Ask!

[Guest]

Does Hisao want to die, or is he just stupid ?

He dosent excercise in any route aside frome Emi's. Hell in some routes he is even more self destructive. All that will do is make whoever he ends up with potentialy worse off, they find someone they connect with, then he drops dead. SOme may feel guilt they didnt push him to excercise.

Also in cpl_crudd's avatar is that Hanako ? I dont know why, aside from the hair and half of her face being hidden, im just curious.

[dragonfi]

And for the person that was asking about motivation for doing this, I would advise you to check out Flow by <A Russian name I can pronounce but have no hope of spelling>.

It goes into the psychology of intrinsic motivation, which I think is the thing that helped everyone get through the project.

I'm just wondering, by what you describe, I'm inclined to believe that you are talking about Csíkszentmihályi Mihály and positive psichology. If it is indeed the case, a minor correction is due. He is actually Hungarian, but judging by the pronounciation Russian isn't a wrong bet. Additionally, I would like to add that in my opinion it is a slightly weird name even with Hungarian standards.

It really delights me to see it pop up here-and there, I do believe that positive psychology is one discipline that can have great impact on one's everyday life and happiness. Actually, I came in contact with it while reading up on game-design, which is kind of a hobby for me. Still, I didn't manage to go trough with any of my hobby project so far.

KS not only gave me those wonderful stories (Hanako's path may have a lasting impression on me, considering that I was myself kind of a shut-in), but the story of 4ls itself, and seeing this essentially hobby project coming to fruition may have took me a step closer to accomplish something myself.

So, thank you 4ls for giving us this special experience.

Now, while on the topic of hobby game development, and questions. Aura already wrote up some posts that may go into such document, and I already took many good advice from them, but I'm still a bit curious.
Do you consider releasing some kind of post-mortem document?

[Suriko]

First of all I'd like to thank you all, this probably stands as my favourite VN I've read up until now and the music was superb.

Just a question to the Australian guys, do you think you'll do something at another con like you did in Tasmania?
Also what was the story behind the last con, did you get asked to go or was it something you put yourselves up for?

I didn't do Tasmania (I'd imagine that was Suriko's doing) but we also did a panel in Melbourne. We were asked to come along to that, and it happened to co-incide with a business trip for me, so I said okay.

If I were asked again I would have to check my schedule, but I'm not opposed to it. The others might have a different take on it.

Just a note, I've never done anything for Tasmania. We only have a single anime con here, and it's not really big enough to bother with a panel or event. I think Dragonbait's thinking of the Melbourne panel.

I don't think I could do another mainland Australia convention visit this year. Got some plans, and work to deal with.

[TheHivemind]

Ok 4 posts of mine have now failed to work, so this will be short.

Why make KS ? You had no obligation to, you get nothing in return, it took lots of time and effort, and some of you have jobs, that have nothing to do with games or VNs. So some of you wont even be able to use KS, to show what they can do, if they wanted a certain job.

The motivation for doing this is probably slightly different for all of us, but here's what got me to do it:

I was bored. I'm not joking, or being flippant--I was sitting in my room, squandering a year abroad by dicking around on the internet and browsing 4chan, and there was That Post, and because I was bored, I watched it grow and got interested. Then, because I wasn't doing anything else with my time, I signed up on the old forums and thought 'gee, I've always considered myself something of a writer in training, why don't I write some stuff for this?'

So I did, and after all the upheavals and dust of the initial moment of creation was over, I was the head editor. And then nobody was there to write Emi, so I became Emi's writer. Because I was bored.

As for why I kept at it, I saw an opportunity to write things I wouldn't normally even consider (I am not a huge VN fan as a whole, and I'm even less of a sappy romance fan, which is why it amuses me deeply that Emi wound up with such a sappy ending. I guess everyone's got a little sappy romantic in them, and this was my particular moment). It also gave me a way to perhaps address some larger concerns with the way these stories go, so I made a few alterations to the formula and had a sex scene that wasn't all that sexy (and was a bit ridiculous, because there's a story behind why it was That which involves something very close to a bet) and a heroine whose chastity is called into question (is she? isn't she? The answer's not important, the question (and why some people are tearing their hair out over it) is the important thing).

So yeah, in all seriousness, boredom got me involved, and by the time I realized that I had gotten rather more involved than I'd intended and the project was actually going to happen, well. Then I couldn't be the asshole who killed the project, and I also figured it was a good opportunity to actually finish a writing project that wasn't a short story for a change.

To date, Emi's path is the most complete work of long fiction I've ever written. Which is depressing on one hand but also gives me the motivation to write other stuff too, otherwise I'm going to be haunted by that bloody storage shed for the rest of my life.

[TheHivemind]

Now, while on the topic of hobby game development, and questions. Aura already wrote up some posts that may go into such document, and I already took many good advice from them, but I'm still a bit curious.
Do you consider releasing some kind of post-mortem document?

Probably not. We've got a perfectly good blog for any post-mortem-esque rambling.

[Caesius]

What are the worst/most annoying/frustrating things you guys have had to deal with or bear witness to in the aftermath of release?

[Moekki]

What are the worst/most annoying/frustrating things you guys have had to deal with or bear witness to in the aftermath of release?

don't have anything to do on weekends anymore and have to force myself to play video games

[gebyy-terar]

Ok 4 posts of mine have now failed to work, so this will be short.

Why make KS ? You had no obligation to, you get nothing in return, it took lots of time and effort, and some of you have jobs, that have nothing to do with games or VNs. So some of you wont even be able to use KS, to show what they can do, if they wanted a certain job.

I like VNs and have always wanted to make or draw for one. I didn't think KS would become this popular, though. I just thought it would be fun to work with a group of people to make something.

[nyttyn]

How in the hell does Rin's hair stay groomed?

A million other questions I could ask, but that one bothers me so I'm asking it.

[Palaeologus]

Aura,

What inspired you to create Rin? Her personality is very complex and I have rarely found a connection to a fictional character as I did during her path. Are there glimmers of other fictional characters (or perhaps real people?) in her personality? Or was she an entirely original character?


Nicol Armarfi,

I'm not even sure if I have the right name or even the right music attributed to the name, but something about your music reminds me a bit of Piero Umiliani. Regardless, you're very good.

Thank you.

[Guest]

Where did you guys find the pictures for the background images. Were they pictures of actual places you lived? or were they just pics you found on image boards or college websites? (the front lawn of the school building reminds me a lot of the main quad of the collage I attended)

[Suriko]

Where did you guys find the pictures for the background images. Were they pictures of actual places you lived? or were they just pics you found on image boards or college websites? (the front lawn of the school building reminds me a lot of the main quad of the collage I attended)

For the most part, they're a mix of pictures Yujovi took and some pictures Aura and Crud took while in Japan. A few others were contributed by other developers, and another few by responders during our call for background photos on the blog. The remaining handful were public domain photos.

[Guest]

What's the story behind Parity Jam?

[cpl_crud]

Does Hisao want to die, or is he just stupid ?

He dosent excercise in any route aside frome Emi's. Hell in some routes he is even more self destructive. All that will do is make whoever he ends up with potentialy worse off, they find someone they connect with, then he drops dead. SOme may feel guilt they didnt push him to excercise.

Also in cpl_crudd's avatar is that Hanako ? I dont know why, aside from the hair and half of her face being hidden, im just curious.

It's Hanako's mum with Baby Hanako.

From a fanfic I did called 10 July 1990

[Jarell88]

I probably should have asked here before making a topic about it, but oh well.

I've seen this picture floating around the internet: http://i.imgur.com/9JeSr.jpg

And I'm wondering about the source. I know part of the picture was released on Jan 4th along with the main game, but that version did not have this quote. Tvtropes is saying that this picture, including the quote, is from the KSdevs, although attempting to google for the quote in it's entirety gives results that point to /v/ as the source of the quote within. Would it be possible to confirm either way if the message was indeed from the KSdevs, or if it was instead likely an eloquent member of Anonymous who came up with that quote, which was later photoshopped into the picture?