Katawa Shoujo Forums

Since I have been visiting this website on almost a daily basis for about 2 weeks... so while I was reading the older posts on the KS dev blog, I noticed the 2 following posts:

State of the Shuojo June '09

and

Up your date (17 Oct '09)

I really liked how you guys gave meaningful updates over there for us as fans..., so I was wondering, why not post more of these entries on a monthly or every 2 month basis, just so what we have an idea of what's going on?

BTW devs/mods, If i am pushing my boundaries by asking such a question, then please tell me so... this question was only out of curiosity

I'd say they are not meaningful, as it's not possible to measure the progress of KS on anything resembling an objective scale. Which is why giving updates on progression feels so pointless and at worst, a disservice.

Aura wrote:I'd say they are not meaningful, as it's not possible to measure the progress of KS on anything resembling an objective scale. Which is why giving updates on progression feels so pointless and at worst, a disservice.

Thank you for the quick answer... thats good to know. Anyways, keep up the good work!

The problem is that giving regular progress updates would mean reports that are either so vague they're meaningless, or so detailed that they hint too much at the conent of the game. So far my waffling about "progress steadily being made" in the blog posts thus far fits into the former category. Also, there are dry months and there are veritable flooding seasons as far as art and writing go as well.

Basically, the information given would be at best meaningless and at worst misleading. I understand it must be nerve wracking to sit by and wait for any tiny droplets of information we can give, but we really can't offer much more.

Suriko wrote:The problem is that giving regular progress updates would mean reports that are either so vague they're meaningless, or so detailed that they hint too much at the conent of the game. So far my waffling about "progress steadily being made" in the blog posts thus far fits into the former category. Also, there are dry months and there are veritable flooding seasons as far as art and writing go as well.

Basically, the information given would be at best meaningless and at worst misleading. I understand it must be nerve wracking to sit by and wait for any tiny droplets of information we can give, but we really can't offer much more.

You see, I am a fan only, with the knowledge of a common layman in terms of writing and developing VN's. Thanks again for clarifying and sorry if I caused any problems/disturbance.

I know you guys don't want to give the important stuff away, but I actually like most of the blog posts. Like the one on how the CGs are made, or how the characters were named. We can get a little insight on to how the game is being made while nothing that would spoil the story is revealed. If you considered these posts to be meaningless, well, perhaps they are, but I don't think any of your blog readers think so. To us, we're pretty information starved as it is, so it's more like fun facts about the game. The progress updates are the ones that should only be posted when there are actual things to post. Other than that, keep feeding us more trivia about the game.

If A22 wrote a blog post about the latest shit he took and how it affected whatever he was writing at the time (he claims it's his primary source of inspiration), blog readers would consider it meaningful. That is to say, it might be fun for you, but it's not necessarily so for us. Which is why the blog updates rarely, we don't really get (m)any ideas that would feel worth writing down. Sometimes spontaneous meta debates/discussions/arguments on the dev irc channel about VNs spring some really good insight and someone might write something about it, but I don't think we should write trite shit we don't want to do just because someone cares.

G3n0c1de wrote:I know you guys don't want to give the important stuff away, but I actually like most of the blog posts. Like the one on how the CGs are made, or how the characters were named. We can get a little insight on to how the game is being made while nothing that would spoil the story is revealed. If you considered these posts to be meaningless, well, perhaps they are, but I don't think any of your blog readers think so. To us, we're pretty information starved as it is, so it's more like fun facts about the game. The progress updates are the ones that should only be posted when there are actual things to post. Other than that, keep feeding us more trivia about the game.

Although my suggestion initially seemed like a good one for a fan... I find myself agreeing with Aura and others, I shouldn't have asked. Actually, I would be grateful with whatever the devs post, even if once a year (well.... not ONCE a year... but you get the idea) because as long as I know that KS is still alive and kicking i.e currently in development and not a dead project... then I don't want to put pressure on the devs 'just because we fans were curious'.

I think Suriko's point was the most important, regular informative blog posts can seem like a good thing for us, but the posts can range from being non-informative/specific to mis-informative (if you know what I mean).

I know this may sound ridiculous, but the reason why I asked in this forum about blog posts was because I used to previously track some of TC's (total conversions) for games, some were completed, successful and got many d/l's, while others never saw the light of day, with only concepts in galleries, demos in their d/l pages and the last update being approx 2-3 years ago.

When I played the demo and literally became enlightened about KS... I REALLY didn't want it to end like the TC's , so I wanted some kind of 'heart indicator' that this project was alive. But now, since the devs themselves are coming down here to reply to us insignificant guests , I am reassured... for now . Again I appreciate the devs efforts, I am going to let them take their time and I'm not asking about this issue again.

BTW, is there an RSS address/link for the dev blog? If so can you post it here?

Keep up the work!

Guest22 wrote:I REALLY didn't want it to end like the TC's , so I wanted some kind of 'heart indicator' that this project was alive. But now, since the devs themselves are coming down here to reply to us insignificant guests , I am reassured... for now . Again I appreciate the devs efforts, I am going to let them take their time and I'm not asking about this issue again.

Agreed. Back when the demo was released and new people were asking for weekly updates and such shit due to some inflated sense of self-entitlement I commented that the only form of update I felt that the fans were entitled to was to be immediately notified if the project was dropped, so that we can abandon all hope quickly with minimum fuss

Guest22 wrote:BTW, is there an RSS address/link for the dev blog? If so can you post it here?

Here

Warwick wrote: the only form of update I felt that the fans were entitled to was to be immediately notified if the project was dropped, so that we can abandon all hope quickly with minimum fuss

I hope that post never sees the light of day...

BTW thanks for the link Warwick

Guest22 wrote:

Warwick wrote: the only form of update I felt that the fans were entitled to was to be immediately notified if the project was dropped, so that we can abandon all hope quickly with minimum fuss

I hope that post never sees the light of day...

^seconded

One other good answer I've often seen given in response to questions like the OP's is that the devs could either be thinking about cool content to put in regular updates, or they could be working on the game. Almost always when faced with that choice, devs and fans alike will pick the latter.

sorry to ask, but what does OP mean?

Guest22 wrote:sorry to ask, but what does OP mean?

original poster, i.e., the dude that started the thread. In this case, you.

Do you ever have delays due to unforeseen technical issues, or is it mostly creative issues?

Notguest wrote:Do you ever have delays due to unforeseen technical issues, or is it mostly creative issues?

Its mostly the devs all bitching at each other and having hissy fits I mean "artist moments"