Ask!

[Xaviour]

You've obviously worked with these characters quite some time. Personally, I grew very emotional to all the girls in time. Despite getting good ends on every girl (woo!), I still couldn't help but feel the bittersweetness of never being able to repeat the process with the same dedication.

Seems like many, many others who have played the game share my opinion. The players may be relieved to openly declare their affection for the game, but I've barely heard any developers talk about their own emotions towards the characters.
So, artists and writers, did you feel any special affection towards the girl you'd carefully shaped over the course of so many painstaking years?
If not for your own story and art, what of the other girls? Did you feel similarly to the players when playing through other peoples' routes?

For the developers who weren't working on art or story, did you feel any special affection towards the paths? Or was it simply another runthrough of the work so far?

[Rukiri]

First of all thanks for this awesome game.

At one point it was mentioned that the backgrounds are "manipulated" pictures. What program was used for that?

[Otakumon]

A couple of questions for the artists.

During the crowded school hall scenes where the grey figures are used to show other students moving around the halls did any of you want or pitch the idea of replacing the generic figures with ones of students that were your own original creations? It would have been interesting to see orginal creations of the various artists even it was just a static background image like in Emi's race scenes in her arc.

Which among the army of giggling teen-aged girl artists has the funniest laugh? No need to answer this one if it's likely to get art supplies thrown at you.

[Aura]

1. Is there an in-game explanation of why there's a stand selling beer at the Yamaku school festival?
2. Was Iwanako's letter actually a photo of a handwritten letter, or just a handwriting-like font? If the former, who wrote it?

1. No. Of course they aren't selling beer at the school festival. The game backgrounds are mostly referential.
2. The latter.

[Aura]

After couple references and some pictures.. I kind of got curious, how much is Hanako related to Hanako-san, the japanese folklore similar to the Bloody Mary?

Any similarity is coincidental (but we've noticed it too).

[Aura]

Now, a (very egoistic) question for all the writers. What resources have you used to learn how to write / create stories? Your tools of the trade :wink:

I read a lot. That's about it. I've not studied writing or storytelling at all, but instead derived pretty much all of my understanding of writing and storytelling from thinking about and analyzing the writings of myself and others.

[Aura]

First of all thanks for this awesome game.

At one point it was mentioned that the backgrounds are "manipulated" pictures. What program was used for that?

Photoshop

[Aura]

A couple of questions for the artists.

During the crowded school hall scenes where the grey figures are used to show other students moving around the halls did any of you want or pitch the idea of replacing the generic figures with ones of students that were your own original creations? It would have been interesting to see orginal creations of the various artists even it was just a static background image like in Emi's race scenes in her arc.

Molly and Ryan are in one of the CGs (Molly in two), so I guess we already did that?

[Aura]

You've obviously worked with these characters quite some time. Personally, I grew very emotional to all the girls in time. Despite getting good ends on every girl (woo!), I still couldn't help but feel the bittersweetness of never being able to repeat the process with the same dedication.

Seems like many, many others who have played the game share my opinion. The players may be relieved to openly declare their affection for the game, but I've barely heard any developers talk about their own emotions towards the characters.
So, artists and writers, did you feel any special affection towards the girl you'd carefully shaped over the course of so many painstaking years?
If not for your own story and art, what of the other girls? Did you feel similarly to the players when playing through other peoples' routes

As for me, no. Sure, Rin's character is special to me but not in a way you describe.

[TheHivemind]

So, what resources (books, websites, etc) did you use to help you learn the deep intricacies of writing and storytelling?

The thing about writing is that most of the books that claim to teach how to write are just telling you common sense crap which isn't worth the money you pay for reading it.

So here's free advice: read a lot of books. Not just stuff you're comfortable with--don't just read pulp fictions and things that are already relevant to your interests--read experimental stuff and old stuff and new stuff. Read non-fiction (histories, or journalism. The New Yorker, for example, has good people writing about shit you will not give a fuck about, but it is worth reading them just to see how other people use language to describe things). Read a lot of short stories, if at all possible.

Read shitty, awful fanfiction. You'll learn to avoid a lot of stuff plotting-wise and style-wise, and maybe you'll even come across one or two good things buried in there too which will wind up showing you a different way to structure something or a particularly good turn of phrase that helps develop your own vocabulary.

If you're ultra-serious about storytelling, then I suggest paying attention in English class, because you'll learn a lot about storytelling and structure in there too, provided you actually make the effort to engage with the material. I don't know where you are in terms of your education, but if you go to college take a couple English courses as electives and see what you can learn. Me, I have spent way too much money in studying literature, so I've got all kinds of OPINIONS about the value of that sort of thing, but it will help.

I noticed you mentioned movies as well--good start, but you should also look into comics and narrative games and EVERYTHING. The world is composed, largely, of stories. Experience as many as you can, and while you're doing that experiment in your writing--set out to write something in a particular author's voice, and see how you did. When you've done that with a few authors, write something that feels more natural--in other words, stop trying to sound like someone in particular and just start writing something off the top of your head, and you'll have a voice of your own. Eventually.

Some books I'd suggest off the top of my head to start with:
Canterbury Tales
Something by Jane Austin--Probably Pride and Prejudice is the best one but I dunno, I'm not huge into Austin.
Dracula (if you actually read the book, you'll discover a bunch of interesting shit Stoker does narratively)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Portrait of Dorian Grey (although Oscar Wilde's plays are way better, so maybe read those instead?)
Cat's Cradle
Infinite Jest, if you have the sort of insane free time this book requires to just get through it.
Ulysses (see above caveat, and understand that it's not because it is written coherently, but because the way the words play off of one another is important)
Mrs Dalloway, or anything else by Virginia Woolf
Bone
The Long Halloween
If you can find any Stray Bullets, it's worth checking out
Invisible Man (Not THE Invisible Man, that's HG Wells. I'm talking about the Ralph Ellison book)
Shakespeare's plays. Doesn't matter which ones, but Richard III is almost criminally overlooked
American Gods is pretty good
Gravity's Rainbow (ha ha ha yes do it do it)
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
Going After Cacciato
Life of Pi
Catch 22
Harry Potter
A Series of Unfortunate Events
OTHER STUFF I DON'T KNOW MAN, READ BOOKS.

That's most of the stuff I can remember reading whilst in High School and college which in one way or another has probably informed some of the ways I structure and tell stories. There's a list of video games that is equally long and boring to look at, I'm sure, but I can't think of all of them now. Now get reading.

[Jameson]

A quick and simple question, what program was used to compose the music used within Katawa Shoujo?

[Member22]

How large was the core dev team (with writers, proof readers, musicians, artists and programmers)? How many contributors/part-time/small role members of the dev team was there?

So in total, how many people were involved in this project?

[Quitch]

I have a question about the meaning of the final scene in Rin's FMV. What does it mean? Each FMV gives you a little insight into the character, or shows events that will happen. In Rin's we see the yellow daffodil which is where their dating begins, we see the world through Rin's eyes as she paints, we see her stare out the picture which is presumably a metaphor for her trying to show her soul via her painting. Then in the final scene we see the white daffodil, which is from the happy ending, but on a bed in a dreamlike landscape and Haiso is missing at the end.

What does that scene mean? Is it supposed to represent her detachment from reality, a bridge that Haiso will never completely cross?

[McBaggin]

If you had to stay on an island with another dev who would it be and why?

[quellsnarg]

Hey Suriko (and possibly cpl_crud):

This has been on my mind for about a week and I've been trying to get the balls to post this, but I figure if I never ask, I'll never even get a chance of knowing.

I've been looking at reviews on other websites as well as this one, and I see that I'm not the only one who feels like the sex scene with Hanako was really uncomfortable to watch because the consent appears pretty dubious, even after the fact (although this isn't exactly a widespread opinion and the opinion seems to be held mostly by women, from what I've gathered). All the other girls had sex scenes where it was pretty obvious that they did want sex/physical comfort, even in the awkward Misha and Rin masturbation scenes (and I did notice that Hisao stopped when Misha showed pain). In Hanako's, I didn't really feel that way. He didn't stop when she was obviously in pain and she looked pretty uncomfortable for most of the scene. Why did you decide to write a scene that can potentially be read as date rape or coercion? I don't mean that in an inflammatory way necessarily, and I can see how it can be interpreted as at least semi-consensual, I'm just genuinely confused... about a lot of things in that scene and the intentions behind it, honestly, and I'd like some clarification if you feel like giving it.