Secret of Evermore - Development

Development

Development on Secret of Evermore began in early 1994 at Square Soft, the Redmond, Washington office of the Japanese parent company Square. The concept of a boy traveling with his dog through a world based on cheesy B movies was dictated from overseas, whereupon Square Soft began work on the detailed storyline. This resulted in popular culture references and dialog that are distinctly American for a mainstream console RPG. The game's associate producer and writer, George Sinfield, decided that making such references would be familiar to American players.

Many of Secret of Evermore's elements were copied from Secret of Mana because they had been proven to be effective. The size of the game was an early issue. It was decided that the game would be single-player to preserve memory because it was originally planned to be only 12-megabits. However, the game would double to 24-megabits near the end of development. Various pieces of concept art were designed by Daniel Dociu. Using computer software, including SGI Indy II and Alias workstations, the game's artwork and design were mapped out by three animators, four background artists, and a 3D rendering artist. It was put together using the company's SAGE (Square's Amazing Graphical Editor) program, led by programmer Brian Fehdrau. Rather than having to hand off their work to the programmers, the artists and designers were able to test their ideas directly using the SAGE program. Using another company program, SIGIL (Square Interpreted Game Intelligence Language), Secret of Evermore was made into a final product.

There is a persistent misconception that the game is, or was released in lieu of, a follow-up to Secret of Mana. Other Square titles such as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger were being localized simultaneously with the production of Secret of Evermore. Fehdrau explained in an interview that Secret of Evermore was not created in place of Seiken Densetsu 3 and that the team that developed Secret of Evermore was assembled from newly-hired staff, and would otherwise never have been assembled. Several of the team members joined Humongous Entertainment, which spawned Cavedog Entertainment, while the rest of the team spread to other Seattle-area game studios like Electronic Arts, Boss Game Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Gas Powered Games, among others.

Secret of Evermore was released on October 1, 1995, in North America. In 1996, it was translated into French, German, and Spanish for the non-English-speaking market in some PAL territories, including Australia and New Zealand. Some PAL versions were packaged in a large box and included a strategy guide.