Katawa Shoujo Forums

*Also thought "Stride" was ominous* I see! At least I can go back in my memories and remove the feelings of tension I had when it came up, haha.

Nicol Armarfi wrote:Ah Eh I Oh You was never really written for KS. Way, way back in 2007, someone had made a post on OCRemix as a call to composers looking to help with the game. In response someone named OverCoat posted a couple tracks and said we were free to use them, and Ah Eh I Oh You was one of them. It wasn't written with any knowledge of the game or particular intent in mind, it's just a nifty piece of music.

OverCoat is a cool dude. I've "known" him (more or less) for years and even briefly met him at MAGFest before virt's concert. Good times.

His stuff is here: http://soundtempest.net/soc/


edit: "Two Hot Black Women Follow Bluefox Back To His Apartment and They Need Five Dollars For Gas" ... *facepalm*

Before my question, I'd just like to say this:

I've never been much of a VN-fiend (having played a handful before and detested them) nor have I ever had a real interest in anything anime-ish. I do love games, however, and the idea of what collaboration can do; especially over the internet. I only stumbled across this game recently and played it out of sheer curiosity, and for something that would normally have me uninterested immediately, this had to be one of the most rewarding experiences I've had with a game in recent memory. Well done to those involved. Well done. I know you've all heard this a lot recently and are probably unfazed by it by now, but so impressive was this game, that it has influenced me in upping the quality of my own projects with hopes that it will be as influential (as your game has been to me) to others.

Now onto the question:
If 4LS ever decides to make another game or collaborate together on something else, would you like to just stay the size as you were/are now or would there be a possibility of expansion? It's a tightly knit group and planning for something so vague and only slightly possible is a tricky thing, but would the dev team like to see what it could pump out again with just the people involved currently or would you folks be interested to seeing what a larger group would be able to do (carrying over what you've learned about organization/management/motivation previously)?

Guesty-Guest wrote:Now onto the question:
If 4LS ever decides to make another game or collaborate together on something else, would you like to just stay the size as you were/are now or would there be a possibility of expansion? It's a tightly knit group and planning for something so vague and only slightly possible is a tricky thing, but would the dev team like to see what it could pump out again with just the people involved currently or would you folks be interested to seeing what a larger group would be able to do (carrying over what you've learned about organization/management/motivation previously)?

Smaller, if anything. Coordinating 20ish people from across the world on a free creative project is a complete logistical nightmare.

I am a bit disappointed that I only heard of this project after its full release. After completing the game, looking through the entire Shimmie, reading the comments of the history of KS, reading the blog, I only wish I could have been a bit more of a follower throughout the five years of its creation, or even a part of its development. As someone who has done a bit of organizing of a small, niche non-profit through forums, I always kind of had a small yearning of banding together with others on the internet. Regardless, I feel a bit sullen that though I've spent about 2 and a half weeks of KS addiction, it really is over and not going anywhere from here, which is a bit saddening.

Anyways, I just wanted to mix that bit in to the developers with my question. My question is when Kenji reads Iwanako's letter, why does he call her "Rock Fish Kid" chick, when her name is clearly written in hiragana? I understand the kanji with the same pronunciation, 岩魚子, is probably what Kenji was referring to, but how would he necessarily know? Or is it just my lack of knowledge in Japanese showing, e.g. she wouldn't have learned how to write this kanji yet (Though, I think these are some pretty basic kanji a high school student would know), or it's simply a way people would sign off a letter less formally? Barring that, maybe 岩魚子 was even on the back of the letter that wasn't shown?

In the same vein, why is the title written かたわ instead of 片輪, as per the original panel?

A question for NicolArmarfi (although any of the music composers are welcome to answer, just seems Nicol is most active),

I really do enjoy the music in KS. I've always thought that I enjoyed the melodies and instruments more even when a song has lyrics, and listening to the soundtrack made me think that that is indeed the case.

Do you have any suggestions of other instrumental music that I might enjoy since I like the music in KS (a very subjective question I know but just shoot out some right off the top of your head perhaps to give me a general direction to start looking)? What kind of music influenced you when composing music for KS?

Apologies if this has been addressed before.

Edit: Ah, I found your youtube channel NicolArmarfi, brilliant! But feel free to suggest any still.

lblf wrote:Do you have any suggestions of other instrumental music that I might enjoy since I like the music in KS (a very subjective question I know but just shoot out some right off the top of your head perhaps to give me a general direction to start looking)? What kind of music influenced you when composing music for KS?

You might like Joe Hisaishi: Or Oscar Peterson: Or Chopin:

After once again briefly reading the forums/FAQ to make sure I don't ask a question that has already been spammed on this website, I've found that (so far) it hasn't been answered. So...

What do you guys do for a living? I.e Uni/college, work, hobbies etc. Are you all proficient with programming?

Sorry if it sounds intrusive, I just find the writers (Well, all developers involved really) to be extraordinary people (And are rather patient as well.. judging by the other questions that they receive).

AnonAnother wrote:
Anyways, I just wanted to mix that bit in to the developers with my question. My question is when Kenji reads Iwanako's letter, why does he call her "Rock Fish Kid" chick, when her name is clearly written in hiragana? I understand the kanji with the same pronunciation, 岩魚子, is probably what Kenji was referring to, but how would he necessarily know? Or is it just my lack of knowledge in Japanese showing, e.g. she wouldn't have learned how to write this kanji yet (Though, I think these are some pretty basic kanji a high school student would know), or it's simply a way people would sign off a letter less formally? Barring that, maybe 岩魚子 was even on the back of the letter that wasn't shown?

In the same vein, why is the title written かたわ instead of 片輪, as per the original panel?

In reality I don't think Kenji would have worked it out, but the joke about Iwanako's name was out from long ago... Interestingly enough, the Japanese don' nativity know how to pronounce the kanji ( there is a read-through of Act 1 on Youtube yhat shows this).

From memory the reason we went with hiragana for かたわ is because the ariginal artist for the logo couldn't draw complex kanji all that well, so he simplified it...

I'd like to hear from the writers about the decision points in their respective paths.

To what extent did you write towards a choice you already had in mind? Were there choices that just arose from the scenes as you wrote them? Were there any reasons besides the obvious for putting in some decisions?

Was there an overall plan for the choices in the route? How early/late in the process did it come about? Were you looking to have some sort of "theme" for the good and bad choices?

You guys have made a pretty cool VN for a first effort. Thanks for it.

Just out of curiosity, was Iwanako's letter originally written in Japanese, then translated to English? Or the other way around?

ThaGuyWithCake wrote:After once again briefly reading the forums/FAQ to make sure I don't ask a question that has already been spammed on this website, I've found that (so far) it hasn't been answered. So...

What do you guys do for a living? I.e Uni/college, work, hobbies etc. Are you all proficient with programming?

Sorry if it sounds intrusive, I just find the writers (Well, all developers involved really) to be extraordinary people (And are rather patient as well.. judging by the other questions that they receive).

I work in an office as something very much like an administrative assistant. It's dreadful, but it pays the bills. When I'm not in the office, I write articles for a website's multimedia section (though I've only done a few reviews recently) and plot my inevitable return to university to finally do my phd. And I'm writing a novel, but that hardly counts.

In high school, I learned C++ and Java programming. I don't remember any of it.

Is there any count of downloads for the full version of the game?
Seeing as how the game virtually exploded everywhere on the internet, the downloads should reflect that.

ez question: for god, whats Misha disability? Does she even have one?

ThaGuyWithCake wrote:After once again briefly reading the forums/FAQ to make sure I don't ask a question that has already been spammed on this website, I've found that (so far) it hasn't been answered. So...

What do you guys do for a living? I.e Uni/college, work, hobbies etc. Are you all proficient with programming?

Sorry if it sounds intrusive, I just find the writers (Well, all developers involved really) to be extraordinary people (And are rather patient as well.. judging by the other questions that they receive).

I am a technology consultant for the entertainment industry. Biggest hobby is my family, but others include photography and collecting headphones.