Ask!

[Aura]

You MIGHT have seen a Grid1 video. Grid1 was something like the proto-Act 1, which got massively overhauled because it was a Frankenstein job of joining scenes by the expedient of throwing them together with sufficient force. Backgrounds were different, sprites were by a different artist, several scenes were different or weren't there or got removed later.

There was no Niji though and Lilly played the cello instead, so I'm afraid I can't be much more help here.

Wasn't Grid1 the one that had the *cough* infamous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni-inspired Hanako route? Or was that something else?
I know this only because TVTropes mentions this on the Trivia page. Shit's frightening.

It didn't cover much of the story, so no. It was just a prototype.

Lilly's music hobby was removed because it added very little to her character except more Mary Sue-ness, which Suriko desperately tried to get rid off.

[Kon22]

First, thank you for the game. It's a really nice game. That's an understatement, but I'm sure I don't need to say anything more. You had enough of that.

I have two questions that I believe no one asked yet.

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

And the other thing. I'm curious about the extra image you get after completing the gallery. The art in that image is clearly not as polished as the one in the game. Or maybe the pic is just like that. So, is there any story about this? Was it just a random pic you had there and decided to put it as an extra, or was it drawn for that purpose?

Anyway, that's all. My english is not the best, but I think It's pretty understandable.

[Aura]

First, thank you for the game. It's a really nice game. That's an understatement, but I'm sure I don't need to say anything more. You had enough of that.

I have two questions that I believe no one asked yet.

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

And the other thing. I'm curious about the extra image you get after completing the gallery. The art in that image is clearly not as polished as the one in the game. Or maybe the pic is just like that. So, is there any story about this? Was it just a random pic you had there and decided to put it as an extra, or was it drawn for that purpose?

Anyway, that's all. My english is not the best, but I think It's pretty understandable.

Without actually asking anyone, I feel pretty comfortable saying that nobody has played the whole thing after release. Why would we? I've probably read it several dozens of times all in all during development and the final version went through testing where it was repeatedly read by lots of people. Even many of the non-writer devs have read it extensively. I don't really feel like reading it just for funsies.

The final gallery pic is a little bit from column A, a little bit of column B. It was drawn specifically for it, but it was a pretty rough job right before release, and climatic's style is not really the glossy moe thing the rest of the game's art is to begin with.

[Silentcook]

Play the whole published product, no. But I did play the whole finished game several too many WAY too many times over before release, plus a few extra chunks in the interest of releases that haven't even happened yet, so the distinction is pretty thin.

[Aura]

Yeah. The point of the question as I understood it was whether we read KS for fun, which I really don't think anyone from 4LS would do (waiting to be proven wrong)

[Kon22]

I have another question.

Do each of you guys have a favorite route? Or favorite girl, for that matter? Someone probably asked it already, but I'm curious.

[Silentcook]

Someone asked me specifically before, at least. Emi.

[TheHivemind]

First, did any of the devs played the whole game? Like, the last build, the final product. No just to check if everything was alright, but to just play it. I'm guessing that after creating the routes and finishing making the game, you didn't actually want to play it at all. Five years is a really long time. Though I might be wrong, and maybe you wanted to "enjoy" the final product, the culmination of all that work. So, that. Did you guys played the final version of the game? The paths you didn't write, at least?

Like the dude said, I went back and played through Emi's path (I also LIVETWEETED the experience, which if you're willing to scroll that far back in my twitter timeline you can see), mostly because I hadn't seen it in anything close to finished (I was strictly a writer and any proofreading contributions I made were made by scrolling through the scripts in a text editor). So much of the directing and music and such I'd literally never seen, beyond a few experimental bits that, during development, I'd looked at to say "oh this works" or "I don't know if this works."

So I went through to see how it turned out, but despite an idle curiosity as to how everything else came out I've never had the energy to look back through the whole thing. It's still totally installed on my PC in case I ever get the urge, but I doubt I will.

Someone asked me specifically before, at least. Emi.

THE ONLY CORRECT ANSWER

[Erenussocrates]

This one is directed at NicolArmarfi,

Did you take any lessons regarding music? Enrolled to a school of music or just taken private lessons? Was anyone from your family involved in music? How did you get interested in? I wonder your lifestory about music in general, how it started, how you improved, how you came to make Katawa Shoujo music etc.
I would ask the same thing about Blue123 as well, but I doubt if he is checking here anymore.

Did you create the music only using a program/a number of programs, or did you actually record them in RL, playing the instruments? I wonder if it's possible to do it the latter way.

My friend have talked about the programs "garage band" (for mac only), "stagelight 6" and "mixcraft" before. I wonder if they are any good in general/capable of making visual novel music using various instruments.

[ArcCain]

Couldn't Hisao just have a heart transplant?

[Silentcook]

Yes, he could - if a compatible donor could be found, and those don't grow on trees. If he made it to the top of the recipient lists, and those are choked with people who can't survive just with medication but otherwise unaided. And if it wasn't the equivalent of hunting with a flamethrower, since it's the end of the line in a series of progressively harsher treatments.

[bhtooefr]

How old was Yuuko during the events of the VN?

[Steinherz]

How old was Yuuko during the events of the VN?

...
That's something I've been wondering as well.

[Nicol Armarfi]

This one is directed at NicolArmarfi,

Did you take any lessons regarding music? Enrolled to a school of music or just taken private lessons? Was anyone from your family involved in music? How did you get interested in? I wonder your lifestory about music in general, how it started, how you improved, how you came to make Katawa Shoujo music etc.
I would ask the same thing about Blue123 as well, but I doubt if he is checking here anymore.

Did you create the music only using a program/a number of programs, or did you actually record them in RL, playing the instruments? I wonder if it's possible to do it the latter way.

My friend have talked about the programs "garage band" (for mac only), "stagelight 6" and "mixcraft" before. I wonder if they are any good in general/capable of making visual novel music using various instruments.

I took piano lessons for a couple years, and I played viola in my highschool strings class, beyond that I'm self taught. No one else in my family plays or writes music, I just got interested in it by playing video games. Final Fantasy was a huge inspiration for me, particularly X which was the first one I played. I started on Katawa Shoujo by responding to a call for musicians on a forum I visit occasionally called lemmasoft. All of the music in KS was synthesized, nothing was playing live save for the sax part in Red Velvet which was done by someone else after the release of the vn. Of course it is possible to record the music with live instruments, but you just need to have access to all the instruments and know how to play them, or know people who can, have the appropriate recording setup or the money to buy studio time. It wasn't feasible for us on a $0 budget, but as far as I'm concerned synthesized instruments are good enough. Regarding music programs, it depends what you're aiming for. For VN or video game music, it doesn't really matter which specific programs you use as long as you know what you're doing. Consistency is the most important point for me, as long as the music has consistent production values it doesn't really matter if you're using freeware soundfonts in FL Studio or recording live instruments in a studio setting. For example, I wouldn't say the music in Super Mario World is any worse than the music in Super Mario 3D World because it was made using primitive samples on a SNES as opposed to live orchestral music. Just find a setup that works for you and resonates with your style.

[Kon22]

Maybe this is a weird question, or a really obvious one, or something. But, in Lilly's route, if I recall correctly, there's a few references to Agatha Christie. Lilly is reading one of her books, and I think the other one is mentioned. Also, there's a mention to Poirot, maybe?

So, yeah. This is not really a question, but, I'm guessing Lilly's path writer is into that kind of books?