Hi im new here, huge FF fan.

Ok so, me and my friends are working on a project for collage together and we are making a full RPG game and the thing is im the script writer/character designer and as FF is my fav series of games were gonna base it kinda on FF7 but with our own characters and story but the overall system and look will be like ff7. I need help with thinking up a story and now ive come down to thinking about it I relised how difficult it is to come up with something as amazing as FF7's world, all the things in it such as chocobos to midgar, how did someone come up with something like that? so if you guys have any cool ideas i would be very greatful, and also advice on designing characters would be great.

You should have a chocobo whore house included in your story.

for the story, take inspiration from random things-books, tv, film, things that interest you. think up random things and write them down, it doesn't have to all come at once. i have been in the planning and sketching stages of a manga i'm trying to write for over a year and still i keep scraping ideas and bringing in new concepts.
if you do base it on ff7 be careful you don't just blindly copy it.

As for designing characters i try to think of a real life example of someone similar to that character-a friend or a celebrity. the i just sketch out different clothes, faces, poses etc...think what suites the charcter,e.g. a shy reserved charcter won't prance around in a 2 piece bikini with flowing green hair.

Thanks for the help:)