Katawa Shoujo Forums

I apologize ahead of time if this isn't an appropriate place to ask these questions. I wasn't sure how else to contact the staff. In which case, please lock/delete/whathaveyou.

I've become part of a team aspiring to create an anime-style project. Not a visual novel, but perhaps a manga and beyond. Like Four Leaf, it began with some random people on 4chan meeting and discussing ideas, before moving our discussions offsite. As I've worked on many failed projects before, I know how easy it is for everything to collapse if even one central figure decides to leave the project. The project is already feeling the effects of productivity lagging and interest waning.

I'm not asking for help, but I am wondering what Four Leaf had to go through to make Katawa Shoujo such a success. What sort of things kept Katawa Shoujo alive when disinterest began to creep in? Persistence? Advertising? Are there certain communities or certain people that helped support the project when everything seemed to be against you?

Again, if this isn't an appropriate place to discuss this, please delete my topic. Thanks ahead of time!

We're all stubborn, prideful, argumentative, annoying, arrogant niggas.

Okay, leaving the floor to whatever other devs who may care to answer.

Silentcook wrote:We're all stubborn, prideful, argumentative, annoying, arrogant niggas.

Sweet, got that part down!

Perhaps this blog post can enlighten you on the development of this project. Actually, most of the blog posts are pretty informative if you can read between the lines.

Kay, I got chills. There are a lot of creepy parallels to our project in the first part of this, right down to the arguments between an open-community project that anyone can contribute to and a closed project with a strict development team. I didn't think I'd be able to find so many tips from this. Hard times are ahead, if this is any indication, but we shall soldier forward!

I guess it's a good question, doubt there's a clear-cut answer. SC's answer doesn't cover the devs that do not fit the characteristics he lists - and there are many of those. Generally he is right though: our attitude just doesn't let us give up, even when we go through hard times (which is almost all the time). Delta often says that the stakes are too high to give up - true, but that is only appropriate of our project, because we are extremely popular and high profile, and have spent years and countless work hours on this already. The question you want the answer for though is: where does that attitude come from?

The story about KS project's history I wrote is just that - a story. I can't explain why those things happened, for example why we survived through the nuclear winter of subsequently quitting artists (which is maybe closest we've been to your situation), or why no matter how much we fight we can still work together. I feel that we have a fairly great sense of unity, and that's just something that's grown on us.

I can only identify with stubborn persistence out of your suggestions. Apart from our own community - which before we released act 1 comprised of maybe 15 people in addition to the devs - we have distanced ourselves (partially by choice, partially by circumstance) from the communities closest to us: LSF and 4chan. We've never advertised anywhere and the team we've gathered has come together by mutual interest. I feel that community is important though, we are pretty tightly knit in our own way, and insular. An oft-quoted adage is that without IRC the project would've died, and it is likely true. We are not just coworkers, we have different kinds of relationships with each other, something that helps with keeping together. You don't want to let your friends down, but with strangers, you care less. I also observe that the people who have more difficulties adjusting to the working atmosphere of 4LS (it's basically a toxic gas mix laced with glass shards and set on fire) are more prone to unsteady work progress or other issues with contributing. Correlation is not causation (pretty much every single one of us has also had unsteady contribution due to real life or whatever), but that is what I observe.

Our horizontal organization helps a lot too. None of us is central or important enough to totally cripple (ha ha) the project should they take a break, or even leave the project completely. Certainly, we would suffer a great blow to our capabilities, but we could survive. This has always been the case, all the way from the beginning. Everyone is independent, we don't need global approval to do work, there always is something to do even if you would be totally cut off from the internet. Horizontal organization makes the actual development work a bit more... challenging than vertical hierarchy, but that's a tradeoff we are willing to do. Anyway, this aspect doesn't actually do anything to the problems you mentioned, it just makes 4LS more resilient to the effects.

How do you not give up on something? Simple - just don't.

Not to be a fly in the ointment, but I wouldn't call KS a complete success just yet. It still has to be released, y'know.

Thanks for all the advice, guys! I'll hold out hope on our own project and never give up.

And of course, with news breaking on the completed paths, I'm anxiously looking forward to the complete Katawa Shoujo!

ContinualNaba wrote:Not to be a fly in the ointment, but I wouldn't call KS a complete success just yet. It still has to be released, y'know.

True, but we are inside the 10 yard line at this point.

bradpara wrote:True, but we are inside the 10 yard line at this point.

Gotta go for the touchdown though. Good thing it's still first down.