The latest development update on Shenmue 3 isn’t quite as exciting as previous ones but it does see director Yu Suzuki sharing an unusual story about one of his most recent hires.
When asked if he had any stories he could give that occurred during the development of Shenmue 3 so far, Suzuki came out with this:
“One night, I went to a Thai restaurant with the development team after work. At that restaurant, a man approached me and asked to shake hands. He said he was a fan, and we had a brief talk. He also happened to be in the game industry and we began to hit it off. We talked some more to find out he really knew his job, and on top of that, he was an exceptionaly good person. I was so impressed, I asked him to help with the development. I couldn’t help but feel Shenmue‘s unique gravity to bring interesting things together.”
That’s somewhat heart warming, isn’t it? It’s often said that we shouldn’t meet our heroes as we’d only be disappointed by them, but this may be the exception. It landed that guy a new job!
That aside, the other questions that Suzuki answered in the Kickstarter update had him reveal that the planning for the composition, story, planning, and game flow has been finished so far. The diagram below is an illustration of that.
Suzuki also explained that now that he knows what budget he’s working with he’s had to restructured the Shenmue 3 story to fit its scope. Previously, 17 years ago to be precise, Suzuki had planned for Shenmue 3 to have 11 chapters with each one taking place in a different region, but working in this way isn’t very efficient so he had to make changes.
Suzuki said that actual game development is starting now that the planning stage is complete. Plus, he says he’ll be looking to give more frequent updates, at least once a month, to show how the game is coming along.
