Katawa Shoujo on Steam?

[Enceladeans]

And Valve does indeed entertain the idea of having visual novels on Steam: I believe one or two were added in the last few weeks.

I know there's Analogue: A Hate Story (with art by Raide, incidentally), but I don't know of any other VNs on Steam.

[Valyou]

Well, those freebies were added to Steam long before VALVE pumped out free-to-play games with money-related bells and whistles, so I'm not confident they're going to accept it unless it has DLC, item stores, or (maybe) is a Source/Half-Life 1 mod.
If KS itself would be accepted by VALVE, I think 4Leaf's going to say no to Steam distribution regardless.
I'm a little amazed VALVE even considers VNs a genre of games though.

Moonbase Alpha was added little more than a year ago, as was Alien Swarm. In addition, a game was released just the other day (Super Crate Box) for absolutely free. F2P schemes are not compulsory for your game to be on Steam for no cost.

And Valve does indeed entertain the idea of having visual novels on Steam: I believe one or two were added in the last few weeks.

Hmm... I stand corrected.
funny, I saw one of my Steam friends playing SCB just yesterday, thought it was some fancy retail edition or something
But that's cool that dastardly F2P schemes aren't necessary in every Steam game that'll be free, gotta say. might use that to distribute some of my own games in such a way :3
For some reason, I'd really want to see KS put on Greenlight. I'd be led to believe that KS would be accepted, but no matter what, the chances of 4LS putting it up would be pretty freaking slim. I'd wish I could say 50-50, but I can't really.

[Enceladeans]

For some reason, I'd really want to see KS put on Greenlight. I'd be led to believe that KS would be accepted, but no matter what, the chances of 4LS putting it up would be pretty freaking slim. I'd wish I could say 50-50, but I can't really.

That's true. While I obviously can't speak for 4LS, it seems to me that, while they wouldn't have anything to lose by putting it on Greenlight, there wouldn't be much to gain either.

If it stays free (and they probably wouldn't bother otherwise) then they wouldn't be getting any money from a Steam release, not that it's ever been about money for them. And it's not like they need a release platform like other games do, since it's been out for a while. You could argue they have popularity to gain from it, but that can easily be both a good or a bad thing. I do think KS deserves more fans than it has, but if it ever went full mainstream, the end result probably wouldn't be pretty. Not to mention they might end up adding "The Amputee's Ambulators" for the Scout in TF2.

If any devs are reading this, by the way, it would be nice to have some kind of official word regarding Steam Greenlight, though.

[Xanatos]

Not to mention they might end up adding "The Amputee's Ambulators" for the Scout in TF2.

Better yet, they could update Pyrovision so any pyros seen through it are Hanako.

[Zezin]

To be honest, I'm a bit scared of mainstream gamers getting exposed to KS. "Heesaaayyyyyyyyohhhhhhh?"

I agree. I'm even cautious about which of my friends I show this too. I'd much rather just converse with fans who found it on their own or heard about from a friend. I don't like the idea of a large KS fanbase.

[Enceladeans]

Not to mention they might end up adding "The Amputee's Ambulators" for the Scout in TF2.

Better yet, they could update Pyrovision so any pyros seen through it are Hanako.

In Pyrovision, everybody is Hanako.

[Silentcook]

If any devs are reading this, by the way, it would be nice to have some kind of official word regarding Steam Greenlight, though.

We don't particularly care since we don't want to make money off KS, we don't feel starved for fans *BURP* 'scuzme, and we're not doing anything else with KS aside from updating it whenever it gets translated into other languages?

...Come to think of it, this could well serve as a valid answer to a whole slew of questions we repeatedly get asked.

[Enceladeans]

If any devs are reading this, by the way, it would be nice to have some kind of official word regarding Steam Greenlight, though.

We don't particularly care since we don't want to make money off KS, we don't feel starved for fans *BURP* 'scuzme, and we're not doing anything else with KS aside from updating it whenever it gets translated into other languages?

...Come to think of it, this could well serve as a valid answer to a whole slew of questions we repeatedly get asked.

I guess I should've seen that coming, but still, it's nice to have an official response.

Also, I know you get this a lot, but KS is one of the most beautiful things I've ever experience, so a big thank you to you and everyone else at 4LS.

[Xanatos]

If any devs are reading this, by the way, it would be nice to have some kind of official word regarding Steam Greenlight, though.

We don't particularly care since we don't want to make money off KS, we don't feel starved for fans *BURP* 'scuzme, and we're not doing anything else with KS aside from updating it whenever it gets translated into other languages?

...Come to think of it, this could well serve as a valid answer to a whole slew of questions we repeatedly get asked.

For the longest time, I always read your name as 'Silentcock' and it made me facepalm.

Since I started reading it correctly, it makes me imagine Hannibal Lecter. Apparently, my imagination was correct.

[Libra]

hrm... Well, If it was going to be on steam via GreenLight, I would buy just for a way to say thank you for making a great game.

[Eraser35]

well if anybody has heard a game called Seduce Me was taken off the greenlight so KS has no chance of getting on there

[Enceladeans]

well if anybody has heard a game called Seduce Me was taken off the greenlight so KS has no chance of getting on there

The whole point to Seduce Me is...well, seducing women, though. There's a difference between something that just happens to have sexual content and something that's all about sex, and we all know KS falls in the former. Still, the fact that there's (fairly graphic) sex at all wouldn't be likely to sit well with Valve.

...Now that I think about it, how ridiculous is it that KS would be too offensive for Steam while Postal 2 is on Greenlight just fine?

[Pyramid Head]

well if anybody has heard a game called Seduce Me was taken off the greenlight so KS has no chance of getting on there

The whole point to Seduce Me is...well, seducing women, though. There's a difference between something that just happens to have sexual content and something that's all about sex, and we all know KS falls in the former. Still, the fact that there's (fairly graphic) sex at all wouldn't be likely to sit well with Valve.

...Now that I think about it, how ridiculous is it that KS would be too offensive for Steam while Postal 2 is on Greenlight just fine?

Okay, yes, it's stupid that Seduce Me was taken off Valve. Even if it does revolve around sexual relationships and Valve doesn't want to distribute adults only games when it's heavily reliant on an American market where such games are more or less banned, Seduce Me was still hardly graphic and should have been allowed to stay on Greenlight, Valve should have just moderated the debate and shut down people who tried to turn it into a political or religious argument when it was a discussion about a video game.

The problem with Katawa Shoujo? Well like you mentioned, it was more graphic. Depiction of actual penetration is more or less an automatic X rating. There's two more problems. One, Steam generally does not host freeware, it does have games that are free to download but that have microtransactions, but nothing totally free outside of demos. While you could push to get the Katawa Shoujo DEMO hosted on Steam just for advertising purposes since it will host just about anything short like Dinner Date which was just interactive fucking around, the full Katawa Shoujo novel probably couldn't be hosted on Steam anyway. Not just because it's graphic, but because it is not a video game. Most visual novels aren't, but if it's impossible to lose, lacks any form of skill test or real interactivity, it's not a video game.

But in the end i suppose it wouldn't be impossible for Valve to loosen that a little and host official translations of Japanese visual novels, but still, until the American ban is lifted on adult material, American culture collectively works the stick out of it's fat ass in regards to sexual content a little more graphic than watching a vase during a quick time event fest, and Katawa Shoujo has an expansion on it's content that would include a possible game over or at least more interactivity from a player character rather than just choosing which possible fuck-up from Hisao you want to read, don't count on it showing up on Steam. it's good, no one here is denying that, but Katawa Shoujo as it is is nothing more than a comic book with multiple endings and it's own soundtrack, and that's just not going to cut it on a distribution network like Steam. Now we can still advertise this site, arrange Katawa Shoujo communities on social sites like Facebook and maybe even Steam, but like i said, as is, asking for Valve to distribute it is asking too--

Wait, do the people who hold the rights to Katawa Shoujo even WANT it to go on Steam? Forgive me if this has been answered before but Four Leaf seems to have decided the Katawa Shoujo project is finished and have begun focusing on a different tight-lipped project, why would they want to put it on a distribution network, let alone one which we just saw is crawling with regressive vermin who think any sexual depiction is wrong even if it fits the context of the situation?

[Enceladeans]

Yeah, 4LS isn't interested in Steam. Silentcook even said as much in this thread. I suppose at this point it's going on just for the sake of speculation.

Being a free VN wouldn't hurt KS' chances, though. There are quite a few 100% free games on Steam.

There's also Analogue: A Hate Story on Steam. And there's Dinner Date and Dear Esther, which, while not VNs, are similar sorta-interactive-but-still-not-really-games. Then there's Indie Game: The Movie, which is...a movie. And Valve's recent announcement that they'll start selling non-game software on Steam. So being a VN isn't an issue either.

The only real thing keeping KS off Steam is the sex. And the obvious factor of 4LS not wanting it there.

[andros414]

The only real thing keeping KS off Steam is the sex. And the obvious factor of 4LS not wanting it there.

Well, that and the fact that Greenlight charges a US$100 "donation" to be able to submit any game.