Introduce yourselves Fans!

[Waytfm]

There's a non-dev IRC we can join? (Or are we allowed into the dev one?)

No non-devs in the dev IRC, but I think there is also a regular IRC channel as well. It just hasn't been mentioned in the non-dev section yet.

[Saucium]

There might be room for another artist. I really don't know. I know one artist applied yesterday and is almost definitely going to be allowed to join the dev team. I don't know if the dev team is still looking for artists though. Never hurts to try I guess. So, if you can draw, you should put in an application.

Thank you. Unfortunately, I don't draw anything better than stick figures. I paint images better with words.

Well, for one there might be open spots popping open now and then, and don't forget plain old motivation - stick around, keep the forums alive, pop your head in the IRC channel, all these things go a long way in cheering us on

Understood. Thank you.

[Gloom]

Hey there guys. Some of you may or may not remember me from the KS forums. As you can (or perhaps cannot) see, I have lost the title of Minister, and so am now doomed to be known solely for my insufferable personality and signature horrible writing style. I haven't been very active there, as of late, since it turns out being in the army is actually a lot of time consuming work, but I lurk often enough, which is how I managed to find this concept.

I have to admit, when I first read about it there, my immediate thought was "Look, another bunch of losers on the internet declares that they're totally going to make a new awesome computer game. I figure it's going to be how many minutes before the idea is trashed...?"
Then, I remembered what game I was in the process of completing at the moment. Guess I might as well give this one a fair chance! Looking around the forum here, it seems you've actually set up a pretty respectable project.

I'd love to join the development team, but I guess it's a little too late for that now (curse you, geopolitical state of the Middle-East!), seeing as I am even worse a drawer than I am a writer.
I'd offer to translate the game to Hebrew, but as Suriko kindly explained to me a few years back, Ren'py can't do Hebrew, so I guess that's not an option either...

Guess for now I'll settle for being a fan. KS has left a big "obsession" shaped hole in mind that has to be filled.

And just because it seems to be a good place to put such information: no, I do not have mental disorders of my own, aside from ADHD, and while it can be inconvenient at times, I refuse to put that one in the same basket with the likes of Paranoid Schizophrenia or Bipolar Syndrome, out of respect both for myself and for people with actual problems.

Hope to see it all come to pass.

[Worthington]

Jesus, Gloom, I like your writing. Also, why aren't you a minister anymore?

[Gloom]

I cannot post nearly as often as I did before, and most likely never again will be able to. I don't merit a fancy title.

Also, I was a lot less self-aware back then, I guess.

[mtkl]

I'd offer to translate the game to Hebrew, but as Suriko kindly explained to me a few years back, Ren'py can't do Hebrew, so I guess that's not an option either...

Actually, I believe ren'py does Hebrew now (support was added sometime in 2009?). The issue was that the KS team forked ren'py way before this and added their own things to the engine. Since the current team will likely start with a much newer version of ren'py than 4LS were working with, it should support Hebrew just fine.

[Captain Ersatz]

Hey! I'm new and I wasn't even on the KS forums but I was following that project for at least two years so I'm a big fan of that and looking forward to what you guys are coming up with. Let's all hope it doesn't take 5 years though. Anyway, as you can probably tell already my talents don't lie with writing but I am a composer/producer so there's that. I'd love to be on the team for this but being a fan of the project is good for me! If the devs are still looking for composers though I'll post in the dev recruitment subforum.

Cheers and good luck to everyone! I'm already looking forward to what this may become.

[Fluffee]

Heya guys! A bit late to hopping on this forum, but...

Okey dokey. So normally on the Internet I go by the alias Gloomy, but since there is a Gloom here, I thought that might get a bit confusing... So call me Fluffee! I've been a fan of KS for a couple years now technically I shouldn't be playing it, but... so I thought that this seemed like an interesting concept. I'm interested to seeing how this turns out, so I'mma stalk around here for a while~

[encrypted12345]

I wandered in from the KS forums. While this has a lot of potential, this can go wrong in so many ways. Therefore, I'll give some feedback in hopes that it will help prevent this VN idea from becoming huge disaster.

This project will be interesting to observe. I sincerely hope that this turns out well.

[Waytfm]

I wandered in from the KS forums. While this has a lot of potential, this can go wrong in so many ways. Therefore, I'll give some feedback in hopes that it will help prevent this VN idea from becoming huge disaster.

This project will be interesting to observe. I sincerely hope that this turns out well.

No worries. Every possible thing that could be done to prevent this from ending badly is being done. It's going to turn out great.

[encrypted12345]

No worries. Every possible thing that could be done to prevent this from ending badly is being done. It's going to turn out great.

If you're that optimistic about it, then I can worry a bit less. I believe whole-heartedly that execution matters much more than premise, so I'll cheer for you guys and hope for the best.

[Fox]

Hello, I am known as Fox in here and in KS' forums.

I loved playing Katawa Shoujo and I finished all the routes in just 5 days.
After that, I started lurking around their forum.

While lurking, I found a thread about this project and I decided to see what's going on.
Hopefully everything is going well for you guys so far.

Anyways, my real name is Justin and I love watching anime and talking about it.
I also like to use computers and lurk around the internet for interesting stuff.

I always try my best to use good grammar, spelling, and punctuation when it comes to posting.

[Waytfm]

Nice to have you here Fox.

[Fox]

Nice to have you here Fox.

Thank you very much, Waytfm.
I hope to have a great time with everyone.

[mtkl]

Hello, I am known as Fox

Is it bad that I was skimming your introduction, read that part, and suddenly thought 'Fox News has picked this up??!'
Had to read it all properly after that.

[scopedknife]

Hey y'all :3

I'm known as scopedknife pretty much across the entire internet, and I'm here because I believe in the future of the interactive medium (that includes VNs). As I briefly touched upon in my relatively lengthy post in the MS thread of the KS forum, pieces like this project that cover difficult or contravertial subject matter are quite intriguing and exciting to me as they'll no doubt help to push the envelope for what's acceptable within the medium, and solidify it as a veritable art form (though I'm not looking for that debate at the moment). To be honest, it'd be almost hypocritical of me not to be interested in this project for its themes and content since those in opposition offer the same points as those who thought KS a controversy, and we all know how that turned out
As such, here I am. I would have liked to have been able to contribute to the project in some way, either musically or in terms of writing/editing, but it seems my potential position has been filled. If anyone needs an understudy, I officially nominate my (portfolio-less >.<") self.
Anyways, I'll be around as long as the project has legs (prosthetic or otherwise), to offer support and advice to any who might seek it. For a random lurker, I'm surprisingly good as an advisor, I swear xD
I wish the dev team all the best. Good luck. Do your roots, your fans and your medium proud.

P.S. Getting it out of the way, I don't suffer from any mental difficulties or disorders (unless you count clibanisophobia), although I know people (and have had partners) who do. It's tough, but this is something that very little projects touch upon within our medium and it's important that, if the idea and drive is there to bring it to the world, we as artists (or writers, or programmers, or musicians) do our best to give depth the themes and narrative and create a memorable piece that can make a lasting impact on its audience. It's tough, but I trust you with it

S_K

[Gloom]

I'd offer to translate the game to Hebrew, but as Suriko kindly explained to me a few years back, Ren'py can't do Hebrew, so I guess that's not an option either...

Actually, I believe ren'py does Hebrew now (support was added sometime in 2009?). The issue was that the KS team forked ren'py way before this and added their own things to the engine. Since the current team will likely start with a much newer version of ren'py than 4LS were working with, it should support Hebrew just fine.

Oh... is that so?

Well, now this is interesting news. This merits further consideration, I believe.

hmmm...

As I said, I don't have time right now even for lighter projects, but then again, this would only make such an undertaking "difficult" wheres before I believed to be "impossible". There's literally a mathematical infinity of measure between the two terms.
And I might just be able to gather a few other folks for this... should think, should consider, should debate.

It took me less than a month of work to translate the first act of KS to Hebrew, but that was only one of 16 (since each of the five routes has three of its own), and I had a lot more free time back then. On the other hand, KS took five years to make. Even if my ability to work on such things is severely limited, surely five years should be enough, former data considered? Especially if you assume that I would have a lot more free time in three years, when I no longer have to serve in the army. And that's only myself, assuming I can't find any help...

And from the little we know of the game's setting, the translation of the foreign terms to Hebrew should be a lot easier. I've already explained once on the other forum why the Hebrew language is extremely unsuited to the integration of foreign words, but German should be a lot easier to work with then Japanese. I might not even have to change character names.

The first visual novel in Hebrew... might as well be a very good one. And it would be a pleasure and an honor beyond measure to be involved in such a thing.

Does anybody with authority on the subject have anything to comment?

[mtkl]

Does anybody with authority on the subject have anything to comment?

I'm not in authority, so really not in a position to say, but I assume they'll have to reach a final draft for the writing before any sort of translation efforts can begin. If they do what KS did (one writer a path, constant peer review and rewriting), the final draft might not be reached until the very end. Even if they take a different approach to the writing, it will take months/years to reach a point where translation can begin.

[tibbycat]

Hello!

I recently played through Katawa Shoujo and loved it. I was really touched by it. I blogged the other day about my experience with it and how it's made me reflect on how I think of people who are disabled and how I think of my own (mental) disabilities: http://fragmentsarefound.com/2012/02/01/katawa-shoujo/

I have social phobia and obsessive compulsive disorder. I think I related most to Hanako and her route because of this and was thinking how a similar visual novel about people with mental disabilities would be interesting. If it could help enlighten the public about people with mental disabilities then it would be a wonderful thing indeed. Someone kindly left me a comment on my blog to let me know about Mentaru Shoujo. So here I am

In the real world, I'm a gamedev student (doing game art) and I like reading muchly. My bookcases look like a library.

Nice to meet you all!

[mtkl]

My bookcases look like a library.

Nice to meet you all!

Nice to meet you too!
Your bookcases sound like mine. What sort of stuff do you enjoy reading?