Katawa Shoujo Forums

Do you plan on releasing more VN's in the future, as well as more stories for Katawa Shoujo?
I think that'd be a pretty cool idea.
Like, what happens when he goes to college with Lilly and all that.

(Don't know if this has been asked already, tbh)

Now that the adventure is over, are you guys glad to be done making the game? Or do some wish they could still be working on it? I could only imagine it was a pretty fun timekiller.

Aijou wrote:...more stories for Katawa Shoujo?
I think that'd be a pretty cool idea.
Like, what happens when he goes to college with Lilly and all that.

It has been asked, and it has been answered. Answer was no.

As to more (separate from KS) VNs, my understanding is that it's a bit more up in the air.

Hey, I was just wondering (I hope this isn't off topic), have any of you - the developers - met IRL? If so, how was that? If not, why (due to distance, I am assuming)?
Thanks for the wonderful feels, this game is awesome/badass :3

Devilfire wrote:Now that the adventure is over, are you guys glad to be done making the game? Or do some wish they could still be working on it? I could only imagine it was a pretty fun timekiller.

It's a great thing to have finished making the game, absolutely glad that we have.

buccie wrote:Hey, I was just wondering (I hope this isn't off topic), have any of you - the developers - met IRL? If so, how was that? If not, why (due to distance, I am assuming)?
Thanks for the wonderful feels, this game is awesome/badass :3

Some of us have, most haven't. Some even know each other irl from before the project. As you guessed, the distances make it very impractical. I've not met any other dev personally, so can't comment on how the meetings have been.

Aura wrote:Some of us have, most haven't. Some even know each other irl from before the project. As you guessed, the distances make it very impractical. I've not met any other dev personally, so can't comment on how the meetings have been.

Out of curiosity, what sort of geographical distribution are we looking at here? I know from various other things I've read that Cpl_crud and I think Suriko are fellow Aussies, and there's someone from the Nordic region (I may be mistaken but I believe it was you, Aura?) and I believe also Canada? A full list would be nice. In fact, it might be nice to learn a bit more about you guys in general. If it's not too much trouble (or too personal!), of course.

And a more specific question too; during the Act 1 scene with Lilly and Rin (the name of which escapes me at present), the date June 8th is dropped, placing the festival on the 10th. Additionally, the scenes of Hanako's birthday would, obviously occur on the date given on the site. Other than these specific instances, was any particular timeline concieved for each route, or was it more 'X occurs shortly after W; Y occurs a long time after X; followed immediately by Z'? I'm inclined to think the latter, due to the inconsistencies of Iwanako's letter's arrival.
Cheers, BlackWaltz.

Aura wrote:

buccie wrote:Hey, I was just wondering (I hope this isn't off topic), have any of you - the developers - met IRL? If so, how was that? If not, why (due to distance, I am assuming)?
Thanks for the wonderful feels, this game is awesome/badass :3

Some of us have, most haven't. Some even know each other irl from before the project. As you guessed, the distances make it very impractical. I've not met any other dev personally, so can't comment on how the meetings have been.

Kk, I see. How would you guys communicate between each other? Personally, I'd find using online forums, IM, or emails a little impersonal and distant. You guys ever Skyped?

BlackWaltzTheThird wrote:

Aura wrote:Some of us have, most haven't. Some even know each other irl from before the project. As you guessed, the distances make it very impractical. I've not met any other dev personally, so can't comment on how the meetings have been.

Out of curiosity, what sort of geographical distribution are we looking at here? I know from various other things I've read that Cpl_crud and I think Suriko are fellow Aussies, and there's someone from the Nordic region (I may be mistaken but I believe it was you, Aura?) and I believe also Canada? A full list would be nice. In fact, it might be nice to learn a bit more about you guys in general. If it's not too much trouble (or too personal!), of course.

And a more specific question too; during the Act 1 scene with Lilly and Rin (the name of which escapes me at present), the date June 8th is dropped, placing the festival on the 10th. Additionally, the scenes of Hanako's birthday would, obviously occur on the date given on the site. Other than these specific instances, was any particular timeline concieved for each route, or was it more 'X occurs shortly after W; Y occurs a long time after X; followed immediately by Z'? I'm inclined to think the latter, due to the inconsistencies of Iwanako's letter's arrival.
Cheers, BlackWaltz.

We are literally from all around the world, with the exception of lacking African devs. There are devs from Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Germany, Italy, Finland, United Kingdom, USA and Canada. As for learning about us, every time someone asks us to tell us more about ourselves, we get kind of awkward and sort of go "Why?" (or in the case of the more blunt devs, "None of your business"). It's not all some paranoid privacy concerns either, I think we just feel our personalities and the stuff we do is way more relevant than how old we are or what we do for living.

We experimented with various different kinds of timelines for the stories, in the end we left them somewhat vague for the game, but in many places are much more accurate internally.

buccie wrote:

Aura wrote:

buccie wrote:Hey, I was just wondering (I hope this isn't off topic), have any of you - the developers - met IRL? If so, how was that? If not, why (due to distance, I am assuming)?
Thanks for the wonderful feels, this game is awesome/badass :3

Some of us have, most haven't. Some even know each other irl from before the project. As you guessed, the distances make it very impractical. I've not met any other dev personally, so can't comment on how the meetings have been.

Kk, I see. How would you guys communicate between each other? Personally, I'd find using online forums, IM, or emails a little impersonal and distant. You guys ever Skyped?

We mainly used IRC and forums, with some instant messenging and emailing thrown in the mix. I've not skyped with the other devs.

Dear Devs,

To begin with, I would like to thank you for making this game. Playing through it has been one of the most joyful, emotionally fulfilling experiences I have encountered over any media, ever, and it also manages to pack a lot of wisdom about relationships and life in testing circumstances. The combination of these factors, for me, makes KS transcend the VN category and pushes it in the realm of high art. If it's true that some authors, like Chuck Palahniuk, can use words to harm, you most certainly have proven that words can be used to heal and inspire as well. Well done!

Right on to the questions:
First, one question to all: it seems that different people have worked on the sections dedicated to the different girls, and yet, Hisao has managed to retain the integrity of his character through all of these sections. Was there one person who specifically shaped Hisao's character or was it something you had to negotiate between yourselves along the process of making the game?

Next, I would like to address Suriko, with a few questions about Lilly:
Lilly is a verycomplex character and yet completely believable, so, naturally, I wonder where you got your inspiration for her. A lot of the forum questions about her seem to take her disability as a starting point, but I get the feeling that Lilly's character is not defined by her blindness. I am more interested in the duality of her being an incredibly strong and supportive person and yet, really fragile on the inside, of her being open and accommodating and yet, aloof and distant at the same time. Was this kind of personality inspired by real life or were you just experimenting with character building? It works very well. Also, I was completely captivated by her "I, say", tea drinking, traditional British quirks, which seem to fit very well with the aforementioned duality. How did you decide to make the half-Scottish part of her so prominent? Next, I was really interested in the dialogues regarding the way she dreams and thinks about colours; again is this based on conversations you've had or are they speculations? Finally, how did you decide on the progression of her relationship with Hisao? Did you know what was going to happen from the beginning, or did it became apparent in the process of writing? Right, that's a lot of questions already, just pick those you like I guess Oh, and thanks for creating my perfect woman, even if it is just in a computer game. Sadly, that means that every girl I know in Real Life is a little bit more...bland but oh, well.

That's it for now, II will be back when I have completed all of the other paths as well Thank you for your time!

Best,
K.

Was there other characters who didn't make it into the finished version ?? And if there was, why didn't they make it into the finished version ?? ( didn't mixed well with other characters , plot points or such ... )

TheHivemind wrote:passing notes back and forth between you and Shizune seemed unnecessarily cumbersome.

While that's really obvious, I was left wondering why computers were never even mentioned? I mean, typing, at least for me, is a helluva lot faster than writing and passing notes. They could've shared a small laptop, or heck, even used IRC or something similar. (I'll claim it's actually possible to have a relationship this way, I've tried it with a really timid girl. On weekdays we would chat on IRC, and then meet IRL on the weekends.)

Kielox wrote:Right on to the questions:
First, one question to all: it seems that different people have worked on the sections dedicated to the different girls, and yet, Hisao has managed to retain the integrity of his character through all of these sections. Was there one person who specifically shaped Hisao's character or was it something you had to negotiate between yourselves along the process of making the game?

Hisao was a team effort between all the writers.

rydiafan wrote:Was there other characters who didn't make it into the finished version ?? And if there was, why didn't they make it into the finished version ?? ( didn't mixed well with other characters , plot points or such ... )

Sure, a couple. Some characters were necessitated by the plot, which when changed, also caused those to be removed. There were more members of Lilly's family in the story, a subplot involving an art club member, several "background" characters like the antique shop's keeper, stuff like that.