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[Aura]

I also claim full responsibility for naming the Nurse, which was really my only significant naming contribution.

And the most valuable contribution of them all! Initially, were you planning on giving the Nurse a name, or was it decided from the start that he wouldn't have one? A while ago, I read that the Nurse himself was inspired by the story about Nurse-kun and Amputee-chan. Was that the reason why his name remained anonymous? My apologies if this has been answered in this thread or elsewhere. I had a quick search and couldn't find any information which specifically answered my questions :D

Yeah, Nurse is a reference to that story. We debated a few times about whether he should have a name or no.

[Valjean Lafitte]

Suriko, had you put much thought into how long Miki has had her disability? I have my own idea of when it was that she lost her left hand, but I'd love to know what you as Miki's writer think (even though I know that the stance 4LS takes is that only what is in the game should be considered canon).

A few months before she entered Yamaku.

I thought that might be the case, because she still seemed a little sensitive about it (hence the awkward silence after Hisao inadvertently states at it). Thanks!

[Kon22]

Did you ever consider making the sex scenes less vanilla, or was this established early on the development?



Not that I wanted them any other way, though...

[Aura]

KS does have several scenes that aren't vanilla, and they cover some of the extremities brought up in design discussions. We didn't really think about doing anything significantly more experimental than what ended up in the story. If anything, I feel we already ventured farther out than what the setting can comfortably support. These are teenagers having sex for the first couple of times in their lives, or at the very least, for the first couple of times with each other. It's not a context to have stupid sex acrobatics and unlikely sexual performance in. That kind of thing is what makes porn shitty narratively and we didn't want KS to be porn.

[ArcCain]

Did you ever consider letting the player name Hisao or just leave him as a blank slate?

[Kon22]

Eh, now that you mention it, you're right. Kind of a stupid question. There's the whole Emi scene, both scenes with Shizune, arguably the scenes with Lilly.

I guess porn and eroges are just messing with my mind.

[Silentcook]

Did you ever consider making the sex scene less vanilla, or was this established early on the development?

During development, we heard enough requests for omorashi out of 4chan for them to have the opposite effect. Maybe.

Did you ever consider letting the player name Hisao or just leave him as a blank slate?

I distinctly remember crud replying to that by copying a line out of Act 1 and substituting "penis" for "Hisao".

End of consideration.

Also no, the "blankfaced-selfinsert-character" thing was very much out by the time I joined, which means pretty early, post-grid1 but pre-Act 1.


Understand that we considered very many things, so the likelyhood of your getting a "yes" answer to this kind of question is high, it's just that the length of consideration in very many cases was an immediate collective "lolno".

[Kon22]

Another question. Do you think the whole process of making KS affected the way you enjoy visual novels? It just came to my mind, maybe after all the hard work and that you're tired of the medium (both as a creator and as a player).

[Aura]

The selfinsert thing of naming the protagonist was shot down super early, even before 4LS. It's that bad of an idea. Iirc Hisao was also named by the famous 4chan polling technique, same as other main characters except Misha.

Also I want to emphasize SC's comment on the "was this ever considered?" questions. 20 clever people and me spent 5 years on this. You can almost certainly count on yourself not being able to think up something one of us hadn't thought about with any degree of seriousness. What counts as "consideration" is vague, but regardless I've never seen a serious question of "was this considered?" type get a negative answer. Not that it's impossible, nor that the questions are pointless since there might be some interesting stories or information in there, just saying that it's more conducive to getting interesting replies if you frame the question like "why can't the player name Hisao?" etc.

That is not an invitation to spam this thread with ludicrous questions of that type though, btw.

[Aura]

Another question. Do you think the whole process of making KS affected the way you enjoy visual novels? It just came to my mind, maybe after all the hard work and that you're tired of the medium (both as a creator and as a player).

Of course. I approach any art pretty analytically, and with deeper understanding of the mechanics of visual novels, narrative and presentation it's easier to appreciate the works. This is very universal. Chefs appreciate food differently from others, composers appreciate music differently etc. Goes for anything.

You could say I'm tired of the medium as a reader, but it's not because of the medium, it's because I find most VNs unappealing. The blanket statement is awkward and I realize it, but I seriously can't seem to find any visual novels that I really like to read. So, I just don't read visual novels much at all these days.

[Suriko]

Another question. Do you think the whole process of making KS affected the way you enjoy visual novels? It just came to my mind, maybe after all the hard work and that you're tired of the medium (both as a creator and as a player).

Imagine watching a puppet show as a young kid, and then rewatching the same show years on. You can see the puppet's strings now, and know that rather than a magical display, it's just some dudes pulling strings in certain ways. But you also now have an appreciation for how well the lines are delivered, the craftsmanship that went into the puppets, and why the script was fashioned in such a way. That's what reading fiction is like, after having spent so long writing it. You see the strings, but gain a different form of appreciation.

Aura really summed it up pretty well. Once you learn how an art form works, you tend to see it in a more analytical way.

I don't read many VNs these days for largely the same reason. Still working away at them, though.

[TheHivemind]

I also claim full responsibility for naming the Nurse, which was really my only significant naming contribution.

And the most valuable contribution of them all! Initially, were you planning on giving the Nurse a name, or was it decided from the start that he wouldn't have one? A while ago, I read that the Nurse himself was inspired by the story about Nurse-kun and Amputee-chan. Was that the reason why his name remained anonymous? My apologies if this has been answered in this thread or elsewhere. I had a quick search and couldn't find any information which specifically answered my questions

He was based on Nurse-kun, but the reason I pushed for his name to only be the Nurse was because I was watching a lot of Doctor Who at the time. Also a side-effect of too much Doctor Who watching: Mutou's appearance and much of his initial personality (he went through some pretty significant characterization changes as development progressed).

KS does have several scenes that aren't vanilla, and they cover some of the extremities brought up in design discussions. We didn't really think about doing anything significantly more experimental than what ended up in the story. If anything, I feel we already ventured farther out than what the setting can comfortably support. These are teenagers having sex for the first couple of times in their lives, or at the very least, for the first couple of times with each other. It's not a context to have stupid sex acrobatics and unlikely sexual performance in. That kind of thing is what makes porn shitty narratively and we didn't want KS to be porn.

Yeah we tried to have some variety while still keeping things from getting too out of hand--the track scene actually started out as a mutual oral sex thing, but then a different path was doing that, and so... other stuff happened, while still retaining a bit of that initial "we are teenagers and have no idea what the fuck we're doing" feel to it (to varying degrees of success).

Another question. Do you think the whole process of making KS affected the way you enjoy visual novels? It just came to my mind, maybe after all the hard work and that you're tired of the medium (both as a creator and as a player).

I don't play VNs at all anymore, and I'd only had the patience to go through one or two of them before KS' development--enough to know the basic shape of most VN narratives, at any rate. I just don't see myself really going through another VN--unless Hatoful Boyfriend counts (eventually I will get a Vita and Hatoful Boyfriend, oh yes).

[Valjean Lafitte]

Yeah we tried to have some variety while still keeping things from getting too out of hand--the track scene actually started out as a mutual oral sex thing, but then a different path was doing that, and so... other stuff happened, while still retaining a bit of that initial "we are teenagers and have no idea what the fuck we're doing" feel to it (to varying degrees of success).

I think when folks ask about the large degree of vanilla sex in KS, what they're really asking is "Why is there no oral sex in this VN?". Or rather, why Hisao is never on the receiving end of oral. That, and I think many people play Rin's route expecting there to be an "obligatory" footjob, but honestly, I'm glad you guys resisted the temptation (if there was any) to include such a scene.

[TheHivemind]

Yeah we tried to have some variety while still keeping things from getting too out of hand--the track scene actually started out as a mutual oral sex thing, but then a different path was doing that, and so... other stuff happened, while still retaining a bit of that initial "we are teenagers and have no idea what the fuck we're doing" feel to it (to varying degrees of success).

I think when folks ask about the large degree of vanilla sex in KS, what they're really asking is "Why is there no oral sex in this VN?". Or rather, why Hisao is never on the receiving end of oral. That, and I think many people play Rin's route expecting there to be an "obligatory" footjob, but honestly, I'm glad you guys resisted the temptation (if there was any) to include such a scene.

True story: There were at least two paths that had oral sex planned (Emi's and Lilly's, as I recall), and we both wound up throwing them out because we both thought the other was doing one. Whoops!

OTHER TRUE STORY OF DUBIOUS TRUTH VALUE: Aura totally wrote a footjob scene.

[Munchenhausen]

True story: There were at least two paths that had oral sex planned (Emi's and Lilly's, as I recall), and we both wound up throwing them out because we both thought the other was doing one. Whoops!

Ahh, now begins the debate on who it "should" have gone to... I can imagine Emi being down for sucking the blue vein, but she got the buttsex. Probably Lilly

OTHER TRUE STORY OF DUBIOUS TRUTH VALUE: Aura totally wrote a footjob scene.

Not to be a dampener, but I'm kinda glad it was left out. Feet are fuckin' manky. Especially since Rin's feet have probably evolved to adapt and her big toe has grown into a simian thumb.