Ask!

[WorldlyWiseman]

How many devs signed on because they find disability interesting in and of itself (either boner-inducing, or just 'cool thought experiment', or whatever)? No need to name names, obviously.

[Helbereth]

Had I known about this in its infancy, I would have leaped at the chance to contribute. It's an interesting thought experiment at the very least.

I wonder, though, what were some of your motivations when you first heard about KS?

Did you consider it a challenge to write with the disabilities in mind? Considering character quirks is one thing, but missing legs or being deaf are much more prevalent, I imagine, than a nervous twitch or gesture habit. Did you work hard to avoid cliches? Or did that come naturally?

Did creating the artwork that showcased their disabilities ever make you cringe? Were you repulsed by any of the afflictions specifically?

Was there ever a point when you considered going down extremely dark paths with any of the stories? Suicide being a prevalent idea, but also other small tragedies that could have happened, or was the heavy tone of the story already enough weight?

Were there ever moments when you had to step away from the material to breathe, calm yourself, and renew your resolve? Other than the normal writer's/artist's/composer's block. A point where the material itself forced you to back away.

Did any of you know, when you were creating the story before its completion, how deeply it would effect your audience? Especially little details like Hanako's tile game, Lilly's 'feeling out' faces, Shizune passing notes, Emi's sardonic side, or Rin's imaginary indifference.

Have any of you not played through the whole game? It sounds like an odd question, but I imagine it might be an ordeal to play through the game after spending so much time working on it.

[Aura]

So yeah my question is, Rins ending had a tint of your morals, correct?

Reading a few past post of yours I can see you have that ''self accepted'' attitude, or just a general acceptance attitude to begin with. My favorite quote from her was about her saying it was alright to be her. That's a trait a lot of people lack, so that's why many people felt touched. If I'm right about that trait of yours, nice. I respect that. :)

EDIT:cpl_crud, Nice job on the Hanako route, if I'm not mistaken. It was a great read :D

Eh, maybe. Rin's story has many themes that circle around the concept of understanding or accepting oneself, the ending is just one way it manifests. However, when talking about the message a story is meant to communicate, you have to tread carefully. What is innate to the author and what is spun for the purposes of the story is not easy to tell, and more often than not people err on the side of assuming personal voice speaking in a story, which is not always the case. That said, the good ending surely echoes something that I wanted to say with the story, maybe even to myself?

[Aura]

How many devs signed on because they find disability interesting in and of itself (either boner-inducing, or just 'cool thought experiment', or whatever)? No need to name names, obviously.

As far as I know, none. The primary interest we had was in the visual novel medium. That said, maybe someone just hasn't come out with their disability fascination.

[Aura]

Had I known about this in its infancy, I would have leaped at the chance to contribute. It's an interesting thought experiment at the very least.

I wonder, though, what were some of your motivations when you first heard about KS?

Interest in visual novels. The Tsukihime translation was released just before KS project started, which inspired many of us (just like KS now has inspired many people to make VNs of their own). There's an entire "generation" of VN players tha started wtih Tsukihime.

Did you consider it a challenge to write with the disabilities in mind? Considering character quirks is one thing, but missing legs or being deaf are much more prevalent, I imagine, than a nervous twitch or gesture habit. Did you work hard to avoid cliches? Or did that come naturally?

Yes, definitely. It was an aspect that had to be taken into account with everything. It was hard and had to be learned. I think KS doesn't REALLY avoid cliches when it comes to that, but the mindset we had of sort of subverting the image of disabilities certainly directed the writing towards the direction of avoiding cliches.

Did creating the artwork that showcased their disabilities ever make you cringe? Were you repulsed by any of the afflictions specifically?

I'm not an artist (maybe one of them can say something), but nothing like thta was ever brought up.

Was there ever a point when you considered going down extremely dark paths with any of the stories? Suicide being a prevalent idea, but also other small tragedies that could have happened, or was the heavy tone of the story already enough weight?

Yes, we toyed around some fairly grim stories.

Were there ever moments when you had to step away from the material to breathe, calm yourself, and renew your resolve? Other than the normal writer's/artist's/composer's block. A point where the material itself forced you to back away.

For me, no.

Did any of you know, when you were creating the story before its completion, how deeply it would effect your audience? Especially little details like Hanako's tile game, Lilly's 'feeling out' faces, Shizune passing notes, Emi's sardonic side, or Rin's imaginary indifference.

Not at all. It was very surprising.

Have any of you not played through the whole game? It sounds like an odd question, but I imagine it might be an ordeal to play through the game after spending so much time working on it.

After the release? I haven't. While in development I read KS more times than even the most fanatic fan probably has. Development involves heavily scrutinising and editing the game.

[Pseudogenesis]

Should've hired me on as resident grammar nazi.


No minor error left uncriticized.

[Helbereth]

Should've hired me on as resident grammar nazi.


No minor error left uncriticized.

I have been yelled at in person, cussed out in forums, berated in chat rooms and, generally, insulted for having the intelligence -persistence- to follow grammatical structure for years. I've never once felt put-out by the experience, though. Slang is one thing; but when someone is trying to compose an actual sentence and they screw it up, I feel personally offended.

The odd thing is that my knowledge of grammar is mostly intuitive. I don't really know what it's called when someone makes a particular structural mistake, I just know it's wrong and want to help correct the issue. Sometimes I think that's advantageous, though, because I have to explain it in layman's terms -- which draws far fewer contempt-filled stares. I screw up grammar myself sometimes and it bothers me extensively; sometimes to the point of editing old forum posts nobody has read in months.

That brings another query to mind:

Who did your proofreading? Or, rather, was anyone specifically assigned to the task of editing the game's text? I imagine you policed yourselves to some extent, but even a practiced eye can miss flaws in its own work.

I know I do; more often than I care to admit. I've had my brother proofing through my recent endeavors, and he told me he has a few pages of notes already -- I'm dreading the impending mockery.

Wow... ever hit quote instead of edit and not notice?

[Pyramid Head]

To put it bluntly, people came for foot jobs and cripple fucking. That much we know is obvious.

Let's be honest, who actually came to KS for that? 0.o I came for the feels, stayed for the feels.

Do a Bing search and i'm sure you'll find it, but Katawa Shoujo is advertised and download links are provided on more than one hentai site, not to mention the fact that in the end this was a 4chan spawned project and erotic "Fan" art is inevitable. After all, you don't really know what type of impact this game has until you played it since i at first thought i was about to look at the visual novel answer to Scary Movie, stupid and offensive for the sake of it since it was described to me as a hentai game with cripples as the main focus. Actually on the art subject, some of the art on the Shimmie is fucked up, and if i of all people am crying foul someone involved needs a psychologist or an exorcist.

[inquisitivenegro]

To put it bluntly, people came for foot jobs and cripple fucking. That much we know is obvious.

Let's be honest, who actually came to KS for that? 0.o I came for the feels, stayed for the feels.

Actually on the art subject, some of the art on the Shimmie is fucked up, and if i of all people am crying foul someone involved needs a psychologist or an exorcist.

[Pseudogenesis]

Oh god, forget I asked.

[ok23]

in the act 2 cinematics for hanako the first image is a smoking pipe? is that what started the fire?

I know cpl_crud wrote that scene where there was a blackout because of the winter weather and her mom used a candle/oil lamp thing

[random]

what are aoi and keiko's disabilities if any?

[Magnenntae]

Okay, uh, I have some questions for Suriko, if he's still here, that is;

What does Suriko mean, exactly?

In Lilly's epilogue, Hisao thinks "A jazz song with no beat or melody, until the very end." or something to that extent, referring to Akira. I've been thinking about it the past few days, and I can't seem to figure out what he meant by that.

Lilly's sense of humor seems very dry, how do you think she'd react to other types of humor?

And now something for all of the dev team, that will probably seem really unusual;

I wanted to ask, do you guys have any advice, like, life advice, I guess, for a fourteen year old like me, or just, in general? if you guys have any advice, or tips, or words to live by, or anything like that, I'd really love to hear it.
I look up to you guys a lot, Aura and Suriko especially, I don't know why I do, I don't know you guys very well at all, but I do look up to you.
Because of that, it would really mean a lot to me, hearing your advice, or opinions, or whatever else you guys have to say.

I'm sorry, that all seems really vague, and I don't even really know what i'm asking, but my gut is telling me to ask, nonetheless. D:

[Tununias]

Hypothetically, if someone offered everyone who's a part of 4LS 40 billion dollars for the rights to Katawa Shoujo, would you accept?

[yummines]

To put it bluntly, people came for foot jobs and cripple fucking. That much we know is obvious.

Let's be honest, who actually came to KS for that? 0.o I came for the feels, stayed for the feels.

*raises hand* (to be fair, i had just finished Monmusu Quest part 2 and was looking for more interesting stuff)

i do have to ask though for the KS devs (2 things):

1. ever expect there to be a fanbase big enough for stuff like this?
2. theres a thread about how theres 2 other visual novels released by 4LS. i havent seen these anywhere on the internet other than here. whats the story behind those?