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[Guest]

First off, thank you for the game. I loved it.


You have brought that there has been disagreements and fights throughout the whole development of the game.
What was the biggest fight between the devs?

[Nicol Armarfi]

Now, my next question, did you, Blue, and Juno started working on the game's music post production or during production and how long did you took to complete the game's soundtrack? Also, how did you guys got on the team? Did you ask to join the team for music or did somebody ask you to join.

All music was written during production. I got on the team sometime in late 2007, after I noticed a call from Aura looking for anybody to help with the game. Back then they were just looking for anyone they could get, so it wasn't any problem getting on the team. Blue joined sometime after, and Juno was asked to write the music for the two trailers fairly recently.

[TehIshter]

The game has an amazing collection of music, but I was curious about a track.

Lullaby of Open Eyes, the first time I heard that, I immediately thought, "PLANETARIAN" (which is another great VN, but I digress). The similarity is uncanny. Is it on purpose that you guys referenced a track from Planetarian?

Here's the music links for your convenience:

Planetarian OST - Gentle Jena


Katawa Shoujo OST - Lullaby of Open Eyes

Just quoting my own question since it seems to have been skipped.

At least not on purpose.

... I-I think... ;_;

[Nicol Armarfi]

The similarity is uncanny. Is it on purpose that you guys referenced a track from Planetarian?

Nope. I've gotten a lot of comments of this sort before (compare this with this for example), but most of the time the similarities were not intentional. There is a fairly lengthy quote of O'Canada in the track Nocturne, though.

[JiisanChrist]

I don't speak for the whole dev team, but I'd say "please don't do that". We have stated multiple times that we have no interest in making a profit through KS, either by ourselves or through licensing, and such an endeavor would inevitably bring profit into the mix.

I see, I understand that throwing money into to the mix is likely going to cause resentment & discontent among the development team. It's common that some team members may feel that they deserve more reward according to their perceived amount contribution than others and that's how everything starts to unravel. Having worked on various volunteer projects (unpaid), I have personally seen this sort of incident myself.

It is very admirable that you guys don't seek any profit from this, even offers of donations from fans are deflected to charitable organisation. Despite this, Katawa Shoujo still got released. I may not know what happened behind the scene, but I think I can attribute this dedication to the team's passion in the project, the visual novel medium and/or narrative in general. Nevertheless, I am sure that you guys are very proud of what you've accomplished. I know that because that's how I feel whenever I finished the projects I'm involved in.

Putting the issue of money aside, aren't you guys curious how far your projects will go? Having their VN getting animated is a dream come true for must development groups. It is not a certainty that a proper studio will pick up KS, but having a go and seeing what could've happened is still better than not knowing at all isn't it? Even if the petition to the studios does not work, it's still going to raise awareness for Katawa Shoujo, regardless, resulting in more people reading a VN for the first time. Isn't that great in itself?

If the development team still strongly feel that they do not want to attract any publicity at all, then I will give up. But I hope you guys wouldn't prevent fans from expressing their support.

To be realistic, the chance for KS to get animated is relatively slim, but it's better to decline offers from studios than never knowing that there are interested parties at all isn't it?

[concerned citizen]

How, exactly, was it decided that the overall mood of KS' story would be as such, and not, say, happier? I suppose this is what was expected, but I was wondering if something else was ever considered.

[LillyxHanako]

Hey, first of all I want to congratulate the 2 frankly amazing musicians on the score. I know it was digitally produced but the piano in many songs just had me going to the extras section almost as much as playing the acctual game ( I play the game allot).
Anyway heres my 'ask' if you will, I cannot stand doing things anymore without the games music in my mind. I simply MUST have a download link for the songs, im almost certain the rest of these guys would appriciate it too. So can we have one pleaseee?

[cpl_crud]

First off, thank you for the game. I loved it.


You have brought that there has been disagreements and fights throughout the whole development of the game.
What was the biggest fight between the devs?

"servery"

At least that is the one that sticks in my mind the most.

[Drake]

First off, thank you for the game. I loved it.


You have brought that there has been disagreements and fights throughout the whole development of the game.
What was the biggest fight between the devs?

"servery"

At least that is the one that sticks in my mind the most.

Wait, it was over what to call something? A word?

[Bringerof_D]

is there any chance of a release of the sound track?

[Talifan9]

is there any chance of a release of the sound track?

They are debating releasing an OST. No date yet.
Edit: This has been said a few times.

[bradpara]

Question for A22 or whoever else can answer?

What happened to Shizune's mother, unless this has been answered already.

[lbfl]

I guess I don't have a question since I've read this whole thread and most of them have been answered but the Devs seem to be active here so I thought it'd be best to post here.

First of all, a big thank you to everyone a 4LS for producing such a brilliant game. I never knew KS existed before its release recently as I have not played VNs before but I've known of them, but a friend recommended it to me and I thought "Well I like the art style, why not,". I'll have to buy that friend of mine a lot of beers for doing that. I never thought something like this would affect me so much, the writing, the art and the characters. EVERYTHING. The spectrum of emotions that I experienced with the themes and characters caught me of guard, maybe because I had little expectations coming into it but it has definitely set the bar high for any other VNs that I will try in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of all the writing and the characters, I don't have anything to complain about, I am very impressed at how the game approached issues like disability and H-scenes with such a tasteful manner. Once I started playing I couldn't stop, I needed more, I was terribly addicted to the emotions the game was able to invoke. Which is a horrible thing cause being in my final term of my graduate studies meant that I have a lot of work (so yes I'm terribly behind schedule thanks to you guys). If I had to pick one character, it'd be Lilly (I believe Suriko is the writer? *tips hat*). I could give a lengthy explanation, but basically her story tugged all the right strings in me.

Again I could go on forever because I truly enjoyed this, on so many levels that its disturbing at times to think it's capable of that. Congratulations to all involved in KS, you have managed to convert me into a VN reader. I know it's been said before but please do consider working together again as I truly believe that you guys can only produce better things in the future. Here's hoping it will be as hard for you to let go as it is for me

[Guest]

Ok 4 posts of mine have now failed to work, so this will be short.

Why make KS ? You had no obligation to, you get nothing in return, it took lots of time and effort, and some of you have jobs, that have nothing to do with games or VNs. So some of you wont even be able to use KS, to show what they can do, if they wanted a certain job.

[Aura]

Why make KS ? You had no obligation to, you get nothing in return, it took lots of time and effort, and some of you have jobs, that have nothing to do with games or VNs. So some of you wont even be able to use KS, to show what they can do, if they wanted a certain job.

It's a good question, but one that might be difficult to answer satisfactorily. Simply put, it's a hobby for us, something we enjoy doing. We like visual novels and find them interesting, as well as our own specialty (for me, writing). There's no special reason to it. Why KS specifically? Coincidence, mostly, for all of us.

To try to make you understand why the question is not really sensible, an example: I also play the piano, I've played it a lot longer than I spent making KS. Would you question why I play the piano? Do you find it difficult to understand why someone would bother to learn to play an instrument? I'm not obligated to, nor do I get anything in return from that either. In fact, I've probably gained a lot more useful skills from my 5 years in 4LS than I've gotten from my music hobby that has lasted almost my entire life. And now with KS released, a thousand times more people have been enjoy it than I've played the piano to. I play the piano for the same reason I write. Is there anything you simply just enjoy doing? We made KS for the same reason.