An auction-based character development system

We could give this the fancy name ABCD for Auction-Based Character Development.

The idea behind is that skills and edges/aspect have no cost when you take them, but when you use them.
So the more some aspect of a character is used, the more expensive it get's to raise it higher.
To make the whole thing more interesting, interest in other characters to develop in the same area also boost the development price. Making use of the players willingness to pay for something takes in account a much more intelligent factor than counting only the ammount of uses.

Development should not only happen at the end of every game session or between games, but after every scene.

Beginner characters are mostly blank slates with only one extraordinary trait to define them. Players should assume that they already have more traits, but that we did not see them before. Obviously this does not work to well for a backstory intense immersive play experience. A solution could be that the coming up with the character is already part of play like pitching the series in Primetime Adventures. All the players would go together through the different phases of their characters' lives. This is similar to Spirit of the Century.

You can combine those ideas and you have an RPG rule system set up that could be tested in a board game. A good start would be a simple tree stats system with rock-scissors-paper like mechanics.