Ask!

[Nicol Armarfi]

This is a weird question but: Have any of you played, read or seen Higurashi before or after making KS?

I hadn't read Higurashi at the time, but I heard the soundtrack by dai and that directly inspired me to seek out a visual novel to work on. I think it is still probably my favourite visual novel soundtrack.

[richter]

(Hey, looks like its been a while since i last come)
Good day! I have a one minor question: were Saki and Riki going to be released really or you made them like "hey we need more ideas for april fools"?

With love, Richter

[Aura]

They were just for April Fools.

[Shockproof Jamo]

They were just for April Fools.

Keeping this in mind, how much thought went into their character designs? Were you surprised to see that even Saki and Rika developed their own, small fanbase?

[Silentcook]

I for one have learned that fans will ALWAYS surprise you. So it's become unsurprising to be surprised, I guess?

[Aura]

Not much effort was put into the designs. I made the concepts in maybe 20-30 minutes a piece with no feedback and the first visual designs the artists came up with were also the final ones because actual development for this was pointless.

[D0lan]

Hey Devs!

I had just spent the last 6 months or so reading through this amazing thread every now and then. I was very surprised to see that thread is still active despite all the years that have passed since the release of KS. I just wanted to say that KS was the first story that had such a huge impact on me, I felt feelings that I never knew I had when I played some of the routes. This was the perfect VN for me in many ways, I loved the characters, the story, the setting and the music all together. Right after I completed 100% of the game, I felt so empty since I didn't want it to be over. I went on the internet and looked for anything KS related, and stumbled across this forum, and I've been reading it ever since. I have learned so much about the making of the game and the story of the devs, and I can never thank you guys enough for it. Im sure the story of Katawa Shoujo will stay with me for my entire life.

Onto the questions then!

Aura- Can I see a pic of your eyes? I've never seen anyone with heterochromia before

CplCrud- I have also read through your blog during my search of anything KS related, and I really loved your KS fan fics(Runner's afternoon, Final Finale)! And after realising how good you are at writing, I subscribed to your blog and read through Daydream, Run and Arctic Gale up to chapter 26. I have enjoyed all your work very much!
I understand that you have quit the 4LS team before the game was finished, and that the paths you wrote for Hanako were never used in the final release. How do you feel about that?
Also are you going to make Arctic Gale into a paperback book? I would love to have a hard copy.

Suriko- Can you please shed some info on the VN you are working on, even just a little bit? I cannot access the KS Blog or Twitter where I live and I am really excited about it!

Nicol Armarfi- The music of KS was one of the bigger reasons why I loved the game soooooo much. Each song captured the mood so perfectly that I get them feels every time I listen to the Enigmatic Box of Sound. Recently I found the Piano Collection: Katawa Shoujo on your band camp page and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! It's too bad I don't have any online currency to purchase the album, but I want you to know that I think you are an amazing musician.
Are you going to possibly remaster the OST with real instruments? I know this will probably be a hell lot of work, but I am willing to wait after hearing Red Velvet with a real sax(SOUNDGASM!!!).

After diving through countless layers of the internet, I have discovered that katawa-shoujo.com has some secrets...
http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/secret/paritytime
A mp3 file named Daylight Like it's Hot
Another mp3 file named Parity Jam (lost both the links to the files )

I laughed by ass off listening to snoop dogg rapping with Daylight in the background since it matched perfectly! Who was responsible for this epic remixing?
Also are there any more secrets in your site?

Sorry for the long post, but I assume you guys have time to kill when you read this thread?

tl;dr: YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

[Nicol Armarfi]

Nicol Armarfi- The music of KS was one of the bigger reasons why I loved the game soooooo much. Each song captured the mood so perfectly that I get them feels every time I listen to the Enigmatic Box of Sound. Recently I found the Piano Collection: Katawa Shoujo on your band camp page and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!

Thanks!

Are you going to possibly remaster the OST with real instruments? I know this will probably be a hell lot of work, but I am willing to wait after hearing Red Velvet with a real sax(SOUNDGASM!!!).

I already did this actually. I wrote most of the music between 2007/2008 and then came back again in 2011 and remastered it (and in a lot of cases rewrote the music from the ground up), so I have no interest in doing it again. I don't have any plans to make more KS music at this point, especially considering the Piano Collection alone was nearly the length of the entire OST.

[Valjean Lafitte]

Here's a question for Hivemind and Suriko: did the two of you ever discuss having Miki appear in Emi's route? It just seems like such a shame that Yamaku's fastest and second fastest never share any screen time.

[TheHivemind]

Here's a question for Hivemind and Suriko: did the two of you ever discuss having Miki appear in Emi's route? It just seems like such a shame that Yamaku's fastest and second fastest never share any screen time.

It's entirely likely we discussed it at some point, but we'd conceived (originally) of only having certain girls link with other girls (Hanako/Lily, Emi/Rin, Shizune... kind of in all of them in some capacity), so by the time we would've thought about adding something with the two it probably was too much of a hassle. I don't remember for sure, but I'd wager that is how it went down.

That or I was just too fuckin' lazy to do it.

[Aura]

Pretty sure a big reason was because Miki was added very late in development.

[Representative]

How exactly did Four Leaf Studios structure itself when it was making Katawa Shoujo?

Asking for a bunch of friends.

[cpl_crud]

Hey Devs!



CplCrud- I have also read through your blog during my search of anything KS related, and I really loved your KS fan fics(Runner's afternoon, Final Finale)! And after realising how good you are at writing, I subscribed to your blog and read through Daydream, Run and Arctic Gale up to chapter 26. I have enjoyed all your work very much!
I understand that you have quit the 4LS team before the game was finished, and that the paths you wrote for Hanako were never used in the final release. How do you feel about that?
Also are you going to make Arctic Gale into a paperback book? I would love to have a hard copy.

Hi, and thanks for the feedback.

On the topic of leaving the project, yes, I feel that I probably should have stuck around (despite the impossibility of it at the time). It was weird reading the Hanako path. It was like going back to your parent's place after living away for a few years. Familiar, but you cant really tell what parts were uniquely yours and what parts were from after you moved out. When I left there was a basic structure of the final path, and I like to think that some of the parts I really liked, like the bad end, were mostly retained. On the other hand, I think that it was Aura that once said that my "weaboo spirit was totally infused in the game" so I feel that I left quite a lot of influence on the final product.


Onto Arctic Gale, I'm actually debating a paperback release at the moment. The whole aim, of course, is for me to have "publish a novel" checked off my bucket list. To me, that means an actual, physical book. So I'm thinking about looking into some self-publishing sites or maybe just doing a short run. The digital route is, of course, the easiest way, but doing things simply because it is the easy way isn't really my thing...
In any case, the digital edition will be fairly low in price so hopefully it won't be a barrier to buying both.

So keep an eye on my blog; I'm really only waiting on the cover art and the final couple of changes from the editors.... I'm hoping for a late Feb release (if digital).

[ArcCain]

So keep an eye on my blog; I'm really only waiting on the cover art and the final couple of changes from the editors.... I'm hoping for a late Feb release (if digital).

What is the process of getting your own work published?

[cpl_crud]

So keep an eye on my blog; I'm really only waiting on the cover art and the final couple of changes from the editors.... I'm hoping for a late Feb release (if digital).

What is the process of getting your own work published?

There are a number of processes, and obviously I haven't gone through all of them yet!

Instead of gumming up this forum with unrelated stuff, maybe I'll make a page about it on my blog. I would suggest that the most important thing though is to get yourself informed about the publishing industry in general, and also Copyright law.

There is a really good textbook that I got in my Master's program: Music Business:
http://simpsons.com.au/online-resources/music-business/

It's written by a pair of lawyers that pretty much set up the music law business in Sydney. It's good because it covers the basics of contract and copyright law with a specific focus on the recording industry (which shares a lot of common ground with written publishing). I think it is like the basic level armour to people ripping you off. It also means that you can read something like the Amazon T&Cs and know what they mean. There are also a bunch of template contracts in there that you can use if you do get into pretty much any type of arrangement.

And I suppose another thing I am doing is setting my expectations low. Publishing is really a high-luck environment, so for every successful novel there are about a thousand that fade into obscurity. In some ways I feel that I used up the majority of luck on KS...

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble here so once I get through the process I'll put up some learnings on the Blog as a Page so that you can find it then.

Cheers