Kickstarter

Yu Suzuki announces Shenmue 3 release date delayed to second half of 2018

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Yu Suzuki has announced, in a message to Shenmue 3 Kickstarter backers, that the game has become bigger and more beautiful than he initially expected. As such, the development schedule has been revised and the release of the game has shifted from the end of 2017 to the second half of 2018. This pushes the release date back 6-12 months. Suzuki mentions that new technologies have allowed the team to discover new possibilities and expressions, and promised that details of the revised schedule will be detailed in a backer report later this month. Suzuki closed the video message by thanking backers for their understanding and continued support.

The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was initially revealed on the Sony stage at E3 2015 and upon completion of the campaign in July 2015, the team had raised $6,333,295. That amount increased to $6,762,419 following a “slacker backer” campaign held on the shenmue.link website for those who missed the campaign. Development was said to begin early 2017, so fans like myself were not expecting the game to meet the December 2017 deadline. To be honest, it’s good news to hear an announcement of a delay, as it relieves the team the pressures of rushing a much anticipated game and gives fans warning of a delay a full 6 months before the originally anticipated release.

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DIC Entertainment, producer of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, has a documentary on Kickstarter

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If you were a child of the 80s and 90s, there is no doubt that you saw the logo for DIC Entertainment after countless animated shows. From Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Ghostbusters, and Inspector Gadget to the Care Bears and Dennis the Menace, DIC produced some of the most memorable syndicated cartoon shows for over two decades. Now, three Australians are hoping to create a documentary on DIC and an obscure animated show created by the company in the early 90s called Twins of Destiny. The documentary, English Dub – A DIC Entertainment Story, is hoping to hit a lofty goal of nearly $19k in less than 12 days with $2,000 raised so far. You can check out the trailer and read their plans over on their Kickstarter.

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Indie Dreamcast game Alice Dreams Tournament production nearly complete

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The Bomberman-inspired indie Dreamcast game Alice Dreams Tournament, successfully funded on Kickstarter in late 2015, inches closer to backer’s hands thanks to a recent project update. According to the team, they have received the games from the manufacturer. All versions are accounted for, except for the PAL collector’s edition which is lacking the front and back covers which are still in production. The team promises to keep backers informed as to when they are ready to ship.

Also announced, the team will be at Retro Game Play this Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th in Meaux, France. Backers were told that if they plan to be at the event or in the area they can pick up their game and get autographs. Copies of the game will be sold at the event itself.

 

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Shenmue III music developer diary

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A new video developer diary has been posted to the Shenmue III Kickstarter page. This one focuses on Shenmue III music and features a subtitled chat with Yu Suzuki on the subject.

The discussion ranges from Yu Suzuki’s taste in music, his history playing in rock bands that performed Deep Purple and Van Halen style music and covers, setting the tone with music in a video game, and how he directs his audio teams on a project. The video comes off like a nice, natural and unscripted chat with the legendary Sega developer.

Towards the end of the short video, Suzuki previews some of the new songs from the upcoming game.

Shenmue III is still targeted for a December 2017 release for PS4 and PC. Imagine that guys, we’re now just a year away from that target date! Are you excited? Do you think Suzuki and the boys will deliver on time?

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[UPDATED] SEGA Genesis homebrew game Coffee Crisis hits Kickstarter

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Are you looking to support interesting indie SEGA Genesis titles and want to see more games for the platform be developed? The team at Mega Cat Studios has now launched their kickstarter page for a brand new title called Coffee Crisis. Pledges start at $25 dollars giving you a PC download code and all the way up to a grand. M$ad Cat Studios has set their fundraising goal at $10,000, which at the time of writing this they are almost at 50% of their goal. So how much for the limited edition boxed SEGA Genesis version of Coffee Crisis? You will be dropping $55 buckaroos, with a ‘estimated ship date’ of December 2016.

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Shenmue game director returns for Shenmue III

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Shenmue game director, Keiji Okayasu was just announced as a new production team member for Shenmue III. This announcement is part of their new Kickstarter update, this time giving us a interview with Keiji Okayashu and what he will bring to Shenmue III. Keiji Okayasu describes his ‘game directing’ role as a sub director role with Yu Suzuki being the main director. This will continue with Shenmue III he has confirmed.

Keiji Okayasu talks about how early he was involved on the Shenmue project, saying he was there when it was still the Virtua Fighter RPG for the SEGA Saturn, which is considered pretty early on since it wasn’t even officially Shenmue at that point. I think if you are a old school Shenmue fan, the above interview is pretty interesting to watch since Keiji Okayasu talks about working with Yu Suzuki and how hard it was understanding what he wanted to do with Shenmue at the time. Got to admit, I love that this is how Yu Suzuki is spending Shenmue III’s Kickstarter money, bringing back old team members that made the first two games. Makes me excited to actually see gameplay of Shenmue III in the near future.

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Yu Suzuki reflects on one year since the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was funded

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In the latest Shenmue 3 Kickstarter update, Yu Suzuki shared a special backer exclusive video in which he looked back on one year since the campaign was successfully funded. Those expecting major revelations or exciting new information will be disappointed, but it is nice to see shots of Suzuki and his team discussing the game’s development. A few notable moments in the video include Suzuki stating “Your cheers at the Sony announcement still ring in my ears” and the mention that late last year the team began using Shenmue 2 characters for battle and conversation tests in Unreal Engine 4 – I would personally love to see these development videos someday. Suzuki also stated that the prototype build began development in January and that is has been six months since the project has really taken off. Elements that are beginning to come together include battles and facial expressions and the crew are said to be happy with development thus far. Suzuki ended the video saying he believes it will end up to be a good game, and he once again thanked backers for their support. No date has been decided yet for surveys, which would decide stuff like shipping addresses and shirt sizes and information needed for in-game appearances.

Overall, Shenmue 3 looks to be progressing well. The environments, while not jaw dropping as they were with the Dreamcast originals, look good and it is always nice to see Suzuki smiling and talking about the game’s development. Here’s hoping as time goes on we see more of the game in progress and get a peek at some cutscenes and battles.

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Kickstarter launches for Xenocider, a 3D shooter for Dreamcast, PC, Mac, Linux & 3DS

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The Kickstarter campaign for Xenocider, a new indie SEGA Dreamcast game, has launched. The game is unique as it is one of the first fully 3D indie Dreamcast games, and the gameplay itself takes inspiration from classic SEGA arcade games including Space Harrier and Nintendo’s Sin & Punishment. The game’s development team Retro Sumus describes themselves as “a small, independent game development team who got together to revisit genres and concepts we felt were underused, or not explored in depth back in their time.”

The small team is a mix of individuals who are both new and old to the indie Dreamcast development scene, including Lead Programmer Daniel Lancha who reprogrammed Pier Solar for modern platforms and developed Hucast’s Ghost Blade. Also involved is Carlos Oliveros who heads up the team’s Communications and who in the past handled Pier Solar‘s Spanish translation. So it should be no surprise that Tulio Goncalves, former president and founder of Watermelon games and creator of Pier Solar, is on the team serving as the Producer. All-in-all, it looks like Xenocider has a solid team with Dreamcast development experience, but if that still doesn’t sway you they have put together a real working demo of the game for the Dreamcast that you can play right now! Just click on over to their campaign page for Windows, Mac, Linux and Dreamcast download links.

Dreamcast isn’t the only planned platform, as the game will also be playable on PC, Mac, Linux and Nintendo 3DS. The team hopes to raise $92,000 to realize their vision. After the break, a full list of what the team plans for the game to make it extra special. Check out the campaign today, and if you like what you see give them your support!

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Shenmue 3 update shows off in-game environments

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Above is early footage of Shenhua’s house from the upcoming Shenmue 3. The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter also sent out various photos of these environments (which you can see below) giving you a closer look at how far the game’s graphics have come along compared to what they showed previously. The Shenmue Dojo twitter account also did a side by side comparison of Shenua’s house from Shenmue 2 to Shenmue 3 and it seems like everything is where we last left it 15 years ago.

I’m not really sold on the over use of lighting, but its looking rather impressive so far for being this early into development. I really can’t wait to see more updates, so far color me surprise. What do you guys think of Shenmue 3‘s new environments? Let us know in the comments below!

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Slipstream takes to Kickstarter with the spirit of SEGA’s sprite-scaling racers

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We’re always ones for a good SEGA-inspired Kickstarter here at Bits, and it’s that time again; with Noctet Studio’s Slipstream being the latest object of our affections.

We’ve covered a few SEGA-themed racers such as Drift Stage and The 90’s Arcade Racer in the past, but rest assured; Slipstream is aiming for something very different to those games. It’s more focused on being a pure driving game than just a racing game, a la OutRun. And it’s not just in gameplay either; Slipstream makes clever use of sprite-scaling to deliver an authentic look that’ll be plenty familiar to fans of the 80’s and 90’s heydays for SEGA driving titles such as Rad Mobile, and the aforementioned OutRun, all on a custom engine at a smooth 60fps. The influences even stretch beyond the racing classics of SEGA’s past; because we can’t not look at that Casino district and see Casino Night from Sonic the Hedgehog 2!

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Shenmue 3 Update: Kickstarter Rewards to remain exclusive and official site gets a refresh

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Happy 2016! With the new year comes an update on Shenmue 3! While the latest Kickstarter project update doesn’t get into any of the development, the results are in for the survey asking whether or not rewards exclusive to Kickstarter backers should be made available to PayPal backers. Initially, this survey was held on Twitter, which many cited as being unfair since it was open to anybody and not just Kickstarter backers. Thankfully, Ys Net listened and held a new survey exclusive to Kickstarter backers. The survey shows that while the “Yes’s” outweighed the “No’s”, the “No’s” and “Either’s” were to great to be ignored and it has been decided that Kickstarter exclusives will not be made available to PayPal backers.

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Ys Net releases Shenmue 3 progress report on the game’s development, featuring new screens

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As Shenmue 3 enters the third month of post-Kickstarter development, a much welcomed progress report has been posted detailing what the team has been up to and what they plan to work on in the coming months. Most exciting are four screens of the game in-progress showcasing battle tests, a cutscene, and an environment which you can see after the break or at the above link.

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Shenmue 3 kicks off three month PayPal Slacker Backer Campaign

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For those that missed out on the initial Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, Ys Net has just kicked off a second campaign which is set to run for a little over three months and utilizes PayPal. Dubbed the Slacker Backer Campaign, the campaign is described as follows:

For everyone who could not participate in the Shenmue III Kickstarter, we have heard your voice! Here is one more chance to show your support and make Shenmue III even better. All funding collected here will be added to the Kickstarter total for the game’s development.

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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter reveals development progress and future plans

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It’s normal for most Kickstarter campaigns to go silent for a bit following successful funding, mainly because those behind the campaign are now hard at work creating whatever it is you backed. Of course, in the case of Shenmue 3 which raised over $6 million, backers were more eager than usual to hear something new. Thankfully, the radio silence didn’t last too long as backers received an update last night on the development progress and future plans. Better yet, we heard it straight from Yu Suzuki himself!

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Round Table: Can Shenmue 3 live up to the hype?

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Its literally been 14 years since Shenmue 2 made its debut and left many unanswered questions. Over the years the Shenmue fanbase has grown since more and more people have gotten a chance to try the franchise, it has reached some level of mysticism. Having this rabid fanbase, all with individual reasons as to why they like the Shenmue franchise waiting for the next evolutionary step can be daunting to a development team.

Can Ys NET and Yu Suzuki make a game that will live up to the hype? That’s this topic on this week’s Round Table.

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