FAQ Update, Mini-Bug-Fix Builds, and E-mail Follow-Up

This blog post was updated on April 4th at 3:25 AM.

The FAQ has been updated again to answer the most frequently-asked questions from the month of March! If you have burning questions about things that were added or revealed within the past month, you might want to check it out!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IXbfSuJexGEFLRxcUdv_pTQTpC6iEhTqPYcsHTIA48k/edit

Mini-Bug-Fix Build 1

I’ve also uploaded a new build of the game to fix a big, embarrassing issue from the previous build – students kept on getting stuck on the walls, which prevented a lot of events from occurring. I didn’t change very much in this build, since the primary reason for releasing it is to quickly fix one major bug, but here’s a full list of the changes:

• (Hopefully) Fixed bug that was causing students to get stuck on pillars while walking near walls.
• Added new phone artwork for the pause screen and cut-scene where Yandere-chan meets Info-chan.
• Changed pause screen menu so that it uses a grid of phone icons instead of using a text menu.
• Fixed bug that caused a whistle to appear around girls’ necks in their Student Info portraits.
• Fixed camera-clipping issue near the bulletin boards that display club posters.

Mini-Bug-Fix Build 2

Oops! It became necessary to upload a second mini-bug-fix build, after the discovery of yet another problem that caused students to become stuck on props while walking through hallways. Darn! Here are the latest fixes:

• Fixed bug that would cause students to get stuck on the cardbox box / desks in one of the hallways on the third floor.
• Fixed bug that would cause the camera to get stuck if the player pulled out their smartphone camera as a delinquent was approaching.
• Fixed bug that would cause the button prompt icons in the basement to not leave the screen when Yandere-chan walked near them.
• Fixed bug that would allow the player to escape a delinquent by laughing as the delinquent was approaching.
• Added support for 4:3, 5:4, and 16:10 monitors. Let me know if it doesn’t work.

E-mail Follow-Up

Yikes! Yesterday’s 20-minute video received an extremely strong negative reaction. I’m seeing a flood of negative feedback on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Patreon, this blog, and everywhere else. I’d like to clarify a number of things.

Do you really answer e-mails 8~12 hours every single day? “8~12 hours” is an absolute worst-case scenario that usually doesn’t happen more than once or twice per month. In an average day, it’s usually just 4~6 hours.

Do you really spend hours reading stupid e-mails? As I mentioned in my video, the majority of the time I spend on e-mails (I didn’t name an exact number, but it’s around 3~5 hours every day) is spent communicating with volunteers. Handing out screening tasks to the new volunteers, gathering reference material whenever I have a request, reviewing and critiquing work, etc. I don’t actually read stupid e-mails for hours at a time, but I do have to click past 5~10 stupid ones between each important e-mail with a volunteer, which is my greatest source of annoyance and frustration.

Why not use a filter? I already do. I use multiple filters that do an excellent job of filtering bug reports and fan art into the proper folders. However, it’s not very easy to create a filter that puts all volunteer e-mail into a single folder, because my volunteers don’t all use one consistent format when writing the subjects of of their e-mails, even though I ask them to. Filters are helpful, but they have a huge margin of error. Filters are not a magical silver bullet that solves all of my problems.

Can’t you instantly tell the difference between a useful e-mail and a stupid e-mail just from looking at the subject? No. Many volunteers use frustratingly vague subjects for their e-mails, and many non-volunteers choose to write misleading subjects for their e-mails in order to make me click their message.

Do you respond to every single e-mail? No. I usually read the first sentence, decide whether or not if it’s a stupid e-mail, and then respond or move on.

Why not use Skype or use a forum? This doesn’t fix the underlying problem. It simply moves the problem elsewhere.

Why not just ignore your e-mail? Because I need it to communicate with the volunteers. It’s absolutely essential.

Why not just… Whatever you’re about to suggest, there’s a reason why it wouldn’t work.

The strong negative reactions I’ve been reading all over the Internet today have been very disheartening. On top of that, today I received 350 more e-mails than I usually do…

However, on a surprising twist of fate, 90% of those e-mails were from people who wanted to send me encouraging words! Hundreds of e-mails from people who all want to cheer me on…it’s incredibly heartwarming to receive so much support! I’m so grateful for everyone’s kind words!

With that said, there’s actually so much love that it’s actually counterproductive, because my e-mail inbox is now overflowing with fan mail. You guys are super nice and sweet and kind, and I’m happy that you’re trying to cheer me up…but please, remember, the biggest favor you can possible do for me…is to not e-mail me!

Dating Sim Files

Yesterday, I stated that I was going to publicly release some files that were created for a April Fools’ “dating sim game” prank so that the community could put it together if they were interested. However, shortly after posting my previous blog post, an experienced visual novel developer contacted me and expressed a desire to make the dating sim for me. I’ve decided to send them the assets so that they can create the dating sim. If they complete the project, I’ll post it here. If they don’t complete the project, I’ll publicly release the files, as originally planned.