Shenmue Dojo

Hello, guys. If i'm breaking some law you'll just delete this post, i suppose.

I'm currently in development of the game heavenly inspired by Shenmue and Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari. It's an open world game about japanese delinquents focused on story and small things that don't do much but matters a lot in the end (like feeding a cat in Shenmue).

So i'm just looking for players who could be interested.

Here's a greenlight trailer i made a year ago and some screenshots.











If you don't mind i'll be posting some news about the game once in a while.

Sorry for an adv.

Looks cool! I would recommend posting this in the "General Gaming" section though.

Thanks for a kind words, fellas!

> Are you developing it all by your lonesome, or with other people?

I did it alone as a Kunio fan game with Technos sprites (although i did animations myself), then decided to make it big and my own so i hired 2 artists to draw graphics and animations. Music is royalty free. I tried to work with musicians but it turned out to be the most difficult ) But maybe i simply didn't find my man.

I'm working on it for 2 years and it's a final stage now (i hope). Planning to release it late April or May this year.

I love the style. It reminds me of crows too which is one of my favourite manga so that's definitely a plus.

> So is this going to be on Steam?

Yeah.

> Just looked up some of the earlier Technos-style gameplay too; have to say, I really liked the atmosphere in some of the videos where snow is falling and it's got soft jazz playing.

It's Chet Baker's Alone together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SENykNkARzI

It was a short noir game at first. Now i made it a little longer with proper story but still it'll be 4-5 hours long.

> I know you haven't finalized the music, but that was a nice touch anyway.

No, i actually finalized the music. I have 3 original tracks and more than 20 royalty free. Downtempo, trip-hop mostly. Here's one of the original tracks:

> It reminds me of crows too which is one of my favourite manga

I'm a fan of the movies (first two to be exact). But despite japanese flavor i'm trying to tell a more universal story about growing up. Main plot is ready and implemented. Now i'm finalizing sidequests and polishing stuff.

The manga is quite a bit different than the movies, closer to young gto if you've read it. Do you plan on releasing a demo beforehand?

> The manga is quite a bit different than the movies, closer to young gto if you've read it.

I've only watched it. I read a bit of Worst.

> Do you plan on releasing a demo beforehand?

Nope. It's a day by day game like Persona. So it's difficult to make a demo. The town is open at the start and quite small so you actually see it all if you play a demo. Yes, it has skills to unlock, and the story, and sidequests, but still.

I have a small prehistory which could be released as a demo. But it's more or less straight forward beatemup which will mislead people.

So i decided not to do a demo.

Pull ups.

Looks cool, shame you had no luck on getting music made for the game. But really anything can work as long as it's not one track over and over again. How was the experience in hiring other artists, did you have any troubles in that area? Also what software did you use to put the game together?

Gives me some inspiration to get back on that game dev horse again.

> How was the experience in hiring other artists, did you have any troubles in that area?

It actually was pretty tough. I spent 2 months to hire background artist and about the same to hire character's artist, and characters in the end did my 58 yo father with no drawing experience at all.

Finding a background artist was really a blessing. What i've learned from this that you should never judge artist on portfolio or previous works (and it goes for translators as well). You should ask to complete a test task and decide on that.

Also i've learned that every creator do things in their own way. So you should find your man and trust him on what he's doing. So it's better to find an artist that feel you and you like 90% of what he deliver at first try. Than explain, and critique, and argue, and that stuff, even if the level of the artist is higher. It takes time to find such a man but it' worth it. But that's only my experience based solely on this project.

> Also what software did you use to put the game together?

It's an old Game Maker 8.0. I'm used to it over the years of fan development.

> Gives me some inspiration to get back on that game dev horse again.

It's the primary objective of art i think, to inspire other people. Glad to hear that )