Katawa Shoujo Forums

I am a high school teacher, and have been lucky enough to work at a charter school that allows me to teach a class on video games as a storytelling medium, called Video Games as Literature. It's a great opportunity to teach students to appreciate video games for more than their simple entertainment value, and the school has been surprisingly supportive of it. This is the first year I've taught it; it has been going extremely well, and I will be teaching it again next year.

There are very few genuinely good visual novels legally available in English, and Katawa Shoujo is one of them. I would love to use this game in my class for when we talk about visual novels. However, since this is a high school, the simple presence of adult content makes that impossible. I could tell them to turn off the adult content, but I could get in huge trouble for requiring a game that allows them access to such content.

So then, would it be possible to create an all-ages version of the game? Even to just make it so adult content cannot be turned on? I have the Ren'py engine, so I could possibly do it myself if necessary, but I would appreciate it if someone from the team could create this alternate version real quick. I don't imagine it would be too difficult or time-consuming, though I know that might be a lot to ask, but the ability to use Katawa Shoujo in this class would really help me broaden the spectrum of interactive literary experience I could offer the students.

Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to make an all ages version as it would be in breach of the license (the part about altering the game).

Just tell them about the hilarious censoring, alt. don't tell them about the H-content at all. If I remember correctly, the H is turned off by default.

Btw, where do you live? I want to take that class too!

demonix wrote:Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to make an all ages version as it would be in breach of the license (the part about altering the game).

I am aware of that. Seeing as this is the support section, I was kinda' hoping someone involved in the game's creation would see this and be willing to make an altered version or give me special permission. They wouldn't be the first to make an exception for something like this; a class like this is a pretty big thing in terms of increasing respect and understanding of video games.

Thaius wrote:

demonix wrote:Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to make an all ages version as it would be in breach of the license (the part about altering the game).

I am aware of that. Seeing as this is the support section, I was kinda' hoping someone involved in the game's creation would see this and be willing to make an altered version or give me special permission. They wouldn't be the first to make an exception for something like this; a class like this is a pretty big thing in terms of increasing respect and understanding of video games.

You should come join the IRC chat channel then ask the devs directly, they hang out there.

#katawa-shoujo on IRC Highway

Well, you have my support in persuing this. Ever since I discovered this VN and seen the effect it has on people, I've believed it was something that everyone should experience, if for no other reason that it tends to promote understanding, and frankly makes many of us better people. I'd love to see this become required reading in school, but I know a lot of people would lose their damn minds over the sex scenes and miss the point of the story entirely.

I appreciate that you'd want to use KS as material for a video game class (even though it's not a game), but do you think your students can't, or won't use Google and find out that KS has explicit sex? Or would it be fine, as long as you don't actually hand it to them yourself? This logic seems pretty sketchy.

Anyway, we are against censoring our own creation, and so our engineer said he's not going to mod KS. I suggest you give your students Narcissu (the first, not side 2nd). It's free, better and shorter than KS and has nothing that could risk your job. http://www.neechin.net/narcissu

Here's another link, which I used when I downloaded Narcissu. It only contain the first game.

I seem to remember there being a "Disable Adult Content" option in the options menu. I think that skips the H-scenes when you go through it.

Kisame128 wrote:I seem to remember there being a "Disable Adult Content" option in the options menu. I think that skips the H-scenes when you go through it.

Yes it does, but his problem is how to make his students use it.

OtakuNinja wrote:

Kisame128 wrote:I seem to remember there being a "Disable Adult Content" option in the options menu. I think that skips the H-scenes when you go through it.

Yes it does, but his problem is how to make his students use it.

Just turn the option on after installing it on each computer, that means that there's no worries in having to tell the students to activate it.

demonix wrote:

OtakuNinja wrote:

Kisame128 wrote:I seem to remember there being a "Disable Adult Content" option in the options menu. I think that skips the H-scenes when you go through it.

Yes it does, but his problem is how to make his students use it.

Just turn the option on after installing it on each computer, that means that there's no worries in having to tell the students to activate it.

They'll find out eventually. And he doesn't mention if the students are using their own computers or not, so turning it on after installing isn't a solution.

Its a shame really. I stil think KS's stories would be a great learning experience for teenagers and young adults. Especially if they have disabilities themselves. It's a damn shame that some people seem to get their panties in a bunch over a little sexuality.

There's also the issue that disabling the adult content doesn't disable the sprites, so you still see Lilly & Shizune nude and Emi & Hanako topless.