July 29th Bug-Fixing Build (and thoughts on kittens)

A new build is now available. There’s nothing too special about it…just some bug fixes. If you’re curious to see a list of everything that is different in this new build, scroll down below this beautiful artwork by dinosaurito!

• Fixed bug that would cause Oka Ruto to perform social animations with her face up against a wall after her club closed down.
• Fixed bug that would make scared male students slightly float above the ground after witnessing murder.
• Fixed bug that would cause Occult Club students to sit down in midair after their club closed down.
• Now, if you turn Kokona into a mind-broken slave, she will commit suicide if she is given a knife.
• Now, a mind-broken slave will commit suicide if their target dies before they reach their target.
• A student who is following Yandere-chan will no longer react to Yandere-chan’s giggles.
• Fixed skirt clipping issue in Kokona’s motion-captured Monday morning event.
• Fixed bug that was causing the nurse’s face to deform in a strange way.
• Modified some of the Senpai Shrine text.
• Fixed typos on two door signs.

By the way, something occurred to me recently!

The more time I spent thinking about the “bury a corpse in the garden” gameplay mechanic, the more it began to fall apart…

• Police wouldn’t stop digging at a dead cat; cops and police dogs are trained to ignore “false positives” like that, since it’s one of the obvious things a criminal would do to throw the cops off their trail.
• Police dogs are too well-trained to go off and sniff out dead animals when they’re at a crime scene, so the police wouldn’t just say “Aw shucks, the dumb dog got distracted by a cat!”
• The corpse of a dead cat would be super suspicious all by itself, since there really isn’t any good excuse for the cat corpse to be there.

Of course, there are counter-arguments to all of the above…

• The police have a very limited amount of time to conduct their investigation, so if they have an excuse to stop investigating something, they take it.
• The police have an especially unreliable and untrustworthy police dog, and expect him to screw up.
• That area of the garden is a “pet graveyard” which explains why dead animals would be buried there.

However, I don’t want to add a new feature to the game if it means throwing in a whole bunch of new lore just to explain the existence of the feature.

In the end, this is what I think makes the most sense:

• The local police simply do not have police dogs. Yandere-chan does not have to worry about police dogs. She didn’t have to worry before this feature was suggested, and she won’t have to worry in the future, either.
• The police simply cannot locate corpses that have been buried underground. They have no way to detect whether or not a corpse is buried in the ground.
• After 24 hours, a buried corpse will begin to smell, and it will be discovered, prompting a police investigation and a drop in School Atmosphere.

In other words, I think that the gardening club should be a place to temporarily store corpses while waiting for a better opportunity to dispose of them. For example, you’d store corpses in the gardening club while you’re waiting for the delinquents to move away from the incinerator.

YandereDev, YandereDev! Why not just dispose of corpses in the woodchipper, then?

I’ll probably move the woodchipper to the opposite side of the school; the hedge maze.

Are you removing the kitten-killing feature because of animal lovers who complained about it?

As usual, you didn’t listen to a word I said, Midori.

Aw…

No; I’m not changing my mind about kittens because of offended animal lovers; I’m changing my mind in the pursuit of better game design.

This has become a pattern, hasn’t it?

• Suggest new inventory system.
• Controversy!
• Next day, decide to change the nature of the inventory system. Not because of controversy, but because of game design.

• Suggest new combat system.
• Controversy!
• Next day, decide not to proceed with the suggested combat system. Not because of controversy, but because of game design.

• Suggest new corpse-elimination method.
• Controversy!
• Next day, decide to change the corpse-elimination method. Not because of controversy, but because of game design.

Most of the time, I don’t impulsively talk about new mechanics; most of the time, I critically examined all of the possible flaws of an idea, and consider multiple alternatives before I speak about it. However, every now and then, I get so enthusiastic about an idea that I want to share it with the world right away, before I’ve thought critically about it…which, sadly, almost always ends negatively for me.

If you take any lessons away from the “kitten controversy”, it’s this: game development is about tossing around ideas. Some ideas stick, some ideas don’t. I’m going to be tossing around lots of ideas…that’s how we make a better game. You definitely shouldn’t freak out  when you hear an idea you don’t like, because that idea might disappear the very next day for a completely arbitrary reason.