Shenmue Dojo

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:26 pm**

I tweeted cedric Biscay some thoughts since he said he's listening to us.

https://twitter.com/cedricbiscay/status ... 0369732612

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:27 pm**

I didn't really find any fault with the Twitch stream at all. I think maybe the red shirted man was nervous about having to answer to thousands of fans live, so it's understandable that he seemed a bit awkward. I honestly would be too. The blue shirted gentleman was patient and concise. All in all, Yu Suzuki was very polite and didn't seem at all bothered about the handling of his Q & A, so that's what's important to me.

In retrospect, some people may say that it could have been more polished, but I also find that in business it makes things easier to work with people who have similar rapport and do not make their colleagues or fan base uncomfortable. I wouldn't have enjoyed it if it were someone who didn't understand the gaming industry and were very stiff and parochial. I just chalk it up to a bad case of nerves for these folks.

As far as the questions go, I think perhaps they were addressing the topics that were being asked ad nauseum and were not clarified before. I'm really excited about Corey Marshall and the possibility of all the original voice-over actors. And it would make me very happy to see the HD releases, if possible. I give Yu Suzuki top marks for trying to make his fans happy... he genuinely cares about what we think and do. It's just a shame that some people cannot reciprocate the same respect for him and his team.

Moreover, in my opinion adding more rewards tiers at the going percentage rate (20-25%) could possibly be detrimental to the production cost, considering that the focus would be put toward producing merchandise rather than the actual game even at the ~72% budget schematic. I worry about that, as I see Suzuki and his team scrambling for more ideas in terms of rewards--- each product is going at a considerable markup to cover the ~25% budget set aside for it. But I also understand the consumer model and know that people would like to be aptly rewarded for their investments.

I truly appreciate Suzuki's incredible display of diplomacy and repose. I think between the immense burden of acquiring the rights, putting together a suitable development + financing + public relations team, and pleasing the prospective buyer, he appears verily composed.

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:38 pm**

Thanks mjq jazz bar for favouriting my tweet to Michael Huber suggesting he do a Skype Interview with Suzuki

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/614845858916474881

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:58 pm**

Talks about the problems with Awesome Japan running the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter.

phpBB [video]

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:32 pm**

Suzuki is an amazing game developer, but he does not seem to be particularly business-minded. Awesome Japan seems like the kind of company that was probably referred to him by a friend. Were there not issues with video codecs and the like in the original Shenmue being outsourced to companies with which Suzuki had some kind of personal connection?

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:10 pm**

Amir wrote: Thanks mjq jazz bar for favouriting my tweet to Michael Huber suggesting he do a Skype Interview with Suzuki

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/614845858916474881

Depends if Suzuki agrees again. He could have the feeling that he has nothing to say more as the Twitch Q&A was boring to him, with the same questions and same answers to deliver. Thank you Awesome Japan.

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:11 pm**

Yokosuka wrote:
Amir wrote: Thanks mjq jazz bar for favouriting my tweet to Michael Huber suggesting he do a Skype Interview with Suzuki

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/614845858916474881

Depends if Suzuki agrees again. He could have the feeling that he has nothing to say more as the Twitch Q&A was boring to him, with the same questions and same answers to deliver.

Maybe, but I think it'd be great to have a diehard fan like us interview him in a professional capacity. Every little helps.

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:16 pm**

Amir wrote: Suzuki is an amazing game developer, but he does not seem to be particularly business-minded.

You only have to read some of the stories about Shenmue to realize Yu shouldn't handle your bank account. The only reason we're getting Shenmue III is because Sony have started looking at getting some of the most requested titles on their systems. YSNet has been a company for 7 years now and all they have to show for it is Shenmue City which was like a fart in the wind. Every interview his done in the last few years he has mentioned how he is looking for investors for projects and then 2 years later he said he was still looking. One interview said his office was just an apartment he sat in and wrote game ideas down in.

I think Yu is a great idea man but his someone like George Lucas or Stan Lee who needs people around him to steer him in the right direction to make it great. I just hope that now he hasn't got anyone to answer to Shenmue III doesn't turn out like the Phantom Menace.

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:40 pm**

Riku Rose wrote:
Amir wrote: Suzuki is an amazing game developer, but he does not seem to be particularly business-minded.

You only have to read some of the stories about Shenmue to realize Yu shouldn't handle your bank account. The only reason we're getting Shenmue III is because Sony have started looking at getting some of the most requested titles on their systems. YSNet has been a company for 7 years now and all they have to show for it is Shenmue City which was like a fart in the wind. Every interview his done in the last few years he has mentioned how he is looking for investors for projects and then 2 years later he said he was still looking. One interview said his office was just an apartment he sat in and wrote game ideas down in.

I think Yu is a great idea man but his someone like George Lucas or Stan Lee who needs people around him to steer him in the right direction to make it great. I just hope that now he hasn't got anyone to answer to Shenmue III doesn't turn out like the Phantom Menace.

At least he's surrounding himself with the original development team members. It's good that the lead programmer (who is now the co-director) is working on 3 with his studio, which also includes one of the original composers and the scriptwriter of Shenmue, environmental artist and character designer. Just hope he manages to get even more members to join the development, like some of the game designers and other artists [like the guy who did the character models, we really need that guy to work on it, if Ryo's crap character model is anything to go by...]

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:50 pm**

YUmakemygame wrote: I didn't really find any fault with the Twitch stream at all. I think maybe the red shirted man was nervous about having to answer to thousands of fans live, so it's understandable that he seemed a bit awkward. I honestly would be too. The blue shirted gentleman was patient and concise. All in all, Yu Suzuki was very polite and didn't seem at all bothered about the handling of his Q & A, so that's what's important to me.

In retrospect, some people may say that it could have been more polished, but I also find that in business it makes things easier to work with people who have similar rapport and do not make their colleagues or fan base uncomfortable. I wouldn't have enjoyed it if it were someone who didn't understand the gaming industry and were very stiff and parochial. I just chalk it up to a bad case of nerves for these folks.

As far as the questions go, I think perhaps they were addressing the topics that were being asked ad nauseum and were not clarified before. I'm really excited about Corey Marshall and the possibility of all the original voice-over actors. And it would make me very happy to see the HD releases, if possible. I give Yu Suzuki top marks for trying to make his fans happy... he genuinely cares about what we think and do. It's just a shame that some people cannot reciprocate the same respect for him and his team.

Moreover, in my opinion adding more rewards tiers at the going percentage rate (20-25%) could possibly be detrimental to the production cost, considering that the focus would be put toward producing merchandise rather than the actual game even at the ~72% budget schematic. I worry about that, as I see Suzuki and his team scrambling for more ideas in terms of rewards--- each product is going at a considerable markup to cover the ~25% budget set aside for it. But I also understand the consumer model and know that people would like to be aptly rewarded for their investments.

I truly appreciate Suzuki's incredible display of diplomacy and repose. I think between the immense burden of acquiring the rights, putting together a suitable development + financing + public relations team, and pleasing the prospective buyer, he appears verily composed.

Which one are you?

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:53 pm**

Amir wrote: Suzuki is an amazing game developer, but he does not seem to be particularly business-minded. Awesome Japan seems like the kind of company that was probably referred to him by a friend. Were there not issues with video codecs and the like in the original Shenmue being outsourced to companies with which Suzuki had some kind of personal connection?

yes, we got the terrible dup of original shenmue to thank to a cousin of of yu suzuki who got that role/job from him. there are interviews with jeremy blaustein to read up on it

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 7:48 pm**

Bambi wrote:

Which one are you?

I tend to go against the tide sometimes. But from an economic perspective, manufacturing too much merchandise and not working on expanding the actual game budget can cause a bit of an issue. We have to remember that about a quarter of that budget is going to merchandise (that's close to a million dollars as of this post). I fear it's a dangerous distraction. It would be like purchasing a web domain at premium price, coding the pages to maximum allowance on the server, and then not selling what you intended--- all whilst paying the taxes and fees to keep your domain live. So in this business model, what you are really doing is polishing the advertisement, but you have no product output, and you're paying top dollar for terminal fees, security, hosting, manufacturing costs, insurance, and payroll division. But this is just an extreme hypothetical example to be taken with a grain of salt. Therefore, my argument is partially rendered invalid since we still have approximately 75% allocated to the actual game development.

I know I am in the extreme minority here, but I did find that they addressed all of my concerns. I do agree somewhat on everyone's criticism of their public relations team. But we do have to bear in mind that they do not belong to a sizable corporation like Google, where there are huge conglomerates of specialized customer service representatives for different companies e.g.: Youtube, Blogger, etc. From what I understand, they seem fairly small; from this I can only assume one thing: Their services are affordable. If it were the same PR team for Mercedes Benz (which is a large, internationally renowned company with return buyers) for example, it would be an extravagant waste of funding to support a Kickstarter community of ~50,000 with a profile demographic of 24-45 year old "retro gamers" that are most likely male with low-to-median income and a household size of approximately 3-4 members. I do not want to venture into saying that we are a niche variety, but Suzuki has to be very conservative and conscientious. His burden is to understand how to whet investors' appetites (I do not want to discuss binding contracts and legal colloquy to further express my point as to why they are to remain anonymous) and still manage to gain support from the incumbent community. A very daunting task, but he handles it with grace.

Posted: **Sat Jun 27, 2015 8:43 pm**

By nature... guys like Yu Suzuki, Kojima, Miyazaki, Ueda, etc main objective is not to make a game profitable. Budgets are means to an end.

I feel like we will reach $10M post KS in 2016. With or without Awesome Japan and that should be enough to deliver a true Shenmue game but... Every visionary needs a solid team. Is Neilo up to the job?

Posted: **Sun Jul 05, 2015 1:01 pm**

When I first watch this, I thought it was very unprofessional. Also it kinda feel like a VHS quality. Watching this again I feel that it's very entertaining and it's like some kinda comedy show.
It's definitely better than some episodes of kojima station when they just not talk about the game and go on about some unrelated stuff.

Shenmue Dojo

Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday