by Master Kyodai » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:16 am
Just asking if anyone is still seriously involved in this. Still no kickstarter project about Shenmue so far as i see.
But yeah good planning > quick start.
I thought a bit about the goal and details, so i calculated a bit on my own. Just some weirdo math on a lte evening with much rum...
SO my low budget calculation, feel free to flame me for this or post some better dieas:
- Outsource all work on VWorker (popular programming/gfx / online work outsorcing website)
- Goal: Make Shenmue HD. Actually only make the textures HD, make a converter to convert dreamcast models into a current format (3D Studio Max) and reuse them. Reuse all sounds. Remake the rest from scratch in Unity 3D, so the engine is compatible with PC, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, cell phones and more.
Spendings:
1. Get the necessary sources.
- 10,000 USD - make a suitable converter for all 3D models (Characters/Scenes/Objects). Hire some guy to do it for 10K or less based on the tools and sources we already have. The converter needs to output in 3ds or any other format usable in unity 3D.
- 10,000 USD - Source control. We can extract all textures and sounds from the game but we need someone to find a clever way to catalog all this. We need some sorting and naming scheme for the textures to make it possible to replace them with hires versions. Also we need to be able to relate every footstep/fighting/talking to a character in the game later on, we need a usable catalog scheme here so our programmers/game architects will later know which sound to put where.
- 10,000 Let someone play Shenmue for weeks and make a real standard game script out of it, noting all scenes and cutscenes, dialogs and scripting relevant events. This will be what we later base our final game scripts on so it should be as accurate as possible.
2. Prepare the platform
- 40,000 USD - Make a Shenmue alike interface, scripting platform and logic (Zooming, Running, Talking, Cutscenes, Buying, Fighting, Bicyling, drinking, Weather, riding a motorbike, driving a forklift, Inventory, loading/saving, wristwatch, etc) in Unity 3D
- 40,000 USD - Convert all characters, objects and scenes into unity 3D format, replace textures with royalty free versions. Rig and animate the characters. FOr most characters some generic animations will do.
- 50,000 USD - script the whole game logic, copying the original SHenmue game
So I'd say that it would be possible to make Shenmue HD for 160 Grand.
Maybe even less - if you find some starving indian guy on vworker (Theres plenty of them) doing some task for a few grand you might even save big on some parts. OK just quick and dirty trolling, but I'd really like to read a serious estimation.