Reverse Design: Chrono Trigger

Reverse Design #2

by The Game Design Forum

The Game Design Forum's attempt to completely reverse engineer all of the design decisions that made Chrono Trigger such a classic game. It examines how the title breaks down into two different games and consistently deceives and manipulates player expectations with novel game design techniques, and how the designers were able to make Chrono Trigger into both a tragedy and a comedy, all in a way idiosyncratic to videogames.

Features 70+ pages of analysis, graphs, images and data charts tackling all kinds of topics from themes in game design to dungeon pacing, from characters and music to battle systems, and from art design to script analysis.

ebook

Published July 1, 2012