last few days we've gone 84k > 83k > 67k....... in daily pledges. if it drops anymore than this we won't hit 5 million, its unlikely we will have a surge at the end if you actually look at previous kickstarters and what caused the surges at those times.

we need Awesome Japan to do something to keep the momentum up to at least maintain what we are taking in, we ain't gonna beat bloodstained at this point.

last few days we've gone 84k > 83k > 67k....... in daily pledges. if it drops anymore than this we won't hit 5 million, its unlikely we will have a surge at the end if you actually look at previous kickstarters and what caused the surges at those times.

we need Awesome Japan to do something to keep the momentum up to at least maintain what we are taking in, we ain't gonna beat bloodstained at this point.

Can't blame anyone but Shenmue fans for that, tbh. Awesome Japan's update yesterday was pretty great, and they've been surprisingly on top of things since the physical PS4 announcement.

They have? Other than updating the tiers to what people asked for and sending emails to people who have already pledged, what proactive engagement have they done with mainstream media and social media to push the KS?

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Screenshot_2015-07-08-16-00-26_zpsx7ea7tfr.png

https://twitter.com/yu_suzuki_jp/status/618777139060420608

The latest tweet from Yu-San shows us the plans of the first floor of the Bird Dance Hotel! It's the 1F plans.... I swear I got such a buzz off of this, much more so than his other tidbit releases. This completely reminds me of The Come Over Guest House and the towers of Kowloon, quite simply by just seeing "1F"!!

Choubu, please book me in for December 2017. Thanks!

Really wish they would've updated the picture and trailer with today's front page visibility.

Yeah... if they could stop adding rewards that have exclusive in-game items for over a thousand fucking dollars... that'd be great.

I don't think these new rewards will have much of an impact, but lets hope im wrong...

I don't think it will either, we really need something like a Shenmue HD announcement which is unlikely until after the KS ends. We just have to.hope we get lucky with some unexplainable boost at the ends, I don't see it happening though

Today would've been the day for a killer trailer. It has front page exposure. I'm bummed out they couldn't time it. I'm not actually sure they were serious about the new trailer.

Hence why GT has my hard earned dolla for a subscription. I can send the Funhaus guys a picture of my helmet and tell them to suck it....

I'm in love with disc 4 of Shenmue II, I consider it one of the most beautiful segments in gaming history.
I hope they will just reuse that segment for the start of shenmue III ( in updated graphs of course).

What do you guys think? How will Shenmue III start?

This is starting to get annoying. I hope they make it really hard to find some of this shit in game. Give us a no Kickstarter content mode or make this stuff only show up in New Game Plus. I don't wanna see any of you assholes when I'm in Guilin chilling with Shenhua.

Dropped 10k since new tiers announced.. Not surprised

Like we all said, add anymore tiers it would come back to bite em. ..

pledge wise they are still coming in, but so many people are downgrading tiers to the new lower lost ones that the pledges totals are bearly moving. AJ strikes again..

No offence to the people here doing that, but could you, like, not? Are these shitty rewards really worth having a negative impact on the funding levels? Just stick with your original pledges. You really don't need your face on a crappy toy capsule or some exclusive technique scroll that, for all you know, could be worthless or whatever you're downgrading to.

just for reference, today alone 15 were lost from the $1500 pledge, depending on what tier they downgraded to its between $10,000-$20,000 lost.

AJ are ruining this KS by trying to milk a one time success tier, first by doubling that particular tier and then copying it across multiple other tiers; over and over again.. rather than doing their actual god damn job and marketing the sodding kick starter!!!

they are happy to leave that to fans.. I assume they are being paid to run the KS, maybe they should actually do something more than updating a page and fudging streams and Reddit AMAs badly.

Dropping your pledge because AJ are running this KS horrendously isn't going make Awesome Japan lose any sleep at night. For $800 you get what you get... either you want it or not. Shenmue III and Yu Suzuki need us, Awesome Japan don't.

Can that thing even run UE4?

"In 2015, Armature Studio has announced that it will be responsible for porting Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to the PS Vita and Wii U. This will include porting Unreal Engine 4 to those platforms, as they are not officially supported by Epic Games.[109] Armature will make their engine code available to licenced Wii U and PS Vita developers after Bloodstained is finished."

As i understand it theres pretty much 3 reasons for asking for paypal.

1. Some people don't agree with Kickstarter- not 100% sure why but probably the cut they take (Riku has been vocal here on this so can probably clarify).

2. The more general reason is as mentioned above- existing backers/non backers would like the option of continuing to fund after KS closes. Not going to lie I didn't even know this was possible pre-S3 getting announced but from my understanding this has been hugely successful for other games (star citizen is it?).

3. There's also a few people that don't have debit/credit cards or can't because of the regional issues but would still like to pledge.

Incoming:

$560 tier - Become an author in the local library - find your book in the library and receive a special reward.

$833 tier - Have your name featured in a special pathway. Find your name and receive a 'winning can'

$971 tier (20 available) - Have your excrement featured in the game. When you've got to go, you've got to go! Each time Ryo has to do his business, a special backer's stinky poo will be featured in the game.

$2,245 tier (40 available) - Have your name featured within one of the many arcade machine's score board.

$2,390 tier (7 available) - Have your lucky underpants featured within the game. As Ryo awakes in the morning, you will have the choice of which special backer's underpants to wear. "Let' get sweaty".

$3,560 tier (5 available) - Have your photo featured on Shenhua's bedroom wall in an exclusive poster

$4,700 tier (1 available) - Have Ryo's penis designed after your own. When Ryo decides to "get sweaty" with Nozomi or Shenhua, your penis will be featured in an exclusive scene

$6,100 tier (1 available) - Have Ryo's outfit modeled and designed entirely by you. Choose Ryo's socks, shoes, pants, tshirt and jacket.

$8,200 tier (3 available) - Have your artwork featured in a special temple

I put together this animated short in an attempt to bring more awareness to the Kickstarter. The idea was to try and animate a Shenmue themed Mega Man stage. If you're wondering why I decided to mix the two, it's because we're a couple of guys who have been working on a Mega Man fangame for a couple of years, so we're using our Facebook page that we set up for that game to promote the campaign. Hope you guys like it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07KXALnWyv4

Yu Suzuki interview on NicoNico LIVE transcription [2015.07.12]:
(Sorry if there are some english mistakes)

J: Journalist
Y: Yu Suzuki

J: Here’s Yu Suzuki-san, I think he doesn't need introductions. We are still surprised for Shenmue 3 announcement.

Y: Yeah… We waited for 14 years and are very, very excited. Years passed by, and it doesn’t matter where I go, it was always the same, where’s Shenmue 3, Shenmue 3… And I just recently watched a video from the grateful fans all over the world; it was really moving for me, it’s difficult to explain with words.

J: Shenmue was a true revolution for the time, but nowadays it will probably be more difficult to surprise gamers like you did all this years ago right? Please tell us about your origins as a game designer.

Y: At first I didn’t want to become a game designer you know, I wanted to be musician, even dentist… But especially musician, I was very interested in music stuff back then, since very early school days. I even had interest on foreign languages (not Asian languages, written in horizontal, like English). Then I went to different interviews, one of those interviews was in SEGA for programmer stuff, I thought it was very interesting and then I decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life (game designer).

J: So let’s check this slide with different games Yu Suzuki-san created over the years. So incredible names come out, Outrun, Virtua Racing… and so on. We can see back then a lot of them were arcade games right? (like the ones you can find inside Game You/Shenmue Arcade Center)

Y: Yes, back then arcades were very successful, a lot of them were later adapted to consoles and even to Shenmue, including the boxing one.

J: Yeah… Shenmue Arcade Center was truly incredible; we could play games like Outrun, etc., what were you thinking for creating something like that?

Y: Well, back then arcades in Japan had a very negative image on the society, like the kind of dark place where delinquents would meet, bike gangsters and bad guys smoking… I wanted to change that, and at the same time create a new style of gaming. I wanted arcades to be considered like treasures, like Disneyland.

I: Well, you created something truly wonderful! It was a place even girls could enjoy… (Kicked from NicoNico, don’t know if he was referring to real Arcade Centers or Game You)

Y: (…) the evolution of game engines, CG, pseudo-3D sprite-scaling with games like Hang On or Virtua Racing, and then real 3D boards!, full 3D games like Virtua Fighter, back then it was something unbelievable you know. When we were studying on school we were always thinking how awesome it would be to have 3D games. Hang On was kind of 3D, pseudo simulated 3D, and then we created different patterns using different 3D effects, it was very curious, for some time we were creating fully 3D games inside our heads, but the final product was pseudo-3D, not real 3D. Games like Virtua Racing used indirect 3D effects, then for Virtua Fighter we created polygons full contact, full 3D games at last.

J: And all of this starting from scratch right?

Y: Yeah, back then everything was like that, from scratch, we created everything starting from 0, there was no other way.

J: Then with Shenmue you created not only a stage or racing track but a full 3D city to explore.

Y: Normally at first you have to design your initial planning for the game, so you think about the human body, and if it’s a soccer game 11 players per team, and things like that. But with Shenmue we had to think from the beginning on creating a full living city. That was something I wanted to achieve from a long time ago.

J: A game that feels like a full experience right? You created a new genre by the time, it was called FREE, some kind of special RPG style genre?

Y: Well, yes it was an RPG, but I don’t like to call Shenmue like that, it was something completely new, an adventure you needed to experience by yourself. So we decided to call it like that, FREE, a new genre to help people easily understand Shenmue was something completely new, nothing like they knew by then.

J: Let’s talk about Shenmue 3, meetings, reasons, the timing needed to make Shenmue 3 come true…

Y: It’s been already 14 years since Shenmue 2, it was a really long journey. Wherever I go it was always the same, Shenmue 3, Shenmue 3… Then by march/april, is Shenmue 3 finally coming? They wanted Shenmue much more than any other of my previous games, like Virtua Fighter, and I really thought one million possibilities to make it true, there were a lot of things to deal with, budget problems, licensing problems with SEGA, etc. After continuously thinking for 14 years then I decided to make it via Kickstarter, that way we could get the budget we needed via crowdfunding and finally create Shenmue 3.

J: I see (sorry). And fans from all around the world joined forces to become this project a reality. During E3 Shenmue 3 announcement there were some unbelievable reactions don’t you think?

Y: Yes, I couldn’t see that reactions LIVE because I was waiting behind the main stage, and before Shenmue 3 there were some awesome games announcements like Final Fantasy VII, I could hear really big reactions so I was very nervous about Shenmue and how the people would react. But then, it happened, I remember screams all over the place… after Shenmue music started it was like an explosion… It was too much for me, I couldn’t bear it and started to cry backstage.

J: I could imagine Yu’s happiness just by looking at those emotions from all over the world.

Y: Indeed, it was truly awesome. Also, a lot of Shenmue fans from a lot of countries learned a lot from Japan and even started to study japanese and eventually moved to Japan thanks to playing the game. Specially Shenmue II using japanese voices and english subtitles helped foreigners to learn at least some well repeated japanese phrases and expressions. I even know some incredible stories, folks who dreamed to get married in Japan with someone like Nozomi, and eventually they did it! It makes me really happy to hear stories like that.

I: Congratulations for all you’ve achieved during your life Yu Suzuki-san. Now please tell me, what was Shenmue I and II original staff reactions after Shenmue 3 announcement on E3?

Y: They sent me LINE messages like ‘congratulations!!’ or things like that, some of them are living abroad, and they were super excited and relieved for the good news. Also, like I said before recently I saw a 20 minutes video with Shenmue fans from all over the world thanking me for making Shenmue 3, I was very moved by their feelings, it was incredible.

J: It’s unbelievable don’t you think Yu Suzuki-san? What a game can achieve…

Y: Indeed. Maybe it is something you can’t make outside of videogames. It is more than just good graphics or sounds, inside the game you create some kind of bond between the story and the spirit of the player, I think that’s awesome.

J: Let’s talk about the real condition of cities like Yokosuka. Kind of nostalgic feeling don’t you think? How things have changed all over Japan since 1986. Now we have incredible places like Mirai Kan, etc.

Y: Yes, Japan changed in a lot of ways. And let’s not forget Japanese and Asian people have very different beliefs and traditions than the ones from foreigner countries. Probably those differences also helped foreign fans to learn to love Shenmue, trying to understand a country so much different than theirs. Also, internet and technology helped a lot to unify the world and making it easy to understand those differences. Going back to Yokosuka and old Japan, for example if you go back in time 80 years, there are not so many records, and (…) Yokohama and ‘Yoko’ Kanji (??) (Kicked from NicoNico)

J: And you can immortalize the atmosphere of those years inside the game right?

Y: Yes, using 3D and techniques like motion capture we tried to capture and recreate that atmosphere from old times the best we can.

J: No doubt you did it. I think you can really feel the japanese Showa era (1926-1989) inside Shenmue. Please tell us more about your relations with producers and staff before the Shenmue 3 announcement.

(From now on NicoNico started to kick me a lot, not using a premium account + too many viewers…)

Y: With Hirai-san we are wine friends (laughs), and always ended talking about Shenmue no matter the situation. We wanted to make Shenmue 3 from the beginning, and we know now it’s a life time opportunity to finally continue this project and making it come true after all these years.

J: And you reunited all the original Shenmue staff. That’s incredible, I think only someone like Yu-san could achieve something like that. Now, please tell us more about crowdfunding and Kickstarter. Aside from Ys Net almost all the Shenmue 3 budget will be thanks to the fans effort right? Let’s check how it works (slide, lot of explanations, credit card system, different stretch goals, etc.).

Y: There’s still 1 Monaco dinner left (laughs). We are now approaching 5m, and the funds amount will impact directly on the final game. But I want to make the best game possible with the budget we reach. I want to thank every one of you who helped Shenmue 3 coming this far. Shenmue 3 is now true thanks to all of you who never stopped believing and supporting Shenmue. We are creating three big areas inside Shenmue 3 and a lot of features based on our budget. We really want to create an open world game, but that really depends directly on the final budget. We need 10 millions to make it, I know it’s very difficult, but I’m very grateful with Shenmue fans, and now I really believe in miracles, I believe we can make it, together.

J: Also let me add this Yu Suzuki-san, please, try to involve your friends in the project, a lot of people around the world still don’t know about Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter. Yu-san needs 10 million to create the game he has been dreaming since the beginning, so let’s all together make it true. I already pledged! Let’s help him create the Shenmue 3 he dreams of! C’mon, now is our chance!, we are the fans, we are united, we can make this come true (yes, he was really excited at this point of the interview, you can really tell he’s also a big Shenmue fan =) ) Oh, sorry, I think I speaked a little too much. (…) Please tell us more about the game concept; there will be real time system right? And the story? Will it begin just after Shenhua & Ryo event at the cave?

Y: Thank you very much. Yes, Shenhua & Ryo have a very powerful objective in common related to Shenhua’s father past. Finally we can focus on Shenhua’s story and her past, something Shenmue fans were waiting since the original Shenmue. Some things are still being decided right now, but I want to start the game in the beautiful mountains of Guilin in China, and deepen into the relation between Shenhua & Ryo, the free selection system, and the character perspective system. (Kicked from NicoNico) Inside these 3 areas one of them is Baisha, and then Chobu, where I want to make some kind of China sandbox game inside Shenmue 3, an area full of events, quests and possibilities, a sandbox with Shenmue charm, that’s what I’m aiming for. (…) There is a sandbox image like something complicated… This is not the case for Shenmue. If you go back into Shenmue I or Shenmue II the battle system was not a timing technical game like Virtua Fighter, and the player can go through the story with simple mini events like QTE, it’s a game everybody can plan and enjoy. Sandbox? Seems difficult, complicated… But everybody can enjoy Shenmue 3!

J: What about character perspective system?

Y: We can choose our character thanks to the characters system on Shenmue 3, and it’s not only the character, the routes we can follow are also different, and the personality of different characters and their gender will make us choose between different options. At some point you will think “Yeah! That would probably be a man’s choice!”, or the opposite if you’re using a female character. That’s the charming point of this system.

J: So interesting! So many characters and possibilities… Oh, and now Ryo can jump right?

Y: Yeah, and climb mountains.

J: Please tell us more about forklifts (laughs).

Y: Forklifts (laughs). Yeah, everybody asks for it. You know, in the top 3 the most wanted things by Shenmue fans would be, 1st: Story related things, 2nd, Open World doubts, 3rd, forklifts (laughs), in that order. Even I can’t fully understand why it’s so popular! I’m thinking different ways to make them appear on Shenmue 3, but with the present Shenmue 3 scale is not easy to implement. Maybe in Chobu… Chobu is a port town, but it’s still too small to think about forklifts, maybe if we get more budget we can make it true.

J: Something like 5 more millions?

Y: Yes (laughs). I also want to include an Arcade Game Center from 1988, with SEGA games inside, and one of them could be a forklift arcade game invention, I’m also thinking crazy ideas like that (laughs).

J: Awesome! Let’s check some fans questions… Masaya Matsukaze return, yes… (keeps checking…)

Y: (Yu checks fan questions by himself) Chai returning to the game? Yes! Chai appers in Shenmue 3! (laughs).

(Kicked from NicoNico)
Y: One justice (…) Five… (???), a lot of objectives. (Yu then explains more detailed information for Japanese fans about the Kickstarter system, different rewards, the special place in Baisha with Shenmue fans photos, NPC fan based characters that got kicked by Ryo and stuff). (…) I also want to say that people who never got into Shenmue I and II will still be able to fully enjoy Shenmue III, for example using flashbacks to advance in the story, everyone will be able to understand what’s happening and progress into the wonderful world of Shenmue. And this is also very important, we can call Ine-san with Telecom card! (Yu check some comments…), no, she’s not dead! (laughs), but maybe her voice will be a little different. Also, remember that instead of Nozomi you can choose to be with Ine-san or Fuku-san for the gashapon reward! (laughs)

J: Can’t wait for Shenmue 3…

Y: We are doing our best to release the final game by the end of 2017. Finally, let me say Ryo’s aspect will fully change, including his jacket. And please, tell your friends and people you know about Shenmue 3, let’s make the best game together! I’m counting with you, always, thank you very much!

Heyhey, I made a new version of the videoclip. Feel free to use it as you wish.

I've been thinking about this and wanted to put my 2¢ in, but its a bit of a write up here so I have not posted my thoughts yet. Sorry in advance for the impersonal rambling.

First of all, before I am just labelled as an apologist, yes, I feel that the Kickstarter Ryo could have "looked better" (2bf, we never talk about what the trailer got RIGHT- I'm tempted to make another topic on this point). For a series that was known for all things, its groundbreaking graphics, I think we all wish they'd have gotten it perfect right away.

So why are YsNet seemingly struggling with the design of Ryo, THE MAIN CHARACTER?

It would be easy (provided they had access to all the assets) to copy and paste Passport Ryo or the Sega All-Stars Ryo (Which as Esspiral has just pointed out, had lower quality textures!) Nevertheless, I applaud YsNet for going at this with ground-up work on the design, even if it's going to take some work from here on in, to get it up to MODERN standards and expectations without looking like trash. We want to go BEYOND Passport Ryo. You can't do that just by adding polygons to an old model (Sumo Digital took that the maximum it could be). You need to revisit the very design.

Nevertheless, I think Ryo's design is in a bit of a bind, and I think this partially explains the 'quality' of the KS model in contrast to the rest of the trailer. The real problem is two-fold:

> With today's tech, they are going forward into an "uncanny valley" effect for fans, going from a DC-era Ryo (yes, Unreal Engine 4 in 2017, should easily go beyond the Passport Ryo) we all know and love to modern gaming's hyper-realistic tech demos of individual pore-modelling and facial capture, and
> He is a made-up character, evolved from a character from gaming technology's earliest CGI work, with no real life reference to his design.

Ryo isn't modelled on a real life person, rather he is just an idea bourne out of concept art, and the Virtua Fighter (honestly primitive by today's standards) CG image of Akira for the original Virtua Fighter. See below.

http://s29.postimg.org/b2upshpmf/Ryo_Evolution2.jpg

To contrast with a completely different game series, the design of Solid Snake in Metal Gear varied from being based on actors ranging from Kyle Reese, Christopher Walken, Mel Gibson until he had an established "look".

http://i.imgur.com/Q6E3iCk.jpg

Even so, compare MGS3 (or 4) Snake (PS2) to MGS5 Snake (PS4) where (particularly with the motion captured facial expressions) he looks more like his voice actor, Keifer Sutherland.

Furthermore, Snake's look is based on adult Western action movie stars from Hollywood, of which is there no short supply. Anybody think of a Ryo Hazuki lookalike?

Simply put, Ryo's model and design is stemmed from the earliest work/tech demos of polygon graphics . He has been "designed up" as opposed to "designed down".

Watch this clip of the Project Berkley video, regarding Shenmue 1's development during the 90's. I find it illuminating and very relevant to the current debate. Even for the original game, they had to make clay models to truly convey Yu's 'vision', as the sketches and CG renders weren't enough to produce satisfactory results for the SATURN model:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu86tlnFLVE#t=26m26s

I think this goes a long way explaining the 'poor' quality of this incarnation Ryo. This problem is now amplified with today's new graphical expectations (let alone two years from now). I think Yu can't just copy and paste 'Clay model' Ryo with it looking cartoonish by today's standards. But of course he's making it for the fans, fans who have certain expectations of what Ryo looks like.

The difference now is that graphics have advanced so much the standard for today's new IPs is basically to draw inspiration from real life, which would have just been inconceivable/impossible before outside of the concept art stage. This is not a bad thing for games, after all this is what real artists do. The technology now basically allows it in full.

Let's consider this trend in some of the most graphically acclaimed new games of late:

Ellie in The Last of Us = Ellen Page
Lara Croft in the Rebooted Tomb Raider = Camilla Luddington
Johnathan Irons in Advanced Warfare = Kevin Spacey
Solid Snake = Keifer Sutherland

Again, I ask- Can anyone think of a Ryo lookalike?

Now, we were all very impressed with John Sweeney's Ryo "render" for his Cook and Becker print:

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mqcj4XIIkhs/maxresdefault.jpg

But if you watch the 'making of' video, you can see that the image ( from behind so you can't see "Ryo's" face, I might add ) was derived from a photograph of some dude posing in his apartment :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqcj4XIIkhs#t=0m32s

Anyway, I am fully confident the model will surpass this design technically. However, having been so long since the Dreamcast days, I'm sure this is going to be offset by design. For a project that's barely gotten off the ground, I think this, at least in part, explains the difficulty here .

They want to technically 'surpass' the original Ryo, but they also want fan service . If so, perhaps we shouldn't be suprised at all if Ryo looks somewhat 'different' in the final game.

So why did they show it at all? I don't think the model was in there to impress anyone technically, not at all. In fact if you notice, the actual E3 reveal CUTS OFF before the point Ryo is showed. I think it was there to show, even at this early stage to us as THE FANS, who have had so many broken promises/leaked images of newsprint/concept art over the years that this is a REAL GAME being made that needs to be kickstarted to the best it can be. Here it is, this is where we are, this is were we want to go etc. It was a statement that it wasn't a mobile game, nor Dragonball Z online with fancy CGI fireworks. THE ACTUAL SHENMUE III FULL 3D ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE.

The more I think about it, while it is a shame that it couldn't have been as groundbreaking as Shenmue was in the first place on the Dreamcast, the more impressed I am that this was displayed. They are an indie studio without the resources to make fancy CGI trailers. They showed us SOMETHING REAL, IN GAME. Anyway, imagine the backlash to an indie Kickstarter whose concept video was based off a fully produced CGI trailer (what kind of scam is this?!) or a bunch of sketches (what is this crap! Let us see the game!). They made an honest effort to show actual STUFF. Of course, I haven't even mentioned the fact that it's essentially gone from back-room meetings in different countries and hush-hush events by Yu-san himself, getting confirmation, THEN having to produce a trailer ready in time for E3.

They are NOT cutting and pasting a Dreamcast Ryo. They are making a game to try and meet fans expectations whilst being technically superior. But as we can see, even from the old project berkley video, this is always going to be a challenge for the reasons I've stated about Ryo's design. It's going to be a challenge. I'm rooting for Yu-san 8)

EDIT: Sorry, I should have make this clear, my intention is not to shit all over the DC Ryo model. I love that model, it's our Ryo . It holds up even today. I'm just trying to talk about graphical standards in gaming as it has evolved since, and what would be 'expected' from the Unreal Engine in 2017.

~New image~

Charcoal burner's hut in Baisha



Neat.

Anybody good to translate that text in the image?

Makes sense, i mean the lucky hit board reward was such a huge success that naming a vendor for even more money has great chances to be a success. They are geniuses.

At this point all im gonna do is laugh.

ROFL

They haven't even hired staff yet, this was probably one guy quickly animating by hand and slapping light sources in to get a video out.. It's perfectly fine for now, if it looks like that 12 months into development then we can complain.

If that's what they can do in unreal 4 with no staff I think we should be very excited

](*,)

The game isn't even in development yet.

How can you say that this looks bad to those new to the series? Are you new to the series?

Judging by the boost in funding since last night, Id hardly say this teaser had a negative impact.

I cannot wait for this campaign to end and for the game to go quietly into production so everyone can quit hyper-analyzing (aka bitching about) everything.

Translation & captioning done at last! It took a lot more effort than I had been expecting. :shock:

English captioning starts from the part of the interview where the topic of Shenmue III begins (there's a button in the video or use the link in the description to skip straight there). Enjoy!

Disclaimer: the interview may contain SPOILERS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IntCDAc6c8Y

Peter wrote:Its been on mainstream news, nevermind just gaming news.

BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4?

How on earth did I forget about the publicity of beating Bloodstained and any new backers that might attract, to Hell with my earlier post about not caring, we need to get this done QUICK!

How did Joel Tess go from a pariah to an idol? He was all that was wrong with the world after the first twitch. So why is he remembered so fondly now? I don't hate the guy but I think his actions certainly hindered the campaign.

The next 24 hours is a fuck you to all Shenmue haters everywhere.

Despite a half assed ks campaign handled by morons, being FAR less known in gaming, HUNDREDS of articles spreading misinformation on why you shouldn't support Shenmue III kickstarter, it will go on to become the highest backed game kickstarter of all time and set a new record despite people telling us for over a decade that no one wants nor cares about Shenmue. Far more well known and celebrated franchises and creators have been surpassed and after tomorrow no one will be able to deny Shenmue, its fans, or continue to treat it like a meme despite being the great game franchise of all time.

Eat it.

There seems to be a lot of people asking this question so I thought I'd make a new topic so its easier to direct people to the info.

Kickstarter allows you to open an unlimited number of accounts and use the same card on all of them to make payment.


Here the quote of the inquiry to Kickstarter themselves:
I messaged them and they replied saying it shouldn't be a problem.

Kickstarter Support (Kickstarter)

Jul 8, 11:51 AM

Hi James,

You should be totally fine! Let us know if you need anything else.

Best,
Alfie

skilljim

Jul 8, 9:58 AM

Hi, I am a big Shenmue fan and have backed for the $1500 tier on this account. I also wanted to get the $80 tier so I would be able to receive both rewards, and I have backed this tier on a second account. I have backed it using the same debit card as I thought this would be okay, but I wanted to just double check before the project finishes that my card will be successfully charged twice, one for each of these 2 accounts. I needed to use 2 accounts, as it's not possible to back more than one unique reward tier, that the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter project happens to have.

Thank you for your time and help :)
James.


if you've already secured a physical version on a higher tier, open another account and get digital too. also digital is great as a gift to friends and family.

Please retweet the following or create your own to share this information on twitter. thank you
https://twitter.com/john_vivant/status/621990789510467584

I applaud them for not completely messing up and doing their best to make things better. It's not quite what the Bloodstained KS page managed in terms of hype and excitement but they deserve praise nevertheless.

I'll applaud YS Net, Shibuya's Cedric Biscay, Sony's Gio Corsi and the Shenmue fan base for keeping the dream alive for 14 years to even get us to this point.

Awesome Japan were given a golden goose but it was the fans that put the work in and enabled us to do this well, if AJ was better its entirely possible we may have gone higher, although its also possible the fans have done so much that AJ couldn't have topped it and have rode our coat tails to this success :)

regardless we appear to be getting an amazing result today :)

btw as I typed this we hit 6 million.. waiting for the trolls to strike now :)

Screw them. The industry is stuck in a constant loop of the stale, boring shit that we get nowadays, thanks to those dumbass "journalists" who just are happy with nothing but mediocrity. If I want to support my old favourite series, then that's my own choice to do that. It's my own money and whatever they say won't change my own mind. People should just think for themselves.

Now the campaign is over I think it's fair for us to look back and evaluate the performance of AJ over the past 1 month. Many of us fans who pledged substantial sums of money had many legitimate concerns during the campaign and I saw forum posting which catalogued many of the errors which occurred.

Let's have a look:


- Project started without a description of what Shenmue is. Later featured a still somewhat crudely made fan video as a fix.
- The Kickstarter Trailer - even though in early production failed to communicate what the series was about or excite anyone that wasn't already fan
- The Kickstarter Trailer featured a main character that was unrecognizable to the fans.
- Banners used neon colored dropshadows and looked extremely crude.
- The Website (shenmue.info) is an unusable mess, without any significant content.
- The initial reward structure was heavily flawed (with huge gaps between significant pledge points.)
- The final reward structure is heavily flawed with far too many entries, which created more confusion in the end.
- Adding additional rewards using the same Kickstarter account was impossible to the end despite the community pleading for add-ons.
- None of the Kickstarter Goals ever got explained on Kickstarter - which again posed a problem for more casual backers.
- There was no communication regarding building momentum to reach a certain goal, and no communication congratulating the community on having reached a certain goals at times.
- Instead what we got as "information" we had to aggregate between a Famitsu interview, a Reddit AMA and a Faq - ourselves, project management didn't.
- The AMA on Reddit was botched with the management misplacing an account password, or not setting up analytics properly, or not authenticating the account with reddits AMA team (probably) and having to switch reddit threads mid conversation.
- After concentrated confusion about what the backing goals where the Kickstarter Team released the entire list as a whole - without contextualizing the goals.
- In the first few days they managed to produce the rumor, that the project was mainly funded by Sony, then did not react to it. The rumor then got picked up by internet media.
- When everyone was complaining about their lackluster reward structure, they added very limited high roller rewards as a reaction, which mostly sold out within a day - producing some resentment in the process.
- Funding goals sometimes got checked off hours after they were reached - without any comments.
- Produced video interviews, which first were hosted on Kickstarter - but then switched to youtube - hosting two versions of each and every one of them at all times - splitting the audience. We had to rey on the Dojo to provide is subtitled videos.
- The first twitch stream "for the fans" was a -likeable- disaster, featuring an odd mix of QVC presentation, scripted Q&A, reading out loud FAQ questions instead of posting them on the site, and failing to read a chat - also the video quality was abysmal - because they hadn't bothered testing the equipment
- Halfway through the Kickstarter they introduced a Poll for reward tiers - which went live with half the price brackets (which its main purpose in gauging the audience) missing.
- To get participation they bundled it with a "who is your favorite character" poll - which was so useless, they gladly featured it in a 30 Minute segment within the celebration stream - one week after they released the results to the public anyhow.
- The celebration stream began late "because of technical difficulties", then featured a 20 minute echo fest after one of the translators (one of which had a really hard time at producing english sentences), or one of the segment producers, presumably took off their headphones and turned on their speakers.
- The celebration stream then cut out because of a "power outage".
- The celebration stream then came back on late, because of a computer failure after the power outage.
- Once the celebration stream was back - they couldn't get the audio to play on both the fan reaction segment and the fan videos segment - but went through with them anyhow.
- During the celebration stream, which they said multiple times, was set in their "studio" - there was a nice interlude of construction site soundbits - while the video sound wasn't working for them, so at least there was some atmosphere they could talk over...
- They announced paypal in a half sentence somewhere in the last third of awful celebration Twitch stream - but made sure, that it WAS NOT UP , when all the "New video game record on Kickstarter" and "Shenmue Kickstarter finished" news articles went up. In fact it isn't even up as we speak.
- No updates reacting to the Kickstarter finishing. At all - much less in this record breaking way.

Now the campaign was successful in spite of AJ's all around awfulness. The fans stood up and got it done but no matter how proud I am of the community, as a huge Shenmue fan I want to see the series reach it's full potential. These errors ensured that money was left on the table and we were not able to maximize the momentum and goodwill of the fans.

Shenmue 3 is trending on Twitter right now. Are they capitalizing on this with post-funding Paypal options. NO! And we may not see an update until Tuesday. In the world of the internet this isn't acceptable.

Suzuki, Cedric and co do also need to take a share of the blame. After all they selected AJ and frankly should have held them to much higher standards.

I agree with every criticism against AJ, but I have to say a major disappointment was the scene with shenhua and ryo, with their incorrect modelling and bad voice acting. That would have been directed by Suzuki and I doubt Awesome Japan would dare ask for changes. That scene should have hinted at things to come in part 3. Plus the concept-art could have been more descriptive or enticing, and that's also Suzuki's domain.

Oh I completely agree. I'm sure AJ at times were held back with what Suzuki and co were able to provide.

I thought the initial KS launch video was a giant mess. You have Yu's initial comments and then he rambles on about the 'technique scrolls' in vague, unclear language which frankly is confusing to new and existing fans alike. In addition if we've learnt anything from his subsequent interviews, mechanics like rapport system or character perspective system seem much more important to the overall design of Shenmue 3 yet are barely mentioned in the campaign itself!

It all seemed so rushed. I mean they get the original statue busts (a rare and highly sort after item from Shenmue fans) at the 11th hour and offer it at a tier way below market value, especially compared to the other 100 tiers they seemed to offer at a repetitive and predictable pace.

Suzuki was tweeting cool art-work of Shenmue 3 throughout the month. Was that integrated into the campaign? Nope. Like I said it's abundantly clear these guys had zero media strategy, not forgetting their absolute pitiful footprint on social media.

Awesome Japan did a really bad job in my opinion. From the start they appeared very amateur. I'm a huge fan and when I first saw the kickstartrr page I was almost immediately turned off. Firstly the intro video footage of the game I thought was a parody or something. They could have put a bit more effort into it? I can easily see how lame it would look to new people. Bad animation, bad acting (monotone yeah) and uninformative narrative. It was pointless.

Then there's the rewards, which were so lame to begin with. Most people would be around the 30-150 tier and it took days to get suitable rewards for that category. The grammatical mistakes, ugh. I just don't understand? If they took 5 seconds to at least copy into MS Word or proof read it, it would have made them look much more professional yet they made some really silly mistakes. This company's sole purpose is to be a clear communicator and organiser so how did they screw it up?

The first twitch was the most awkward and cringy interview I have ever seen broadcasted. Some of the questions asked were blatantly scripted, there was no real organization. The red shirt guy made what was supposed to be a concise QnA into a comical, cringe worthy convoluted piece of crap that I've ever had the displeasure of watching. I was rethinking at this stage about the pledge. The video quality and the quality of the content was so fricken amateur.

Then the last twitch, which was severely delayed at such a critical time. You'd think they would test everything well before. The updates and feedback was anticlimactic. Reaching all those goals and hardly any acknowledgement. Lots of uncertainty and questions left unanswered, unupdated FAQs.

While I'm very happy with the final outcome. I am left with a bitter feeling that I can't get over. Had they presented the whole campaign in a professional, informative manner from the start, how much better we would have done. First impressions matter the most in these campaigns and had it not been for the community I truly believe this would have been a disaster. Still today there has been no video or updates congratulating and thanking everyone. No word about PayPal.

Just my 2 cents.

At this point I don't care. It's past (thank God!).
We've had the best kickstarter campaign and now we can focus on the actual game content and not some marketing campaign.

What if they get to run the long term funding through Paypal? It will be a disaster. The coming 6 months will be crucial for funding, while at the same time the development team will have little to show. Marketing and transparency in communication will continue to play an important role. Things AJ can't be trusted with.

Great post. I really hope they are able to build enough capacity within Ysnet to run this by themselves but I frankly don't expect communication to be a whole lot better. Getting a community manager to channel the passion and dedication of the fanbase would be a good start.

The last Twitch stream was a success despite the power outage, AJ turned it around after the Twitch stream for the most part. Even I, one of AJ's biggest critics on this forum is giving them slack because they showed that they up to stepping up to the plate.

What is your definition of success regarding the Twitch stream? The fact even after a catastrophic first Twitch stream they still had technical problems and there was echo for the first 10-15 minutes of the stream. The supposed power outage was magnified by a computer problem they had on their end. During fan segment the audio wasn't working. Instead of pitching the last few higher tier items they spent 30 minutes talking about a public poll they took, the results which were released weeks earlier.

You're a good poster but tell me how exactly did AJ step it up. Seriously what ideas did they implement (Which the community didn't pester and ask for repeatedly) did they include in the KS campaign?

The campaign was not good. PR was poor.

And yet, we will; still get Shenmue 3.

I don't know if the PR was poor, we did break records but I think it's very apparent the campaign didn't come close to realizing its full potential due to mismanagement.

Who indicated that? I think the majority of people were saying the Paypal option should have gone immediately live after the KS ended. Instead community and fans are left wondering why the campaign failed again the basic fundamentals.

They deserve a tap on the shoulder for putting their best effort into acting on the advice from the community, but that doesn't absolve them from being incompetent. I wish they had had that learning experience with another project, not the revival of a fan favorite classic 14 years after its untimely death.

Exactly, I love people trying to defend their performance by saying they learnt and improved as the campaign went on like this was some type of educational endeavour. And when they cite these so called improvements, you can find out this was only due to the community having to back channel the co-producer of the game and demand improvements be made.

The fact that Cedric became more of a mouth piece and engaged the community more than AJ themselves I think speaks volumes to their effort.

I find it somewhat humorous, suddenly the same people that discuss topics ad nauseam about a videogame they've completed hundreds of times over the years suddenly rule certain topics don't bear further analysis or discussion. I guess some people really do like pleading ignorance...

THey hanven't even did an update saying "we did it" or something.

I know they don't work on weekends, but it's just writing a couple of lines, pretty much the same time that I've wasted writing this post.

That Lan Di is not a model from the game.
It's from the cgi of shenmue online.

...Dude, I wasn’t even hoping for a Paypal update at this point (that would be grossly overestimating things), just a simple congratulatory message, with perhaps a dash of hope and a twist of inspiration.
But nope!

Hey guys,

Just picked up 2 magazines from my local newsagents here in the UK, I got the Official Playstation 4 mag, and Games TM. After reading through both magazines, I would say Games TM sound more like fans, as alot of the early "hype" in the magazine bearing E3 mentions Shenmue 3 quite alot. I took shots of the main Shenmue 3 related pages though incase you were interested. Feel free to post your own shots from your own magazines you might find with Shenmue 3 tidbits in :)

Games TM:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/348/19787150568_f956ca1c9d_k.jpg
Games TM August 2015 Editor Note by James Brown , on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/512/19354231983_0cba5cf7bd_k.jpg Games TM Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr


Official Playstation 4:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/408/19788502979_f2584fcf64_k.jpg Official Playstation 4 Magazine Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr

These Rooster Teeth people really have it out for Shenmue. Another one of their programs (Funhaus) continues to run programs/podcasts bashing the series. Did someone at that company run a failed Kickstarter? I don't understand why they're spending so much time bad mouthing Shenmue.

how the hell is either YsNet or Neilo, which has only made one PS Vita game, a "triple A studio" as that idiotic Games Master article claims?

they're not Naughty Dog, swimming in a river of Sony's cash.