Katawa Shoujo Forums

I was involved in the release of a fairly anticipated amateur game development project myself some time ago. Release time is a hectic time. But fun too. (sometimes) We did a bit of promoting beforehand, only to have some last minute delays on our end, resulting in part of the hype backfiring as not every giddy fan turned out capable of expressing his souped-up pre-release anxiety in a productive and constructive matter. (read: "Release the F@-ing game already, a-holes!!") Good times.

Anyway:

- A lot will depend on whether you decide to announce a release date in advance, how accurate that release announcement is (an actual date or a general time period) and whether you'll be doing any "promoting" in advance. (that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be seeking out blogs/sites yourselves...if a release date/time is announced, there'll no doubt be people who want to cover you just before the release)

- If a release is announced prior to the game being uploaded to the web, yes, forum traffic will increase. Previously casual lurkers will suddenly start dropping by on a daily basis. People who only used to read the forums will suddenly start posting. Some of those newcomers will be articulate and contributive, others will limit themselves to "Whenwhenwhenwhenwhen!!!!"-oneliners in the misguided assumption that pestering the devs will help speed things up. The closer you get to release day, the more hectic traffic here will become. I remember locking down our own forums for a little while on release night because people were so fired up they were simply posting random stuff on the board to kill time.

- After the release, you might need a 24-hour nursing staff...err...moderation crew for a few days to handle the sheer volume of traffic as every Joe and his mom will comment on the game, even if they haven't gotten to 100% completion status yet. You might even have to turn off guest posting for a while. This "rush hour" will probably take between 1 and 3 weeks, after which the people actively anticipating the game prior to release might have completed it. Traffic will them slowly decline...it'll probably take between 2 and 5 months to get back to normal levels.

- Unless 4-leaf studios makes an announcement for another project (which I understood isn't likely), forum traffic will eventually settle down further. As people noted, the speculation and anticipation is half the fun. After the release, people will eventually run out of things they're interested in discussing and some of those will move on.

- Even if you reserve a thread for people to report typos, grammar goofs and stuff, expect it to still be all over the place. Expect the same typo to be reported over 100 times in at least 50 different places.

- Some former fans might turn into haters if their favorite character's path plays out differently than they anticipated. Some of those will keep an open mind to your counterpoints, others are better off banned on the spot.

- What I said in my previous point will also apply to the H-scenes, but multiplied by 9000.

I think the first two points can be nicely summed up in two words:


Valve Time.

Guest Poster wrote: - Unless 4-leaf studios makes an announcement for another project (which I understood isn't likely), forum traffic will eventually settle down further. As people noted, the speculation and anticipation is half the fun. After the release, people will eventually run out of things they're interested in discussing and some of those will move on.

Mmh, I don't think so. I mean yes, speculations are funny and they take a lot of posts and threads, but if I remember well there are around 16 paths in the game so people could discuss about them for ages.

- Some former fans might turn into haters if their favorite character's path plays out differently than they anticipated. Some of those will keep an open mind to your counterpoints, others are better off banned on the spot.

This connects to what I said before. Not counting violent haters that are boring, new ideas are always accepted I suppose. Different thoughts about characters and scenes creates also interesting fanfictions, views traffic and other discussions. Except for what there is already, but that relies on the users' brain and the search button.

I'm expecting a huge influx of 4Chan users for troll purposes come the full release of the game since I'm sure the news that Katawa Shoujo is done will be spread around there like wildfire. Hopefully though, they die down quickly and become converted (Like the guy in the "Gimmie the Chocolate" comic. ), or just get bored and leave.

Then the demands for the "expansion" will start, so that people can have Misha, Molly, and Kenji routes, or a Harem ending. Kind of like what the Edelweiss games did. That or demand for a full blown sequel.

The dev's then all commit ritual suicide just thinking of what they would have to go through again by making another game. Climatic's body is found next to a pile of burning chessboards for reasons the police don't understand.

Esquire wrote:The dev's then all commit ritual suicide just thinking of what they would have to go through again by making another game. Climatic's body is found next to a pile of burning chessboards for reasons the police don't understand.

Suddenly I'm very intrigued by the idea of making a topic: "How would dev x kill himself?" but I think the devs wouldn't agree on it being such a good idea.

On topic though: I sort of expect the forums to be locked down pretty soon after release. Maybe not "because" of the release in itself, but because of the 4chan-originated trolls that will pour down like hellfire. The devs just won't have the nerves to deal with them the old fashioned way, so they'll just go with the easy option and lock down the forums, let it cool off for a while.

I don't see why anyone would come troll here after release, there was no particular influx of that after Act 1 release either (and our last release really made parts of 4chan blow their fuses). It's likely much more fun for 4chan to troll 4chan itself with KS stuff. Anyway, the last release wasn't really all that bad and now we have a better idea of how to go about various stuff, even taking into account the unknown magnitude of stuff going on right around it. We know where to focus and what things will be important and how to handle stuff like the moderation of our forums or irc. Last time we spent a lot of time trying to track all the discussion and stuff going on because we wanted feedback really bad to know what we were doing well or badly, and how our ideas were received. This time it isn't of such vital importance since there will be no followup coming, apart from bug fixes and such.

I'm sure I'll be one tense motherfucker in the weeks leading up to the release, but for now, at least for me, I feel clearheaded and in control about whatever release-concerned things I happen to think.

Aura wrote: I'm sure I'll be one tense motherfucker in the weeks leading up to the release, but for now, at least for me, I feel clearheaded and in control about whatever release-concerned things I happen to think.

Damn, that means the release is no were soon.
...
Or maybe...

Aura wrote:I don't see why anyone would come troll here after release, there was no particular influx of that after Act 1 release either (and our last release really made parts of 4chan blow their fuses). It's likely much more fun for 4chan to troll 4chan itself with KS stuff. Anyway, the last release wasn't really all that bad and now we have a better idea of how to go about various stuff, even taking into account the unknown magnitude of stuff going on right around it. We know where to focus and what things will be important and how to handle stuff like the moderation of our forums or irc. Last time we spent a lot of time trying to track all the discussion and stuff going on because we wanted feedback really bad to know what we were doing well or badly, and how our ideas were received. This time it isn't of such vital importance since there will be no followup coming, apart from bug fixes and such.

Its good to see that you and the dev team have a lot more experience in terms of managing moderation and aspects surrounding release.

I thought that there might be a larger influx of ppl than act 1 because the number of fans has grown a lot since then... I hope that most of the new visitors are respectful enough not to troll in the forums belonging to a team who volunteered to make an entire game for them. If I am wrong, then I trust delta's moderating abilities as they have been proven time and time again lol.

Also, have the dev team arranged (or have a tentative idea) about which one of the devs stays behind to carry out bug fixes and work with translators?

Guest wrote: Damn, that means the release is no were soon.
...
Or maybe...

Yes, read between the lines... Maybe, JUST MAYBE, Aura encoded a precise date of the release in his last post. Decipher it and win a cookie!

>.>

If only there was some way to discern the different between normal Aura and one-tense-motherfucker Aura...

Don't know why some people think fan art will decrease immediately after release. I've never seen anything have fan art decrease when it's released, ever.

Here's a question to you regular forum-goers:
What will you do after release?

I will stay away from the forums until I finish my two or three favorite paths. So I'll be gone for a few days, except maybe to post some bugs.

Scarlet Fox wrote:Here's a question to you regular forum-goers:
What will you do after release?

I've already mentioned before that I will be writing the walk through, or at least attempting, as I go through the full version. If it's released in the summer, there is no doubt i'll have it done within the week.

I'll probably avoid the forums (or at least certain threads) as well until I've completed at least one or two paths. Shouldn't take too long.
Then I'll get on the translation. That will probably take a lot longer^^°
I don't plan further ahead than that.

Scarlet Fox wrote:Here's a question to you regular forum-goers:
What will you do after release?

I would also not post anything on the forum at first as I would be going through the different paths... but I would keep an eye on the forums from time to time for any developments or sequel announcements

I'll stay less on the forum. But not because of possible unwelcome revelations, I hope that everyone these days knows the spoiler tag, instead because I'll be busy with the game a lot to finish all paths.
I'll always keep an eye on the Fan Works, blog posts and bug reports in any case.