As the sun rises around the world today, it rises on what is, in many respects, the second birthday of Katawa Shoujo.
It was on the 4th of January, 2007, that the infamous sticky (http://katawa-shoujo.com/sticky/ ) was posted and this insanity began.
I won't go through the ins and outs of the last 24 months, the post below this one does that pretty well. Instead, I thought I'd just ramble on a bit and hope that, when I show it to the other devs that they have something worthwhile to say.
Having watched this project evolve over the last two years has been interesting. As the first drafts were being finalised earlier this year, I was finding it surprising to see how the scenarios had changed from our initial plans. But what was more interesting was what didn't change; things that were set in motion a year and a half before that stayed the same for that duration. There were a number of scenes that I read that made me smile simply because they were exactly how I imagined them way back when.
It's the same with the art. With every week there's a new batch of sprites or a CG being discussed, planned, or inserted into the game. Each and every time I am amazed at the artist's take on the game; simultaneously different from what I originally imagined and yet somehow totally capturing our original intent.
But the one thing that surprises me the most about this whole project is the support that we are receiving from the outside world. With only the smallest amount of "official" information from us, word has spread far and wide, and the people watching our various public faces (this blog, the webpage, the forums and the IRC channel) is officially boggling. The bursts of publicity are greatly appreciated, and in our super-secret dev forums we keep tabs of every bit of "press" that we receive. That may sound a little narcissistic, but it does help bolster our motivation (which has been known to falter on occasion). Even something as simple as comments on the blog is enough to make us want to do more. Really, I think one of the secrets to us making it this far is the fanbase that we have built up, and we greatly appreciate your support.
As for any "official" release date, well, there is none. What we do intend to do is release a "demo" of the game in a matter of months (as opposed to years). How many months this will be, and what exactly will be in it is yet to be confirmed, but we'll keep you informed. As for a release date for the "Full" game, well, we hope that we can say that it will be out in "months" rather than "years". However, in saying that, I should mention that I am hoping that there won't be a "Third Birthday" post, and I am not alone amongst the devs who think that way.
I think this now technically long enough to be tl;dr, so I'll stop it there. Thanks to everyone, dev and lurker, for the last two years. It's been insane, but in hindsight I'm glad that I listened to that insane little voice in my head when I signed up for the original forums.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
The Year in Review, and The Year Ahead
Happy new year, one and all!
With 2008 behind us and a new year ahead, this is a look back to everything that happened in 2008, and what looks to be ahead of us for 2009.
Enter, January. All paths were still within their second acts as far as writing went, with no path having breached a dozen scenes. Editing took place on the forums, and there was no head writer or overall vision in place. The basic GUI had taken form (though would still be tweaked later on), but the character sprites and CGs were nonexistant. The first arrivals of our new artist team had mostly joined during February, so it wasn't until then that we saw the first concept sketches posted and sprites begin production. Backgrounds remained all but nonexistant, with the faint hope of finding an artist willing to draw them rapidly dying.
As time went on, people came and went. The decision to use modified photos for backgrounds was initially met with disdain, but in the end turned out to be the only viable option. Not to say it ended up being an easy one - due to the script having ballooned in size due to being constantly worked on despite art and backgrounds having been neglected, a huge backlog had built up. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Yujovi, though, we got all the backgrounds we needed with the photos he's taken. The other backlog - art - moved very quickly from being a dismal and depressing topic to one of great excitement as our art team swelled from four to six, with Moekki, Weee, Gebyy, Kamifish, Ambi and, recently, Raide joining the team. Even in the project's brightest days it had never had multiple artists, let alone one per heroine and an extra. Politics and drama, of course, happened both publically and privately, but the project's managed to get past its disputes and grow in size more and more, reaching an unprecedented high point as it approaches its second year of development.
And so, we reach 2009. What now?
Right now, much of the developer team's focus is on the demo, of which we're aiming at a first half 2009 release for. Some of the artists have already finished their act 1 workload and are continuing onto art assets in act 2 and beyond. Raide in particular is off to a flying start, having done a large amount of art despite arriving only recently.
Finally, in an unrelated note, you may notice that the blog has been updated in accordance to the website's visual design, thanks to Delta's hard work.
With 2008 behind us and a new year ahead, this is a look back to everything that happened in 2008, and what looks to be ahead of us for 2009.
Enter, January. All paths were still within their second acts as far as writing went, with no path having breached a dozen scenes. Editing took place on the forums, and there was no head writer or overall vision in place. The basic GUI had taken form (though would still be tweaked later on), but the character sprites and CGs were nonexistant. The first arrivals of our new artist team had mostly joined during February, so it wasn't until then that we saw the first concept sketches posted and sprites begin production. Backgrounds remained all but nonexistant, with the faint hope of finding an artist willing to draw them rapidly dying.
As time went on, people came and went. The decision to use modified photos for backgrounds was initially met with disdain, but in the end turned out to be the only viable option. Not to say it ended up being an easy one - due to the script having ballooned in size due to being constantly worked on despite art and backgrounds having been neglected, a huge backlog had built up. Thanks to the valiant efforts of Yujovi, though, we got all the backgrounds we needed with the photos he's taken. The other backlog - art - moved very quickly from being a dismal and depressing topic to one of great excitement as our art team swelled from four to six, with Moekki, Weee, Gebyy, Kamifish, Ambi and, recently, Raide joining the team. Even in the project's brightest days it had never had multiple artists, let alone one per heroine and an extra. Politics and drama, of course, happened both publically and privately, but the project's managed to get past its disputes and grow in size more and more, reaching an unprecedented high point as it approaches its second year of development.
And so, we reach 2009. What now?
Right now, much of the developer team's focus is on the demo, of which we're aiming at a first half 2009 release for. Some of the artists have already finished their act 1 workload and are continuing onto art assets in act 2 and beyond. Raide in particular is off to a flying start, having done a large amount of art despite arriving only recently.
Finally, in an unrelated note, you may notice that the blog has been updated in accordance to the website's visual design, thanks to Delta's hard work.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
