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[Aura]

I was wondering if the devs took any inspiration from the Japanese runner Maya Nakanishi in researching Emi's disability and running habits. While their life stories are quite different (Ms. Nakanishi only lost one leg in a work-related accident), I found some of their motivations similar (being stubborn about continuing their athletics, for one). One recent TV profile also mentioned specifically the toll that all the running takes on the part of her leg in the sheath -- if she doesn't take care of it, it can get infected, and... well, we see what happens with that in Emi's route.

At any rate, while there were obvious differences, I thought the similarities were uncanny enough that it was perhaps more than a coincidence.

Any similarity is a coincidence. The real life person Emi is more often compared to is Aimee Mullins, but even she was not used as direct inspiration.

[Aura]

Sorry if this has been asked somewhere, but I wanted to know if any of the people who worked on this are currently working as programmers, ilustrators, composers...on the industry or if most of you when you started KS project didn't have any experience/only a bit in this business.

None of us work in game industry, or even had any significant experience in our respective fields beforehand. We are as amateur as you can be.

[Aura]

I’d like to apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I thought of a few more questions, and I was also curious about a number of questions that went unanswered in this thread. I understand you may have deliberately avoided answering some of these, but you may also just have missed or forgotten about them.

I’ve also added my two cents about a couple things.

She does have a semi-canon surname, but it's not showing on the envelope picture.

In a bound of my delayed curiosity, and because I like trivia, what is Iwanako's semi-canon surname? Unless I am ignoring the implications of an implied question not being answered, of course.

I assume that you guys would rather just not give out that info, but I’m curious as well.

Nah, I just can't remember it anymore, since it was never used, it was left only as a side mention in some discussion, possibly never even written down anywhere. Very possible it's lost in time.

Since the removal of Lelouch was mentioned, was the guy who took his place given a name and a disability, like the other classmates?

To the writers: which ending of each path do you like best? I already have my personal preferences, I’m just curious about yours.

Also, how do you feel about the use of your characters as cameos in other works?

I like the bad ending of Rin's and Shizune's paths, and the good in the other three. I think fictional crossover cameos in general are not the best of ideas, but don't feel especially strongly about KS cameos.

However, in my lust to create a Grimdark kind of story, I lost the plot a little and made both the "Bad" route and the exit from that route into a "Good" route untenable. Also, it clashed drastically with the rest of the game. I think a lot of my drive came from a short story that I wrote on the old Invision boards, where Hanako uses a broken mirror to kill Rin, Hisao and herself.

Holy fuck! That wasn't part of the scrapped plotline that silentcook mentioned before, was it?

It wasn't.

I don't know what all meds are typically prescribed for Hisao's condition but it's mentioned often that he has several different ones he takes. Since many medications don't react well with alcohol I was expecting something to happen with a possible reaction given all the drinking in Lilly's arc but it never did. Was the various meds typical for his condition researched and shown not to have any adverse reactions with alcohol or did the thought never occur that there could be any potential problems with the drinking and his meds?

I also edited that quote for spelling/grammar.

I may be misremembering, but I believe Hisao's meds don't have adverse effects with alcohol.

This is just a silly one, but I am curious: in the “Word of God” blog post/thread you mentioned that there were conflicting statements made that Yamaku’s principal was either female or a Luchador. Did you ever reach a consensus? Maybe the principal’s female and the assistant principal’s a Luchador or vice versa? …or a combination of the two where the principal’s a Luchadora?

The point of that remark was that we can fuck around with "canon" on a whim. Because the principal does not appear in the story it doesn't matter whether she's male, female, luchador or a martian.

[Mirrormn]

I like the bad ending of Rin's and Shizune's paths, and the good in the other three.

Do you mean the early bad ending, or the later one where she decides to leave for art school? I'm assuming the latter since it's much more drawn out and emotional, whereas the previous bad ending is pretty sudden and uninvolved.

[Erthel]

To the devs:

How did you explain to your parents/family/friends what were you working on for those long hours?

I find pretty hard to explain to unrelated people what is KS about. Its an akward speech most of the time.

[Paddy]

Hi! Pax vobiscum!

First, I'd like to thank you for the game. I know you get this a lot, but this is an awesome, thought-provoking game, and I am glad I found it. God bless you folks for making it.

My questions:

1) How do you pronounce Hisao's name? Is it "His-OW", or "His-A-yo" or something else?
1a) Do you pronounce Hideaki as "Hi-dee-YA-ki"?

2) Did you ever decide on any canonical ending? That is, of all of the endings in KS, which one, in your opinions, is the one that "really happened"? At very least, what is your favourite?

[cpl_crud]

To the devs:

How did you explain to your parents/family/friends what were you working on for those long hours?

I find pretty hard to explain to unrelated people what is KS about. Its an akward speech most of the time.

I have a pretty good relationship with my close friends, some of them even beta'd the Act 1 release.

Others I just mention that I'm working on an online writing project.

[Aura]

I like the bad ending of Rin's and Shizune's paths, and the good in the other three.

Do you mean the early bad ending, or the later one where she decides to leave for art school? I'm assuming the latter since it's much more drawn out and emotional, whereas the previous bad ending is pretty sudden and uninvolved.

Latter.

[Tempester]

1. What are the paintings seen in the hallways of Yamaku and who made them?

2. Why doesn't Hisao get into trouble with the staff/teachers for not wearing his uniform blazer?

3. Was it deliberate to make Rin's route the most isolated of them all, or is Aura just more comfortable when writing for a small cast of characters? Aside from Emi and a couple very brief moments with Misha and Shizune, none of the other heroines appear in Rin's route.

4. I noticed that the music tracks used in KS aren't all played at a consistent volume. This is understandable for tracks with a wide range of dynamics such as Moment of Decision, but some tracks with consistent dynamics have unusually high or low volumes, such as Afternoon being glaringly loud and Concord being egregiously soft to the point where I have to adjust my volume to hear it properly. Was this deliberate?

[Aura]

Hi! Pax vobiscum!

First, I'd like to thank you for the game. I know you get this a lot, but this is an awesome, thought-provoking game, and I am glad I found it. God bless you folks for making it.

My questions:

1) How do you pronounce Hisao's name? Is it "His-OW", or "His-A-yo" or something else?
1a) Do you pronounce Hideaki as "Hi-dee-YA-ki"?

2) Did you ever decide on any canonical ending? That is, of all of the endings in KS, which one, in your opinions, is the one that "really happened"? At very least, what is your favourite?

1. It's more akin to the latter, but really, trying to give pronounciation advice in this way is foolish and makes me angry. English pronounciation is so unlike any other language, and so irregular, that trying to pronounce with approximation syllables is a horribly bad idea. Same for Hideaki's name. It's something like that, but not really.
2. All endings are canonical.

[Aura]

1. What are the paintings seen in the hallways of Yamaku and who made them?

2. Why doesn't Hisao get into trouble with the staff/teachers for not wearing his uniform blazer?

3. Was it deliberate to make Rin's route the most isolated of them all, or is Aura just more comfortable when writing for a small cast of characters? Aside from Emi and a couple very brief moments with Misha and Shizune, none of the other heroines appear in Rin's route.

4. I noticed that the music tracks used in KS aren't all played at a consistent volume. This is understandable for tracks with a wide range of dynamics such as Moment of Decision, but some tracks with consistent dynamics have unusually high or low volumes, such as Afternoon being glaringly loud and Concord being egregiously soft to the point where I have to adjust my volume to hear it properly. Was this deliberate?

1. They are painted by climatic. They are there to separate the different floor hallway backgrounds from each other.
2. The school uniform of Yamaku (like many schools that use uniform), is not actually a single mandatory uniform. Instead it's a collection of clothing articles that the students can combine for their attire.
3. It's mostly because both Rin and Hisao are kind of loners. Neither of them know the other characters (in Rin's story).

[TheHivemind]

To the devs:

How did you explain to your parents/family/friends what were you working on for those long hours?

I find pretty hard to explain to unrelated people what is KS about. Its an akward speech most of the time.

This was easy, I didn't tell anyone I worked on it. My brother found out because he is a nosy fuck who kept reading over my shoulder when we shared an apartment, but I didn't make any effort to alert or explain anyone I knew about this whole project.

[MrDogsniper]

I know you guys won't answer half of my questions...because there arn't really ways to answer them. But, I'd like to ask, What got you started with KS? I mean what made you guys stand up and say I'm gonna write a visual story and post it on the internet? I mean what made you commit? I almost started a shoe store with my father at 14 I was going to be the manager, but we backed out at the last second because we didn't commit. So, just wondering.

[uwa]

Apologies for the delay.
[...]
There were a couple of attempts to save it; one involved the entire Hanako route being "Bad," - the only way to get a "Good" ending was to go through Lilly's route, which would then have a second Hanako path embedded into it.

This was written entirely, but the actual gameplay implications were impossible. You had to get at least one Hanako "Bad" ending to unlock the choices in LIlly's path to lead to the "Good" endings... it was practically impossible.

So, after much prodestation, the entire concept was scrapped and replaced with a much more believable path, which formed the basis of the path that is in the final game.
[...]

Oh wow, thank you so much for the long detailed reply (and my own apologies for my delay). I thought I was just being a dumbass when I mused that it would be interesting for Hanako's path to unavoidably end in her (or someone's) death... but it was actually something like that at one point. I can see how making her good end possible only from Lilly's path could make sense.

That does raise one other question. Unless there's one hell of an undiscovered secret, in the finished game there's no gameplay unlocking -- any ending is reachable on the first play through of a fresh install. It sounds like that kind of unlocking was rejected for difficulty in the Hanako path (grimdark edition). Was the consensus that it was always a bad idea, or did it just end up not working anywhere? Or did it always have to be cut for lack of resources?

[Otakumon]

suddenly i wonder:
when is Kenji´s birthday? that no appear in his bio.

Don't think anyone ever gave him one.

Then I proclaim April 1 as Kenji's birthday. Any objections? If not then feel free to make it canon and edit the game to add my name to the credits.