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[TheHivemind]

I've always felt it to be a great gift to the 'fandom' here that the devs (at this time, the most recent being cpl_crud) drop in and entertain our questions and ideas and stuff. While Aura is the main respondent, I am always happy to see engagement, even if it is brusque or contrary. It makes me even happier to be part of this community. But one question I'd like to ask now is (if you wish to answer it): how have you devs changed in life direction and status since you finished KS? We've just had a brief outline of cpl_crud's life changes (from his blog and his latest replies).

I got a Master's degree, lived in New York for a while, spent several awful months unemployed and desperate, and ended up writing for a tech company in its marketing department in Chicago. I also started a podcast...thing with my brother and will probably wind up starting another soon, because why not.

So I went from being a poor student to having an actual income and job that only sometimes makes me want to burn down the office, which is a good change.

[Silentcook]

job that only sometimes makes me want to burn down the office

Oh, sure. Flaunt your luck harder, won't you?

[Notguest]

It's stated that the canes are retractable, so one could argue that they're not fully extended in the in-game graphics.

Well Sunglasses Boy's cane definitely isn't retractable. Nor is it a support cane.

As for Lilly's cane, it's never completely visible (in fact it doesn't show up in any CGs or videos at all). The part that shows up in the sprites has no visible joins or gaps, but I suppose it could be a telescoping cane with the first join below the screen.

[Notguest]

Am I to assume that the lack of an answer

means that the question has no good answer or one we don't want to reveal. Move on.

?

Pretty sure it's not the second one, and I'm not sure why it's the first one. If it was a mistake, you could just say so.

[TheHivemind]

The answer is we don't care.

[cpl_crud]

The answer is we don't care.

Seconded.

Also for some reason this dictionary has "Second Life" in it.

how out of date

[brythain]

job that only sometimes makes me want to burn down the office

Oh, sure. Flaunt your luck harder, won't you?

*grin* well, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and I can only wish all of you the best that you can get.

[Zhu]

Is there an estimate on how many times the game has been downloaded?

[Aura]

Most likely of the order of hundreds of thousands.

[300BillionDegrees]

It's stated that the canes are retractable, so one could argue that they're not fully extended in the in-game graphics.

Well Sunglasses Boy's cane definitely isn't retractable. Nor is it a support cane.

As for Lilly's cane, it's never completely visible (in fact it doesn't show up in any CGs or videos at all). The part that shows up in the sprites has no visible joins or gaps, but I suppose it could be a telescoping cane with the first join below the screen.

I can't speak for Sunglasses Boy, but as for Lilly, she would of course have only the very best telescoping cane that would make it hard to see the joints. Even so, the joint probably is below the screen since we can clearly see in this leaked security camera photo of the last known sighting of agent Kenji that it would not be able to be collapsed too much without interfering with it's other purpose.

[Zarys]

Or maybe the devs just haven't thinked about it, like they have said a lot of times ?

[Atario]

Which dev is responsible for "crawls in my balls"?

[Aura]

Probably A22, possibly me.

[Valjean Lafitte]

For Aura:

First off, I wanted to say that I just recently finished Rin's route and it's contending with Lilly's and Hanako's as my favorite path in the game. I know people thank you all the time for writing it, but Rin seriously is an incredible character--thank you for the years of dedication poured into crafting such a fascinating character and moving story.

My question is about the cigarette smoking scene in the atelier. I believe you said earlier on in this thread that a lot of the situations in the story are pure fabrication--such as the street walking scene that takes place afterward--and not based on any personal experience of yours. But the smoking scene seemed so true-to-life that I'm now wondering: do you or did you used to smoke? If not, did you light up a few for the sake of doing research for that scene? It's probably a silly question, and I apologize if you're tired of getting questions relating Katawa Shoujo to your real life.

[Aura]

I'm not a smoker, or ever have been. Maybe once a year or not even that often I smoke in a social context, but the scene doesn't draw from personal experience.

While we're on the topic of personal experience and writing about it: Everything anyone writes will always draw on personal experience. Imagination is just remixing and extrapolating on experience. What I mean when I say Rin or her story don't relate to my experience is that the events themselves or the characters don't have direct parallels in my life. But of course I know what it's like to smoke a cigarette, or be intimately with someone you have a crush on or whatever. These general experiences (that by themselves are very unremarkable) are what are on the background of a creative process. Sometimes of course something so juicy can happen to you in real life that it transfers to fiction as is. That's why I do write notes about random thoughts I have, good sentences from books I read, or stuff I hear during my everyday life, and sometimes some of that becomes building blocks for my writing.