Ask!

[Silentcook]

Mayhap we should just make the Ask! thread redirect to the Fanfiction section, Hive.

[sanduba]

Who came up with the character names? I found some really old forum posts, and apparently Shizune's early name was Rosa.

[Aura]

The main cast's names were decided by voting before 4LS's time. After that, the writers came up with the names for the minor characters in their respective stories with the exception of Hivemind. In addition crud is responsible for many names including Iwanako, Yuuko, Misha, and Kenji while I came up with the names for Natsume, Naomi, Taro, Suzu, Takashi and Miki. As a bonus, all the kanji readings are by me and hir.

[Liminaut]

The story of 4LS is quite remarkable.

-- A group formed itself around a common vision
-- With members from all over the world
-- Established roles without a hierarchy
-- Maintained itself after losing key members
-- Maintained itself over a very long haul
-- Was composed of strong personalities that managed to work together to a common goal
-- And produced something remarkable in the end

I believe that the story of 4L itself is valuable. All the details of what it was like to work across continents; what it was like to maintain moral through cycles of despair, exhilaration, and burnout; what it was like to have arguments without losing respect.

What 4LS did organizationally was something a lot of very bright people are trying to figure out how to make work on a regular basis. For instance, a big goal of Occupy Wall Street was trying to figure out how to have a political movement without having a hierarchy. I believe that the story of 4LS and exactly how you did it could do a lot of good in the world and become a template for other organizations to use.

My ask is: Could 4LS produce a book based on the experiences of creating KS? I could see the 4LS experience becoming a template for other projects.

If one wanted to be painfully PoPoMo, one could suggest producing a VN about producing VNs, but serious contemplation of that project would likely drive Cthulhu into therapy.

The bit about the VN is a joke. The bit about a work about the story of 4LS is absolutely serious, and I genuinely think it would do a lot of good.

[cpl_crud]

The story of 4LS is quite remarkable.


My ask is: Could 4LS produce a book based on the experiences of creating KS? I could see the 4LS experience becoming a template for other projects.

Whilst I would actually enjoy doing something like that, I'm not sure if I would actually be able to do it. Plus the big lesson would basically be "roll with the punches - there will be many".

However, there is a good HBR article about a company that is successful without a defined hierarchy:
http://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers

This is not the only company that follows this format, but it was the first one that came to mind (and, through some strange fluke, it appears that you can read it free on HBR.org).

[TheHivemind]

Heh. I thought that comment meant that Emi and Misha had been friends with benefits at one point. I may have been reading a little too much into it

Ha ha ha yes how ridiculous.
<_<
>_>

...And thus, Emisha was officially born...

My God, what have you done!

You act as if it wasn't already a thing.

A search of the fanfiction forum would demonstrate otherwise.

[delta]

A Comedy of Errors: The Making Of Katawa Shoujo

[Steinherz]

A Comedy of Errors: The Making Of Katawa Shoujo

Is it bad I would totally pay to see that? I love "Making Of" featurettes

[Aura]

Isn't the blog enough? It's flattering if you think we're special, but most of the development was stupid shit that really isn't worth telling about except anecdotally, I feel.

EDIT: By "isn't worth" I obviously mean "would be too embarrassing"

[TheHivemind]

Isn't the blog enough? It's flattering if you think we're special, but most of the development was stupid shit that really isn't worth telling about except anecdotally, I feel.

EDIT: By "isn't worth" I obviously mean "would be too embarrassing"

"Then we called one another nasty names for an hour. Then one of us quit. Then we argued for four hours about the way someone's trousers looked."

[TheHivemind]

...And thus, Emisha was officially born...

My God, what have you done!

You act as if it wasn't already a thing.

A search of the fanfiction forum would demonstrate otherwise.

With emphasis on officially if I may be so bold... Just like I "officially" could not resist making a godawful romantic portmanteau name for the sake of pun and now will promptly excuse myself as I am running late for my execution by firing squad.

I can only suggest that you search for developer names in the fanfiction forum to get your "officially" date correct.

[ArcCain]

Who did the 100% clear art?

[Silentcook]

Climatic did.

[Atario]

Searched for this, but could not find it if it has already been answered, so if it has, please for to forgiving.

How old were the various devs at the time of the game's release? (Reading the recent Weee blog post, I never knew she was so amazingly young, so it got me curious…)

[TheHivemind]

Searched for this, but could not find it if it has already been answered, so if it has, please for to forgiving.

How old were the various devs at the time of the game's release? (Reading the recent Weee blog post, I never knew she was so amazingly young, so it got me curious…)

26. I think.