There have been some complaints about how the early prototypes of Shenmue III, but director Yu Suzuki is very happy with Unreal Engine 4, the engine the 2018 release uses. He recently described it as a “really good engine,” and talked about the advantages the team gets from it.
“Unreal Engine is a great fit for our approach because we can prototype very quickly,” Suzuki told Eurogamer. “To me, this is a valuable feature. In my case, I take on a lot of new challenges and rely on a lot of trial and error. I need to be able to quickly see the results and try out new ideas. I feel that the concept of the Unreal Engine and my approach to developing the game is a good match.”
Suzuki did mention that it was a new challenge for him since he “started coding previous games from scratch,” and is used to knowing “pretty much everything about the program” he uses. “In the case of a game engine like Unreal, however, it’s a kind of ‘black box’ so it’s more challenging to fine tune everything at a lower level. I’m working to find the best way to utilize the engine which means sometimes adjusting the game scenario or plan itself to better accommodate the tools set. Overall, though, I think it’s a really good engine.”
There’s a lot of other great information from Eurogamer’s Yu Suzuki interview, so check it out.
Shenmue III will release in 2018 for PlayStation 4 and PC.
[Source: Eurogamer]
