A few questions.

[Saber]

I looked through the FAQ and didn't find an answer for these questions, so I figured I would make a thread as instructed by the FAQ. I also looked through quite a bit on the old Fakku dev questionnaire and didn't find an answer, but I just skimmed over it to be fair.

First question: What resolution are you guys planning for the game? I noticed the widescreen topic, but it just seemed to turn into a conversation about how to get black bars or something of another. It's one of my biggest gripes in games that they don't take full advantage of larger resolutions. There is probably some technical aspect of that I am unaware of that plays a factor, but it's still bothers me. Some games will scale absolutely terribly on a large resolution screen. Most recently a game that comes to mind is Big Bang Age where the game was so blurry in full screen to the point where it is almost unplayable. That may be a bad example as it's a rather old game, but even newer ones will scale badly or lose quality. The Katawa Shoujo demo/Act 1 preview ran in a windowed resolution of 800x600 I think and scaled really well to my 1920x1080 screen when I played it a long time ago. Is that level of quality going to show through to the final release or are you improving it even more so? I noticed that you couldn't drag the windowed screen into whatever resolution you want. Is that going to change for the final release? It's a neat feature that some games have that I think would be well appreciated.

Second question: Is the story setup so that you enter a route rather quickly as to prevent as little relapse of already known story as possible? In some games when a route is done there is far too much of the story that is replayed when you start over for another route. Is Katawa Shoujo taking pains to prevent that? Going over the already known text is rather boring as I am sure some will agree. There is always the option of simply using the skip button to quickly go through the repeat text, but that takes me at least out of the moment and ruins the atmosphere.

Third question: Will there be a return to last selection option? In Clannad for example, there is an option to return to the last selected option in the story when you can go into a route/path. It's a nice feature if you don't really like the path the story is taking and you think that last question would have made the difference and want to go back. There is always the save and reload option that you can use. Save at the route diversion question and if you don't like it reload back to that point, but sometimes you forget about that. It would be a nice feature to have.

Fourth question: What length is the game going to be? I realize that there is no way to know exactly how long it is the game will be for a project such as this that is ever changing, but a ball park estimate would suffice for my needs. For the first play through how long is the game expected to be for any given route? 20+ Hours? 30+, 40+, 50+, Etc. Or will it be somewhere in the middle of those or possibly greater?

If I overlooked one of these questions somewhere, I am sorry. If this is also not the appropriate place for this, once again, sorry.

[Csihar]

Second question: Is the story setup so that you enter a route rather quickly as to prevent as little relapse of already known story as possible? In some games when a route is done there is far too much of the story that is replayed when you start over for another route. Is Katawa Shoujo taking pains to prevent that? Going over the already known text is rather boring as I am sure some will agree. There is always the option of simply using the skip button to quickly go through the repeat text, but that takes me at least out of the moment and ruins the atmosphere.

From what I've heard, Act 1 is common for all of the paths, and afterwards they split off for the rest of the game. So basically, if you want to try for a different route you'll have to go through a good bit of Act 1 each time, but since it's not very long (and many of the scenes are different depending on your choices anyway) it shouldn't be too big a problem. This is another instance where strategic saving can come in handy as well.

As for the rest of your questions, I'll leave those to someone more qualified to answer than I.

[Suriko]

1) It's in 800x600. The way it was in Act 1 is the way it will be in the final version.

2) After act 1, all the paths are unique.

3) We don't have this. Given the difficulty of the game and the way it's structured, I don't think people are going to be left wanting for it.

4) How fast do you read 500k-600k words?

[Aura]

Afaik in fullscreen mode, instead of upscaling KS, the engine sets your monitor resolution to 800x600. Any "level of quality" you perceive is not of our doing. Also our engine does not allow dynamic screen scaling until the next version (to which we might never upgrade). In short, the game resolution is 800x600 period.

[Saber]

2) After act 1, all the paths are unique.

Fantastic. That means that as Csihar said, a save can be used for convenience.

3) We don't have this. Given the difficulty of the game and the way it's structured, I don't think people are going to be left wanting for it.

It's definitely a luxury not a necessity, but I enjoyed having the feature. If you say it's not needed though, I will believe you.

4) How fast do you read 500k-600k words?

Well, I used this and did the math which gave me 51 hours for 500,000 and 61 hours for 600,000. That is pretty much what I was hoping for in terms of length from this game. Thanks for answering my questions so quickly.

In fullscreen mode, instead of upscaling KS, the engine sets your monitor resolution to 800x600. Any "level of quality" you perceive is not of our doing. Also our engine does not allow dynamic screen resizing until the next version (to which we might never upgrade).

Does that mean that my screen will have the black bars on the side when I full screen it in the final release or will it do the exact same that the demo does now?

Edit: Nevemind. A friend answered this question. Again, thanks for answering my questions guys and I look forward to the game when it's released.

[Suriko]

Most video drivers allow for the monitor automatically using black bars if it detects a resolution that's not the same aspect ratio as your screen anyway.

[EternalLurker]

Well, I used this and did the math

Oh great, 6 hours, thanks a lot. I officially hate that website. D:

But there's no way that's accurate for reading a VN, since clicking through text is much slower than reading a pile of text that's already there. You should probably triple whatever time you get from those calculations.

[Esa94]

Well, I used this and did the math

Oh great, 6 hours, thanks a lot. I officially hate that website. D:

What, do you read at over 1600 words per minute? o_O

I mean, after a few tries I could get 739 which would be 13 hours. (Which can't be right, it takes me 2-4h to play thru a single path in Act 1. Although that isn't a matter of only reading speed so...)

[EternalLurker]

According to the site, 1472 at 100% comprehension. But the comprehension test on that site is bullshit anyway, since you can get all of the questions right without reading a thing. The answers are dead obvious. It's pretty silly.

Anyway

I mean, after a few tries I could get 739 which would be 13 hours. (Which can't be right, it takes me 2-4h to play thru a single path in Act 1. Although that isn't a matter of only reading speed so...)

hence my point that

But there's no way that's accurate for reading a VN, since clicking through text is much slower than reading a pile of text that's already there. You should probably triple whatever time you get from those calculations.

[Saber]

Wow, you guys aren't trying to see how fast you can get it are you? I got 161 wpm with 81% comprehension just laying back in my chair relaxing like I always do with VNs. I can safely say that I went the speed I go with most VNs. Also if you remember from the test, the average is 200 wpm or there about, so you guys are definitely in the minority if you weren't trying to speed read it.

[Csihar]

Wow, you guys aren't trying to see how fast you can get it are you? I got 161 wpm with 81% comprehension just laying back in my chair relaxing like I always do with VNs. I can safely say that I went the speed I go with most VNs. Also if you remember from the test, the average is 200 wpm or there about, so you guys are definitely in the minority if you weren't trying to speed read it.

Yeah, I got 420 wpm and I'm a pretty fast reader. I declare shenanigans.

[Smoku]

Who cares about speed since it's the enjoyment that matters.

[Csihar]

Who cares about speed since it's the enjoyment that matters.

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Done now.

[DemonOfRandgris]

hay guiz, I have a 32270 WPM reading speed with 100% comprehension. M i doin it rite



seriously though, I'm calling shenanigans on EternalLurker. 1400 WPM is just ungodly if he wasn't trying to speed read AND skim at the same time.

[EternalLurker]

*shrug* I guess my reading is somewhat like skimming (I kinda read multiple lines simultaneously), but I get every word in the end, so it doesn't affect my comprehension. (This is why VNs and the like are slower for me to read, since I don't have access to the whole text at once and thus can't read more than one or two lines at a time.) I apologize for derailing the thread in what has apparently been taken as a chance to brag, but if you think I faked the score, feel free to bug me on AIM by pasting some long passage or something with test questions at the end, I guess. Whatever.