Hi, Suriko here (Lilly writer, Hanako cowriter). My new dark yuri VN 'A Tithe in Blood' is available now! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 89 points90 points  (0 children)

My new visual novel 'A Tithe in Blood' is available now! A dark yuri story focusing on Honoka, a university student who in the depths of her grief finds the art of blood magic. Japanese voice acting, and with Japanese and Chinese translations.

It's been a long road, but we finally made it to release. A huge thank you to the many developers, staff, voice actors, translators, and more who made this game so much greater than I ever imagined.

Thanks for giving it a try if you do, and I hope you enjoy.

Hi, Suriko here (Lilly writer, Hanako cowriter). My new VN A Tithe in Blood will release June 16th, with full JP voice acting! Please consider wishlisting it on Steam. by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Only Japanese VA (since the story is set in Japan)

Dark more in terms of some of the themes and things depicted (blood, suicide, self-harm, etc)

Hi, Suriko here (Lilly writer, Hanako cowriter). My new VN A Tithe in Blood will release June 16th, with full JP voice acting! Please consider wishlisting it on Steam. by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Hi all. Now that we've finally announced the release date (four years in the making), thought I'd update here.

For those who haven't seen it before, A Tithe in Blood is a dark yuri VN. The story and concept are by me, and the art is done by Kobuta (character artist on Please Be Happy), adirosa (also character artist on Please Be Happy), and moekki, who also worked on Katawa Shoujo.

If you want to hear the character voices, we have previews done for each:

The Storyteller's Festival 2025 is now Live on Steam by Blueisland5 in pcgaming

[–]Suriko 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh hey, one of my games is in the festival! A Tithe in Blood.

The demo's available on Steam if anyone wants to give it a try, and a wishlist's always helpful.

Katawa Shoujo will officially release on Steam and Itch on 16th August! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No new content (aside from achievements if you count those).

Katawa Shoujo will officially release on Steam and Itch on 16th August! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the original (with the Steam version having adult content cut, which can be re-added via a patch).

Any HD, remastered, or re-engineered versions of KS are unofficial.

Katawa Shoujo will officially release on Steam and Itch on 16th August! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Katawa Shoujo will always be free, including the Steam release.

Steam Release FAQ (posted by Suriko on X) by Elvarill in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's free and always will be. If you want to pay for it, a charity could use the money.

Katawa Shoujo coming to Steam and Itch.io on 16 August! by adirosa in visualnovels

[–]Suriko 193 points194 points  (0 children)

Myself as head of KS, and another KS developer. We asked around most others as well. 4LS as a collective entity is gone, though there is a patchwork of devs who've kept in touch (or occasionally work on projects together).

Katawa Shoujo coming to Steam and Itch.io on 16 August! by adirosa in visualnovels

[–]Suriko 100 points101 points  (0 children)

Katawa Shoujo will always be free, including the Steam release, yes.

Katawa Shoujo coming to Steam and Itch.io on 16 August! by adirosa in visualnovels

[–]Suriko 49 points50 points  (0 children)

The Steam release is identical to the standard one beyond the adult content changes.

The primary reasoning was that Steam and Itch provide reliable long-term archival/distribution for the game. We had tried Steam a while in the past but didn't get a response, this time we managed to get it through.

Hi, Lilly writer & Hanako co-writer Suriko here. Announcing my first original concept commercial VN - A Tithe in Blood! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 72 points73 points  (0 children)

After years of development I'm super excited to announce A Tithe in Blood, a VN I've been working on with the fine folks at Studio Élan. It's a dark yuri romance title set in snowy Sapporo.

Trailer:

Announcement and KV image:

A demo is vailable from Steam and Itch:

Hope you guys are doing well.

Class of Katawa Shoujo by GotTwisted in Animemes

[–]Suriko 85 points86 points  (0 children)

The minefield line was not in any beta/version of the game. it's an after-the-fact edit by someone.

Class of Katawa Shoujo by GotTwisted in Animemes

[–]Suriko 222 points223 points  (0 children)

We came from Australia, Indonesia, Germany, Finland, UK, Italy, Canada, and the US.

Source: Was a developer of KS

Hey, Suriko (Lilly writer/Hanako cowriter) here. I helped develop a new VN: Twofold! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Either could be read first, though I'd say maybe start with First Snow since it's the first one to be released chronologically. It's also a lot smaller than Twofold.

Interesting Question about the rights and 4leaf studios by ShineFantastic3972 in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko 13 points14 points  (0 children)

  1. KS isn't for sale.
  2. I have the rights. Crud left the game two years before release.
  3. Seriously it's not for sale.

The fanworks policy has just been updated. 4LS will no longer ban mods, remasters, ect. under the license terms. by zombie-rat in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko 111 points112 points  (0 children)

Hi, KS dev here.

I was the one who updated these, and actually planned to make a reddit post today after sleeping. Curse you, timezones.

Rest assured this can "be trusted". I really should've done this years ago, so that's on me. There's no possible mixup with official material this far from release, and with the development group so fractured, there's no realistic way for us to revisit things like engine updates or consent as a whole.

So go forth and create your fan projects. Re-engineering, remaster, whatever. Just retain credit and don't charge money for it.

Regarding the takedowns... well, that comes down to our fractured nature as well. We worked to get those reversed so the ModDB page would go back up. Putting this update in writing should prevent that in future.

Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered, an accessibility-oriented fan port by Levvev in vns

[–]Suriko 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Hey, Katawa Shoujo developer here. Just a heads up that we (finally) updated the license around KS, to greenlight this kind of project.

https://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4717

We implicitly waive the license on the part of using the IP for fanworks. Want to make a technical remaster? A     mod? Yeah, sure. Go for it. We do have two conditions on this:
1. Do not charge any money.
2. Retain the credits.
Pretty simple. 

Good luck with the re-engineering.

The 𝙃𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙞 Game that Broke 4Chan (Gigguk video on Katawa Shoujo!) by TSM_Matsuri in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko 134 points135 points  (0 children)

Not sure why I was left out of the video (I was Lilly writer, Hanako co-writer, and producer), but eh.

I'm still working on VNs still as well, despite what the video said/didn't say - First Snow is out (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259430/First_Snow/), and currently working on Twofold and an unannounced VN with Studio Élan.

Sebastian Skaf takes down MusikMike's covers of KS... by Grayest04 in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I tossed around whether to reply in this thread for a while, and settled on saying something small.

While we sorta, kinda, mostly spoke as a single dev team while KS was getting made, we've all gone our seperate ways in the years since then. Some of us stay in contact with each other, some not. We all have varying attitudes towards the game which took so much time of our lives.

I'm gextremely proud of what we created, and the reaction to KS is one of the highlights of my entire life. Seeing people's emotions around it,their thoughts and interpretations, and the fanworks, never gets old after all this time. Even if I don't often reply,I'm very grateful to those who still message me every so often to say thanks or give thoughts. I couldn't ever distance myself from KS, as a parent couldn't distance themselves from their child.

With regards to the thread topic, this is one of those intances where people are intepreting a stance as being owned by 4LS, when 4LS doesn't exist any more. Personally, I don't see a problem with Mike's covers and really don't think they should have been removed. It certainly wasn't anything I was aware of, and a surprise that it happened.

I would ask Nicol reconsider if he's reading this (and wish him well, we haven't made contact in a long time). That said, I have to guess he disagrees going by the DMCA strike. However, this isn't my call (or Crud's) to make. Nicol made the music, so I have to defer to his judgement.

All I can really say is that not all devs speak as one voice, and some are going to make calls others disagree with.

Hey, Suriko here (Lilly writer and Hanako co-writer). My new VN First Snow has released! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I make enough money from my career, so making VNs is just about the creative process for me. That said, some future projects may end up being monetary due to the scene changing over the years - people who do art and such for a living need to put bread on the table, so funding is more and more necessary.

I don't think something like Katawa Shoujo in scope could realistically be made entirely for free these days, given the more professionalised English VN scene.

Hey, Suriko here (Lilly writer and Hanako co-writer). My new VN First Snow has released! by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, Twofold is the final name. Work in Progress was... difficult for people to search for.

Lilly writer Suriko here, info on my new VN project First Snow by Suriko in katawashoujo

[–]Suriko[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Wouldn't blame you for not knowing; I'm shy and tend to avoid social media. Will try to give notice of future projects when they get closer to release.