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[Aura]

Why is there never an image of Iwanako?

It seems to me that she played a rather pivotal role in the story's beginning, and later, through her letter to Hisao -as well as being referenced numerous times throughout most of the different story-lines. There are several 'flashback' sequences that reference previous events in the story and something like thatwhen Hisao is reading her lettercould have pushed a few of the points a little further- especially if those flashbacks recalled Iwanako's final visits to Hisao's bedside.

I suppose you were leaving it to the reader's imagination to fill in the imageof this lost love,and, truth be told, I filled it in with someone whom I knewthe pang of unrequited love frommany years ago. There's a certain amount of 'tell, don't show' when it comes to reading, but it just seems to me like something so pivotal ought to have been addressed visually - even if the face were drawn blank.

It's not just her. Did you notice we also did not show Hisao's parents or the doctor in the hospital? It was something we did to visually separate the prologue from the rest of the story.

[Aura]

what was Rin doing in town looking like a statue. or a zombie. or a statue of a zombie anyways?

She forgot.

[Aura]

Has Aura suddenly rescinded the rule about only devs answering questions? I don't mean this as a jibe; I have had a few answers that I did not provide in the thread out of respect for the initial rule.

I haven't, and it seems it's time to remind you people of it. I haven't been bothering telling people off from occasional misconduct, but if it becomes a habit I will be most unhappy.

TO THE DEVS: Do you mind answering repeat questions?

Do not answer questions in this thread unless you are a KS dev or can, and do, provide a source quote from one. Neither is this thread meant for discussion because that will just clog it up.

An answer like the one you made,

I'm pretty sure they answered this dozens of pages back, I'll try my best to remember: Basically, Iwanoko's role in the story is to be a distant memory of the life he's left behind, which would be more difficult for the audience to get if her face is fresh in their memory from a couple hours ago.

is the worst possible kind. Please, not like this. There is zero reason to answer a question in my stead, though I do appreciate the rare cases someone provides an answer to some trivial question with the appropriate link. The key word in previous sentence is "trivial".

[Aura]

How many floors does Yamaku's main building have, or more precisely, how high up is its roof?

It's got 4 floors plus one that is under ground level on one side of the building, and on ground level on the opposite side (the one you can see in the game background). The roof would be, what, about 15-18 meters from ground? Something like that.

[Aura]

How exactly does Shizune understand the lessons being taught in class? She obviously can't hear Mutau talking - which may be beneficial, in hindsight - nor does she read lips, so she'd have to get everything from the textbook.

I mean, I know Misha probably has something to do with it - signing everything the teacher says - but that seems like a clumsy way for it to work. Especially since Misha sits next to Shizune rather than in front of her, and Shizune is a stickler for looking at the person who's talking.

I might be over-thinking this.

A combination of the things you mentioned, also she can read both the blackboard and her textbook.

[ProfAllister]

So, in the dev blog, you state that there will be sex in the game, and that it will be more than "missionary position with the lights off."

As we all know now, this was the case. However, the sex is rather conservative overall, and the more kinky things tend to be awkward and uncomfortable.

Was this intentional? Had the writers considered being more adventurous? Or did you decide it would be better to not live on in lemon-flavored ignominy?

Since just about all of the girls were relatively inexperienced, and Hisao sure as hell didn't know what he was doing, it made more sense to have a lot of the sex reflect the sort of fumbling trial and error that colors a lot of early sexual activity.

Sorry we didn't include any scat play or blood play or people in diapers or whatever you thought was missing, but past a certain point in development making sure we hit a lot of kinks was no longer a priority.

Ouch. Ask about kinky sex in a cripple porn game and people assume you're a pervert...

I'm thankful things were kept tame - makes it slightly easier to discuss in polite company. Certainly better than "Lilly's arc was beautiful. Well, except for that bit with the bullet ants and circular saw..." I was just hoping we could get some insight into what really propelled the change from "let's check all the boxes" to "let's write a story that just happens to include sex."

It seems that Nomiya and Jigoro get a lot of hate. Did this surprise you? Were there any characters you specifically disliked?

[Shockproof Jamo]

Sorry we didn't include any scat play or blood play or people in diapers or whatever you thought was missing, but past a certain point in development making sure we hit a lot of kinks was no longer a priority.

Hahaha. This reminded me... Did the much anticipated (by some) "Epic Rin footjob" ever exist in any draft of the script? As I recall, that was the one fetish that people wanted to see the most.

[Aura]

It seems that Nomiya and Jigoro get a lot of hate. Did this surprise you? Were there any characters you specifically disliked?

Not at all. Nomiya's mannerisms and character are meant to make people uncomfortable and Jigoro is straight up antagonistic. Hideaki is hated by a majority of the dev team, but I'm sure everyone has their own pet characters to dislike too.

[Aura]

Sorry we didn't include any scat play or blood play or people in diapers or whatever you thought was missing, but past a certain point in development making sure we hit a lot of kinks was no longer a priority.

Hahaha. :lol: This reminded me... Did the much anticipated (by some) "Epic Rin footjob" ever exist in any draft of the script? As I recall, that was the one fetish that people wanted to see the most.

No. One time I wrote a pretty ludicrous one for entertainment, but it was never going to be in the game (despite me getting egged on to put it in by people who thought it was hilarious).

[inquisitivenegro]

Sorry we didn't include any scat play or blood play or people in diapers or whatever you thought was missing, but past a certain point in development making sure we hit a lot of kinks was no longer a priority.

Hahaha. This reminded me... Did the much anticipated (by some) "Epic Rin footjob" ever exist in any draft of the script? As I recall, that was the one fetish that people wanted to see the most.

No. I wrote a pretty ludicrous one for entertainment, but it was never going to be in the game (despite me getting egged on to put it in by people who thought it was hilarious).

Even if Hisao asked for one, Rin probably would have gotten confused and kick him instead (not necessarily in the stomach either..)

[Aura]

How do you feel about the game, the community surrounding the game, and the feels that the game has brought upon many an unsuspecting reader?

I've written entire essays on these three subjects on many occasions, so you might want to dig around the blog and such.

KS is okay. I (and I think most of 4LS) identify more with the project, the 5 year long process of making the game than the end product, and it manifests as a sort of a blasé attitude towards the game itself. That's not to say we are unhappy with it, despite its shortcomings. KS is clumsy and amateurish and inconsistent and whatnot, but also it's very much what we wanted it to be like. It was definitely worth making.

The KS fanbase... we are pretty awkward about it. The existence of a KS fan community in the first place is pretty incredible, not to say anything about how big it is. Anyway, a majority of 4LS doesn't really want to do the community interaction thing, and the ones that do, like me, seem to be somewhat out of touch with the fan phenomenon. I want to be appreciative of the attention and not dismiss it as rabid/brainless fanaticism but it's not always easy to stay comfortable with the huge amount and wide range of stuff the fan community does. Heck, it's hard to be comfortable with the thought of how monstrous the KS fan community is in the first place. An interesting KS community that I was recently introduced to is the KS General threads on 4chan. Someone calculated that since the game was released there has been close to half a million posts on those threads, and the community is not like anything I've seen elsewhere before. The threads are active 24/7, with people from different timezones saying good night as they go to sleep simultaneously to others calling good morning from 8 hours ahead of them. It feels like a very strongly identifying community, much more so than our forums, for instance, and I think it's pretty amazing how KS spawned something like that. Then there's of course all the fan fiction, art, fan games and so on. All of it is nice.

The response to KS, the "feels" and such, I don't know what to make of it. Obviously we knew that people would claim waifus and get attached to the characters, but the overwhelming intensity of the experience to so many people is inexplicable. Unlike for instance Jun Maeda's VNs, KS doesn't try to manipulate the reader's emotions to get that kind of reaction, so we were surprised at the strong reactions. The really amazing thing though is that KS has inspired a lot of people to improve their lives. I can see the "feels" coming from the romantic pathos that's all over the game, but there is absolutely nothing in KS that should inspire one get their shit together, start working out, get better grades or what have you. It was really unexpected. As I said I don't really know what to think about all this, but drawing a reaction from the reader is one of the core goals of a writer, so I am satisfied.

[Out-All Knight]

To the artists, During the time your drawing the expressions of each characters, how were you able to make them natural and applicable to their characters? I could see some small but significant details to each expressions (I think) that made me smile a bit.

Also, Did you use a mirror to make those expressions for the characters?

[Helbereth]

To the artists, During the time your drawing the expressions of each characters, how were you able to make them natural and applicable to their characters? I could see some small but significant details to each expressions (I think) that made me smile a bit.

Also, Did you use a mirror to make those expressions for the characters?

In relation to this: were any of the characters based on people you actually know? If not with the specific conditions, but with similar looks. Or are they all conjured from the depths of your imagination/from an unknown deep mental source you're not sure you chose to access?

I often find myself drawing people I know into the characters I've created and I wonder if something similar happened here.

[Guest]

To the artists, During the time your drawing the expressions of each characters, how were you able to make them natural and applicable to their characters? I could see some small but significant details to each expressions (I think) that made me smile a bit.

Also, Did you use a mirror to make those expressions for the characters?

In relation to this: were any of the characters based on people you actually know? If not with the specific conditions, but with similar looks. Or are they all conjured from the depths of your imagination/from an unknown deep mental source you're not sure you chose to access?

I often find myself drawing people I know into the characters I've created and I wonder if something similar happened here.

I honestly hope you don't mean the main 5, they were based off of this sketch: http://shimmie.katawa-shoujo.com/image/1.jpg

[Helbereth]

To the artists, During the time your drawing the expressions of each characters, how were you able to make them natural and applicable to their characters? I could see some small but significant details to each expressions (I think) that made me smile a bit.

Also, Did you use a mirror to make those expressions for the characters?

In relation to this: were any of the characters based on people you actually know? If not with the specific conditions, but with similar looks. Or are they all conjured from the depths of your imagination/from an unknown deep mental source you're not sure you chose to access?

I often find myself drawing people I know into the characters I've created and I wonder if something similar happened here.

I honestly hope you don't mean the main 5, they were based off of this sketch: http://shimmie.katawa-shoujo.com/image/1.jpg

Yeah, I knew that much. What I wonder is where the original artist(s) drew upon for each character up to and including the 5 main girls. Especially characters like Mutau, Kenji and even the unmentioned classmates shown in the class introduction. They had to come from somewhere, right?