DD #18: Calling Alpha testers, new BG call, and introducing the art team

Hay everyone. TcDohl here. A jam-packed Developer's Diaries for you this time around with lots of news. Firstly, we are making an open call for alpha testers to test the flow and gameplay of the game. Here are the requirements for being an alpha tester:

• Must not be a part of the current development team.
• Must not have read or have access to the development section of the boards.
• Must be able to give instant response to us about a bug, or any overall game problem that one may have.
• Must have a lot of free time to do lots of playthroughs.
• Must not leak the alpha version.

Basically, the alpha tester will be responsible for reporting not only bugs, but the overall game experience. Specifically, the text flow and overall game flow must be critiqued. Alpha testers must also not only catch bugs, but must also try to 'break the game' in the game. The alpha version that we'll be handing out will use the art from the nonexistent demo that may or may not have been leaked last year. If you're interested, head over to the boards and apply over there. Alpha testing begins on Monday, 3 March, but you can apply at any time until we say so.

Secondly, we had a good amount of response from our BG open call, and were able to choose a couple of them to use in the final game. However, we still need a lot more, so I'll be expanding the open BG call for the following locations:

• School nurse's office. There must be no window in the picture.
  
• School gate. Must be a gate for an English public school or a private school that has Gothic Revival style architecture.
• A solid metal door on a perimeter wall. Bonus points if it is green.
• A shared dorm bathroom. Lots of showers and stuff.
  
• A dressing room for a stage.
• An art storage room.
  
• A headmaster/principal's office. Bonus points if the windows are Gothic-like.
  

Remember that if you'll be submitting a photo, you must be the copyright holder and hand over or release the copyright of your photo to us or release it into the public domain. Found photos cannot be used.

Lastly, it's been a while now, but our art situation has gotten a lot better. The most recent development being our art team now having four members, and having a moemoe style. This is one CG that one of them has finished.

The art team are ambi07, silentkyon, ramoekki, and weeee. The CG shown above is by weeee.

The character sheet above is by silentkyon.

BG Open Call correction

I noted that the submission must abide by cc-nc-nd, but what I meant was that you must give us copyright of the photo for express use in the final product (the game) which is under the cc-nc-nd license.

このゲームはcc-nc-ndでリリースするけど、君達の写真は私達自身のライセンスに住めなきゃだめです。（私達自身のライセンスは詰り君達の写真の版権（©）は私達に預けて「遣せコンヤロｗ」。それだけです。）

BG CALL 日本語バジオン

私達のKatawa Shoujo作成に当たって、皆さんの力が必要です！
私達は今背景写真（BG)を募集しています。

BG写真を持っているか、撮影のためのいい場所をご存知のかたは、
どうぞこの記事にコメントしてください。（メールでもOKです。メールアドレスは：(fourleafstudios@gmail.com））

募集に当たっていくつか注意点があります。
まず、送っていただいた写真はそのままゲーム本編で使われる可能性があります。
写真の権利はゲームの他のコンテンツ同様、Creative Commons cc-nc-nd（表示・非営利・改変禁止）にしたがっている必要があります。
詳細はこちら：http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.ja

必要な写真のカテゴリ：

• 病院の中から窓の写真
• 病室の中
• 会館の外、 書院造りみたいな館
• 会館の中、 食堂（木材な壁）
• 陸上競技のトラック、観覧席から、そしてトラックからの見晴らし
• 日本庭園（出来れば池とか川とか有ると可）
• 日本の市街の写真
• 日本の田舎の写真
• Nice boat. (良い船　小型～中型ヨット）
• ”上海”、日本の喫茶店。伝統的な日本茶屋だけど、現代的な趣向もあり
• 学生寮の部屋の中

とりあえずこのくらいです。

Open call for background photos

We need a little help in gathering some of the backgrounds that we put into our game. We need you, the blog reading public to help us fill some of the gaps. So if you have photos in your computer, or know of a place that you can take a picture of that would be a good fit for the description in the list, please post! A couple of things must be said for photos you may want to submit. Firstly, if you're going to submit a photo, you have to assume that it may be used for the final game and must comply under the cc-nc-nd license along with the rest of our stuff (actual specifics are here). Also, if you're going to submit a photo, either comment in this blog post or post in this thread in the boards.

Here is the list:

• A hospital window. Any kind would do.
• A hospital room.
  
• The Great Hall exterior, a traditional Japanese-style building, modeled on a shoin.
  
• Great Hall interior, a cafeteria with wooden walls.
• A running track, a view from bleachers and from track level.
  
• A Japanese-style garden with a pond or stream.
• A Japanese suburban streetscape.
• A Japanese rural streetscape.
• A Nice Boat (a small-medium size yacht would do)
• The "Cafe Shanghai", described as "A traditional Japanese teahouse with a modern twist".
• A dorm room.
  

That's it so far. I may add more in the future.

--TcDohl

Developer's Diaries Episode 17

Hay guyz, TcDohl here. We've had quite a week, but we've made it. The most notable thing that we've had this week is we've recently hit our 200k word milestone (if you're curious, that word is "matter"). We've also had a huge spike in hits lately, thanks to a friend of the project, adxrun, who runs the dekunology blog. Suffice it to say that this blog post brought us more than 30% of our current hit count. In three days (also thanks to a 2ch thread that hit the thread limit of 1000 posts, caused by the blog post).

There was also a discussion on the title of our game (for a number of reasons, one reason being I myself always thought of "Katawa Shoujo" as a working title). The decision was to stay with "Katawa Shoujo" for now, but that didn't stop us from coming up with a few interesting titles. Here are some of them:

"Cuore"
"Broken Hearts: Reverie of the Two"

"Anatta"
"Coeur: Everything is Perfect"
"Coeur: Rhythm of Life"
"~命のチョウシ～" (Inochi no choushi - Rhythm of Life)

If you like what you see (more than our current title), please go ahead and bother us. I'm sure we'll respond in some way.

Developer Diaries, chapter 16

Busy busy busy. We are closing on the magical 200 000 words, only a few months after the previous milestone was reached. We are fighting out the last bumps on the demo, then we proofread it inhouse and then we think where we could find a few quality checkers to read through the developer alpha of the game to give the script the last polishing.

Jacob of Fakku graciously linked us, meaning that our humble project might just have gotten the attention of the finest elite of the internets' porn-hungry hentai aficionados. Doki doki. It occurs to me that our other assets are not very easily reachable from here, so if your interest is piqued, here:
IRC channel: irc://irc.rizon.net/zettai-shoujou
Developement forums: Katawa Shoujo

THE FOLLOWING IS OUT OF DATE AND ENTIRELY SCRAPPED.

I thought I'd post an teaser excerpt from one of the actual game paths, and this weeks winner is Suriko, with this piece of text only called by its mysterious developement codename, L11.

"Hana-chan..."

Affectionately pawing Hanako's face with the backs of her fingers, her face looms barely inches above Hanako's face. Hanako's amethyst eyes shy away to the side, unable to meet the gentle gaze of Lilly. Her hair gently brushed aside, the cheek-born scars play their familiar melody across her face, an unseen rhapsody in red.

Nervously held to her chest, her arms tense slightly, her breasts filling out around the smooth backs of her hands.

"L-Lilly... please..."

Taking the side of her face in the palm of her hand, her delicate pale lips brush those of Hanako. Hanako's body relaxes, and for a fleeting second, Lilly's breath gently caresses her face.

As she pulls back, Hanako returns her gentle gaze. Lilly leans in for another kiss. This time though, it overflows with passion, a lustful grab for Hanako's breath.

"Mmmmm.... Mmm..."

Lilly's lust flows over into Hanako, the last vestiges of resistance dissolving in the onslaught. What was a trickle of desire is now a raging torrent of passion, the atmosphere between the two changing perceptibly.

Hanako slowly raises her arms to hold Lilly's snow-white back, her fingers as touching the flawless skin of her pale shoulderblades. Slowly withdrawing her lips from those of Hanako, Lilly slowly lowers herself to Hanako's full breasts. The hands on Lilly's back helplessly slide off and onto the bed, the gaze of her companion transfixed upon her.

"My my, Hana-chan, such a beautiful body..."

A deep breath is the only answer to be given, and the only answer required.

I don't bother to rant about anything so I hope the above is sufficient for a proper diary entry.

- Aura