Has it really been a year since the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was first launched? Well to celebrate the development’s one year anniversary, a new video has been released on the Kickstarter page with series developer Yu Suzuki giving an update on the game’s progress.
According to the video, late last year the development team started to use the models from Shenmue 2 in Unreal Engine 4. These models were used for simple battle and facial animations, so it’s more of a test on how to bring the characters into an HD console.
Although it’s been a year since the Kickstarter, Suzuki stated that they have only started to work on the prototype build in January 2016. According to Suzuki, “Battles and facial expressions are coming together, and the cheers from the crew are growing.” While development seems to be going very nicely, it may be another year or two before Shenmue 3 gets released.
The Kickstarter update also said how the backer surveys have not been collected yet, and asks that all backers be patient. Backers can specify their reward details (consoles, shirt sizes, etc.) and their shipping information when the surveys arrive. Shenmue 3 is dedicated to keeping backers updated, because Shenmue 3 is only happening because of the fans.
Shenmue 3’s Kickstarter started on June 15, 2015 and reached its goal of $2 million in less than 8 hours. The game raised a total of $6.3 million, making it the highest earning crowd-funded video game ever. While it may be awhile until we get to play Shenmue 3, we can hope that all the time and money will be put to making the best game they possibly can.