Ask!

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cpl_crud
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Re: Ask!

Post by cpl_crud »

I was going to say inception as well as it is a pretty recent example, although I think the point there was to show that the character had given up on being so paranoid about the dream world and started to "live" again..... In any case, I think it is exactly what that movie needed.

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve with your writing. Leaving something open in your main theme/narrative is a risk. You will almost certainly divide your audience into the "this is genius" and "this is bullshit" camps, or people won't even care.

I personally like to leave a little bit open to the imagination. I like reading that gets me involved, and something with a few loose ends gives you something to think back upon and maybe even re-read the story. But if you leave too much open then there is no sense of completeness and you start to wish for more from your author/creator.

I also think that in the case of 4LS we are really only talking about side-arcs that really don't have any major impact on the greater story. Just think about all the people from your past that you went to school with, or played baseball with, or maybe even went on dates with... and how many of those stories do you follow? Those are the stories that you can leave open in a story. But when they become involved in your story's main arc you need to bring them at least to a obvious conclusion.

There is a term that you can put in physics, QED, which stands for Quod Erat Demonstrandum in Latin, but basically means "I've shown you enough". Your physics professor will joke that it means "Quite Enough Done" and will snicker at his personal joke.
Essentially you use it when the answer is really just a matter of rearranging terms; i.e. you've done all the calculus and somesuch and all you need to do is a bit of basic algebra.

I like to think that you should get to the point of a "QED" ending; you've shown all the pieces but you've left a little to the reader. If you spell everything out it feels like you're being pulled through the story instead of being engaged with it.

Unfortunately, I can't really think of any examples of this at the moment! I guess in film you have the first Matrix (before the second two ruined it), or maybe Predestination.

I should also note that this doesn't mean things that just continue on forever without ending... Game of Thrones for example...

I'd like to say that I'll think of more examples but I know that I wont unless this question comes up a few more times...
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<Suriko> Crud would be patting Hanako's head
<Suriko> In a non-creepy fatherly way
<NicolArmarfi> crud is trying to dress hanako up like miku and attempting to get her to pose for him in headphones and he burns money
TheHivemind
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Re: Ask!

Post by TheHivemind »

Any good story is going to have at least a few people wondering about something the author never really got around to explaining (or simply didn't care to explain). That is because a good story is generally well-focused, which is another way of saying it gets where it wanted to go and then stops when it does so. There will always be stories with things left unexplained (what's in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction is the one that springs immediately to mind) but these things are, generally, not critical to the telling of the story. Indeed, in the case of Pulp Fiction, it's Tarantino blatantly pointing out that the plot's not as important as the characters, only doing so in a winky way that wasn't quite as annoying at the time as it eventually wound up becoming (see: The Hateful Eight).

Most of the things we left vague were left vague not for any particular reason beyond "it wasn't important to the story we were telling," and sometimes it was done so on purpose to make a point (see: Emi's sexual history, which I didn't get into because perched upon my high horse I decided it shouldn't matter). The end result's the same either way though - lots of speculation and the odd bit of fanfic, and maybe we all learned something along the way.

The point being that good stories will have ambiguity in them almost by dint of being good stories. A story that strains to explain every single little detail and wrap everyone's lives up in a tidy bow is a story that gets tedious and, more to the point, never ends.
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Valjean Lafitte
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Re: Ask!

Post by Valjean Lafitte »

A question for Aura: in the early days of KS development, which received more attention, the prologue/Act I or Rin's route? I believe you've said before that you were responsible for the bulk of the writing in prologue and Act I, but did you (and possibly other writers) have to put own routes on the back-burner while you hammered out the beginning of the story in preparation for the Act I demo?
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Aura
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Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

Of course, we all started from the beginning, and the first things anyone wrote for KS were for Act 1. We used it as a training ground, to learn to write and make a visual novel, so it went through a lot of reworks and editing during the first two years of the project. I did write the first draft of Rin's story before the final version of Act 1, but then completely stopped working on the route for something like a year to work on the release of Act 1. A22 did essentially the same, as his wordcount for Act 1 was massive due to the large number of long Shizune scenes in it.
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MikeKS
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Re: Ask!

Post by MikeKS »

First and foremost, I would like to thank all the writers and people who have contributed in creating this amazing game/VN.
I posted on Reddit about 2 days ago after I discovered the game in regard to the connections between my past and the VN hoping I could catch your eyes there and properly thank you.

After going through the staff list and looking around for the best way to reach you guys, I found the official forum is probably the best place to get a hold of you.
I would like to especially thank @cpl_crud for Hanako's route and @Suriko for Lilly's route. The two characters together have brought me back to a very special time in my past not long ago and brought a closure I never knew I needed so much.
Even with that being said, I would also like to thank @TheHivemind, Aura, and Anonymous22 for Emi, Rin and Shizune's routes. They brought many tears and joy for both my girlfriend Emily and I.

I would really love to have you read the story of a bittersweet past of mine as a gift of appreciation, but knowing it is a bit long, I am not sure if you would enjoy as much as I have written it. But if you ever have the time to spare, it is on the Katawa Shoujo subreddit. https://redd.it/4dt5a2

Once again, thank you all for this incredibly written and produced VN, I am forever in your debt, my girlfriend would also like to thank you for making her feel included within the story, same goes for me .

There's also a question I have been wondering, did you ever planned on continuing on the story of each characters' route for a bonus content? I mean I enjoy the freedom of theory crafting on our own creative minds, but I would also love to see a visual of how they spent their summer timer. And knowing there were a lot of controversy in the community over another studio kind of taking over the idea of creating Katawa Shoujo 2, do you feel they should've used the same name instead of coming up with a complete new one for their project and mention Katawa Shoujo as an inspiration?

Best regard,
Mike W.
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Aura
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Re: Ask!

Post by Aura »

MikeKS wrote: There's also a question I have been wondering, did you ever planned on continuing on the story of each characters' route for a bonus content? I mean I enjoy the freedom of theory crafting on our own creative minds, but I would also love to see a visual of how they spent their summer timer.
No.
MikeKS wrote:And knowing there were a lot of controversy in the community over another studio kind of taking over the idea of creating Katawa Shoujo 2, do you feel they should've used the same name instead of coming up with a complete new one for their project and mention Katawa Shoujo as an inspiration?
Of course not. If anyone makes KS 2, it's us. If someone wants to rip off the idea, they should use their own setting. I can't make Clannad 2 or Steins;Gate 2 either.

Thanks for the kind words.
<Aura> would you squeeze a warm PVC bottle between your thighs and call it "manaka-chan"
<Suriko> I would do it if it wouldn't be so hard to explain to my parents
Kenji's Sane Brother
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Re: Ask!

Post by Kenji's Sane Brother »

https://www.thedodo.com/hanako-lonelies ... 33727.html

Is that Hanako related in any way to the one in the game? Did it help inspire anything in her route? Or is it just a coincidence?
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Re: Ask!

Post by Silentcook »

Coincidence, and not a particularly far-reaching one either. Hanako is a fairly common name.
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ArcCain
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Re: Ask!

Post by ArcCain »

When was the last time you guy's meet in person?
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cpl_crud
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Re: Ask!

Post by cpl_crud »

ArcCain wrote:When was the last time you guy's meet in person?
Depends on the grouping.

The last major group I met was at the Summer Comiket in Tokyo last year (Raide, Suriko, Weee and Hir)


But I made everyone drink too much so now I need to make amends.
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<Suriko> Crud would be patting Hanako's head
<Suriko> In a non-creepy fatherly way
<NicolArmarfi> crud is trying to dress hanako up like miku and attempting to get her to pose for him in headphones and he burns money
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Suriko
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Re: Ask!

Post by Suriko »

cpl_crud wrote:
ArcCain wrote:When was the last time you guy's meet in person?
Depends on the grouping.

The last major group I met was at the Summer Comiket in Tokyo last year (Raide, Suriko, Weee and Hir)


But I made everyone drink too much so now I need to make amends.
Also known as "the first and last time I'll do karaoke".

Would like to head up for Comiket 90, but... we'll see. Not hugely likely, though Winter's fairly certain.
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Hellcat
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Re: Ask!

Post by Hellcat »

Good day to all the beautiful developers who brought a little love in my life with Shizune, I'm so passionate about this character i could die on the spot at any moment. <3

How decent is Shizune's eyesight? She seems like the type of girl that would wear them to just be professional and be "down to business", so to speak and Shizune likes to mess with people for fun. Are her glasses actually for show or does she generally have poor eyesight? Also there seems to be a peculiar and large amount of "Neko Shizune" images floating around the internet, more so than any other character. Can i get a blessing to fund research on this odd phenomenon? What could be the connection?

Thank you all for your time, you wonderful and beautiful people.
Will probably carry the torch for Delta's Lobster VN, someday. Dreams never die.
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Re: Ask!

Post by goblue628 »

Another thank you! I've never watched much anime or bothered playing a VN before, because I always had a bunch of novels/plays lying around waiting to be read, but I was recently linked to KS and thought I'd give it a try. Obviously I'm very happy I did, and as a result I will probably end up giving other VNs a shot or following new works by the developers. My only regret is I didn't play it earlier and join these forums when they were more active! I would like to ask a few questions, though:

1) In Shizune's bad ending, we see she has the purple cat doll in her bag; is this something she's often carrying with her, and if so, does the same hold throughout the route that leads to her good ending? Seems like that would be a pretty important symbol of attachment between her and Hisao.

2) In Shizune's good ending, Hisao verbally says "I love you," and then wonders whether Shizune will react in confusion. Does this mean he expects her to read his lips?

3) Is Shizune's good ending meant to be completely open to interpretation regarding the future of their relationship, or does it hint toward a particular result? I've read Aura's comment here, but I feel even that is ambiguous - they can deal with the "different directions" when they come and choose to remain together, or they decide to amicably end it there. I have my own opinions, of course, but I was wondering whether there was something I should be giving more importance to. A look at Shizune/Hisao's possible future a la TheHivemind's post would be interesting, but I imagine it would have to come from A22, which will never happen. Even if it did, I'm sure he would just mess with everyone :?

4) How did the later developers end up joining or hearing about the project? I understand how the very original group first came together, but did the others happen to come across the idea and offer their services like Silentcook, or were they specifically recruited?

Thanks again, particularly for keeping this site going.
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Re: Ask!

Post by TheHivemind »

That's a lot of questions, but I can really only answer the fourth one:

Namely, that it was a mix of going out and recruiting and having people volunteer. With artists, we had to recruit (multiple times, since we had some artists drop out and all), but with some people it was merely that they were around and active and seemed to be willing to do the work of editing or bouncing ideas off of (and foolish enough to not realize just how much work it would take).

We had a lot of people volunteer that we politely turned down, and some people who weren't volunteers that we asked (I think in SC's case it was literally a case of both, in that he'd mentioned he could be tapped for editing at some point and we brought him on board (and then I monopolized most of his time)).
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Re: Ask!

Post by goblue628 »

Thanks; I was wondering if it was mostly just by plain luck that a lot of the final developers happened to come across the project and thought it was interesting. As for the rest of my questions, they're not really that important to me anymore - I was a bit too hasty when I asked them, and after some more reflection, pretty much realized that the answers don't really matter to me.

I am curious about other literary influences / the type of literature you all like to read. I've checked out the influence map (...did not expect Dumas to look like that...) but I've also seen some other references like Chekhov and Dostoyevsky from the previous page. It would be super cool to see something like a Goodreads account but that's pretty public info that I assume no one wants to reveal even if it exists.
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