1.0. He also announced that Version 1.1, or Crystal Tools, was finished in September 2007. Murata later said in an interview that White Engine was meant to be a code name, and they wanted to have an official name that had something to do with Square Enix, and Crystal both sounded right as it reflected "many different colors" and the Final Fantasy series. Finishing his 2008 speech, he stated that the technology would be used on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and a "scaled down" version for the Wii, and that Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and a new MMORPG would both make use of the technology. The game developers working with the engine, in keeping with the Final Fantasy style, requested many close-ups and stylization of characters. When asked if Square Enix might license the engine to other companies to develop games with, he stated that Square Enix's focus was elsewhere, and that there was not yet enough documentation to do that.