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author=Red_Nova
Well, as a concept, it seems fine. Would you still leave the old build available for download? If so, what incentive would you add for players to get the remake?

The original build would always be available for download! Keep in mind that any (conceptual) remake would be far and above more powerful and expansive than the current project; think a bit of the technical difference between say, Wild Arms and Wild Arms Alter Code F. I'm not saying a remake would be that huge, but it would be more than 'slightly shiner on RM'.

The big thing I'm thinking about here is that a much more powerful remake would reach a larger audience inherently. RM is a great tool, but it has limitations, and also, it has an audience ceiling. It's not fair, but there are a lot of people who don't even bother with RM games on principle. It's really hard to get an especially large audience for RM games, unless you're Exit Fate, Hero's Realm (and for perspective, kentona is also considering/considering remaking that for similar reasons), or Ara Fell. Craze spoke some truth here;

author=Craze
however, the insular nature of the community and the lack of real critera, as you put it, definitely shaped how we made games. it's very different now. i know that i can't convince myself to make shitty small games any more, because i don't really want to make a game just for RMN. i spend my gam mak time working on my big project with karsuman, because we want to make something for people to play outside of the community -- ABL would be laughed out of town anywhere outside of gamingworld, even, with its shitty menus and weird mess of graphics.

Recently as Chronology has gotten more attention, I've gotten surprising offers from people to compose music, art, etc, and I usually turn them down first and foremost 'cause I'm broke, secondary reason, I'm pretty far along now as it is, and finally, if I'm going to be shelling out a ton of money for Chronology, I might as well aim higher than what I can with RM. I've written a lot of background lore, design documents and such for Chronology, and I don't want it confined to the expectations that an RM game is supposed to be a 20 hour 'I'll play if I have time' deal. I also don't want to fall into the circle of 'pretty good for an RM game', either. I couldn't do this in RM.

A remake (conceptually) would be less about getting people who already played to play again, and more about getting to an even bigger audience, with custom assets, art, music, and a more powerful engine, that hey, if it's really good, I could even make a paid game.

author=unity
If that's what you want to do. If you have an idea for a new game after Chronology, I might find that more interesting to play than to play Chronology again on a new engine. Just my opinion tho ^_^

I do have some ideas, and I'm not done with RM nor is the above a dig at it. This is something that would be kind of further in the future!

author=Craze
I think what you're doing now is fine. Before you're done making it, I would start getting in at some other major(/-ish) indie sites so that you can share your finished project there, too. Get a wide variety of feedback, not just from RMN. Eventually, you can use that to revamp the game, either in Ace with help from artists and coders, or in something else entirely in 10 years. I think it'd be legit to do a "spiritual parallel" or something, like how DQ9 is basically DQ3 but in 3d, or how the latest Lufia game was an action rpg version of Lufia 2.

Keep notes, but I also don't get stuck in the idea of "I'll just do that when I remake this." You might have a far better game concept in the future and never get around to Chronology again.

A 'spiritual parallel' is something that I didn't think of, something like Xenogears/Xenosaga (well, in concept. In practice they're very different games). A remake wouldn't be that drastic though. You also bring a great point of not unconsciously diluting my work by thinking 'eh I'll do it in the remake'.

author=Dyhalto
Why? Storyline reasons? You could always do something in the same world, taking place at a different time, or just go with the disconnected Final Fantasy method.

Because then that'll require me to make compromises with the plot that I just don't want to do. I'm not interested in the disconnected Final Fantasy method, either.

What you're suggesting doing with a remake is taking the existing game and souping it up. That's fine and all, but if you're going to do that, why not do it as an official sequel? It'll be like your Terminator 2 to CotLE's Terminator 1 : Superior in every way. Then there'll be something new for everybody, and people who played the original can look forward to familiar names and places.

I respect that! But I'm not very interested. If I revisit Chronology, I want it to be a completely superior but conceptually identical 'retelling', similar to Wild Arms 1/Alter Code, or Tactics Ogre PSX/PSP version. It wouldn't be the same game with the same engine. It would likely be a much superior game with an entirely different engine. (that is pretty much a guarantee, I'm not making the same game twice with the same engine).

Creatively, I want to be able to move on from Chronology to make entirely different worlds rather than squeezing more juice out of that world. If I leave out some people who aren't interested in playing a remake of a game they've already played, that's okay.