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[TheHivemind]

Another question that just sprung to mind. I've noticed that writing for a VN is nothing like writing a novel or purely text-based work. What did you do to fit the VN format?

I felt it's like writing a theatre play script. Visualization is the biggest thing that changes the way one must write, and the branching structure the next after that.

Yeah, VN writing is a lot more dialog heavy, I think. A normal novel would spend more time describing the world, but with a VN it's right there in front of you so it's not really necessary to do so. Also you'll occasionally have to restrain yourself from writing any action-heavy sequences that would be too difficult to render in a VN engine (the common retort is 'well that's what CGs are for,' but CGs take time and your artists might want to kill you if you use them too much). Emi, due to her being such an athletic lass, was originally going to be saddled with a lot more CGs before wiser heads prevailed.

Narration in a VN is more about someone's thought processes than describing surroundings--or at least that was my experience in this case.

If you had hired voice actors, would you have done it in English or in Japanese if it were just as easy for you to do it either way?

Actually, I'd like to ask: how much would the visual presentation and such have changed if you'd had access to whatever you guys needed to provide decent voice acting for the game?

Voice acting would've been in English--that's the language the damn thing was written in, after all.

Visually we wouldn't have had to change anything. On the writing side, there would've been a lot less narration.

[Camoufrage]

Is there any particular reason why you guys are openly saying that you will probably not work together on another project again?

I supppose I can understand the complete clusterflunk that was working online from so far away, must have been amazing to see . But I would think you would have bonded with the people somehow, yet you were so fast to say that there was almost definitely no chance of another project happening. Just wondering, because seeing more would be awesome, though I fully understand why you wouldnt do it again.

Which is sad really, because KS is brilliant and I do want to congratulate you on making it. I think its such a brilliant way of writing a story. VNs are alluded as being naughty and disgusting and sick all of the time. This game is a great example of, while a lot of the time they are correct, the platform can still be used in a genuine way to create a story worth experiencing. Frankly, I dont know if it would have been as gripping on paper in a book (or even be possible with the way you guys were working ).

There's another question, do you think KS wouldve made a good book?


Once again, love KS, and was certainly worth the time I've spent in it (which is quite a bit). You guys did a great job of making a serious story despite the flak Im sure you were getting for making a VN on such a concept. Sounds very strange when you pitch it to the general public, huh?

As Hivemind says, the KS team was big, too big. It was inefficient and if we made another project it'd definitely be with less people. Further, some 4LS members feel like making KS was enough for the VN development experience and have no intentions of carrying on with this hobby, so we know for a fact that all 21 of the KS team won't work together again. That's the thing that Suriko wanted to say, but somehow miscommunicated to say that we have permanently split and there's no chance of seeing any of us again. That's not true, we simply had no immediate plans to start another project right away. Maybe we will do more projects at some point, with less people, or with new people, or whatever. Many of us like VNs, and making VNs, and working together. So why not, if an opportunity arises?

I remember when I first found out you guys made this with a team of people online. That sounds absolutely insane to me. It had to be a challenge working together. Were there any problems that arose when working together through the online medium that may not be blatantly obvious when looking at it from our perspective?

[Aura]

I remember when I first found out you guys made this with a team of people online. That sounds absolutely insane to me. It had to be a challenge working together. Were there any problems that arose when working together through the online medium that may not be blatantly obvious when looking at it from our perspective?

Mostly that communication is hard. We live literally around the world, so it was extremely hard to arrange internal communication efficiently due to the timezone differences and the irregular schedules everyone had (this was nobody's job). Good communication is the number one priority for a project like this, so it was important we could find ways to work around the limitations of timezones. I can guarantee that if we all had worked together at a physical location, KS would be a significantly better game.

[Karl_Ravech]

Can you confirm that Yuuko is in fact Kenji's ex?

[Raxiuscore]

Well perhaps you are not the right person to ask but why did hanako's route end so fast? I mean the ending scene is REALLY good but i feel like there should be more, as we never even got to see them grow. (Sorry my writing im on my phone)

[spirizu]

Apologies if any of these have already been asked:

1. How have the devs found settling back into "normal" life after the game's release? I imagine that finishing something that you've been working on for something like 20 hours a week (according to cpl_crud's blog) for 5 years must leave a pretty huge gap, even if it's a welcome one;

2. How many times has the full KS game been downloaded from the website?

[CuriousCat]

Did the team ever facing any heavy debate or really heated up situation among devs when making KS (regarding writing, visual translation or correction)? Did the team ever suffer bad times because of it? (leaving dev, slower progression, stop communicating, etc)

Assuming you answer yes, how does the team handle such kind of situations? On that time, were the team tend to get along as solid as they can or (some) were fine with cold interaction (we don't need to be lovey dovey partner, as long as you done with your works)?

Are there any story related that can be shared (for our learning) to us?


Sorry for the strange question, curiosity kills the cat I suppose..

[Aura]

Can you confirm that Yuuko is in fact Kenji's ex?

I didn't the previous times this has been asked, and am not going to now either : >

[Aura]

Well perhaps you are not the right person to ask but why did hanako's route end so fast? I mean the ending scene is REALLY good but i feel like there should be more, as we never even got to see them grow. (Sorry my writing im on my phone)

All stories must end at some point, and the writers felt it was what they wanted to do.

[Aura]

Apologies if any of these have already been asked:

1. How have the devs found settling back into "normal" life after the game's release? I imagine that finishing something that you've been working on for something like 20 hours a week (according to cpl_crud's blog) for 5 years must leave a pretty huge gap, even if it's a welcome one;

2. How many times has the full KS game been downloaded from the website?

1. Well, it was strange at first, but we got over it, everyone in their own way. Of course some of us spent a lot of time with the aftermath of the release, so it was a kind of an extension for the involvement with KS (and am I not, even now, reading and writing on the KS fan forum?). Mostly though, it's a restless emptiness that we all fill with whatever we want to do next. Life goes on.

2. We don't track that, so I can only give estimates. I'd say 300 000-400 000 downloads in total might about the correct ballpark, but of course it's not possible to know for real.

[Aura]

Did the team ever facing any heavy debate or really heated up situation among devs when making KS (regarding writing, visual translation or correction)? Did the team ever suffer bad times because of it? (leaving dev, slower progression, stop communicating, etc)

Assuming you answer yes, how does the team handle such kind of situations? On that time, were the team tend to get along as solid as they can or (some) were fine with cold interaction (we don't need to be lovey dovey partner, as long as you done with your works)?

Are there any story related that can be shared (for our learning) to us?

Sure, we argued and fought every now and then, sometimes even pretty seriously. That shouldn't be a surprise. We resolved stuff like that by having other members arbitrate and negotiate, and trying to keep in mind that the project was more important than personal disputes. Generally it was fine if some people didn't get along, as it would be pretty unlikely in such a big group of random people for everyone to get along with everyone. After all, most people got along with most people quite well, and we befriended each other and solidified into a team, not just people who worked together. Both professionalism and good interpersonal relationships are good, and not mutually exclusive (and not even opposites)

[Camoufrage]

This just came up while reading some threads...

Where did 4Leaf Studios name come from, anyways?

[Tununias]

Who held the source files of the game during production? Or did everyone have a copy in order to prevent the project from dieing if the person quit?
Who made the character sprites. I don't think I've seen anything like it before.

[dwarduk]

Who held the source files of the game during production? Or did everyone have a copy in order to prevent the project from dieing if the person quit?
Who made the character sprites. I don't think I've seen anything like it before.

Did 4ls use SVN or similar? If so, would you recommend it?

[Aura]

Who held the source files of the game during production? Or did everyone have a copy in order to prevent the project from dieing if the person quit?
Who made the character sprites. I don't think I've seen anything like it before.

Our server did. We used a version control system on the development version of the game, that stored a "master" copy of KS on our server and kept everyone's working copy of KS and itself in sync. In addition we have a ftp server that we used as a storage for development files, game assets, reference files, work files such as .psds and all other kinds of crap (seriously at some point someone uploaded 300MB of photos of those creepy dollfies on the ftp, and I remember purging over 1Gb of porn doujins from there at some point)

The sprites were made by the artists, of course. Moekki, Raide, Weee and Kamifish made a majority of them, and also worth mentioning is gebyy's contribution to KS, the design and sprites of Kenji, Nurse, Nomiya and Sae.

EDIT: I just checked and what the fuck those doll pictures are still there. Also, our digital inventory holds items such as:

- a digital edition of David Kushner's the Masters of Doom
- a chart of average Japanese body measure statistics
- a pdf of a Wired article about the information technology guru Ted Nelson
- erotic anime style fanart of KS developers (!)
- a copy of the demo of the visual novel Mahotsukai no Yoru
- a copy of the turn based bullet hell shooter Raidaa no Asahi
- tons of resources on how to draw celtic knot designs
- a picture of a moe anthropomorphication of the space shuttle Endeavour
- crud's vacation photos from Japan
- a picture of a chibified Lisianthus from Shuffle!
- a mp3 mix of the songs "Naraku no Hana" by Eiko Shimamiya and "No Diggity" by Blackstreet feat Dr. Dre
- a field report from the 4LS Black Ops operative (this is an actual position in 4LS) of his infiltration mission to a hipster gamer community festival.
- a video of KS that has been manipulated and sped up so it appears that Lilly is stroking her humongous, invisible penis with her hands
and much more. I guarantee all of these were necessary for making KS.

Also, to above poster, I'd say that a VCS such as SVN is pretty much a requirement for a project like this. It was invaluable for us.