Katawa Shoujo Forums

Carighan wrote:

Suriko wrote:We talk shit on IRC a bunch, and a number of the artists are on MSN. I'm a pretty private (read shy) person, so my circle of private contacts is pretty small, and I don't bother with things like Facebook.

Sorry that I pick this seemingly random one out, but it was what reminded me of a question I wanted to ask:

• Were any paths either written by someone with the corresponding (or a similar) disability, or did someone with it help with details of the character?

Also, horrible game. Really, really horrible. I don't think I ever cried so much over a video game.
(Easily GOTY 2012 for me :X )

Most, if not all, of our medical information came courtesy of Silentcook. Anything he didn't know we googled the shit out of.

Nobody on the dev team suffers from any disabilities related to the game (well, as far as I know).

TheHivemind wrote: Most, if not all, of our medical information came courtesy of Silentcook. Anything he didn't know we googled the shit out of.

Nobody on the dev team suffers from any disabilities related to the game (well, as far as I know).

Huh. Question for Silentcook: How the hell do you know so much about disabilities?

TheHivemind wrote:Nobody on the dev team suffers from any disabilities related to the game (well, as far as I know).

Unless we count development-induced insomnia/sleep paralysis, sudden BP increases, incontrollable foaming at the mouth, and other such ailments.

Kyvos wrote:Huh. Question for Silentcook: How the hell do you know so much about disabilities?

I am a nurse.

Huh, that's interesting.

What do you do as a nurse, silentcook?

Currently I'm working in a neurosurgery OR. I've previously worked in a general, maxillo-facial, plastic, and thoracic surgery OR.

Silentcook wrote:

TheHivemind wrote:Nobody on the dev team suffers from any disabilities related to the game (well, as far as I know).

Unless we count development-induced insomnia/sleep paralysis, sudden BP increases, incontrollable foaming at the mouth, and other such ailments.

>incontrollable
Aren't you their editor? For shame.

Knowing full well that a lot of story threads were eventually abandoned, scrapped, or burned after reading, I wonder if any of those scrap-bin ideas were recovered later and added back into the story's final version. Basically what I'm asking is this: did any of the writers go dumpster diving to salvage an earlier idea that was shot down?

Silentcook wrote:I am a nurse.

Do you have anything in common with the Nurse except, well, being a nurse?

Just a couple demi-scenes of dialogue and the gender.

To be less clever about it, when I joined the dev team Nurse was already a defined character. He was not written by or around me, bar occasions when a writer threw a scene my way and said something like "here, make sure he's properly nurse-y".

Helbereth wrote: Knowing full well that a lot of story threads were eventually abandoned, scrapped, or burned after reading, I wonder if any of those scrap-bin ideas were recovered later and added back into the story's final version. Basically what I'm asking is this: did any of the writers go dumpster diving to salvage an earlier idea that was shot down?

Emi's dinner scene was written, scrapped because it sucked, and then brought back (mostly) the same but with extra parts (like Emi kicking you out of the house).

Not sure if this is an obvious question, but I'm somewhat confused about the writing process.

In what format did you guys write the drafts? For example, was it like a simple dialogue on a word document that would be transferred later? How much of the characters' expressions and whatnot did they contain?

Sorry if this has been answered before.

Shadd wrote:Not sure if this is an obvious question, but I'm somewhat confused about the writing process.

In what format did you guys write the drafts? For example, was it like a simple dialogue on a word document that would be transferred later? How much of the characters' expressions and whatnot did they contain?

Sorry if this has been answered before.

The scripts looked a lot like:

"Internal thoughts about the situation blah blah blah."

"Some more internal thoughts."

# comment not parsed by the game itself, serving to communicate to other devs

hi "Blah blah I am Hisao speaking and his name is in the name box."

ha "I am Hanako speaking blah blah."

Each developer wrote in a different program, I just used Notepad. They didn't contain expressions, aside from a few sparse comments here and there about what we intended things to look like if need be.

One question which came up in the subreddit about Katawa Shoujo:

• Was Emi's anal scene intentionally written to have additional comic relief value? Or did it only appear as a combination of the final setup, when the art and writing came together?
  The reason this made me curious is because given what you see of Emi beforehand, this scene actually deepens her character a bit. OTOH, it's still very... odd. The whole setup, with the wheelchair toppling over and the convenience of it feels out of place unless used for comic relief (which would be understandable given the rather heavy scenes beforehand), compared to say, her inviting Hisao to her room for sex.

Sadly I can't address this by name, not sure who wrote Emi's story. Sorry.

Carighan wrote:One question which came up in the subreddit about Katawa Shoujo:

• Was Emi's anal scene intentionally written to have additional comic relief value? Or did it only appear as a combination of the final setup, when the art and writing came together?
  The reason this made me curious is because given what you see of Emi beforehand, this scene actually deepens her character a bit. OTOH, it's still very... odd. The whole setup, with the wheelchair toppling over and the convenience of it feels out of place unless used for comic relief (which would be understandable given the rather heavy scenes beforehand), compared to say, her inviting Hisao to her room for sex.

Sadly I can't address this by name, not sure who wrote Emi's story. Sorry.

I've been wondering this as well, it just seemed so chuckle-worthy compared to all the other scenes in the VN.

Where I live, it is New Year's Day. This is a question to each dev personally, what are your goals for the New Year in terms of 4LS or in their own lives?

Also, with that being said, in a few days (exactly 3 days where I live), it will be the first anniversary of Katawa Shoujo's release date. Again, to each dev personally, what are your thoughts now that the game has been out for almost a year?

Steinherz wrote:

Carighan wrote:One question which came up in the subreddit about Katawa Shoujo:

• Was Emi's anal scene intentionally written to have additional comic relief value? Or did it only appear as a combination of the final setup, when the art and writing came together?
  The reason this made me curious is because given what you see of Emi beforehand, this scene actually deepens her character a bit. OTOH, it's still very... odd. The whole setup, with the wheelchair toppling over and the convenience of it feels out of place unless used for comic relief (which would be understandable given the rather heavy scenes beforehand), compared to say, her inviting Hisao to her room for sex.

Sadly I can't address this by name, not sure who wrote Emi's story. Sorry.

I've been wondering this as well, it just seemed so chuckle-worthy compared to all the other scenes in the VN.

Originally, it was just going to be a straight anal scene. That is to say, we decided at some point that an anal scene had to be in the game, and I drew the short straw. The track shed was initially written as them just fooling around (oral sex was as involved as it got), but when the order for anal came down, there were already like three h scenes planned and Lilly already had an oral scene (at least I think it did, don't really remember). So the track shed 69 was replaced with an anal scene.

It skewed toward the ridiculous pretty quickly. I should clarify that Emi intentionally falls out of the chair so she can get Hisao where she wants him. The scene plays out awkward because it is two (mostly) inexperienced teens trying something new for the first time. In the end (har har) it turned out rather effective at showing Emi's adventurous side while also being funny/awkward as hell. So a success all 'round, I should think.