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[Tom]

If it's not too personnal Aura, I wanted to know if you studied in an art school and used your personnal experience to write Rin's path ? I talked about Rin's artistic struggles with old friends I was in art school with and they were surprised how well you managed to decrypt the personal art struggles that even some of them could not explain so clearly.

Sorry if it's out of the place.

Edit : omg my english is so bad, sorry, lack of sleep.

[geno93n0]

I noticed that all the major characters in the game, as well as some minor ones, are all sort of "paired" in a complementary way, i.e. serious Shizune and bubbly Misha, outgoing Lilly and shy Hanako, and energetic Emi and laid-back Rin. I even think of plain Mutou contrasting with flamboyant Nomiya, and misogynistic Kenji contrasting with guy-friendly Miki.

My question is, was it the devs' intention to set the characters up in such a way that most, if not all of them have someone who is their polar opposite? Or did it simply turn out that way?

[TheHivemind]

Does the 4LS team have an interest in the vidya gaems?
I mean, what are your favorite genres, and if 4LS had unlimited resources, what would be the dream project at this point?

Some of us do, some of us don't. I actually write about games as a hobby, though I've thus far declined to say where (and will continue to do so until such time as I feel like I need promotion). I'm a sucker for CRPGS--your Baldur's Gates and Fallouts and Dragon Ages and Mass Effects and whatnot--but I've also got a weakness for the artsy stuff that doesn't really even qualify as a game (see: anything Tale of Tales has ever released).

Given unlimited resources I would probably make a pretty shitty game! I played around with the idea of doing some IF a couple years ago, and I always mean to revisit it, but I think when it comes down to it I would probably just wind up with a book that has interactive bits scattered around. The concept of bringing a narrative's characters into the real world has always intrigued me (i.e. ARGs and whatnot), so I'd probably fuck around with something like that.

In fact I am fucking around with something like that, but it'll be like ten fuckin' years before I have anything to show for it, probably.

[Renaissance_Man]

Many thanks, Suriko, for replying to my earlier question. The old forums provide much insight into the project's early stages.

If I may ask the developers another question, how were character concepts for minor characters (Kenji, Mutou, Nurse, Akira, Yuuko, etc.) created? Were the characters created before work on each girl's story began, or did they arise as elements of a girl's story? Furthermore, who oversaw their dialogue across all of the paths?

[Suriko]

Many thanks, Suriko, for replying to my earlier question. The old forums provide much insight into the project's early stages.

If I may ask the developers another question, how were character concepts for minor characters (Kenji, Mutou, Nurse, Akira, Yuuko, etc.) created? Were the characters created before work on each girl's story began, or did they arise as elements of a girl's story? Furthermore, who oversaw their dialogue across all of the paths?

It was a mix. Yuuko, Kenji, Mutou, Nomiya, Misha, and the nurse are the oldest side characters, and were devised before the first drafts really began being made. The others arose during writing, and they were the creation of the path writer (though with extensive feedback from the other developers, as adding a side character was always a Big Thing). Their visual designs were usually the result of a writer asking for something in basic terms, and making a scene or two where they show up to give their personality, with the artists working from that (with extensive discussion). These were exceptions though; Hideaki's design for example was basically Moekki's idea.

The 'common' side characters generally weren't overseen by any particular dev, but rather, we just tried to keep them consistent and talked between each other about them. Kenji was overseen by A22, and the path-specific side characters were overseen by their respective writers (so Akira and Miki by me, Sae and Nomiya by Aura, Jigoro and Hideaki by A22, Meiko by Hivemind, etc).

[McBaggin]

Do you guys feel like all of your KS work is finished or that you are okay with what you have released ?

[Rivin]

This might've been asked before, but still..

What advice would you guys give to a team making a VN?

A team and I are currently creating a Mecha/War VN right now and although we are making some very good progress, we would kill for some tips/advice from a team as talented as 4LS. Please, please, impart your wisdom upon us!

There are no real tricks that I could explain in a couple of words, plus it's not like I know whether you are complete beginners or what. One thing that's a pretty common problem is that inexperienced creators don't have their goal clearly defined. If you don't know what you actually are doing, or what you want to do, makes it really hard to focus your efforts. There's no such thing as overplanning (there is, but only certain kinds of people ever do it). If you have a goal and a realistic perspective on your own capabilities and work, the path is already laid out before you. After that it's just up to being persistent enough to follow it.

I appreciate your honesty and advice Aura.
What do you think the hardest stage/part of making a VN is?
It feels like that organizing and getting everyone to compromise their ideas to get on a basic path we all could agree upon was more difficult than the writing, art design, and coding we've completed thus far. Do you guys feel the same way looking back?

[McBaggin]

Hey Suriko !
I noticed there was a few scenes of wine drinking in Lily's route. are you a big wine drinker yourself and if so; what is your favorite brand ?

[Jolon]

Suriko, would you sign off on having an official fanclub? This historical-setting visual novel you speak of- what would convince you to work on it, if such a thing is possible?

[Zahlman]

For Aura and Suriko: It seems pretty clear that Rin and Lilly's routes attempt to follow the nakige formula much more than the others (although Rin's is clearly more experimental while Lilly's is traditional), even down to the forced removal of the two characters - Rin to the atelier and Lilly to another country altogether, and awkward/occasionally inappropriate timing of appearances by Kenji (Lilly) and Emi (Rin).

1. Was there much collaboration between the two of you specifically, discussion of the writing techniques? Or did you both just study other VNs independently from each other?

2. (I guess this applies somewhat to the other writers) As a programmer, I appreciate that the creative process involves reading more often than writing, applying a critical eye to everything (even before an editor gets a chance). Did you ever find it difficult to continue writing the story due to being overwhelmed by the emotions evoked by what was already written? Or do you become immune to it, like trying to tickle yourself? I imagine that Rin's lines about observing an artist's work in progress must have been particularly bothersome ("ironic" doesn't seem quite right) to review.

And a bonus for Suriko: Did you find that working on Hanako's route changed your perception of Lilly's character? Do you feel there are any lingering inconsistencies in her characterization between the two routes that you'd rather have been able to fix?

[TheHivemind]

2. (I guess this applies somewhat to the other writers) As a programmer, I appreciate that the creative process involves reading more often than writing, applying a critical eye to everything (even before an editor gets a chance). Did you ever find it difficult to continue writing the story due to being overwhelmed by the emotions evoked by what was already written? Or do you become immune to it, like trying to tickle yourself? I imagine that Rin's lines about observing an artist's work in progress must have been particularly bothersome ("ironic" doesn't seem quite right) to review.

Some things in Emi's path I went back to later and thought 'yeah, that was pretty good, I think that will hit people in an emotional way (discomfort, sadness, satisfaction, whatever),' but as for whether or not I ever got overwhelmed, no. When you're the one writing the emotional thing, it's difficult to be caught up in the writing of the thing. So while I was definitely drawing on my own experiences (as one does when they write) in order to help create the emotion that I wanted to convey in a scene, it was not something that had me weeping at the keyboard.

A few scenes caused me to chuckle as I wrote them, but probably for the wrong reasons.

[Brogurt]

Now, from what I've heard, the only Bad End in the game that ends in Hisao actually dying is Kenji's bad end in Act 1. Is there any reason that death was avoided for the other bad ends?

Obviously Kenji's bad end isn't nearly as jarring as, say, Hanako's bad end, partially due to the fact that you don't have a relationship with anyone if you've gotten Kenji's bad end. And with the given bad ends, it wouldn't be feasible to shoehorn death into them the way I see it. But I think it would have been possible to write a bad end -earlier on in the development process- that had both death and depression, no?

Or would something like that be way over the line for the tone KS tried to convey?

[Suriko]

Hey Suriko !
I noticed there was a few scenes of wine drinking in Lily's route. are you a big wine drinker yourself and if so; what is your favorite brand ?

I drink the occasional glass of wine with dinner, but that's about it. Riccadonna Asti is my favourite, but I'm not particularly well versed in wines.

[Suriko]

For Aura and Suriko: It seems pretty clear that Rin and Lilly's routes attempt to follow the nakige formula much more than the others (although Rin's is clearly more experimental while Lilly's is traditional), even down to the forced removal of the two characters - Rin to the atelier and Lilly to another country altogether, and awkward/occasionally inappropriate timing of appearances by Kenji (Lilly) and Emi (Rin).

1. Was there much collaboration between the two of you specifically, discussion of the writing techniques? Or did you both just study other VNs independently from each other?

2. (I guess this applies somewhat to the other writers) As a programmer, I appreciate that the creative process involves reading more often than writing, applying a critical eye to everything (even before an editor gets a chance). Did you ever find it difficult to continue writing the story due to being overwhelmed by the emotions evoked by what was already written? Or do you become immune to it, like trying to tickle yourself? I imagine that Rin's lines about observing an artist's work in progress must have been particularly bothersome ("ironic" doesn't seem quite right) to review.

And a bonus for Suriko: Did you find that working on Hanako's route changed your perception of Lilly's character? Do you feel there are any lingering inconsistencies in her characterization between the two routes that you'd rather have been able to fix?

1. Me and Aura (as well as most of the developers, especially Delta) talked a lot about visual novels in general. Many, many hours were spent doing so. From story construction, to direction styles, to art direction, to H-scenes, we debated at length about many different aspects of them.

2. Became immune to it, basically. At the beginning I was a lot more invested in my writing, but as time went on it because a lot easier to step back and look at it in a detached way.

3. Not really. By the time I was doing stuff for Hanako path, Lilly path was for the most part complete, and I had all the thoughts I had about her down. I'm fairly happy with the consistency overall.

[Reiraku]

Pardon if I missed it from earlier in the thread, but are any of the writers currently working on any new projects? I would love to hear about any upcoming works (VN or not) from Suriko or Crud. (Lilly's path being my favorite with Hanako a close second.)