Interactive Map
I’ve begun to design the layout of Yandere Sim’s high school. I’m planning where the classrooms will be, where the bathrooms will be, where the faculty offices will be, etc. To facilitate the process, I’m using a three-dimensional “grid” to place rooms and corridors and stairs. I’m currently trying to decide the exact dimensions that rooms and corridors should use.
I call this (4x4x4). The corridor is 4 units wide and 4 units high. The ceiling looks like it’s way too high.
This is (4x3x4). The corridor is 4 units wide, but 3 units high. I think that the height of the ceiling looks more realistic here.
And this is (3x3x3). The corridor is 3 units wide and 3 units high. Does it look better with uniform dimensions?
Which do you prefer? It might be easier for you to decide if you are actually able to run around inside of the school and see it for yourself, so here’s a playable, “interactive map” of Yandere-chan’s high school!
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&confirm=swRV&id=0B8Xb4Pl1gykjNExfbnh4VE91M00
Controls:
- WASD to move
- Mouse to look around
- Hold Left Shift to run
- “1”, “2”, or “3” keys to switch between (4x4x4), (4x3x4), and (3x3x3), respectively.
- “M” key to activate a minimap (it impacts frame-rate).
- “L” key to turn off lighting (may help you if you’ve got a low frame-rate).
- “N” key to play music
- “R” key to return to the entrance of the school
Notes:
- It’s really easy to clip through the walls and fall out of the map. The purpose of this .exe is to judge the scale / dimensions of the school; it’s not supposed to be a fun gameplay demo.
- There’s a Easter Egg hidden somewhere in the level! Can you find it?
- This is not the final layout of the high school, it’s just a mock-up.
- This .exe has Xbox controller support. Left stick for movement, right stick for camera, hold LB to run.
It would be extremely helpful to hear your feedback on what scale / dimensions the high school should use. What looks best? (4x4x4), (4x3x4), or (3x3x3)? Please vote in the poll below:
School Atmosphere
I’ve discussed this subject once before, but now I’d like to demonstrate it visually.
In terms of gameplay, “School Atmosphere” refers to the way that students behave and react as a result of the amount of blood and corpses that they have discovered. If the School Atmosphere is positive, it means that students do not feel threatened or endangered at school. If students begin to find dismembered limbs or dead bodies, they will realize that there is a serial killer on the loose in their school, and they will become paranoid. Their line of sight will increase, because they are on the lookout for trouble. They will investigate suspicious noises, because they are suspicious of every sound they hear. If your reputation is low, they will never turn their back to you, because they fear what you might do if they are not looking.
If you perform suspicious actions – such as theft or trespassing – your reputation at school will drop. But if you perform suspicious actions while School Atmosphere is low, your reputation drops even more than it normally would, because the students are looking for any excuse to identify someone as a culprit.
School Atmosphere is restored slowly over time, or by framing someone for murder and getting them arrested. If someone gets arrested for murder, the students will think that the serial killer has been caught, and they will relax.
When the School Atmosphere is high, the game looks like a cheerful slice-of-life anime, but when School Atmosphere is at the absolute bottom, it starts to look like a horror game:
What do you think of this feature? Cool? Lame? Let me know in the comments.
Intro Cut-scene Progress
I initially began working on the game’s intro cut-scene as a way to communicate how I’m going to be presenting the Senpai-customization and uniform-picking features of the game (as a dream sequence, and as Yandere-chan trying to remember what her school uniform looks like). Now that I’ve got some momentum going, I decided to just continue animating the intro of the game, even though the rest of the game’s intro is not interactive.
I’m worried that the story / dialogue are a little “cringe” at this point, but I’m actually pretty proud of my progress. What do you think of this video? I want to hear your thoughts.
Rate of Progress and Future Updates
A lot of very talented people have reached out to me to express their desire to help me out with various aspects of developing Yandere Sim! I spent a lot of time this month talking with people about the game’s music, environment models, weapon models, character models, character rigs, character animation, art style, GUI design, HUD design, branding – you name it. I’m super grateful to have so much help with the game. I haven’t established a formal “team” or assigned anyone with an official role yet, because I understand that they are only volunteers who might have to stop contributing to Yandere Sim at any moment, if their school life / work life takes priority. However, some of these people are so incredibly talented that I really hope they continue to work with me for the duration of the entire project!
When the day finally comes for me to form an official “team”, I’ve come up for a name – “Yanderu Software”. Yanderu is a Japanese word that means “to be sick with a mental illness”, and I think it’s a fitting name for a team whose first game is going to be about a serial-killing schoolgirl. I actually tried my hand at designing a logo for the future team; here’s how it currently looks, although it is definitely subject to change:
Because of all the people I’m working with and communicating with, I’m starting to take on more of a “producer / director” role than a programming role. I haven’t had enough spare time to work on gameplay mechanics lately; that’s why this update was mostly about visual stuff.
When I’m not working on Yandere Sim, I’m a freelance programmer. For the rest of this month, I’ll be busy wrapping up a project, so I don’t know how much progress I’ll be able to make on Yandere Sim over the next couple weeks. If I don’t get much spare time, then the next update might just be about the rest of the game’s intro and the high school layout again. Hopefully I’ll have lots of free time in December, so that I can get back to implementing gameplay features. I hope it’s not too disappointing when an update goes by with no mention of actual gameplay.
Maybe you’ll forgive me if I let you run around in a spooky corridor?
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&confirm=swRV&id=0B8Xb4Pl1gykjRFlRS2s2NTJ0bDA
By the way, this dark, foggy corridor might be the setting of the game’s tutorial. Before the first school week begins, Yandere-chan has a dream where she learns about all of the different gameplay mechanics; killing, disposing of bodies, cleaning blood, taking panty-shots, using Yandere Vision, etc. If the player wants a bloodless “pacifist” run, and killing students is part of the tutorial, then their pacifist run would be over before it could even begin; that’s one reason why the tutorial should take place in a dream (similarly to how designing Senpai takes place in a dream).
Donation Inquiry
Last April, I swore not to accept donations until I had produced a playable demo. My reasoning was that I don’t want people to think that I’m a scam artist who is only doing this for the money, and I didn’t want people to regret donating if the project fails / game turns out differently than they expected.
Back in April, I was very secure financially, and I didn’t have to worry about money. However, without getting into details, my financial situation has changed a lot since April, and now it’s getting pretty hard to uphold my principle of refusing donations.
Nothing I’ve made available so far qualifies as a “playable demo”, so I still have to stand by my word and turn away anybody who offers to give me money (which makes me feel like I’m a jerk). However, I’m curious to know if you feel that opening donations would actually be acceptable at this point. Hopefully, I’ve proven by now that I’m not a scam artist trying to steal your money, or an “idea guy” who can’t actually develop a video game, and hopefully it’s clear what kind of game I’m making at this point.
Hypothetically, if I was to open donations, I suppose there are multiple ways people could contribute: PayPal and Patreon. If you’re not familiar with it, “Patreon” is a service that allows you to support someone by sending them a specific amount of money every month. You get to chose how much you send them; if you want, you could just send them $1 per month. You can cancel anytime. Some people ridicule Patreon, saying that it’s a website where “people beg you to give them money for existing.” I think of it more like an “online tip jar,” but to each their own, I suppose. How do you feel about it?
If I allowed PayPal donations or opened a Patreon, would it mean that I’m a greedy money-grubber who broke the promise he made in April? Or would it actually be acceptable? Please vote here:
Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy blog update! I hope that I don’t let you down!
Yandere Simulator Development Blog 
Great update Dev! = w=b
Patreon gets a lot of flak because of lazy hipsters that advertise their own patreon whenever they pretend to be harassed, but people are happy to donate as long as you show that you are working, which you obviously are.
I, for one, would be happy to donate a little bit each month at least, whether it may be through Paypal or Patreon.
Dear developer, I’m so amazed with your work, me myself and my friends are starting to develop our game, although still on the concept part. I will donate some maybe in a couple week or month as a fellow developer
When I saw lenght of this post I was like “yeeeesssssss”. And then I saw the playable map and I almost let out mighty roar of joy and excitment. Even through it’s only running around the map without any textures it’s great to walk around the future scene of geocide. I feel like 3x3x3 is best because it looks just like ordinary school while 4x3x4 is huge. The school atmosphere looks like a great concept but I feel like the mist, or whatever it is, on last screen is a bit too much. The cutscene is great. Dialogues are cliche and not really original, but I think that’s how it should be – it feel like we are in the generic, a bit crappy, school life/yandere anime. Animations, as you said, are placeholders but they aren’t that bad – most of them looked just fine. About donations – you should totally let people throw money at you if they want – you work hard and make great progress – and star a crowdfunding when you release playable demo. If i have some spare money I’m willing to donate even through it won’t be much.
I must say I wasn’t hyped as much since the Guild Wars 2. Even through I know I shouldn’t build up hope for indie, one-man-made, stealth-assasin game I just can’t help and get excited every time you write a post or upload a video. Keep on good job Dev-senpai.
BTW. Do the easter-egg have something to do with falling and outfit? Or is there something more?
Thank you so much for all of your kind words!
And yes, if you found the black-and-red outfit, you found the Easter egg!
After spending about 30 minutes with the demo, here’s what I think:
*3x3x3 is the best for NORMAL rendering. I think that when Yandere is being hounded, in addition to the effect of the darkened screen that low School Atmosphere brings, the hallways should subtly and slowly shift to 4x3x4, then 4x4x4. This would make the hallways more ominous and expansive, and also make the player more frightened.
*I had constant 60 FPS with the minimap on at all times. No problems there.
*The camera turning speed should be the same as the character’s turning speed, otherwise it feels stiff. Make the camera’s turning speed faster.
*This girl’s walk is slooooooow. It reminds me of Batman from Arkham Asylum’s walk, which was slow as a crawl in a giant environment.
Overall this was an enjoyable little demo.
On the subject of the opening cutscene, I think that you can’t really get too cheesy with this kind of thing. That’s like watching Italian Spiderman and saying that it’s too goofy.
It’s okay if the game is slowed a little in terms of project delays because of your other affairs. You have things to do, and we’re lucky that you’re taking this amount of time.
I dunno about the Patreon thing. On the one hand, you deserve more money than everyone currently on Kickstarter combined. On the other, you did make a promise. I dunno.
All in all, a great update! I look forward to seeing you on /v/ later today and to seeing what your future updates are.
I found the easter egg!
On the atmosphere demo, I lag from 60 fps to 40 fps when standing in front of and looking at the black smoke.
My machine is pretty old yet I had 60-55 fps entire time.
btw. I hope that even if school atmosphere will be at lowest point, around my senpai it will be always bright.
Who was the mysterious person in the background of the intro video, with the red hair?
I’m guessing the yandere-enabling friend who you can send photos to?
Next week’s update should include a cut-scene where she introduces herself and explains what she contributes to the gameplay. She’s a character who can provide assistance by telling you who has a crush on who, and when your deadlines are. You can also send her panty shots in exchange for favors.
4x3x4 looks the most natural to me– my own high school was built with hallways about that dimension, or possibly even broader. Though it was an american high school where you needed to make space for a huge volume of students changing classes between periods, while japanese high schools have the teachers move instead, right?
Man, I really need to get my PC fixed so I can try all these little test programs.
Great update! I found about this game not long ago and I think it’s an amazing idea on it’s way to become reality, hahaha!
About the corridors, the 4-3-4 are the best in terms of gameplay. Even if 3-3-3 are the most realistic ones, I believe it’s better go for the choice that makes it easier to play. Of course, if you plan on making the corridors packed with students it’s better if you go for the wide option, or if with only one or two roaming around from time to time the 3-3-3 is more than enough. Cool easter egg by the way, heh.
The spooky corridor looks really good too, I like how it can change the mood. I can see the music changing with the atmosphere too. The frame rates work alright in the corridor, but it fails terribly on the dark areas at the begining and end (Too many effects on screen I believe).
The video looks really good. The cutscene system is nailed on, and the flow feels natural. If I were to point something, the part where she grabs his hand looks a little off with the camera angle. The hand looks smaller at first and the movement looks a little unnatural. I think the best scenario would be if she extends her hand right to him and hesitates for a second before grabbing him, but it’s just a small detail so don’t worry too much about it.
The sidekick-chan looks more like a stalker-chan in the video, and it’s hard to think she can figure out the heroine (murderous) intentions from that single scene. I may be nitpicking, but if she can figure it out so easily I can see Yandere-chan caught in no time. Maybe it could be better if both of them are friends since long ago (A yandere and a stalker could get along just fine I think, hehehe). Could make the whole reason for them to cooperate like that more realistic I think.
Finally, you should accept donations. I think you are on a developing stage where it’s okay to do so. Not only you update often, but you also post videos and screenshots that show more than others developers out there, hahaha. Also, getting money for it will make it harder for you to drop the project, so it’s a win-win scenario for the players.
Damn, I ended up writting a lot! But the game is worth it, so I hope you can keep going with this game since it looks great!
Good luck with the project!
Where would all donation money go to? Buying more unity stuff or paying programmers/artists? or is it just to keep you “financially stable”?
I think I’ve just about finished buying everything from Unity’s asset store that is relevant to this game. The total cost of all the assets I’ve bought so far came to $205. $100 for environment assets and $105 for character models. If I make $205 in donations, then I’ve recouped the cost of assets bought so far.
Paying programmers / artists could be very costly. If they charge $20/hour and I want them to work 8-hour days, that’s 800 for one work week. I won’t be able to raise that much every week with a Paypal button or a Patreon; gathering huge amounts of money like that is where Kickstarter fundraising campaign comes in.
I can only work on this game in my spare time, when I’m not working as a freelance programmer. If I was making enough money from Paypal/Patreon donations, I could stop taking freelance gigs and focus entirely on developing Yandere Sim in a full-time capacity.
The more money is donated, the less I have to work other jobs to earn money, so the more time I could spend on Yandere Sim. In other words, the more money that gets donated, the faster the game comes out.
You can choose to interpret that as “all the money goes straight to me” if you want, I would understand that kind of interpretation. I won’t try and word it otherwise; I want to be honest and transparent about it so nobody accuses me of being a scam artist.
Do you have a listing of your current “team” anywhere? It seems like a particularly informal collection of volunteers but the only other name I’ve seen is “aea” who drew that one character design. Trying to get an “outside-in” look on this while thing.
Well, like I mentioned, there is no formal team, and nobody has been designated as an official team member. I love Aea’s artwork, but he’s not *obligated* to make art for me; I don’t give him deadlines, or anything like that. He can just contribute whenever he feels like it.
For someone to be the “official” character designer, they would have to agree to stick to a schedule and deliver artwork in a timely fashion. However, I wouldn’t want to give someone that kind of responsibility unless the game had progressed far enough to *require* it.
I don’t want to force anyone to make commitments to me until the game has reached a state where another person’s commitment is necessary. So, currently, I just think of all the volunteers as people who are graciously helping me, but don’t have official obligations or formal duties, and can stop at any time.
So do you have any dedicated 3D artists or is it just stuff you’ve bought from the unity store?
As if you’re lacking in assets and resorting to just buying them, I’d be more than willing to offer my help in getting some map assets done for this.
All of the current character models all come from the Unity Asset Store. A talented character modeller has volunteered to help me out by modeling some characters for me. So far, he has produced some really cool models for me. I haven’t put his stuff into the game yet, because the store-bought models come with so many animations and outfits and textures that it’s just convenient to keep using them for now.
I think that I may try to reverse-engineer the store-bought character models instead of having an artist build a new one from scratch. If I can get someone to build a control rig for the store-bought model, bald the head, model a bunch of hairstyles for it, and change the UV-mapping so that new textures can be applied (skin color, eye color, hair color, stocking color) then I wouldn’t need to ask for a bunch of brand-new, custom-made character models.
I am not yet certain what would take more work – reverse-engineering what I’ve currently got, or having a new character model made from scratch. I’m not sure which to go forward with, so I’m just using the placeholder models for now. I’d hate to waste the character modeller’s time by having him model stuff that I won’t use, so I’m not requesting anything from him until I’m 100% certain I know what plan I want to proceed with.
I’m currently speaking with another 3D modeller about making some environment models for me, so I don’t think I’ll need to ask for your help, but I’m very grateful that you’ve offered. If one of my 3D modellers suddenly has to stop working on the project (busy with school? Busy with job? Stabbed to death by scornful ex-lover?) then it would be great to be in touch with another 3D modeller who can take the place of the one who left the project.
From my standpoint, I believe that simply reverse engineering the model you’ve got may be better.
The work put that’d be put into creating a new character model would be a lot more than just editing the model and fixing up the UVs. But that’s assuming the model itself has been done decently enough to begin with.
But I’ve added my workshop profile as a reference for my work as my website link, and I’m assuming you have steam so feel free to add me on steam (just give me a message that it’s you, I get a lot of strangers adding me) and I’d be happy to help you in any way I can, even if it isn’t making models for the game.
I really do love the game idea and make sure that you don’t burn out!
I’ve worked on 2 games myself as part of my university course so I know that what you’re doing is no easy task, let alone just for one or two people.
I think 4x3x4 is much better for the hallways. I’ve never seen a school with -completely- uniform dimensions, (granted they were mostly american schools) and I like the wider hallways for running around, especially if there’s a bunch of other students out and about.
I think the dynamic atmosphere is a very nice touch, though I’d be careful not to overdo it. Even the most extreme with all the fog might be a bit much.
Also I got a really nice framerate with this, even though my pc can hardly handle anything and it was almost zero in that one build you posted a while back. I guess there’s not much visually intensive stuff yet, just thought I’d mention it.
Oh I think I have a good idea from watching that video! Yandere-chan as our main girl, then you showed us a Tsundere-chan, and you should also add a Kuudere-chan and Dandere-chan! That would be AWESOME ^_^ But it’s only a suggestion. And so the red-haired girl is Sidekick-chan? That wouldn’t be surprising 😀
Thank you for the ‘demo’. I think the best layout is 4x3x4. My reasoning for that is: If you turn on 3x3x3, then you can see that the hallways are way too narrow for students to actually pass each other in them. You can maybe have 2 people walking side by side, which is way too narrow for a school corridor. Oh, and I found the easter egg completely by accident, lol.
What was the Easter egg? Is it a different uniform?
The changing atmosphere thing sounds super cool
I think it’s really early to be saying this but, if at any point an spanish translation is planned I would like to be a part of it.
Not having any issues w/ framerate. Constant 50+ on my comp. Love the music, the running around. Layout is good, 4x3x4 does seem to be optimal. Found Easter Egg.
School Atmosphere sounds good. Maybe have an achievement where if you maintain a dark atmosphere for the majority of the game? I guess you can also decrease the amount of time you have before the police arrive as well when the atmosphere is like that as well.
Dream tutorial seems to be the best way to do this, to get away with it. I’m hoping we can get a taste of it soon. 🙂
And that was Aya, wasn’t it? The red head?
Again, if you have anything you want me to work on as a writer, I’m here. Just ask.
I’ll be sending over a Luna thing I whipped up via email in a matter of minutes from posting this, but I am really looking forward to this game first and foremost.
The fact that Yandere-chan referred to the childhood friend as a tsundere sent my sides to deep space.
Also, I had 60 fps throughout, dipping to 40 fps when running into the black fog.
I had another great idea. This is “TheSonicfanx1” from YouTube.
This relates to gameplay and methods other than killing in Yandere Simulator.
The main topic I want to focus on is Blackmail. You have the ability to take pictures of Senpai, so why not use that ability to take photos of other people? Like, let’s say you take a photo of them while changing, etc, something embarrassing. You can black mail said student to stay away from Senpai for duration or forever depending on the person, some can outright ignore the threat. If they ignore the threat you should have an option to distribute the photos. This also gives side-kick chan an opportunity to play a bigger role in the game and this would let her distribute the photos. OR you can distribute it out yourself (which will decrease your student reputation but will make the person you’re blackmailing more fearful of you).
There’s also threatening. Let’s say you don’t want to kill the person, but would rather threaten them (STAY AWAY FROM SENPAI OR I WILL KILL YOU or something of the sort). This will make the student more fearful of you but could entice her to tell the teacher or the police. Therefore you should have a…CLOSE… relationship with the people you’re threatening or blackmailing so you can keep an eye on them.
That’s a suggestion that has been made many times, but I’m not really sold on the idea, because so far, nobody has been able to explain to me exactly how it would be executed in gameplay.
What are all of the gameplay steps that the player has to follow in order to successfully blackmail someone? Would there be a menu for it? A button prompt? Would it be something you do from your phone menu? How do you “get close” to your victim? How do you convince them not to just contact a teacher / the police? If someone could plot out absolutely every detail, then I could begin to plan it as a gameplay mechanic.
What are the potential downsides? Could this feature be overpowered? Could it be the most effective way to stop all love-rivals, trivializing everything else in the game?
I think that certain methods for stopping rivals should only work once, like pushing a girl off the rooftop – afterwards, the school would logically put a tall fence around the school roof. Is there anything stopping the player from blackmailing all rivals, or is this a “one-time-use” method?
If you’re worried that there is nothing more to the game than just stabbing schoolgirls, I’ve come up with several other ways to deal with a target. For the most part, I’ve planned out how these gameplay mechanics would work:
1. Frame her for one of your crimes, get her arrested
2. Frame her for breaking school rules, get her expelled
3. Convince the rest of the girls to bully her until she stays home from school, and/or commits suicide
4. Find out who else in the school she has a crush on, and set her up with that boy instead.
5. Knock her out, kidnap her and keep her prisoner in your home.
6. Trick Senpai into hating her.
I think the “blackmail” mechanic can work out very well if thought out and done correctly.
I hear Japanese students often use social networks just like American students, one of them being mixi. You could theoretically have Newspaper-chan run a story and then pin it on a student staff member, or put the pictures online anonymously or email them everywhere under a fake e-mail address. These methods keep you safe to an extent, since nobody knows that you did those things, and you can do everything from your phone or at home.
The backlash from these options can depend, from Newspaper-chan only giving you one “favor” (she may want an excuse to fire that annoying guy who does nothing, but c’mon, she needs everybody else to run her operation), to the school cracking down on digital technology and leading to a higher chance of getting caught for online activity (like, I don’t know, them looking for IP addresses?).
That reminds me, Japanese schools are relatively high-tech compared to American high schools, how do you think they handle computers?
Oh right, 4x3x4 for the hallways, since they remind me most of my old high school. I don’t like the atmosphere thing, though, I think it makes it too easy to know when something is up. It’s more realistic seeing everything as it is, but then acting more and more paranoid because of your plots and machinations. Perhaps you can have darker music tracks to compensate as the game goes on.
Here comes a long ass reply.
Edit (after writing until the Fear System): Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to make an entirely new game system. This is unintentional.
I would like to think that the Blackmailing option would start to become ineffective the more frequently you use it. Let’s say you use it on 3 people. Great, those 3 people are scared sh*tless of you, but if you do it against 10 or 20 people (metaphorically)? They’ll either gang up on you or feel secure enough that there’s a large amount of people that have been blackmailed by you to not really care (that depends on if they start talking about the blackmailing to their friends, etc).
Of course, there’s the possibility of inciting a Yandere attack.
As you stated, the girl/gay boy can also just contact the teacher. Well, she CAN just contact the teacher, that’s a con to using the blackmailing system – the girl can just tell the teacher. So the method of blackmail should be VERY important in this and as well as a new system that I have in mind that will be talked about at the end of this post.
There’s also a level of “personal angst” (I just made that on the spot) that can be given in relation to the “legal/illegal” level.
Let’s say you take photos of girls changing as Yandere-chan. I’m pretty sure that’s an illegal act and if enough people report you, you can be taken to jail and game over. The girls will fear you, but there’s strength in numbers so blackmailing should be a very “limited” thing to do. It’s like ordering a group of mercenaries to do work for you when you have no money. If you hire a small amount of mercs, your character will be well off, but if you hire too many, they’ll start to doubt you.
Now to less offensive things – they could either ignore them outright or blackmail you back. The reverse blackmailing can cause your relationship with Senpai to increase or decrease (depending on your relation and intimacy with him). If you try to appeal to Senpai he may take pity or (if he saw the photos because the girl blackmailed the shit out of you), it may ruin your relationship with him.
The blackmailing system that I have in mind needs a lot of other smaller systems to back it up and make it work. Of course, you might not have enough time to work on all of it, but IF there is a Yandere Simulator 2… I’ll flip shit and insta-buy (maybe I’ll even join you if I get my modeling and coding skills up to par).
The methods themselves are rather identical. Really, it’s just the way you get the object/footage that’s different.
The extra systems will be talked about after the Blackmailing options.
-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-O-X-
Blackmailing/Threatening System (In General):
General Requirements:
Fear System Add-On
Improved Reputation System
A new menu (will touch on that at the end)
Duration of Blackmail:
2-3 weeks (AI will begin hitting on Senpai again)
Effectiveness:
Varies depending on method
Recommended:
3-4 people (regardless of method)
What happens after limit is broken:
1: Rumors will start appearing (blackmailed girls talking to each other/talking to friends)
2: Blackmailed girls will start to regain courage and self-esteem
3: Varies:
-Blackmailed girls attack Yandere-chan
-Blackmailed girls report to teacher
-Blackmailed girls raid Yandere-chan’s house and or steal items in possession (regardless of being on person, in bag or at home)
4: Reputation decrease
Methods of avoiding courage increase:
-Killing (So killing now ties into the system)
-More Blackmail (Effectiveness will diminish)
-Releasing blackmail (50/50 chance of it working or causing girls to attack Yandere-chan)
Pros:
Levels of Rival Manipulation
Possibility of Rival Suicide (if threat has been done – hard to explain, it’s like embarrassing her)
Rival stops being rival until
Gains “Dark” Reputation (Underground Reputation)
-Get’s a new boyfriend
-Causes blackmail to become invalid
-Rival Yandere fight
-Until AI says “f*ck it” and starts hitting on Senpai again (you’re cleared to kill her)
Add more if you like
Cons:
Rival knows who you are/what you look like
Possible Gameover
Death (Rival Yandere Fight)
Inciting Rival Yandere awareness
Ruining Senpai-Kouhai Relationship
Ruining General Reputation (if Blackmail fails)
Reverse Blackmail
Police Investigation (if very illegal blackmail)
Expulsion (Game Over End)
Can make rival an important enemy (depending on rival status, skill and method)
Add more if you like
-XOXOXOX-
Humiliation Blackmailing:
Requirements:
Camera (Phone or actual Camera)/Video Camera
Stealth(?) system (if required)
Pickpocketing system (possibly a “use” button while crouched like in Skyrim) – optional
Notes:
Picture has to be embarrassing or very personal
Picture can be stolen/destroyed
Picture can be “proven fake” (believable bluff to public)
Teacher can be informed (if the girl/gay boy has guts)
Method:
1: Take a picture of a girl changing, breaking the school rules, cheating(?), hidden Otaku, basically something he/she would not want the school to see.
2: Email, use mixi (as Caustic has suggested), or sneak a photo and time+location of meeting into her possession (using the pickpocket and stealth system)
3: Meet with Rival
4: Use effective threats (i.e. Telling her family, the school, distributing it to the public, sending it to the police/appropriate recipient)
Pros:
More effective threatening or less effective threatening based on reputation and “dark” reputation
Allows you to manipulate the character being blackmailed more easily
Cons:
Rival knows your face
Possibility of threat being ignored
-XOXOXOX-
Item Blackmail:
Requirements:
Requires item(s) or picture of item of importance for many rival girls
More coding (I’m so sorry)
More modeling (I’m so sorry)
Add on to the threatening method
Requires proof
Etc
Method:
1: Steal the item/Take a picture of item (with appropriate proof)
2: Contact Rival girl item corresponds to (same methods as Photo Blackmail)
3: Meet with Rival
4: Show item and give threats
5: Keep item in possession for blackmail to continue
Notes:
Item can be stolen back
Item could not be important
Rival can feign ignorance
Rival can contact teacher or police
Pros:
Depending on significance of the item, can control and cause girl to fear you more
Increase Dark Reputation
Cons:
If reported: High Chance of reputation decrease
If reported: Chance of Senpai relation decrease
If reported: Chance of Criminal Charges placed against you
Can incite Rival Yandere fight
-XOXOXOX-
I ran out of blackmailing ideas…
I guess it’s time to touch on the new systems and menu.
-XOXOXOX-
The Blackmail Menu
I would actually like to send you a “menu” I drew. It’s kind of rough and messy but that’s because I just made a really quick version of it.
I envisioned it to be something like a hybrid between a Visual Novel and Trading menu. There would be a backlog somewhere as a button prompt on the bottom as well as skill levels, relationship and an options menu.
On the left and right side there will be a CG or the 3D model (Avatar) of Yandere-chan and Rival-chan respectively with their chat bubbles on the top and bottom (top for Yandere, bottom for Rival).
The Menu will be split into two sides, the left side with all the info and choices you could make such as retorting, threatening, minor conversation, psychological warfare (that suggestion was not meant to be a joke) to increase fear, submissiveness and to further get Rival-chan to submit to your terms. There’s also a useful application to that idea you had with a “Yandere Powers” section below the replies and a “Confirm Next Action” button like a “Next Turn” in a Turn-Based Strategy.
The Left side will be a more summarized version of the backlog that depicts the actions that Yandere and Rival has taken.
E.G.
-Used Threat: Panty shot Photo
-Rival Chan ignores threat, insufficient proof
-Used Threat: Panty shot Photo with Rival Chan’s face
-Rival Chan is unphased by threat
-Used Threat: 18+ Section Footage
-Rival Chan is jarred
-Yandere Chan taunts
-Rival Chan surrenders
Alternative:
-Rival Chan is jarred, she looks angry
-Yandere Chan taunts
-Rival Chan attacks Yandere Chan
-New Info: Rival Chan is now Rival Yandere Chan
Of course, this is just an alpha. If you decide to take this idea and implement it, you can change it as you wish. The picture (if I can get it to work…) has more information (albeit, in my bad handwriting, I might have to type out what they actually say)
Picture Link if picture below doesn’t work or is too big: http://imgur.com/YKC196o
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YKC196o.jpg[/IMG]
-XOXOXOX-
Fear System:
The fear system is an add-on to the reputation system. This reflects how the school population sees you, both the teachers and students.
Basically, the actions that you do are reflected back as reputation and fear. Reputation is “good” things such as getting good grades, looking pretty, being particularly good at something, etc. The Underground Reputation will be touched on later.
Fear reflects the more negative things you do. Fear and Underground Reputation go hand-in-hand with one another. Anyways, Blackmail and Assault increase your fear. However, this only raises if someone sees you committing these acts or the person you did it to is still alive to speak another day.
As fear increases, so does the gloomy atmosphere of the school (but not in the dark, horror game way). It’s more like, the school gets a bit more dirty where ever you go and students try to avoid you. Ways for you to reduce fear is by socializing more and increasing your reputation (in a good way).
Fear also affects how you murder the living sh*t out of someone. They might start suspecting you sooner or run away faster, etc. This makes Fear into a double-edged sword.
-XOXOXOX-
New Reputation System:
Adding onto the old rep system (going to school, attending class properly, getting good grades), the newer reputation system includes helping students, being nice, taking part in “moral” duties, finding (framing) the murderer of a student, etc.
Then there’s the Underground Reputation.
This primarily consists of rumors, speculation and the overall “bad” stuff that you’ve been doing or are rumored to be doing. After all, there are two sides to a coin right?
Blackmail will increase Underground Reputation if people know you were in the process of blackmail (not knowing that you’re blackmailing of course). If you were seen talking to a student and then the student is suddenly SUPER, SUPER, nice to you, something has to have happened right?
Or what about the time you caught the person who killed this young girl who apparently killed this young girl and this young girl and this one as well, who ALL seemed to like this one upper class student and apparently is the same student you have the hots for? Yeah, that seems kind of fishy…
Basically, Underground Reputation is a load of rumors and speculation surrounding your character and other characters of interest. It may lead to some useful insights on how the student populous sees Yandere chan and several other students and fellow Rivals. This will lead you to get better Blackmail options OR can give you useful information on their actions throughout the day, allowing you to scout them, checkout their schedule and go full YANDERE on them without anyone knowing. It can also act as tips as well. Students will say stuff about you and if you avoid repeating those mistakes, those rumors will go away and your Underground Rep will lower.
As Reputation increases, Underground Reputation increases in a lesser fashion, you can always lower it though. However, as Underground Reputation increases, Reputation will NOT increase.
If Underground Rep is too high, it may damage your official Rep which is bad. Underground Rep does not affect how teachers see you though.
-XOXOXOX-
Another small suggestion:
When it is gameover, I would like to see who got with Senpai just for the lols. (Which NPC had the higher affectionate level to Senpai)
Thanks
-Sonicfanx1
P.S.
Dear God this was long. I didn’t intend it to be this long.
That’s a very in-depth post! There are a lot of interesting ideas in there. I’m particularly intrigued by the idea of “fear” being a separate parameter from “reputation”.
You can have a good reputation, and also be universally feared as someone who should not be fucked with. You can also have a bad reputation and be considered harmless. Or you could be good and harmless, or bad and fearsome.
About the subject of blackmail, the primary thing to remember here is the format of the game that I’m trying to make. I’m making a third-person game where you walk around a school and do various things. Think of other third-person games where you control a character walking around an environment; 99% of your gameplay takes place in third-person, right? There might be some menus and stuff, but for the most part, almost everything you can do in that game takes place while walking around in third-person. That’s exactly the type of game I’m trying to make.
Yandere Sim is modeled after the format of the Hitman games. The Hitman games follow this kind of format:
Mission 1 – Assassinate Target
Mission 2 – Assassinate Target
Mission 3 – Assassinate Target
The difference between Hitman and Yandere Sim are as follows:
Week 1 – Eliminate target fatally or non-fatally
Week 2 – Eliminate target fatally or non-fatally
Week 3 – Eliminate target fatally or non-fatally
The main “mode” of gameplay in Hitman is walking around, collecting items/weapons, interacting with the environment, disguising yourself, infiltrating restricted area, and killing NPCs. You can’t do anything OTHER than those things. Those are the mechanics that the entire game is built around.
The main “mode” of gameplay in Yandere Sim is meant to be the same; you walk, you pick stuff up, you do school-themed things, you try not to get spotted doing evil stuff, you kill specific NPCs. That’s what the game is meant to be like.
I’m making a third-person stealth game. It’s not really a social sim. It’s going to have a few social sim / school sim aspects, but not super-deep intricate systems and menus. All of the gameplay should be something that the player can do while walking around in third-person. Anything other than that is beyond the scope of the game / belongs in a different genre of game / belongs in the sequel.
(This is one of the reasons why I’ve been refusing donations; I don’t want people to donate because they *think* the game is going to be something that it’s never doing to be. This is why it’s important to me to produce a gameplay demo soon.)
The game is titled “Yandere Simulator.” It’s supposed to simulate the experience of being a girl who violently kills anyone that threatens the relationship between her and the boy she loves. The non-fatal methods aren’t even necessary; they’re only in there for the lulz. The “reputation” feature is there to differentiate this game from Hitman, which stars a featureless man who never returns to old environments, and thus doesn’t have to consider reputation. This game really isn’t meant to have anything as deep and complex as the systems you’ve described.
If I release the first official playable demo, and the response is overwhelmingly “This game doesn’t have enough content!” or “This game doesn’t have enough variety!” or “There aren’t enough non-lethal methods to eliminate the targets!” or “This game sucks, I wanted something entirely different!” then I’d begin to consider implementing systems like the ones you’ve described.
Until then, here’s how I’d plan to implement blackmail:
1. Come up with a list of disreputable actions an NPC can perform
2. Program NPCs to walk around school and occasionally perform one of those disreputable actions when nobody else is around (smoking in the bathroom?)
Gameplay Steps:
1. Stalk girl until you find her doing something disreputable.
2. Take a picture of it.
3. Collect at least 5 photographs of the girl performing disreputable actions.
From there, either…
1. Send all photos to the school principle, get her expelled (if you only have less than 5 disreputable acts to show him, he would merely discipline her.)
2. Send all photos to her anonymously, tell her to stay away from Senpai.
3. Send all photos to Senpai. Senpai decides that she’s a delinquent and that he wants nothing to do with her.
Either way, the target would be eliminated.
If ALL of the love rivals can be caught breaking school rules, this means that every single love rival is a juvenile delinquent who smokes, bullies, trespasses, steals, cheats on tests, etc. I think it’s okay for ONE girl to be like that, but not all of them. And if they simply have “secrets” instead, am I really going to be able to come up with 5 secrets for 10 girls? AND ways for each one of these secrets can be photographed? So many animations…so much extra programming…this feature is hardly feasible to implement, even when I’ve broken it down and made it as basic as possible.
I remember when I used to leave walls of text like that on this blog… good times. :3
(I’ll think of something soon, don’t worry…)
I really prefer the 4x3x4 hallways, but the walking animation is really slow. Will there be a faster walk and/or a running option?
Also, this is kinda on a different subject, but will there be options for mid-game customization? I really like being able to change how my character looks mid-game, so maybe if there was a mirror for face changes and a wardrobe for uniform changes that would be really cool. I know it’s not really something important, but I think it would be cool.
Another thing: You said somewhere that there would be multiple endings, and I thought it would be cool if you could have a “bad ending” where Sidekick-chan goes kills Senpai because she wants Yandere-chan…
Lastly, I would like to help out, if possible. I’m not good at computer art, but I could do voice-acting (maybe for extras?) if you decide to do that, and I’m pretty good at writing, so I would love to help with scripts for the animated cutscenes.
Stuff like walk speed / run speed is controlled by a number that can easily be changed at any point in time. It won’t be hard to fine-tune that.
Mid-game customization may not be allowed. If you could completely change your character’s appearance so that they no longer resemble their former self in the slightest, then it would not be logical for the other students at school to recognize Yandere-chan. The game could be broken by the ability to change your appearance so nobody recognizes you, instantly resetting your reputation / notoriety at school. The protagonist should probably be forced to keep one appearance throughout the game.
Alternatively, the game could have a mechanic based around wearing a disguise that only works if nobody sees you changing into it. Yandere-chan might also be able to steal a mask from the Drama Club room that completely hides her face so nobody can identify her. But that sounds a little overpowered…
Stuff like “I want to be able to change my character’s appearance at any time!” sounds like a pleasant feature, but you have to ask yourself if it interferes with the logic of the rest of the game or breaks other game mechanics.
If you’re interested in voice acting, please send some voice samples to yanderedev@mail.com
D3 has announced a stealth game in a high school setting, just thought it would be interesting for you to know. Instead of a yandere simulator with an option to take panty shots, though, it’s a full on panty shot photographer simulator which may or may not have yandere elements.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2014/11/22/natsuiro-high-school-open-world-voyeur-simulator/
No problems with demo, always had 60fps.
For me, 3x3x3 is the best option for corridors, it just feel good, had this warm atmosphere or something : D
And talking about atmosphere, I think that this “horror” style is not good for me (and I bet that 50% people like it and 50% not or smillar amount) so maybe it can be additional option which you can turn in menu or something?
And this game look amazing, also you are amazing developer, good luck : D
The school atmosphere is bright and cheerful if nobody discovers blood or corpses. After students begin to discover blood and corpses, then the school takes on a “horror” atmosphere.
Since we start talking about story here, I think we need to have a private message system. With this we can talk more about the story progress, elements of surprise, and plot twist perhaps. Therefore whatever suggestion that you might take become a pleasant surprise for us.
I think I’ve pretty much got the story planned out at this point. I’ve already got some surprises and plot twists planned. If you want to suggest story events to me, you can contact me at yanderedev@mail.com , but I feel like the story is almost set in stone at this point.
So, if week 1 has a Tsundere, does that mean other weeks will have different deres? For example –
Week 1 – Tsundere
Week 2 – Kuudere
Week 3 – Himidere
Week 4 – Dandere
Week 5 – Deredere
Week 6 – Dojiko
Week 7 – Bifauxnen
Week 8 – Lolita
Week 9 – Yangire
Week 10 – Yandere
I know it is outdated, but that is the impression I got from it.
I’d have no problem with killing each and single one of these.
The spooky corridor almost gave me the chills. Good job. Looking forward to be added in the final release.
I really like the idea of school atmosphere, it makes the game more realistic in a sense of enviorment. If there was a serial killer loose in a school in real life, then I’m pretty sure that students would be cautious of everyone and be on constant alert.
Is this active in the game yet? I’ve tried to simulate it, but it seems like it’s not active yet (which is perfectly understandable, I’m sure the coding is too advanced to even get a couple of features that branch off from this in the game).
The latest update.. well.
it only says: low school atmosphere and it wont start.. ://