Ask!

A forum for general discussion of the game: Open to all punters


User avatar
kahafb
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:43 am

Re: Ask!

Post by kahafb »

Question for you Aura and Suriko, and any other devs who want to answer, who are the people in your pictures for your usernames on this website? Sorry if that was worded weird, I couldn't think of a better way to say it.

Also, why is Jigoro such a hypocrite every time he came up in Shizune's path I wanted to stab him with a knife repeatedly. Is his personality one of the reasons Shizune's mother is never shown? Is her mother even alive? Sorry if its been asked before :oops:
Oh, this reminds me of a puzzle!

Rin=Lilly=Hanako>Emi>Every other character>Kenji>Shizune

Dislike Shizune a lot.
User avatar
State of Mind
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:21 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Contact:

Re: Ask!

Post by State of Mind »

I hope you're not tired of hearing it at this point but, you guys/girls created great characters and made a remarkable game out of them. I might have read somewhere on the forums that most of the ending had some sort of alternate naming other then one published in the final release. For example, the "Muffin" end for Hanako. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this and maybe explain what went into this alternate naming process. I'm sure there's at least one story there, if only that it was done as a development aide for referral. If this has been dealt with before, I am sorry and would appreciate anything pointing to the subjects clarification. Thank you.
Last edited by State of Mind on Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing. I didn't think that through .I guess the machine won in the end. :)
3018

Re: Ask!

Post by 3018 »

I apologize if I sound crazy, but Lost has turn me into a bit of a conspiracy nut.

My question is about Shizune's parents in general:
1. What happened to her mother? (Is she dead or just divorced Jigoro?)
2. Did she died in a tragic way that turned Jigoro into a bitter angry man?

During Hisao stay at their house, there's a wedding picture above the bed. If she divorced Jigoro, it doesn't make sense to have that picture hanging around (in a guest room or their previous bedroom?!). I'd assume she died in some tragically like Emi's dad. It'll then makes more sense why Hideaki will dress like a girl (like his mother), because both Shizune and Jigoro has some similarities with blue hair too. Also, it'll explain the feud between Shizune's and Lilly's fathers.

Anyway, thanks for making this game.
User avatar
FissionXMailed
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:08 pm

Re: Ask!

Post by FissionXMailed »

So Nicol and other Dev team members; which song is your favorite out of the OST? Also is there any special reasoning other than it appeals to you more? (Sorry if it's been asked already :oops: )

Personally I like Wiosna. To me the opening with the piano eventually leading to the acoustics is very nice and relaxing. (It actually played when I have my whole game OST's on shuffle as I type this actually. :lol: ) I have to personally let it play once before I continue with the menu selection.
94% Collected (Only have done Good endings.)
(1st) Emi: Done
(2nd) Hanako: Done
(3rd) Shizune: Done
(4th) Rin: Done
(5th) Lilly: Done
Got the "feels"? Click here for a resolve.
User avatar
HurricaneHarvey
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:07 am
Location: Idaho

Re: Ask!

Post by HurricaneHarvey »

How much thought went into the various disabilities when making the art and doing the writing, say on the effects for every day lives or normal actions? Did you do much research into what is different other then the obvious for people with such disabilities? Take Lilly's use of facial expressions and body language as an example. I found it odd that she had much of either but I am unsure how much is instinctual versus how much we learn subconsciously from our culture about how to react and look while speaking or listening.
Sorry for my grammar and spelling. I am not very good at those...
User avatar
Aura
>has heterochromia
Posts: 3282
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

Yotsuyasan wrote:Oh, I have a question about the music and sound used in two of the movies.

Two of the movies, the opening and Emi's Act 2 scene, had sound effects. The opening was a unique animal, so that didn't seem unusual to me. But Emi's Act 2 scene was the only one of the five with any sound effects, those of their foot falls upon the track as they ran.

Was there a reason for this? Was it a decision of the animator, the music composer, the sound editor, or some colabrative decision?

Back to the opening, however... On the soundtrack release, the music from Emi's animation was clean, without the sound effects. The music from the opening movie was not clean. You still had the sound effects of heart beating, IV dripping, clock ticking, etc. Was that an active decision made by someone, and if so, why? And might there ever be a clean version of that music available?

Don't wish to sound ungreatful, mind you. I was very happy that a soundtrack was released, and enjoy listening to it. And if the opening movie music still has the sound effects for some reason such as the composer prefered it that way, or the seperate sound elements were lost and that was all that was available, then I can live with that. But it just seemed to stick out a bit to me, so I thought I'd ask.
Delta and I made the decision to add the sfx to the animation. It made it more dynamic and active than just having the music, and everyone liked it better. Can't say about the second question.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
User avatar
Aura
>has heterochromia
Posts: 3282
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

Nicol Armarfi wrote:
Guest wrote:What was Innocence supposed to be ? I get a mix of both happiness and sadness hearing it.
Aura asked me to write Innocence after he heard another track of mine. I'm not really sure what his exact intentions were for the piece, but I was just instructed to make it as similar to the original as I could. If I had to pick a single word to describe it I'd call it 'nostalgic', though.
"Nostalgic" is a good description for it.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
User avatar
Aura
>has heterochromia
Posts: 3282
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

kahafb wrote:Question for you Aura and Suriko, and any other devs who want to answer, who are the people in your pictures for your usernames on this website? Sorry if that was worded weird, I couldn't think of a better way to say it.

Also, why is Jigoro such a hypocrite every time he came up in Shizune's path I wanted to stab him with a knife repeatedly. Is his personality one of the reasons Shizune's mother is never shown? Is her mother even alive? Sorry if its been asked before :oops:
Mine is a pic of Natsume, a moe-ification of myself that our artists came up with and sort of has become a part of the extended KS-verse, and Suriko's is a picture of Lilly.

The story doesn't tell the backstory of Jigoro. It'll be up to you to make your conclusions.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
User avatar
Aura
>has heterochromia
Posts: 3282
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

State of Mind wrote:I hope you're not tired of hearing it at this point but, you guys/girls created great characters and made a remarkable game out of them. I might have read somewhere on the forums that most of the ending had some sort of alternate naming other then one published in the final release. For example, the "Muffin" end for Hanako. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this and maybe explain what went into this alternate naming process. I'm sure there's at least one story there, if only that it was done as a development aide for referral. If this has been dealt with before, I am sorry and would appreciate anything pointing to the subjects clarification. Thank you.
First I'd note that the game doesn't call the endings anything at all. The happiest endings for all girls play a different kind of credit sequence than the others, but that's it. Anyway, sadly there's nothing deep behind the names. Muffin end became called that because moekki thought the muffins were the most memorable part of the ending, and it stuck in the 4LS vocabulary because we thought it was funny (similarly, unnecessary text bloat is called "cake" and stupid plot devices "baseball", after some actual incidents). Most often in everyday talk, we too referred to the endings with the industry standard "good" or "bad" terms for convenience, but especially in a couple of the cases, we diverted away from how the dichotomy very often plays out.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
User avatar
Aura
>has heterochromia
Posts: 3282
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

HurricaneHarvey wrote:How much thought went into the various disabilities when making the art and doing the writing, say on the effects for every day lives or normal actions? Did you do much research into what is different other then the obvious for people with such disabilities? Take Lilly's use of facial expressions and body language as an example. I found it odd that she had much of either but I am unsure how much is instinctual versus how much we learn subconsciously from our culture about how to react and look while speaking or listening.
We all did quite a lot of research. However, applying the research to writing, and writing about disabilities are very different things from just knowing facts about the topic. Strict realism isn't always the best answer, and balancing between paying attention to the disabilities and not letting them run the show was occasionally hard. Suriko especially got to hear often that "Lilly isn't blind enough", and both of the amputee girls are intentionally rather extreme subversions. A running joke with people wondering how Rin can do anything by herself is "Emi does it for her", when in reality double arm amputees can do almost everything from dressing up to driving a car by themselves.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
User avatar
Theeyebrowsofdoom
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 6:45 pm

Re: Ask!

Post by Theeyebrowsofdoom »

I can't put my finger on which ones, but in some routes Yuuko is aspiring to enter college, in others she's already an undergraduate, if I didn't totally misunderstand all that. What's up with that?
Neon Vanguard
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:44 am

Re: Ask!

Post by Neon Vanguard »

More questions. Huzzah.

1. Aura, you mentioned that writing is damned hard. In what sense? In trying to convert usual prose into a kind of format thtat's more appropriate for a VN? (As in, less imagery, more introspection?)

2. What exactly was the most difficult part of the character art? Deciding one what they looked like, actually getting them just right... or those CGs?

3. Did you want to have more choices for the player, or is the amount currently in game what you were aiming for?
Guest

Re: Ask!

Post by Guest »

Aura wrote: in reality double arm amputees can do almost everything from dressing up to driving a car by themselves.
Wow, I dont know how they could do something as basic as getting dressed, nevermind driving. Thats impressive. I would think not having arms/hands would restrict people wuite a bit.

Do you guys know how things are with the Japanese people now ? Im curious how they think it is, considering the issues the name caused.
Solovki

Re: Ask!

Post by Solovki »

Question for the devs.

First off, thank you so much for the work that you did on this game, it quickly became on of my most favorite games that i had ever played. Additionally, it was great to find genuinely good people out in world who asked for nothing but that we donate to charity for playing your VN.

My question, KS was my first VN and I was looking for your suggestions to which other VN's would be good transitions from KS? I just hit 100% on KS and I am looking for another way that could be just as enjoyable to spend my time. Thank you once again, text cannot display how much i appreciate the work that all of you did for this project.
Mahorfeus
Posts: 680
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: Ask!

Post by Mahorfeus »

As said in previous answers, it was never intended for Iwanako to play a part after the prelude, asides from the letter she sends. The only actual appearance she ever makes is in the very beginning, where we see only her back. However, just out of curiosity, was any art fully portraying her appearance ever made, even conceptually?

Also, was she ever given a surname? Or rather, was it written on the envelope she sent to Hisao?
"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love." -Stendhal
Post Reply