Ask!

[Atario]

When you received work back from the visual artists, did unexpected aspects of any of it feed back into the scripting process (inspiring you to create/alter/drop any events/characterizations/settings/etc.), or was it driven purely one-way from scripting to art?

If the former, what are some examples?

[Silentcook]

And, if it's okay to ask, how did you organize the whole thing? I mean, as far as I know you're all from different places. And of course, each one of you had a different task. There were writers, artists, musicians and well, stuff. So, I can't think how did you organize that. Like, everyone worked with its own stuff until you finished? Or did you regularly put together what you had?

We have a Subversion database where everyone could update their work and receive updates from others anytime, anywhere.

More tools were involved, but this gave us the capability to basically ignore sane working times and keep watch on the project's growth as it happened.

[TheHivemind]

And, if it's okay to ask, how did you organize the whole thing? I mean, as far as I know you're all from different places. And of course, each one of you had a different task. There were writers, artists, musicians and well, stuff. So, I can't think how did you organize that. Like, everyone worked with its own stuff until you finished? Or did you regularly put together what you had?

We have a Subversion database where everyone could update their work and receive updates from others anytime, anywhere.

More tools were involved, but this gave us the capability to basically ignore sane working times and keep watch on the project's growth as it happened.

It should be added that these very forums and the developer IRC channel played a huge role in keeping us on the same page as well. Having people to talk to in real time--even if it was for only a couple hours a day, because TIME ZONES--was a massive help.

When you received work back from the visual artists, did unexpected aspects of any of it feed back into the scripting process (inspiring you to create/alter/drop any events/characterizations/settings/etc.), or was it driven purely one-way from scripting to art?

If the former, what are some examples?

It definitely wasn't a one-way street (I want to say some scenes were scrapped in part because the amount of work we'd be asking from our artists would have been unconscionable), and there were a few times where seeing a character sketched out or the way a CG was staged motivated a revisiting of a scene, but I can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head.

[Kon22]

Was there ever any discussion on the tone the game has, or the theme? I know the game came originally from that famous sketch, but that only was a rough idea of the characters. KS takes some tropes common to anime and VNs and subverts them, putting the whole game into this "mature" and "realisitc" light, changing many clichés and such. So, was this decided fairly early on the development or later? And, was a conscious decision or it just came out naturally that way?

[Valjean Lafitte]

Which artist do we have to thank for Misha's design?

[Aura]

Was there ever any discussion on the tone the game has, or the theme? I know the game came originally from that famous sketch, but that only was a rough idea of the characters. KS takes some tropes common to anime and VNs and subverts them, putting the whole game into this "mature" and "realisitc" light, changing many clichés and such. So, was this decided fairly early on the development or later? And, was a conscious decision or it just came out naturally that way?

Of course. Even in the very first threads on 4chan when the project was born, there are posts about what kind of tone KS should have. By the time 4LS got founded, which is sort of another starting point, the idea of tracing the footsteps of classic bishoujo game narratives was pretty solid. We did have some discussion very early about cliches, tropes and cultural influences that set KS' s course for slightly less cookie cutter than To Heart or something, but the process took a lot of time. We found that it was more interesting for us to not go for the blandest, most repeated events, and since we had literally no other incentive to make KS than do interesting things, it was very attractive to go for something slightly different. Another cause for "realism" and "subverting tropes" is us having no Japanese writers. The Western cultural background affects writing a lot, and our mostly Western audience in turn identifies more with the familiar, even if it often is very subtle.

So it was both a series of consicous decisions and the result of natural inclinations. Anime is one of the most cynical subcultures ever, so maybe we felt it'd be nice for KS to be at least a little bit sincere.

[Aura]

Which artist do we have to thank for Misha's design?

Someone called Celiest. She was with us for only a couple of months in 2007.

[cpl_crud]

There was, and it wasn't Jigoro's. And then there wasn't any more. :3

Honestly, what was I thinking?

And why was I allowed to get away with it for so long??


I know this had a lot to do with it...

[Valjean Lafitte]

You guys just love teasing us with these vague answers.

Can we at least know who the boat was for, if not what would have taken place there?

[TheHivemind]

You just know Hisao would have said "That's a nice boat." When he first saw it

Honestly, I think he did. I am in fact 100% confident that his internal monologue mentioned how nice of a boat it was.

And you can probably figure out who the boat belonged to, considering it was crud's running amok that set it into motion.

Somewhere in the fanfic forum I think there's a story that involves the boat. You'd have to go pretty far back to find it, though.

[TheHivemind]

Somewhere in the fanfic forum I think there's a story that involves the boat. You'd have to go pretty far back to find it, though.

VERY far back. Here it is.

Hahaha, yes that's the one.

[Kon22]

Did any of the girls got her name changed? The original sketch didn't have any names, so I'm guessing this could have happened. And if that wasn't the case, did you have trouble choosing the name for some of the girls?

[Aura]

The names were decided before 4LS and were some of the first actual decisions made for the project because priorities. It really wasn't any more or less difficult than any other decision, even with more people talking about them with somewhat less coordination. The deaf girls' name was initially Rosa, which was changed maybe a few months later. Humorously, the biggest proponent for "Rosa" came back months and months later, after 4LS was already formed, to fight us about the name again.

When the cast expanded with side characters, they were mostly named by single 4LS devs, maybe with some consultation. The philosophy with naming them ranged from pretty laissez-faire (which resulted in some stupid shit that still makes me cringe) to obsessive (similar to the trench warfare about Shizune's name), depending on who was involved.

[Silentcook]

I accept full responsibility for Meiko. :3

[Suriko]

Claiming Miki (though her family name Miura was from Delta), Akira, and Aoi.

Lilly wasn't mine, and my choice for her family name used to be Sonomi. Not the greatest, admittedly.