Katawa Shoujo Forums

Did you guys ever create a layout for different areas of Yamaku Academy (eg: 1st floor, 2nd floor, dorms, etc.)?
Also, how much info (character full names, back story, etc.) did you guys determine for referencing purposes that was never used in the final release of KS?

At what point was it determined that there would be the Kenji bad ending? It obviously doesn't sound like something y'all planned right off the bat, so where and how did you guys decide to put it in?

Guest90206 wrote:At what point was it determined that there would be the Kenji bad ending? It obviously doesn't sound like something y'all planned right off the bat, so where and how did you guys decide to put it in?

Actually the concept of a bad ending where you wound up spending the festival alone was in there pretty early. The idea of having you take a tumble off the roof came later, but there was always going to be a bad ending early in the game that resulted from failing to satisfy any of the conditions for a path. Pretty sure Kenji was tagged for being involved pretty early too, although my memory's a bit hazy on that point.

Would you ever sell the IP to a developer to make an Anime out of Katawa SHoujo?

how far along into KS's development did you guys decide on Lilly's half-Scottish heritage?

Which prosthetic limbs does Emi use for running? They wouldn't happen to be Cheetah, would they?

Hongu wrote:Hello, how are you? ^_^ I loved playing through this game, even though I have only done Lilly and Shizune's route so far.
My question might have been answered already, but I'll ask it anyway.
Was there any times during development where there seemed like no hope, or perhaps writer's block? Like, a point in time that made you want to say, "You know, I don't want to continue this.." but eventually you decided, "We need to finish this game."?

Well sure. Making KS was hard work and it took a long time, it shouldn't be surprise. I can't really point at some specific moment that made me feel that way, and I generally was one of the more resilient devs in that regard, but I'm sure every one of us had at least a few moments like that.

Kyvos wrote:Did you guys ever create a layout for different areas of Yamaku Academy (eg: 1st floor, 2nd floor, dorms, etc.)?
Also, how much info (character full names, back story, etc.) did you guys determine for referencing purposes that was never used in the final release of KS?

Yes we did draw maps of Yamaku (the layout of the school actually was redone 3 times), and we developed background stuff for many characters. There's no extensive, concise bios of anyone written out, not even the main characters. This might be surprising, but a vast majority of our knowledge was and is in our collective headspace and not written down anywhere. It's just how we worked.

Guest wrote:Would you ever sell the IP to a developer to make an Anime out of Katawa SHoujo?

If the price is right.

random wrote:how far along into KS's development did you guys decide on Lilly's half-Scottish heritage?

She always had one foreigner parent and one Japanese parent, but her heritage was changed around during the development. For some time it was actually a common pastime/amusement for us to come up with silly nationalities to suggest to Suriko, which he would gruffly reject. She used to be half-South African at first, and then something else, I think half-Finnish, before Suriko settled into half-Scottish, maybe around 2009?

inquisitivenegro wrote:Which prosthetic limbs does Emi use for running? They wouldn't happen to be Cheetah, would they?

Her prosthetics are modeled after Ossur Cheetahs, yes.

I'm visiting here from KSG at 4chan. What songs do you think would fit best as good end themes for each of the characters?

Would members of 4LS consider doing an AMA thread on reddit? Just something I wanted to ask since the KS phenom was on par with skyrim at it's peak there at one point. References to KS still pop up time to time, and reddit loves indie devs anyway.
Combined with the fact that the 4 leaf story is pretty inspiring to a lot of people, I think it'd really be enjoyed by alot of your fans.

How did the idea of feminist conspiracy agenda come around in the making?

Also, for NicolArmarfi.

Absolutely outstanding work on the soundtrack, really one of the highlights of KS for me. Since I'm pretty clueless about soundtrack production and how you did your own particularly, I want to ask:

1) Do you really play all those instruments? Did you mix them together for the songs or did you play along with other musicians? If not, did you use a keyboard that can synthesize multiple instruments? I'm really curious. I'm pretty good at the guitar myself, and I play a little piano(both as a casual interest) but I honestly could not imagine pulling something the likes of the KS soundtrack off.

2) Do you have other games you've produced soundtrack for? Anything else you've worked on? I really cant find mention of you much elsewhere.

3) What was the process for production of the KS soundtrack? I mean, did you just kinda do your own thing and churn out music and the devs design scenes around it? Or did they tell you "we need this emotion and this is the scene, score it".

Anyway, thats all I have. Thanks for taking the time to do this, 4LS devs.