Small 88x31
Medium 200x40
Regular 468x60
Please use them however you wish.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Banners
In response to several requests for KS banners to put on websites, we've made these:
Small 88x31
Medium 200x40
Regular 468x60
Please use them however you wish.
Small 88x31
Medium 200x40
Regular 468x60
Please use them however you wish.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Voice Acting and Katawa Shoujo
The question of voice acting with regards to Katawa Shoujo comes up every now and again, so the decision to not have voice acting in the game bears some explanation.
Many of the decisions taken during the development of the game can be ascribed to lack of forethought and planning, staff coming and going, and the script having been worked on during much of the time all other areas were stalled. This has led to multiple problems, not the least of which has been a huge backlog for any artist joining the team, as well as offers having to be refused for various things to be included in the game. One of those is voice acting.
Time limits, with us wanting to have release dictated by when the art is done instead of adding yet another delay is probably the largest of the problems that voice acting faces. There is also the need to find a good voice actor for each and every character, and any written dialogue that's been recorded having to go unchanged and therefore not allowing for dialogue edits during post-production, editor sweeps, and alpha/beta tester feedback.
Finally, for a project the size of KS, the logistics of voice acting just become too much to work with. With the cast having grown considerably from the five heroines and protagonist that were started with, communication with the voice actors for each and every character becomes extremely difficult - a problem that timezones would also exacerbate.
For a smaller project, or one that is better planned, voice acting may well be a possibility. But for Katawa Shoujo, the decision has been made that it simply isn't.
Many of the decisions taken during the development of the game can be ascribed to lack of forethought and planning, staff coming and going, and the script having been worked on during much of the time all other areas were stalled. This has led to multiple problems, not the least of which has been a huge backlog for any artist joining the team, as well as offers having to be refused for various things to be included in the game. One of those is voice acting.
Time limits, with us wanting to have release dictated by when the art is done instead of adding yet another delay is probably the largest of the problems that voice acting faces. There is also the need to find a good voice actor for each and every character, and any written dialogue that's been recorded having to go unchanged and therefore not allowing for dialogue edits during post-production, editor sweeps, and alpha/beta tester feedback.
Finally, for a project the size of KS, the logistics of voice acting just become too much to work with. With the cast having grown considerably from the five heroines and protagonist that were started with, communication with the voice actors for each and every character becomes extremely difficult - a problem that timezones would also exacerbate.
For a smaller project, or one that is better planned, voice acting may well be a possibility. But for Katawa Shoujo, the decision has been made that it simply isn't.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Please have a very merry Christmas, from everyone on the Katawa Shoujo developer team.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
『かたわ少女』について
当サークルの作品、『かたわ少女』は、商品として販売するのではなく、ボランティアによって作られた同人作品として無料で配布する予定です。
English: This is basically just a restatement of the fact that the game will be released for free, as some in the Japanese community had expected Katawa Shoujo to cost money - a normal practice for doujin games.
English: This is basically just a restatement of the fact that the game will be released for free, as some in the Japanese community had expected Katawa Shoujo to cost money - a normal practice for doujin games.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The State of Play, Christmas Edition
Hello everyone. It's been a long time since the last blog update, and a fair amount of things have been happening, so it's time for yet another update.
Writing:
Post-production is trundling along on all paths, with a particular focus on preparation of the demo. As we come to the final stages of development on it, alpha testing will begin with a demo release coming afterwards. The post-production phase has so far shown one of the greatest problems, but also one of the greatest strengths, of the development process of KS - that being the almost anarchic organisation structure. While small bursts of democracy, mob rule and dictatorship come and go, people largely do what they wish to via both negotiation and merit. At times this means he who has the largest mouth is most powerful, and at others it means very loose control over developers, but in the end it's fostered a friendship that's held the project together through many tough times.
Art:
The first finished CGs are starting to roll off the art-line now, with heroine sprites on the edge of completion. Thanks to everyone's hard work we've found, and finished altering, all the background shots required for the game. It was a long process given the number of backgrounds that had accumulated over the process of scriptwriting, but it's finally done. Thank you to all involved on that front, especially Yujovi for getting us a huge majority of the photos, and Delta for his image altering, with organisation and management of the process from Suriko.
On the staff front, we've welcomed Raide to the project as another artist, who will be working on both sprites and CGs. Being Indonesian, he joins our ranks as a developer of yet another nationality amongst a Finn, a German and an Italian, in addition to a handful of both Australians and Americans. Some of his fanart from before joining the project can be found on the forums, in the oekaki section.
Below is an updated heroine shot, showing the new Lilly art and another background, the exterior of the school dormitories.
Writing:
Post-production is trundling along on all paths, with a particular focus on preparation of the demo. As we come to the final stages of development on it, alpha testing will begin with a demo release coming afterwards. The post-production phase has so far shown one of the greatest problems, but also one of the greatest strengths, of the development process of KS - that being the almost anarchic organisation structure. While small bursts of democracy, mob rule and dictatorship come and go, people largely do what they wish to via both negotiation and merit. At times this means he who has the largest mouth is most powerful, and at others it means very loose control over developers, but in the end it's fostered a friendship that's held the project together through many tough times.
Art:
The first finished CGs are starting to roll off the art-line now, with heroine sprites on the edge of completion. Thanks to everyone's hard work we've found, and finished altering, all the background shots required for the game. It was a long process given the number of backgrounds that had accumulated over the process of scriptwriting, but it's finally done. Thank you to all involved on that front, especially Yujovi for getting us a huge majority of the photos, and Delta for his image altering, with organisation and management of the process from Suriko.
On the staff front, we've welcomed Raide to the project as another artist, who will be working on both sprites and CGs. Being Indonesian, he joins our ranks as a developer of yet another nationality amongst a Finn, a German and an Italian, in addition to a handful of both Australians and Americans. Some of his fanart from before joining the project can be found on the forums, in the oekaki section.
Below is an updated heroine shot, showing the new Lilly art and another background, the exterior of the school dormitories.
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