Katawa Shoujo Forums

Enough shitstorms, here's some actual content (that you don't care about)

http://katawashoujo.blogspot.com/2011/09/skill-gap.html

Art is not finished, only abandoned.
- Leonardo Da Vinci

As for what we want to read here. We want to read the interesting thoughts of interesting people doing interesting things. That's why we follow KS. IRC is too short an artform, too immediate, too ephemeral, too, might I say, noisy. Once you've had a nice chat on the IR, and had a chance to think long thoughts on it, then give us a paragraph or two on what it was you talked of, and what you decided, if anything, and how you got there.

I'd be particularly interested in how you solved a problem (spoiler-free discussion, of course, maybe change the name to Peter Parker or something) about pacing, or plot, or...you know...forking. Better yet, having solved the problem of how Rin eats spaghetti, tell us what that tells you about your approach to things, or your thoughts on dealing with adversity, or adverse team members. Inquiring minds want to know.

This blog post resonates with me quite strongly, and I expect it will in everyone to some extent, I suppose. Everyone has at least one idea that they would love to see become a reality, but due to their own lack of resources or abilities, will never see that desire leave their own mind. It's rather tragic, in a way.

As for what I'd like to see out of the blog, I don't think every post needs to consider something particularly philosophical or meaningful. Hell, it could be as simple as "what is the best way to make a grilled cheese sandwich?", for all I care. But the creative process is always an interesting one, and sometimes the most amazing ideas can come from the most trivial of thoughts. I suppose I'd just like to see a bit more of that.

I don't think the content of the blog post matters to much to me. I think of it as more of a progress indicator like the pinwheel cursor on OS X. It doesn't matter whats on it as long as it's being updated so I get the placebo effect of, "Hey, they ARE making progress!"

Um... this is a dev blog right? Dev as in short for development? So surely it should be used to discuss just that; what areas of development are going well, what areas are proving challenging, what obstacles have you run into and how have you overcome them/not, you could talk a little about the kind of skills and techniques you've been using/developing throughout the development process, any interesting thoughts or issues that have arisen as a result of working on the game, etc... and I know you don't like straight up progress reports, but it's reassuring for us to hear short, "We've recently finished working on X, we're currently busy with Y, we plan on doing on Z next." type updates once in a while (as in more often than we do), especially for those of us that aren't in the IRC channel, etc. just to remind us you're still hard at work on the project.

I can understand how it might not be so desireable for you guys at times, but honestly I think what a lot of us who follow this blog really want is a degree of transparency into the whole development process so we know what stage you're at, and ultimately how close you are to completion.

...

OK, I for one have no idea what the recent blog post is talking about. Could someone please summarize what it was about?

Aura wrote:(that you don't care about)

Yup.
I mean, if we can't be frank and honest, right? >_>

That said, proof of the sheer fact you guys haven't killed each other in a flurry of verbose verbiage is enough for me.

Tahtorak wrote:...

OK, I for one have no idea what the recent blog post is talking about. Could someone please summarize what it was about?

No.
Congratulations you have just discovered your own reading comprehension "Skill Gap".

While we're quoting:

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. — Ira Glass

What marks KS' development is the perseverance, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that appreciates it.

Tahtorak wrote:...

OK, I for one have no idea what the recent blog post is talking about. Could someone please summarize what it was about?

It's commenting on improving yourself in a skill that you really are striving to get better at. The "skill gap" is acknowledging how far you are from where you want to be. It could be comparing yourself to a master like Leonardo DaVinci, or it could be against your roommate who draws cool stuff all the time, or some person online. By studying you acknowledge where you need to improve, and by practicing you can close that gap.

My thoughts:
It's annoying because the more new things you discover and want to be able to accomplish, the more and more you need to practice to do that. When you think of new ideas, your goals get further away from where you are, in a sense. This isn't a bad thing, but it can be frustrating. Some people see that there's SO MUCH out there, and think there's no possible way they can ever be that good. Some see how much there is and get so excited they can't help but shoot for it!
On the other extreme, if you ever stop broadening your goals, you may eventually do everything you want to do... but then you will stop growing. Any skill that doesn't grow will slowly get weaker and die.

I probably took it further than the devs really meant to there, but there ya go.

@Angular:
Great quote. Instead of taste, I always think of it as my "vision." I can see the coolest art in my head, but I can't quite get there. Once I do get there, it's gonna be kickass, and I truly believe that. THAT is what makes me want to take on projects like the KS fighting game.

Why can't we read the Rin and Hisao stuff you mentioned? I think things like that would make for good posting material after the finished game has been released for a while. I would like to see a 'Making of' thread appear a few months after release so as many devs as would be willing could post that and similar material they may have and explain how and why they decided on the directions they took and the ones that got left out. Sounds like a lot of intersting reading and would be a shame for all that work to just be tossed out completely.

Wow. You kind of undercut delta here. I'm sure he feels that his skill gap is very high, and would probably like to experiment and push the engine to the limit. Still, that's just my reading of it and two cents aren't worth much these days, especially if they are American pennies. If delta thinks you were mostly on then no harm, no foul.

As for the question about what I'd want from the blog: An update about every two three weeks to quell the masses, and hearing from the artists/other staff would be a plus too. That's about it.

WHRE IS THE GODDAMN GAME YOU DOUBLE NIGGER!?

(IP WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

And I bought a funeral suit and everything. Damn.