Kickstarter Update #63: Campaign and Progress Update

[Anonymous81]

(source)

I really, really want to play this game !

Oh wow, this collage highlights how the game has actually improved, visually. It's definitely several magnitudes more vibrant.

Right? They seem to be really honing in on the palette and contrast. It's never going to be as vibrant as a Dreamcast (much less one through SCART or something lol - I know RGB might be less overly contrasty and therefore more 'accurate' to many, but SCART was insanely colorful at least.) But they're going to get as close as they can I think to DC's colors.

I think games have been washed out so long many devs don't even remember how colorful things used to be. Some of it was because of lesser color depth. As we've pursued greater and great color depth we've tried to emulate reality, which is never as strikingly colorful as lower depth, higher contrast color modes used to be in games imo. So it's almost like they have to unlearn the status quo and go backwards to get it right lol.

I loved Sonic Generations and continue to love many Nintendo games for that reason.

[Himuro]

The improvement over the course of those images is incredible.

[Gen]

The photoshopped face is actually a good thing IMO, since it makes it clear that they are going to bring the familiar face of Ryo back, or at least something similar. Current S3 models are clearly just placeholders and I see no indication of improvement on them, the real models will likely be made from scratch. I think it's likely that modeling of the main characters have not begun yet and that it's something that will happen late in the development process. That may be somewhat true for the graphics in general.

I actually don't think the environments look that great now, but again, I don't think they have spent that much time an resources on it, much of it will be replaced later. A lot of it is probably random generated, causing the somewhat generic look. For instance, the mountains are clearly just random generated with some preset, they look nothing like Gui-lin mountains and will have to be replaced. The only thing so far that looks finished is Shenhua's house and that looks perfect IMO. Detailed, very nice texturing. Feels very much like Shenmue. So that's hopeful. They may start to work more on graphics next year though, so it will be interesting to see how things develop. E3 might be too early for a trailer with more "finished" graphics, but who knows.

[Spaghetti]

Anecdotal but the update on Kickstarter seems to have been well received by backers. In two days it has become the second most "liked" update of the year, and will probably come out on top by year's end.

[Valascaziel]

Spaghetti, any indication we will receive a second update for the holidays?

[Suzuki Yu]

i like the new progress they made but the Photoshop Ryo was an unnecessary move. they could pretty much do anything but Photoshop to hide whatever in there. anyways if this is their target for Ryo's face then i am satisfied with it.
his body model though is completely new and this time around they nailed the shape & clothing to a satisfying degree. hopefully we will get to see him in a more clear pictures soon.

[Spaghetti]

Spaghetti, any indication we will receive a second update for the holidays?

No idea. A New Years message might drop, but that's just guesswork.

[fittersau]

i like the new progress they made but the Photoshop Ryo was an unnecessary move. they could pretty much do anything but Photoshop to hide whatever in there. anyways if this is their target for Ryo's face then i am satisfied with it.
his body model though is completely new and this time around they nailed the shape & clothing to a satisfying degree. hopefully we will get to see him in a more clear pictures soon.

You contradicted yourself there. You said it wasn't necessary to use a photoshop Ryo, but then you said you're happy with that Ryo face if it's the target. So which one is it?

Anyway, glad people are happy with this update. It's not like you couldn't see progress being made previously but obviously with the release of screenshots its easier for people to see the actual progress.

[Spaghetti]

This project was conceived to be scalable, since the game would necessarily need to be adjusted based on the Kickstarter. Once the Kickstarter was complete and the budget for the project determined, a detailed work flow was produced to fit within those constraints. Following along with the game work flow, we have now begun our baseline research work with UE4. I find this to be the most exciting phase of the game development. Having completed the baseline research, we will then move on to the GDD (game design document) and TDD (test-driven development) processes. Once these steps have been completed, actual production will begin.

Just thought I'd dig up this quote from Yu from last December's progress update (same one the work flow slide comes from).

Trying to continue to put into context where we are in development.

Yu calling it "baseline research" is selling the process a little short, however. The slide's elaboration of what they've been doing for a year+ on the prototype is pretty extensive.

Onwards and upwards into 2017.

[Switch]

Nothing huge, but I did notice the boxes under a table in a shot were temporary placeholder assets from Shenmue II.

[Hazuki00]

Wow! Great discover Spag! I asume half of the image has placeholders and its purpose is to show the concept idea they'll polish later. So that's why I don't understand people complaining about this...

[sand4fish]

Nothing huge, but I did notice the boxes under a table in a shot were temporary placeholder assets from Shenmue II.

And on the right corner is likely one the rewards for some fans. What's cooler than having our ugly mugshots fully on display during a Ryo bar fight?

[Suzuki Yu]

i like the new progress they made but the Photoshop Ryo was an unnecessary move. they could pretty much do anything but Photoshop to hide whatever in there. anyways if this is their target for Ryo's face then i am satisfied with it.
his body model though is completely new and this time around they nailed the shape & clothing to a satisfying degree. hopefully we will get to see him in a more clear pictures soon.

You contradicted yourself there. You said it wasn't necessary to use a photoshop Ryo, but then you said you're happy with that Ryo face if it's the target. So which one is it?

Anyway, glad people are happy with this update. It's not like you couldn't see progress being made previously but obviously with the release of screenshots its easier for people to see the actual progress.

what i meant to say is that i am going to be happy if the end results was close to the Photoshoped face of Ryo.
but i am not with Photoshop to hide something, to me this is a cheap way to do it i would rather not show the entire thing or show it partially without Ryo's face (i like his new body model for instance)

[Himuro]

I figured those photographs were the same photo.

[LucBu]

And on the right corner is likely one the rewards for some fans. What's cooler than having our ugly mugshots fully on display during a Ryo bar fight?

That's something that's been bugging me. I mean, potentially people who bought that reward could give the team any photo at all right? So some are definately going to get faces other than their own into the game. I'm worried that Harambe is going to be in Shenmue 3. I'm worried that Shenmue 3 may be a 11/10 game.