It’s the start of a new year! In Japan, it’s traditional to visit a Shinto shrine on the first day of a new year. The extremely skilled Namie has created a gorgeous illustration demonstrating what Yandere-chan might look like on Hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of the new year:
Because a new year has just begun, I feel like this is an appropriate time to reflect on the last 20 months of Yandere Simulator’s development, and then talk about the future.
I’ve created a YouTube video about Yandere Simulator’s history, its current state, and what remains to be done before the game is complete. Check it out here:
In the above video, I attempt to accurately estimate Yandere Simulator’s release date using math. The year that I arrived at was 2019. This is likely to be very disappointing to many people; I’m sure that most of you want to get your hands on the finished game as soon as possible, and don’t want to wait three long years to eliminate Yandere-chan’s rivals.
I’m not pleased with this estimate, either. I enjoy working on Yandere Simulator, but I wanted to be done with this game in 2014. This game has already eaten 20 months of my life, and I really don’t want it to eat the next 40 months as well.
I’ve been working as fast as I can – 12 hours a day, not taking the day off on weekends or on holidays – but despite the fact that I’ve poured so many hours into the game, one man simply can’t develop a complex game like Yandere Simulator in less than 5 years. It really hurts to spend so much of my time working. It hurts to not have enough time to play video games, watch anime, or hang out with my friends anymore. I haven’t even played Fallout 4, or watched the latest Star Wars film! It hurts to have tons of game ideas, and actually have the ability to create them, but be unable to create them because one project is sucking up all of my time.
Everyone who tells me “You should work less hours! You shouldn’t work on weekends! You should take vacations!” doesn’t seem to realize that if I were to do any of those things, the 2019 release date would get even farther away. Do you want Yandere Sim to come out in 2022? No? You don’t? Well, that’s exactly why I can’t take days off or go on vacations.
In the above video, I proposed three potential solutions that could reduce the amount of time it would take to release Yandere Simulator, and now I’d like to let you vote for the solution that you prefer the most:
If you hate all of those ideas and have a completely different suggestion, then you’re welcome to let me hear it in the comments below.
In closing…
The matter of Yandere Simulator’s release date isn’t the only issue that has been weighing heavily on my mind. There’s something else that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about, and it’s going to be the focus of my next video. That video should be coming out within the next few days. It will also involve a poll. I hope you’ll vote on it, because it’s going to be a very important issue.
Thanks for your time, and thanks for following the development of Yandere Simulator.
Yandere Simulator Development Blog 
I really don’t think you should give this game to a company. You need to have pride in what you’ve created, and you need to stick with it until the end!
But you should do something to speed up the process… Either putting up the kickstarter early, orrrr….. You could charge a little for download. Or add DLCs that cost a little. I’d say only charge $1-$10, you’d still make millions in a year.
I’m just throwing ideas around, though. Who knows if you’ll even read this! But if you did, thanks for everything you’ve done and created. Be proud.
YandereDev, I guess I won’t really mind the final version of the game being in 2019. I’m 13 right now, and 3 years later 16. Maybe this sounds stupid but, my parents won’t have any problems with me playing a game like this, you know and i think that most of people are in the same ages as me. x). So, if you’re in a dilemma about choosing any of these three options, just don’t chose any of them at all! I promise, it would solve everything. (Since you work so hard on this, though. I mean, WHAT KIND OF GUY COULD MAKE 2 UPDATES A MONTH ALL ALONE AND WITH SOME VOLUNTEERS?) Be proud of yourself ;D hahah
Just discovered your game today and am honestly blown away by both what you already have implimented and how awesome your plans for it are. I wanted to chime in with my thoughts on this subject, since it’s such an important one. I think I see why you want the game to feel more like the finished product before putting it on Kickstarter, so I think your goal should be on implementing the gameplay mechanics you intend to increase the difficulty. After that, I’d advise doing the Kickstarter early, since you’d have a much easier time getting things like your characters and animations and what not in there with a budget. Definitely wouldn’t give the game to a company, since you clearly have a vision for a really awesome and unique game. If you were to limit the scope, the only things I could potentially see removing from the v1.0 of the game would be the alternate gameplay modes, language support, and the small town. All of those sound like neat features that would be awesome to have at some point, but aren’t vital to the experience you envision and could be either cut or pushed to a later update. Just my thoughts.
First off: Kudos for taking a solid, realistic look at your current scope. I hope you can cut development time to something you’re more comfortable with, however you choose to do so.
I’m a little surprised that scope reduction is seen as so unpopular an option. As for your personal goals before Kickstarting, I suggest a vertical slice: Pick the smallest possible section of game that can display the core engagement you want to convey, and create that for your demo. With 8 elimination methods to choose from there are already plenty of options, but without sufficient killing animation delay or student density you can cheat the intended mode of play. If you can craft one solid week which can show this Hitman-via-japanese-schoolgirl game experience, I think that would be more valuable than fully polishing all of the other assets, especially if you decide to give up some creative control.
This blog is an incredible view into this endeavour you have taken, a much better look into game development than any Kickstarter I’ve seen. I wish you well, and I encourage you to look into the Pyrodactyl post-mortem of their Unrest kickstarter when your working hours permit.
Personally I think you should do none of those options! Be proud of your work! So what it would come out in 2019 we don’t really mind it. You should be able to take like 2 days off and yes that would mean that it would come out even later but it’s wrong for us to be constantly pushing you to hurry up on such an amazing game. I always have wanted to play it but I never know how to get it. I hate how youtubers don’t continue to play it unless you have updated it. I think it’s so funny with all the bugs and mistakes. Plus I’m happy you added character customization because that’s a major plus to a game that is as popular as this one. I’m currently 13 turning 14 in like 2 months so by the time it’s 2019 I should be around 17 years old. Which at that point I would still be interested into the game. I’m so proud of what you have done with little help and in 12 hours a day of work. Hang out with friends live your normal life. It’s not like people can’t live life without it being done tomorrow. Plus this game is huge now and I’m sure the community would understand.
i hope it be commpleted on that year
So, I’m glad the mob voted with the options I like the best, i.e. not compromising your artistic vision, or relesing a crowd funding option.
Dude, you have something that is more solid than A LOT of kickstarters out there. Anyone that is skecptical about your game can just watch the many, MANY let’s plays on Youtube, and play it for themselves.
What you started out with is VN Yandere weeaboo junk. what you have now is a legit serial killer/social manipulation simulator, and that’s why the scope of the game got SOOO much bigger.
Let’s talk numbers now. As of right now, March 3rd 2016, ~74000 people wanted you to crowd fund early. If even half of everybody who voted that option put their money where their mouth is,and donated a single dollar, you’d have $35,000 right from the get go.
Just something to think about.
CREATOR OF YANDERE SIMULATOR NOTICE ME SENPAI PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hello creator of yandere simulator, I am currently a 14 year old and your game is one of the best games (the best) I’ve ever played! Yes I watched the video and read the article and I feel bad that you have to do a lot of work each day working on the game. And yes I know you want to do this. Here’s a suggestion that I think might help. You should half the things that are to be done and make the first yandere simulator game. Then if you want to make a second, you can put all the rest of the features in. This will take less time. That way you can sit down and enjoy your life and think about the second one later on knowing that the first one is already done with. Know one should go 3 years everyday working on a video game! I hoped this helps you explore more ideas!
PLUS ALSO PLEASE MAKE IT COMPATIBLE WITH PS4!!!!!!!!
Do you planing to make yandere simulator to being able to customise yandere-chan to choose skin colour, hair colour/style/texture/length, height, eye colour/shape and even gender just like senpai?
Hello
Im looking forward to installing it sorry will it ever be on ps4
Your game is awesome, never seen anything like it. I just got it yesterday, and even though I don’t know how to do everything that is possible, yet, it is still incredible. Personally, I don’t care how long it takes to get done, just as long as it does eventually. My opinions, you should keep the game for yourself, don’t give it to a company, because they may ruin it, and once the Kickstarter is up, I’ll be sure to fund ya. Keep up the great work, and I can’t wait to see what it becomes.
Be proud of your game and dont give it up! It is really an interested game for me… it is only a idea… but please dont make it so that the Player Need to sell Money in your game. start a Kickstarter and i will spend T.T!!!! I can only say ist awesome how you create this game!
Lg Firecat 🙂
el juego es el mejor que he jugado debes trabajar menos y podrias por lo menos 2 meses para dejar que los jugadores jueguen la actualizacion asi te tomas unas vacaciones!