Kickstarter Update #65: Dev room update

[Himuro]

No news until E3, they release a trailer at Sony conference and the backer demo later that summer. I can dream!

[Spaghetti]

I'm sure we'd all be fine with silence until E3, but it looks like monthly updates are back on the menu - and it'll probably stay that way lest the usual suspects in the KS comments cry bloody murder about it.

Yu-san primarily sits in the position we have always seen him in. He rarely will leave that chair. The process is, like it's always been with Shenmue development, is that each of the developers will go to the main table at arranged times to present what they have been working on, on the main TV screen. Yu has a huge pointer stick and he will go through absolutely everything that is right, and also what he wants changed. Or that something he has asked to be changed has not been done right.
These meetings can be with an individual developer, or with a group of them together if it relates to developmental duties which cross fields. For inspirstion and reference, the cupboards on the side of the office contain all resources, from each game, guide books, and of course, the multiple folders which make up the Shenmue "bible" as it's known.

There isn't a single thing in this game, that has not been locked in without Yu-san having the final decision, and things are done exactly to his liking. Despite being a Kickstarted game, he is as relentless in his desire for quality as you could possibly imagine.

It was a lot like that TV documentary on the making of the original Shenmue, wasn't it? Yu seems slightly less intense these days, but who knows how strict his checks will get before the end...

There were a few new faces around the table this time. One fella with the auburn highlights in his hair is definitely someone who was around the table in the old days, but I've got no idea what his name is or what role he fills. There's another guy with dark eyebrows who looks similar to someone in the old TV documentary, but I'm not sure it's them...

[Yokosuka]

Tbh, I'm no longer excepting something at E3. Showing stuff six months before the release date means a lot of gap. What we've seen this month is very solid but a lot of polished parts were missing. Obviously what we were shown doesn't mean what the game currently is with the gathered parts. They might show out a teaser rather a trailer as well.

Supposedly:
February : testing
March : testing/prod
April : testing/prod
May : testing/prod
June : E3 trailer - confirmation that Shenmue 3 has entered the beta phase
July : prod
August : prod
September : prod
October : prod (+ dubbing?)
November : debugging
December : bluray and dvds production and publishing

[Himuro]

Wonder when we're going to hear about vo process. I hope they've acquired good Japanese and English VO direction.

Also I don't think anyone is expecting the game to be playable at E3. When we say it'll be at E3 we tend to generally mean a trailer.

[Spaghetti]

Wonder when we're going to hear about vo process. I hope they've acquired good Japanese and English VO direction.

That might be something we see in the updates during the coming months. If they were doing voicing tests towards the end of last year, they may have had a session or two with the Japanese cast already.

Tbh, I'm no longer excepting something at E3. Showing stuff six months before the release date means a lot of gap. What we've seen this month is very solid but a lot of polished parts were missing. Obviously what we were shown doesn't mean what the game currently is with the gathered parts. They might show out a teaser rather a trailer as well.

If we go on the assumption that the trailer Peter & Co saw in Japan is the template for any E3 trailer (so, mostly cutscene based), then the most recent update video probably has zero bearing on the quality of what may be shown in a trailer.

Part of the reason why some parts of the quest test were unpolished is because it'd be inefficient to apply that polish when the quest may change in some way. Cutscenes have their "moving parts" locked down a lot earlier and easier, and seeing how YSnet have been hiring dedicated cutscene artists since last October it's pretty possible an E3 trailer hits that is mostly cutscene with polished parts of gameplay inter-cut.

But we'll have to wait and see. If the game has slipped into later than June 2018, I wouldn't be surprised if E3 is passed over for PSX for a re-reveal.

[Jibby]

I certainly think it's wise to keep expectations in check for E3. I'm hopeful that we see something, and I do feel that we probably will, but I'd like to think we've learnt from our past mistakes with PSX.

Cautious optimism people! That's the way forward

[sand4fish]

I certainly think it's wise to keep expectations in check for E3. I'm hopeful that we see something, and I do feel that we probably will, but I'd like to think we've learnt from our past mistakes with PSX.

Cautious optimism people! That's the way forward

I might be wrong but that looks like an indirect jab at you Himuro. Jk . Expectations aside, glad to see this much people still excited about Shenmue 3 coming out this year in midst of so many awesome games already released this year alone and many more coming up soon. Hope that by the time the game finally comes out to the store shelves, there will be no other major releases to overshadow it.

[Kiske]

I'm kind of obsessed with the "Bailu" village images from the video.

I tried to sharpen my screencapture, adjust colours, brightness and contrast and while I was at it, I've included Kidmarine's thumbnails, Peter's Notebook ( ) and Himuro's filtered Ryo sequence.



I count 5 houses, maybe 6. I guess the wood bridge takes you to another section of the village, maybe the area with the pond (where hopefully Ryo can fish).

Can you believe we will soon be back into Shenmue's world, wandering through those sceneries?
Sometimes I struggle to convince myself that all of this is real.

[Yokosuka]

^ Besides the polished aspect of the village, that's the contrast quality that really amazes me although most of the credit highly goes to Epic. Shenmue on Dreamcast (especially Shenmue 1) had a remarkable contrast also so it's no surprise there's a continuation here.

[Peter]

It's the little things that get me excited the most, such as we will indeed have a notebook, we will have Excite QTE 3 and QTE Fighter retextured, a watch always in the corner....

Not only all those "Shenmue", touches but if some of you remember, i went into detail about the conversation in Japan with Yu about colours and how he was looking to obtain that "Shenmue" look. When i look at that warehouse shot, with the arcade cabinets, i cannot emphasise it enough how that's my absolute favourite screenshot we have seen in an update. Seriously, just look at it. Look at the textures on the warehouse door, the design of the arcade, the positioning of them (in the back of some dingy warehouse), the colour pallette and how it does indeed feel wet and you can feel it through the screen. It looks like an unused screenshot from Shenmue 2 due to all of these aspects alone.

As for E3, PSX was a stark reminder of how plans can change. We were told straight up what was happening at PSX and obviously those plans changed over the course of a 10 week period. We don't know if there are HD remakes even in development, we don't know if this game will indeed be delayed etc, but my stance is quite simple. I will get beyond hyped for E3 like i did PSX and i don't care at all if there's another no show. Why? Because every event like this is worthy of getting super hyped about, since we now have a legitimate reason in that Shenmue 3 is very real. It's been a 2 year celebration for me, trying to be positive and come up with ideas to help Shenmue. I will never apologise for trying to be positive all the time, and i am sure some people may get sic of it, but i will never understand people complaining about character models, logo fonts and designs, game elements not being up to scratch.... Shenmue 3 is real and long may the fun updates and hype around gaming events continue because one day, all of this will be over and we would give anything to go back to these times.

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

Pros:
- World assets look good
- Notebook, Clock and other Shenmue trademark stuff makes me happy

Cons:
- I'm not really a fan of shoving things like Excite QTE and forklift into this setting. I would rather see YS come up with new mini games that fit a village themed game.
- Ryo still looks like a newground's fanmade character

[Jibby]

but my stance is quite simple. I will get beyond hyped for E3 like i did PSX and i don't care at all if there's another no show. Why? Because every event like this is worthy of getting super hyped about, since we now have a legitimate reason in that Shenmue 3 is very real. It's been a 2 year celebration for me, trying to be positive and come up with ideas to help Shenmue. I will never apologise for trying to be positive all the time, and i am sure some people may get sic of it, but i will never understand people complaining about character models, logo fonts and designs, game elements not being up to scratch.... Shenmue 3 is real and long may the fun updates and hype around gaming events continue because one day, all of this will be over and we would give anything to go back to these times.

[Kiske]

The arcade QTE's will be (among other reasons) in Shenmue 3 for the same reason they were in Shenmue 1 & 2.
Train the player for QTE events.

[Hazuki00]

^ Besides the polished aspect of the village, that's the contrast quality that really amazes me although most of the credit highly goes to Epic. Shenmue on Dreamcast (especially Shenmue 1) had a remarkable contrast also so it's no surprise there's a continuation here.

Is the first one picture the evolution of the second one? They look like bailu village in both pictures but the second image could be the prototype and now they have shown us the evolution.

As everyone in here, I'm so glad with this update... I can see a lot of details everywhere.
Shenmue is all about details, attention to details taking it to the extreme everywhere you look at.

Maybe, when they release the game it won't have the same impact as it had the first time we saw Shenmue 1 because it was very advanced graphically but I'm sure they will blow us away with beautiful landscapes, places very detailed, new mechanichs of play...I'm sure they will impress us in another way than before.

Looks stunning!

[Kiske]

The bottom picture is definitely from a prototype environment.
Every house is identical but with different size and rotation. Also the trees look all the same.

The screen capture from the last video looks way more closer to the final form of "Bailu" village (if this is Bailu).