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[Guest]

How can I get in contact with the musicians who work on this game? Ya know, musician to musician and get some networking going on.

[Oscuras]

Congratulations on an excellent game. I've played GOTYs that I've had more complaints about than this simple VN created by a volunteer group.

2 questions.

First, as a (sort-of barely) musician myself, the composition of the sound track, particularly piano pieces like Painful History and Concord, greatly intrigued me. Is there any process or method that helped the musical developers achieve the sort of moods and feelings that those pieces and others like them bring about?

Secondly, if any of you do move on to other projects, KS related or not, will you be sure to let us know? You basically have a built in fan base, at least as far as I'm concerned.

[Guest]

What's the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?

[Aura]

How large was the core dev team (with writers, proof readers, musicians, artists and programmers)? How many contributors/part-time/small role members of the dev team was there?

So in total, how many people were involved in this project?

Answer depends on how you count the devs. There are a total of 21 people mentioned in the credits of KS, that is, people who clearly have something concrete they have made in the final game. ~15 of them did major contributions (and might count as a "core" team if we go by your list).

[Aura]

If you had to stay on an island with another dev who would it be and why?

Kamifish. She's level-headed and we (probably) wouldn't try to kill each other as the first thing. (This question resulted in a lengthy discussion about cannibalism in the 4LS irc channel and I am now afraid of Hivemind and moekki -__-)

[Aura]

What's the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (hope that won't ruin the ending permanently for anyone). Your guess is just as good as mine.

[Suriko]

Hey Suriko (and possibly cpl_crud):

This has been on my mind for about a week and I've been trying to get the balls to post this, but I figure if I never ask, I'll never even get a chance of knowing.

I've been looking at reviews on other websites as well as this one, and I see that I'm not the only one who feels like the sex scene with Hanako was really uncomfortable to watch because the consent appears pretty dubious, even after the fact (although this isn't exactly a widespread opinion and the opinion seems to be held mostly by women, from what I've gathered). All the other girls had sex scenes where it was pretty obvious that they did want sex/physical comfort, even in the awkward Misha and Rin masturbation scenes (and I did notice that Hisao stopped when Misha showed pain). In Hanako's, I didn't really feel that way. He didn't stop when she was obviously in pain and she looked pretty uncomfortable for most of the scene. Why did you decide to write a scene that can potentially be read as date rape or coercion? I don't mean that in an inflammatory way necessarily, and I can see how it can be interpreted as at least semi-consensual, I'm just genuinely confused... about a lot of things in that scene and the intentions behind it, honestly, and I'd like some clarification if you feel like giving it.

It wasn't rape. This is made slightly clearer in the park scene afterwards with Hanako; she thought it would happen, and that if it did, Hisao would come to think of her in a different way afterwards (though the idea quickly goes south when neither has any idea of what to do the day after). Hanako is not very good at communicating with others or guaging their emotions, and teenage hormones can fuck things up. Virgin sex also sometimes turns out kinda shit for one or both participants when it comes to being comfortable or not.

The fact that the mood of the scene is slightly ambiguous was known and intentional, though perhaps not quite to the extent that some took it.

[Nicol Armarfi]

A question to Nichol, which BGM is each cutscene's piano arrangement based on? I know Shizune's is The Student Council, and Hanako's is Puddles and Raindrops, but I can't put my finger on Lilly's or Rin's. Another thing I'd like to know is if there's full versions of of these arrangements.

They're all based off of their character's respective themes, so Rin's is "Parity" and Lilly's is "Concord". I realize I deviated from the original tunes pretty vastly, though. The music was written specifically for each video, so there are no extended versions. What you hear in the game is all I have.

First, as a (sort-of barely) musician myself, the composition of the sound track, particularly piano pieces like Painful History and Concord, greatly intrigued me. Is there any process or method that helped the musical developers achieve the sort of moods and feelings that those pieces and others like them bring about?

There is no real process. The way the soundtrack was written was pretty sporadic, since I never knew too much about the game myself. More or less I was told what sort of mood the piece of music needed to fill, and I wrote down the first thing I heard in my head.

A quick and simple question, what program was used to compose the music used within Katawa Shoujo?

I first sequenced MIDI files using Finale, and then sampled and mixed them in FL Studio. I couldn't tell you how Blue123 or Juno composed their tracks, though. Everyone uses a slightly different method.

How can I get in contact with the musicians who work on this game? Ya know, musician to musician and get some networking going on.

You can find us all on the IRC or shoot us a PM on these forums.

[Drake]

What's the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (hope that won't ruin the ending permanently for anyone). Your guess is just as good as mine.

Aura, did you model Rin after Mary Poppins...?

[Aura]

What's the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (hope that won't ruin the ending permanently for anyone). Your guess is just as good as mine.

Aura, did you model Rin after Mary Poppins...?

No. That was a joke.

[Drake]

Mind if I ask who you did model her after then?

[Aura]

Nobody. There are influences from plenty of places in her of course, but I couldn't even name them all.

[GG Crono]

You know, speaking of the music, I have kind of a stupid question.

Can anyone tell me what "Hokobi" means?

[Rukiri]

A lot of people say that Hanako would be better off in the Lilly route than in her own route, because she became more independent. What do the writers of the Hanako/Lilly route think?

[TheHivemind]

If you had to stay on an island with another dev who would it be and why?

Kamifish. She's level-headed and we (probably) wouldn't try to kill each other as the first thing. (This question resulted in a lengthy discussion about cannibalism in the 4LS irc channel and I am now afraid of Hivemind and moekki -__-)

There's nothing wrong with some perfectly hypothetical discussions about cannibalism, Aura.

As for the question, I would choose Silentcook, 'cause he's got some medical knowledge. Also to my knowledge we've never tried to kill one another, which is always a plus.