30 days of sharing never-before-seen concept art on Patreon

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Hello!

I’ve said this many times, but I feel really bad that I rarely post anything on my Patreon page. Whenever I think about it, I arrive at the conclusion that my patrons would probably want me to work on the game rather than spending a bunch of time preparing supporter-exclusive rewards, so I usually put the Patreon out of my mind. However, I feel way too guilty about it to just ignore it for any longer.

I’ve decided to challenge myself to post on my Patreon 30 days in a row, starting today. For the next 30 days, I will be sharing never-before-seen concept art there. There will be a very wide variety of images shared; everything from cutscene storyboards to concept art for easter eggs. A lot of it could be considered “development trivia” – information that gives you a look into the behind-the-scenes work that gets done in order for new content to be added to the game.

(For example, did you know that we actually designed a Shinigami for Yamiko, the protagonist of the Life Note manga? She’s featured on the back cover of each book, but I’ll be sharing front/back views of her on Patreon so that you can see what the entire design is meant to look like. This is just one example of what I’ll be posting on Patreon over the next 30 days.)

Today’s concept art is a series of logo designs that were created for Yandere Simulator several years ago. In the end, none of these logos were actually used, but I still think that they’re all really cool and fun to look at. As a bonus, there are also some logos for “Yanderu Software,” which was the name I was contemplating using for the team developing Yandere Simulator, and some drawings depicting possible designs for a “LoveSick” logo that might have been used if I had decided to go ahead with my plan to rename the game to LoveSick.

(I won’t be posting a blurry screenshot on my blog once per day; this is – probably – going to be the only one.)

“YandereDev, YandereDev! There’s a bug in the latest build!”

I know; I’ve received some bug reports, and I’m currently in the process of reading through them all. If any critical game-breaking bugs are reported, then there will probably be a new build coming soon, within the next 24 hours or so.

June 1st Update

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Hello! I’ve got a new build for you!

The focus of this update was to fix bugs, remove exploits, and polish things that look janky. In that regard, it’s an especially big update – there is a HUGE number of differences between this build and the previous build: 15 improvements and a whopping 80 bug fixes. That’s right, EIGHTY bugs fixed! Man, it was a ton of work…but it’s necessary stuff that has to get done.

“What? Just bug fixes? Nooooo! I want to see progress on the pre-crowdfunding checklist!”

Yeah, me too. But if bugs get reported, I have to fix them. I’ll continue working on pre-crowdfunding checklist when I’m no longer receiving bug reports.

I also worked on other things as well, including a new feature that people have been requesting for a long time, but it’s not 100% finished yet, so you’ll have to wait until the next update to see it.

Because I updated so many aspects of the game in this update, I’m kind of worried that at least one or two new bugs got created. If there are any huge problems with this build, I’ll upload a new one as soon as possible.

To see the list of everything that changed in the latest build, scroll down past this gorgeous illustration of Musume by haihondaitao!

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May 15th Update

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Hello!

The additions that the game received in the May 1st update inspired many players to approach the game in different ways. As a result, I received a lot of suggestions for various improvements that could be made to the game, and also reports of bugs that had never been discovered before. That’s the majority of what I focused on for the past 2 weeks.

To read a list of everything that was added/changed/fixed/improved in the latest update, scroll down past this gorgeous illustration of the bullies by shiying__!

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May 3rd Bug-Fixing Build

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Hey! Have you read yesterday’s blog post? About all the new features and the big “Challenge for YouTubers“? If you haven’t seen it yet, please go read it!

Just as I predicted, after making such a huge number of changes to the game, some new bugs were created. I’ve prepared a new build that fixes the most significant ones. There might be another bug-fixing build in the near future, as well; we’ll see how things turn out.

To read a list of everything that was fixed, changed, or improved in the latest build, scroll down past this absolutely gorgeous cosplay of Ayano by devilfrei!

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Big May Update and Challenge for YouTubers

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Hello!

At this stage of development, I want to remove exploits and correct oversights that allow the player to blaze through the game without any difficulty. I’ve decided that the best way to achieve this goal would be to challenge players to kill the 10 rivals of 1980s Mode as quickly as possible; that will get players to expose the mechanics and strategies that are currently imbalanced and overpowered.

I was already aware of several aspects of the game that made it WAY too easy to eliminate rivals without any challenge. So, in this build, I’ve made several changes that will require the player to put in more work in order to eliminate the rivals:

  1. All 1980s Mode rivals now have unique Tasks.
  2. Rivals will now refuse to give you a Task unless you meet certain criteria.
  3. All 1980s Mode student routines have been updated so that there is never a point in time when a rival is completely vulnerable.
  4. When you start a new save file, you now have the option of putting restrictions called “Challenges” onto your playthrough.
  5. The garbage bag box no longer provides the player with an infinite supply of bodybags. Bodybags must now be crafted at the workbench using garbage bags from the Home Ec room and masking tape from the Art Club.

I made all of the above changes to the game purely so that I would be able to say this:

In the latest build, when you are creating a new save file in Yandere Simulator, you will have the option of opening up this menu, the Challenge Menu:

I want to see you kill the 10 rivals of 1980s Mode while playing the game while these specific challenges are all active simultaneously:

  • Knife Only
  • No Alerts
  • No Friends
  • Rivals Only

You must kill each rival with a short bladed weapon, you are not allowed to alarm anyone with a corpse / a murder / suspicious behavior, you are not allowed to befriend students, and you are not allowed to kill anyone except the rival!

Why do I want to see YouTubers do this? Like I said above, it’s all for the sake of uncovering exploits and oversights before moving further into development. If you want to read a more elaborate explanation, then scroll down past this absolutely gorgeous illustration by hot_pool_AIN and click “Continue Reading.”

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Update Preview

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I can now announce that the big update will be released later today! (Unless I have horrific Internet connection problems or something like that.)

As promised, I’ll release a short video teaser for every day that you have to wait. So, here is today’s teaser:

Some people will understand what’s going on here. Other people will be like “Whaaaaat?”

Progress Report / Update Coming Soon

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EDIT: “Did you mean to say May, not March?” Yes, I meant to say “May.” I make the same typo every year. Please just auto-translate “March” into “May” whenever you’re reading one of my blog posts.

Hello!

As I stated in a recent blog post, I am currently going down a “checklist” of improvements that I want to make to Yandere Simulator. There are 5 specific checklist items that are all tied to one another, and I knew that would have to do them all at once and include them all in the same update. I could tell that it was going to be a massive pain, so I postponed it for as long as possible…but at this point in time, there is almost nothing left for me to work on. So, on April 17th, I officially began working on the 5 checklist items that are tied to one another.

I didn’t want to miss a “1st or 15th of the month” deadline, so I worked super hard to complete all 5 tasks by May 1st. I came really close – 4/5 tasks completed, and the remaining task at 80% completion – but I just wasn’t able to finish that last task in time to release a build on May 1st. Darn it! I’m really disappointed! …but, at least the end is in sight, and I know that I’m only one or two days away from completing the update.

So, what are you getting in the next update? I’d love to tell you, but I feel like it would be more fun if it’s a surprise. All I’ll say for now is that a lot of different aspects of the game are going to change. However, since I don’t want to leave you empty-handed, I’ll do this: For every day that passes without me releasing the update, I will release a short video teasing some of the upcoming content.

One of the new features in the next build required a new animation. While I was waiting for the animation to be delivered, I implemented the feature with placeholder animation, which can be seen below:

Poor kitty! Don’t worry, the animation that you’ll be seeing in the upcoming update will be a lot more humane than the one seen above.

What’s that? You still want to know more about the next update? Okay, I’ll give you a few details, but I’m going to be as vague as possible to avoid spoiling it too much. In the next update…

  1. 1980s Mode rivals are going to be much harder to eliminate.
  2. Many new types of “Challenge Runs” are going to be possible.
  3. Various parts of the school environment are going to look a lot different.
  4. You won’t be able to abuse the game’s most broken and imbalanced mechanic anymore.
  5. If you love it when the game gets updated with new Tasks, you’re really going to love the next update.
  6. One of the additions in the next build required me to request and add a completely new music track to the game!
  7. One mechanic changed so drastically that I had to update the 1980s Mode tutorial to reflect the new way it works.

Thinking about it now, this might be the most meaningful update released so far this year, matching or perhaps even surpassing the 202X Tutorial in significance. Additionally, I think that this update will add a lot of replayability to the game. What kind of addition adds “replayability”? Heh, heh…give it some thought. If you think about it enough, you might be able to figure out what’s coming in the next update! One of the additions, at least…

Sorry for the delay, but thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

April 16th Bug-Fixing Build

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Whoops! There was a pretty serious bug in the last build, so here’s a new build with some improvements and fixes.

To see a list of everything that was updated in the latest build, scroll down past this hilarious video by creamstew_ekoda:

Oh, yeah, and also, Mikeeey continued his playthrough of Yandere Simulator! Check it out!

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