Ask!

[cpl_crud]

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…)

A young 29 when it was released.

[Silentcook]

43. Old man of the bunch.

[Gofindnova]

There were a few turns of phrase in the text that I thought ‘sounded Japanese.’ So I was surprised to discover that none of the writers are Japanese. Was there any conscious attempt to make the dialogue sound like Japanese translated to English, and/or to emulate the language of Japanese VNs/anime?

Which of the writers know Japanese?

You guys subvert the idea of ‘white-knighting’ in the game. Are there any other conventions of the VN genre that you consciously tried to avoid? More generally, are there any conventions you dislike (besides the overused high school setting)?

Thanks for your hard work on the game.

[Aura]

We didn't try particularly hard (or at all) to make the dialogue sound like the characters are actually speaking Japanese. With some regards we deliberately moved away from that even, such as everyone using each other's first names when referring to them and ignoring pretty much all potential keigo usage. The language is a messy mishmash of American English colloquialisms, Standard English prose, and commonly used structures in JA-EN translations, weightings depending on the writer.

Three writers speak Japanese to varying degrees of proficiency: crud, Suriko and myself.

While working on KS, we weren't so fed up with VNs as we are now(or didn't feel strongly at all about them), and part of KS's concept was to make a very traditional looking ren'ai VN, so most conventions I wouldn't now touch with a ten foot pole are pretty easily found, even embraced in KS. Biggest divergence was probably us wanting to handle sex in a different way from the eroge traditions, and not rely too heavily on otaku culture shorthand (as far as our limited skills allowed) when writing the stories.

Other than those, I personally dislike the insane length of most AAA visual novels. Most are way too long for the amount of content they have, often due to a massive "common route" that's full of inconsequential filler material. KS is guilty of this too: while I managed to pack the act 1 kindasorta decently, it still makes up something like 40% of an average readthrough and is unfortunately kinda bland. All in all, conventions aren't bad per se, everyone following them is. More diversity would be nice.

[wazuzu]

What kind of medicine Rin gobbled down while she was sick? Some kind of codeine pills? I don't really know if codeine helps with common cold, I only know it was used to cure coughing, but she looked relaxed, euphoric and spacey, which sort of looks like a typical opiate first-time reaction. I also think if she got a delayed hepatotoxic injury from Paracetamol overdose, since Paracetamol is commonly found in cold medicine. So, what was that?
Yes, it might even be in the novel, but I don't have it right now, and my internets are unstable in here.

[appleplusy]

Hello, I have been thinking about an idea for the past few days. I'm planning to make something like a katawa shoujo "story creator". Basically, it will be a program that I'll make from scratch with ren'py. People like fan fiction writers will be able to write a dialouge in a "script" in a txt file, and deciding which background and character to use and also what music to play during different scenes. They can also give player choices which will affect the events that will happen. You will be able to run the script written by people with the program and enjoy the story like a visual novel. I have some programming experience and a rough plan of how I want to code it. I may or may not succeed.

Anyway, I will have to use the game images, art and music. Therefore, I would like to ask for permission to use the game art, images and music for this project. I will not use anything else from the original game or edit it. All credit would go to 4LS.

[Aura]

Hello, I have been thinking about an idea for the past few days. I'm planning to make something like a katawa shoujo "story creator". Basically, it will be a program that I'll make from scratch with ren'py. People like fan fiction writers will be able to write a dialouge in a "script" in a txt file, and deciding which background and character to use and also what music to play during different scenes. They can also give player choices which will affect the events that will happen. You will be able to run the script written by people with the program and enjoy the story like a visual novel. I have some programming experience and a rough plan of how I want to code it. I may or may not succeed.

Anyway, I will have to use the game images, art and music. Therefore, I would like to ask for permission to use the game art, images and music for this project. I will not use anything else from the original game or edit it. All credit would go to 4LS.

As per KS license: no. The assets are only for KS itself, not for any derivative works.

[Aura]

What kind of medicine Rin gobbled down while she was sick? Some kind of codeine pills? I don't really know if codeine helps with common cold, I only know it was used to cure coughing, but she looked relaxed, euphoric and spacey, which sort of looks like a typical opiate first-time reaction. I also think if she got a delayed hepatotoxic injury from Paracetamol overdose, since Paracetamol is commonly found in cold medicine. So, what was that?
Yes, it might even be in the novel, but I don't have it right now, and my internets are unstable in here.

Yes, codeine.

[TheVUP]

So... Aura, how old are you?

[Liminaut]

While working on KS, we weren't so fed up with VNs as we are now ...

Ow.

TheHiveMind mentioned a while ago that he was really burned out at the end, and it sounds like he wasn't the only one. Seems like 4LS flopped over the finish line.

I'm glad you made it

Can you talk a bit about why you're so fed up with VNs?

[Aura]

While working on KS, we weren't so fed up with VNs as we are now ...

Ow.

TheHiveMind mentioned a while ago that he was really burned out at the end, and it sounds like he wasn't the only one. Seems like 4LS flopped over the finish line.

I'm glad you made it :D

Can you talk a bit about why you're so fed up with VNs?

It's probably best to emphasize that by being "fed up with VNs", I specifically mean that many if not most of the VNs that get published are pretty aggravating reading experiences for me and this all has pretty much nothing to do with the production of KS. For specific examples, you can look at these two posts on my blog. I'm being pretty onesided in them, and even unfair to Grisaia, but I seriously hated reading both of these. Also notable is that other 4LS members have had vastly different experiences with the medium, so don't interpret that this is a stance shared by us all.

I liken VNs most to books, and I'm a fairly avid consumer of literature. I want literature from VNs too, but I don't really get much of that. Comics are already there. There are some great literary works in that medium. Animation has produced some too. Movies, theater, and so on are no brainers. Visual novels? Crickets. Basically, the visual novel scene is almost in its entirety inside the Japanese or Japan-derived otaku culture niche. I have nothing against it, pop culture of all kinds is fucking cool and I do watch anime too, but... It is so deeply entrenched in these subcultural conventions that are super counterproductive to producing stories that I enjoy, that I simply haven't been able to find an awfully many VNs I've liked to read. These days I don't really even try much. Why would I?

[Leaty]

Hmm, Aura, based on your criticisms (which I completely agree with, honestly,) I'm very curious how you'd feel about some of the English-language indie visual novels that have started to roll out, like The Royal Trap, Magical Diary, Winter Wolves games, etc. Their quality can vary dramatically, but one thing they almost all have in common is a complete lack of regard for Japanese visual novel tropes. The Royal Trap in particular is a game I highly recommend, if you've got ten bucks to spare. (It's the source of my avatar, so obviously it made an impression on me.)

[Aura]

Hmm, Aura, based on your criticisms (which I completely agree with, honestly,) I'm very curious how you'd feel about some of the English-language indie visual novels that have started to roll out, like The Royal Trap, Magical Diary, Winter Wolves games, etc. Their quality can vary dramatically, but one thing they almost all have in common is a complete lack of regard for Japanese visual novel tropes. The Royal Trap in particular is a game I highly recommend, if you've got ten bucks to spare. (It's the source of my avatar, so obviously it made an impression on me.)

Of those I'm only familiar with jack_norton's (Winter Wolves) output, but I've read dozens of indie OELVNs. As you say, the quality is uneven and often not so good (which could be said for anything), but there have been some okay products. I don't follow the scene basically at all anymore, but maybe I should.

[Aura]

So... Aura, how old are you? :)

Old enough.

[Atario]

So... Aura, how old are you?

Old enough.

Good enough for me! [zzzzzip!]

Seriously, though, folks.

You've said a few times now that Katawa Shoujo itself has lots of things that annoy you in this "visual novels suck" way you're talking about. Any specifics?