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So how does all of this get done? We have five primary developement "tools", basically just methods of managing game data, information and communication: forums, IRC, MSN, SVN and Trac. We hope that KS will end up looking and feeling like a game made by 15 clearly separate people, who share one unified idea about the game. In general, everyone has equal creative freedom, and this creativity we try to direct into a collective direction through our developement discussions. Sometimes you have to understand that something you want done is, in practical terms, impossible. It's sometimes okay to accept that not everything has to be exactly like you want. There is a very intricate pattern of what must be according to whose standards, but every one of us has learned that working on something like KS is a game of give and take. An important thing here is that nothing ever satisfies everyone. Generally, nothing that ends up in game is done by a single person only, but everything gets touched on by others, such as artists doing colouring and tweaking for each other, editors editing all script, writers helping each other, direction affecting absolutely everything and so on. More work is done and when everyone relevant feels happy, it's approved as final(nothing is actually ever approved, it just means that nobody disagrees anymore, at least not enough to raise an issue). This feedback ranges from appraisal and approval to nitpicking on details to full-blown, brutal critiquestorm, at worst from multiple people at the same time. Sometimes you really have to force people to give feedback, especially the less vocal devs. When an asset (means an element of the game, such as a bit of writing, a production art piece, a bgm track, a directed scene) is completed, it goes through round of commentary from everyone who is interested. Because art is much easier to grasp even when incomplete, it gets discussed much more often in the WIP stage than other areas. We also have a couple of options to solve complete deadlock situations (they are rare). Often interested parties have a general discussion, and either a consensus is formed or the ones with most stake or most compelling arguments bend others to their will.
#KATAWA SHOUJO GAME THEORY HOW TO#
Usually it happens when someone is uncertain of how to proceed, or there is a disagreement of ideas between two or more people. Discussing work in progress is optional and sporadic. We basically have a very strong picture of what the finished game will be like. At this stage we often put a lot more stress to practicality and feasibility than other values, regardless of how cool an idea someone comes up with. They are also the most stress-free discussions and often pretty fun. Ideas and theories are the most open discussions, often leading to unexpected insights and new approaches that improve the game a lot. In reality we spend an awful lot of time discussing about KS, our ideas, methods, giving and taking feedback about various parts of the game and so on. Anyway, everyone has their own job and they work towards completing it at their own pace. Duty, camaraderie, passion and such are good things and they drive us, but in the middle of the sea of developement hell, the faraway shore sometimes feels too distant. Without a concrete motivator, it's really tough to stay on target sometimes. We have a few slavedriver types who do take more global responsibility, and periodically prod the lazybutts into working harder, but imposing hard deadlines is obviously not possible in a project like this. Everyone has very clearly defined assignments, and they work towards completing them largely by themselves. Our method of working is mostly without strict hierarchy (maybe we just lack a dev of the type required for that). Still, we manage to get things done, it's just not all that easy. I think we all freely admit that we are basically completely unqualified to handle something this big.
![katawa shoujo game theory katawa shoujo game theory](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xAbo-antyjk/maxresdefault.jpg)
The two primary challenges with our work is the gigantic scope of our project, and managing the large amount of people working on it. But will talk about some things, for you, and maybe for myself to better understand who we are. It is a little bit paradoxal and I can't (and indeed, am not even going to try to) explore all the intricacies and quirks that we ourselves have grown to accept a fundamental part of this team.
![katawa shoujo game theory katawa shoujo game theory](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZsUazpugxxU/YDMz4P5yFQI/AAAAAAAAb48/-o8ACymxul41swWLta_Mlt6NauqeBx3HACLcBGAsYHQ/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/mzzlJ%2B.png)
We are an extremely organic, dynamic and free-form group, while at the same time it often feels we are too stagnant, too ass-backwards, too carefree. How does KS actually get made? What is the everyday developement work like? I've tried to write about this topic before, but honestly, it's extremely difficult to concisely express the way our team works in this project.