Resident Evil 3: Nemesis/development

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was created by a team of staff members, who would become part of Capcom Production Studio 4 in October 1998. Starting out as a team of twenty developers, it moved upward to between 40 and 50 as it got closer to its release date, and mostly consisted of newly hired staff.

Announcement


Unlike the majority of the early scripts in the series, the scenario of the game was not created by Flagship employees but by internal Capcom writer Yasuhisa Kawamura. Nevertheless, the story (and storyboards) was proofread and sanctioned by Flagship to avoid continuity errors with other installments in production (both Resident Evil CODE: Veronica and Resident Evil Zero), an issue that was also given attention in monthly meetings between all directors and producers.

"Biohazard: Last Escape"  was featured in the March 1999 Tokyo Game Show. Unfortunately for journalists and gamers-alike, only a video demo was available - not gameplay. It was in April that Capcom confirmed specific parts of the plot - namely that it would involve an "unlikely hero" (confirmed in-game to be Carlos Oliveira) and be set both the day before and after Resident Evil 2's story. It was confirmed by Capcom that the game would, indeed, be available on the PlayStation console.

When Dino Crisis was released in Japan in July, Capcom managed to run out of units for there and had to manufacture a second shipment. Expecting high-sales in the United States, the western shipments of the game included a brief demo of Resident Evil: Nemesis. Three months before the initial release - making it around late June - the name was changed to officially have the number '3' in its name, which project supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto later explained as a means of keeping the titles of the first three games on the PlayStation console consistent.

A playable version of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was available at E3 1999. At the time, the dodging feature had not been completed, and it was absent from the demo.

In September and October, Famitsu Magazine and IGN published enemy attack stats for the game, along with movesets, along with releasing a number of screenshots relating to the individual enemies. Later in mid-October, Capcom declared its intention to spend $20 million on advertisement campaigns for the PlayStation versions of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Dino Crisis, as well as the Nintendo 64 port of Resident Evil 2. In November, Capcom confirmed that the US-version of the game was being shipped earlier than initially-expected, ready to be bought in stores as early as November 10 or 11. As journalists, IGN had managed to get their hands on a copy early, which they used under scrutiny with a "chipped" PlayStation.

Re-releases
A port for the game onto Windows 9x PCs (Windows 95; 98 and ME) was released in Japan in June 2000. Eidos released a demo to the PC-port of the game into Europe and the US in October, awaiting the western release in November.

The PC version featured enhancements onto the 3D character model graphics and higher resolution picture. Despite the improvements, reviewers such as GameSpot noted "murky" backgrounds; "awful" fonts, and "blotchy and bad" cinematics. Alongside coding alterations, Jill Valentine was given different alternate costume choices, and the ability to enter the Boutique without having completed the game, first. The PC version also unlocked The Mercenaries - Operation: Mad Jackal from the start. The decision to unlock The Mercenaries was because of the decision to enable scores to be sent to a Capcom server, where top-scores would be displayed on the game's official website. The feature has since been discontinued.

Content changes & Early Development
During most of the development time, the game was referred to as both "Biohazard Gaiden" since it was originally going to feature HUNK on a cruise ship and later Biohazard 1.9 due to Shinji Mikami intending for it to be an expansion to Resident Evil 2.   it was renamed to Biohazard 3 (Resident Evil 3) to fulfill Sony's wishes who wanted a last main Resident Evil game on the PlayStation 1, during the time Resident Evil CODE: Veronica was the actual Biohazard 3.

Jill Valentine was not originally intended to be the playable character, but Yasuhisa Kawamura was compelled to use her (rather than an original character) for the sake of continuity, rather than being a story about a generic survivor's attempt to escape. It was toyed with at one point for the player to be able to control a zombified Brad Vickers, tying in to his appearance in Resident Evil 2. However, because the game was only intended to be a low-cost side-story, it was decided that the production lacked enough funding to build it.

At some point in the development of the game, the Chimera and Neptune - two B.O.W.s that appeared in the original Resident Evil - went through the planning phases, though were eventually dropped. another rejected enemy note worthy is the Zombie Wildcat.

Differences in the E3 1999 and early versions of the game:
 * The game apparently had two intros or a different slideshow intro to the final game, early images depict S.T.A.R.S. Members Jill, Rebecca, Barry, Chris and Brad arriving on the Heliport of the RPD directly after the mansion incident and in one image Jill is seen yelling at Chief Irons with other S.T.A.R.S. Members beside her, in the last image Jill is wearing a white lab coat of some sort while dressed in casual outfit, the image would fade from a healthy and normal raccoon city into a destroyed one.


 * A chain puzzle, set in downtown was removed from the released game, the player would place the chain in place of the fire hose to be able to take the hose along (otherwise the ladder would remain tucked up), the area was slightly alter where there was no create, the Kendo van door was opened with the downtown map placed inside, in final a crate was placed and the van door was closed, the map is now pinned on the wall.


 * Early avatar picture of Jill and inventory icons for handgun and others can be seen which were completely changed/replaced in the final version.
 * Dodge features were not present in this build.
 * Different early models of Jill can be found in the game, were meant to be used for character select like Mercenaries, other characters like Brad, Dario, Tofu are leftover in the game as PLD Files (Player Data), can be played with using hacks or mods.
 * Several items in the game were also unused, and given the name "BOTU" Just like the chain, where it was actually called "Chain" in the E3 Version.