March 2020 Progress Report

I’ve got two conundrums:

(1) I want to routinely upload videos to demonstrate that I’m actively working on the game, consistently making solid progress towards my next goal, and regularly improving the game in meaningful ways. However, there are people who will be very disappointed with me if I upload a video about anything other than the release of Osana, and I’m not ready to release Osana yet.

(2) Producing a video can take multiple days away from development time, and right now, I want to focus the majority of my time on development only.

These two things have prevented me from releasing any videos recently. After thinking about it, I came up with a compromise: creating a short, simple, minimalist video, and uploading it with “Unlisted” status so that it can only be viewed by people who have the link. This way, I can provide a progress report to people who want to see what I’ve been doing lately, without notifying millions of subscribers or taking several days away from development.

Most of my videos take several days to produce, but this one was put together in less than 4 hours – writing the script, recording the narration, and editing the footage went by in a flash. Obviously, the production values are far beneath the standards of my usual content, but that’s exactly why it’s an Unlisted video for hardcore fans, instead of a proper video going out to millions of subscribers.

To read a list of everything that is new, fixed, or different in the latest build, click Continue Reading!

March 1st Update

I’ll keep it brief. Here’s a bullet-point list of good news:

• I finished polishing Osana’s matchmaking elimination, and now the only Osana-related feature that still requires any polish is her Befriend/Betray elimination.
• A very skilled volunteer has recently returned to the project after a long period of absence. With his help, Osana’s animations and cutscenes can look much, much better!
• Recently, a fellow programmer with access to Yandere Simulator’s project files has been investigating whether or not there are any issues that would prevent me from being able to upgrade the game’s engine from 2017.3 to 2019.3. So far, while running the game on Unity 2019.3, he has experienced faster loading times, higher FPS, and no crash bugs. It looks like we’ll be able to upgrade to Unity 2019.3 soon, and then Yandere Sim will run faster for everyone!

While working on Osana-related features (and the feature I hinted at near the end of my Jan 1st video) I fixed a lot of bugs along the way, so I’m releasing a new build. Check out the changelog; you might find something interesting in there…

To see a list of all the fixes/changes/additions in the latest build, please scroll down past this chilling artwork of Yandere Sim characters as button-eyed dolls, illustrated by Koumi Senpai!

Bonus fact: This is crossover fan art, combining Yandere Sim with a game called Identity V! I think Koumi captured the aesthetic perfectly!

Valentine’s Day Update

On January 1st, I looked at the amount of progress remaining to be done before I could release the game’s official demo, and calculated that there was less than 2 months of work remaining. I planned to release Osana on February 14th – Valentine’s Day. Today is the day that Osana was going to be released…but it’s not happening.

Over the past 25 days, I’ve been subjected to the largest avalanche of hate and harassment that I’ve ever experienced. It’s several orders of magnitude worse than what I was put through in 2018, which prompted the Hate and Shame video. Every day, I consider making an “I quit, I can’t do this anymore!” video, because absolutely nothing is worth the amount of abuse that I’m receiving.

I was already morbidly depressed before this happened, but recent events have pushed me down to the lowest point I’ve ever been at. The severity of what I’ve been put through has completely killed my enthusiasm for the project and robbed me of all motivation to work on the game. It’s impossible to be productive under these circumstances. The only thing more difficult than finding a reason to keep working on Yandere Simulator is finding a reason to keep living.

The longest-ever gap between two of my videos was 50 days, occurring between the Live-Action Trailer and Guidance Counselor video. In 7 days, on Feb 21th, we’re unfortunately going to break that record. I’ll try to release something on March 1st, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be possible to find the energy required to make a video, when it’s already hard enough just to convince myself to get out of bed in the morning.

I fixed some bugs over the past couple of weeks, so I’ve uploaded a new build that is more stable than the last one. I’ll include a changelog later in this blog post.

On the bright side, I did get some cool fan art recently, which makes me feel a lot better. Here’s a really outstanding illustration from milkiii.tea:

Click “Continue Reading” for more.

February 1st Update

When you think about it, it’s actually kind of a miracle that, over the course of the past 70 months, there haven’t been any events that took me away from development for an extended period of time. No jury duty, no family emergencies, no health issues, etc. But, unfortunately, that good luck couldn’t last forever.

The past 2 weeks were dominated by problems going on in my personal life, and as a result, I wasn’t able to work on the game as much as I wanted to. I was planning for the February 1st update to contain something really special: a long-awaited feature that I alluded to at the end of my previous video. However, it didn’t get to happen, because I rarely got an opportunity to sit down and work on the game. This is a pretty rare circumstance, and hopefully it’s not something that is going to extend into the future.

Even though I didn’t have the opportunity to make a big new addition to the game, I still found the time to make dozens of meaningful changes. The latest build contains 30 fixes/changes/additions, 3x more than the average build. All of these adjustments to the game will make the Osana demo much more enjoyably, and less janky! But before I share a list of all the changes in the latest build, I’d like to share a few videos with you:

First, Sakura Media released a new episode of LOVESICK! It’s really good – check it out!

YouTuber Chris.J Red created a really cool Yandere Simulator AMV set to a remix of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”! He really went the extra mile, and even created hand-drawn animation for it! Give it a watch!

Last but not least, SeanFilmProduction re-created my Promo Concept video entirely within Minecraft. I was unaware that Minecraft machinima had progressed to this point; I’m impressed with what he was able to accomplish!

Seeing so many awesome fan-made creations really warms my heart and fills me with determination to give you the best product I possibly can!

Anyway, without further ado, click “Continue Reading” to read the changelog for the latest build.

January 17th Bug-Fixing Build

I’ve been fixing a LOT of bugs during the process of preparing the official demo. The latest version of the game is way less buggy/janky than it was before, so I’ve decided to release a new build.

To read a list of everything that is different in the latest build (and maybe read about something else, too…) scroll down past this super-cool illustration by Nanteka!

January 10th Bug-Fixing Build

I fixed some pretty significant bugs, so I’ve uploaded a new build!

To read a list of everything that was fixed or changed, scroll past this gorgeous artwork by annie_czech!

January 5th Bug-Fixing Build

While wrapping up Osana, I incidentally fixed a bunch of bugs unrelated to Osana. I want the latest version of the game to be as bug-free as possible, so I’ve uploaded a new build.

To see a list of everything that was fixed/added/changed in the latest build, scroll down past this video of an Osana and Kizana cosplayer walking around a Russian anime convention!

Actually, before I write out the changes in the latest build, I have a short list of other videos I’d also like to share! Click “Continue Reading” to see them!