Shenmue III’s latest update reveals a PayPal rewards poll and Suzuki’s talk at CHUAPPX
In the latest update from Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter, the development team has asked the fans to vote on whether or not “Slacker Backers” should get the rewards that were exclusive to the original Kickstarter campaign. YS Net believed that offering these rewards would not have been fair after the Kickstarter had ended.
KICKSTARTER REWARDS ON PAYPAL Rewards labeled as “Kickstarter Exclusive” have not been offered on the PayPal site because we felt it was unfair to offer them after the Kickstarter had ended. There have been many requests, however, for certain rewards like the S3 World Telecom to be offered on the PayPal site. We would like everyone to weigh in and tell us what you think. If there is a strong consensus either way, the rewards will either remain as Kickstarter Exclusive, or will be offered on the PayPal site. Keeping our promise to you is very important to us; but at the same time, the PayPal site was set up precisely because fans could not back the Kickstarter and they feel they should not be penalized for that.
A poll was sent out via Shenmue III’s official Twitter account to ask the public whether the Kickstarter rewards should be made available to PayPal backers. There are approximately 7 hours left as of this post, so if you have not voted yet you still have some time.
Following the Twitter poll announcement, the Kickstarter update shifted towards Yu Suzuki’s lecture at China’s CHUAPPX Expo. Suzuki gave us a closer look at the slides that he showed off during the lecture, which you can check out below.
There are eleven chapters that make up the story of Shenmue, and those chapters are the basis for the games. Shenmue 1 comprised of Chapter 1, and Shenmue 2 focused mainly on Chapter 2, but also incorporated parts of Chapters 4 and 5. The composition for Shenmue 3 has been finalized, and will begin with Chapter 5 as the continuation of Shenmue 2, to move on past Chapter 6. The story has been written to align with this structure; and the planning for the game elements that will go along with the story have been completed. 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.
According to Yu Suzuki, YS Net is currently testing Shenmue III‘s “Destruction” and “High Ground” effects. Suzuki goes on to say that development has gotten much easier since the 90s, and hopes that “this will lead to everyone more fully enjoying their work.” You can check out the rest of images he posted below.
There is still time to donate to Shenmue III‘s development if you have not done so already. You can click here to contribute.
via Kickstarter
