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[AaronIsCrunchy]

I gotta say, he doesn't really need to be labelled as anything based on he likes to dress effeminately. Hell, I'm always the first one to suggest crossdressing when someone says 'fancy dress'. Has nothing to do with my gender, I just do it for shits and giggles.

Haha, this. It's great fun, and if he decides to do so on a day-to-day basis, then he'd be one happy little dude (Does going in fancy dress as Hideaki count as crossdressing? I guess it would)

[ParagonTerminus]

If you could make a route with any side character (Naomi, Yuuko, etc.; Misha excluded), who would it be and why?

[Aura]

There aren't many suitable side characters with personalities, so the choice is pretty meh. I guess Chiharu, because she's everyone's secret darling.

[Munchenhausen]

There aren't many suitable side characters with personalities, so the choice is pretty meh. I guess Chiharu, because she's everyone's secret darling.

Amen to that
She paired up with Katawako as her best friend?

[Zarys]

I obviously am disqualified from considering Rin's route here, but of the other four, Shizune's is my favourite.

22 writes really good sentences and most of the time, the best dialogue out of any of us. A reader can delve deeper into Shizune's route than the others, which I personally like too. Now if only the side characters' character designs were less clowny.

I am surprised, but it is true that I feel like the Shizune route is quite interesting but "touch" a smaller amount of people than the others.
There has qualities, especially rereading values, but I am not attached to Shizune and although it may seem stupid, I can't really go deep into a story whose characters don't interest me; I found Shizune seriously boring (but this is just my opinion), there are deep things about her but I did not really have the will to think about because the character does not interest me; I find that Misha and Kenji were mose interesting in this Route than Shizune herself.
Perhaps the message does not concern me ? also I don't really like the atmosphere of this Route; I guess it's very subjective. (For example :
( I found the character Hanako endearing at first, then always endearing and attriguant quickly when we see that there is someone under her shyness; the mood of the Lilly's Route had something of oniric; Emi Route was my first and I think that I would have appreciated this Route less if i have played this after the Hanako and Lilly Route)I understand that the author wanted to make a less exalted romance with a realistic end (they will try to stay together but that's all) but it's not to my taste.
Maybe I was looking for something more emotional than intellectual (like the Shizune Route since her fans) ?, without saying that one is better than the other.
I agree with the fact that the secondary characters in the Shizune Route are a bit distracting : it is difficult to take seriously Jigoro and his impact on Shizune. (to a lesser extent, Hideaki)
I'm not talking about Kenji because it has always been his role, and opinion on him depends on whether you find him funny or not, embarrassing for the story or not. (personally I like him because he lightens the story, find him funny and I love the fact that he has some depth for a humorous character)


After I still find that this Route have "more objective" flaws : not much progress (The whole sequence in Shizune's Home is useless, even learn sign language to Hideaki changes nothing.), not much connection between Shizune and Hisao, or not well made ​​in my opinion. (She don't even know about his arythmia),ect...I know
competition between their two is the way they communicate, but I do not see much in it. (Maybe because I'm not a competitive people myself)
and I find it cold; i'm feel more concerned by the way Hisao and Hanako communicates for example. (Maybe because she looks more like me than Shizune)
The pace isn't very good, I got bored during this Route...maybe too long for the content ? The twist with Misha and the rest of the story is good but the shift in the family of Shizune and the routine of the student council is too long in my opinion.
In all routes, there is like a moral, a profound way of seeing a character,ect...I don't see the point of the Shizune Route and i find her almost one-dimensional.

[delta]

If you could make a route with any side character (Naomi, Yuuko, etc.; Misha excluded), who would it be and why?

[22:08:34] <!Delta_Kurshiva> that is a pretty stupid question because you are one of the very few guys that ACTUALLY could do that
[22:09:03] <!Delta_Kurshiva> so the answer is "we could and are not doing it because it's none of them"
[22:09:25] <!Aura> yeah I took it to mean
[22:09:33] <!Aura> "if you were forced to..."
[22:10:17] <!Aura> should've probably added that to the reply though

[Atario]

[22:09:25] <!Aura> yeah I took it to mean
[22:09:33] <!Aura> "if you were forced to..."

Or possibly "If it took zero effort…".

[Aura]

Even if it did take literally zero effort, I wouldn't have added any routes to KS. Raita drew five girls, not six, seven or twelve.

[CoffeeDrive]

Even if it did take literally zero effort, I wouldn't have added any routes to KS. Raita drew five girls, not six, seven or twelve.

Was that also the reasoning behind no misha route? Since the original sketch contained no reference of a bubbly pink haired girl?

[Aura]

Well also two other considerations: too much extra work, and she obviously couldn't be a romantic interest for Hisao. These are somewhat secondary though, if we REALLY REALLY wanted to do it, we could've. We didn't want to.

[Cerabix]

First time here and I know its cliche but thank you so much for developing this and making it free. This was art through and through and after spending a year (unknowingly) grayed out this brought a level of emotions out I had forgotten about. Seriously, thank you.

This question is kinda aimed at everyone but as a fellow developer I know from experience and everyone I've talked to that for every "successful" project there are usually hundreds of "unfinished" ones lying about. What were some of your favorite projects that will/maybe never see the light of day. For instance what was Kamifish's favorite project while he was still learning his craft or does Hivemind have a massive sci fi project he keeps in his desk?

[Aura]

We don't have an awful many dead projects within 4LS that were attempted seriously. I think we have better than 50% success rate for projects, if you count KS, our two other released visual novels and the five artbooks we've made as individual projects (and why wouldn't you). A couple things come to mind, and obviously now that we don't have KS on our backs it's easier to fail at stuff more.

Most notable I guess is Measuring Shadows, a visual novel that was attempted twice and somewhat weirdly, with different premises each time. The only common factors between the different incarnations are the name (that was stolen from my text in KS), the character designs and names (but not actual characters) and climatic (who is commonly blamed for the implosion of both attempts)

Delta will be forever salty about the death of Blobster, a comedy visual novel about the love life of lobsters. He was the only 4LS member in that project so it's not "genuine 4LS", but I'll count it anyway.

I wrote a comic script for weee once but she never drew it. She wanted to make a Touhou doujin but that never materialized despite the awesome script (it wasn't awesome).

There's probably other stuff that I forget, but not THAT much. It's of course very possible that I just am not aware of whatever megalomaniac ideas people have had and tried.

[Cerabix]

We don't have an awful many dead projects within 4LS that were attempted seriously. I think we have better than 50% success rate for projects, if you count KS, our two other released visual novels and the five artbooks we've made as individual projects (and why wouldn't you). A couple things come to mind, and obviously now that we don't have KS on our backs it's easier to fail at stuff more.

Most notable I guess is Measuring Shadows, a visual novel that was attempted twice and somewhat weirdly, with different premises each time. The only common factors between the different incarnations are the name (that was stolen from my text in KS), the character designs and names (but not actual characters) and climatic (who is commonly blamed for the implosion of both attempts)

Delta will be forever salty about the death of Blobster, a comedy visual novel about the love life of lobsters. He was the only 4LS member in that project so it's not "genuine 4LS", but I'll count it anyway.

I wrote a comic script for weee once but she never drew it. She wanted to make a Touhou doujin but that never materialized despite the awesome script (it wasn't awesome).

There's probably other stuff that I forget, but not THAT much. It's of course very possible that I just am not aware of whatever megalomaniac ideas people have had and tried.

50% is absolutely incredible for an organization. I was thinking more along the lines of personal stuff though. After I read the story of how this game was created I realize that its one of those things that only comes about because of where everyone was at in their life at that point. I hope to see your team, or some combination of some of the devs do other things. There is a lot of synergy here.

Here is another one that might be a bit too personal but have any of you had people close to you play your game and then open up to you about it? When I was playing this I felt like if one of my friends had made this as a side project I would have had to invite him over for drinks and a long talk.

[SpunkySix]

I've wanted Blobster so bad for so long, I just didn't know it. Now I'm salty too.

[CoffeeDrive]

I've want Blobster so bad for so long, I just didn't know it. Now I'm salty too.

+1