Hey, remember Indestructible Rival? I made a sequel!
“YandereDev, you baka! Why are you spending your time making videos like this instead of working on the game?!”
Well, I produced this video in my spare time, and only worked on it if I felt like I had recently made very significant progress on the game. I don’t feel guilty about doing something fun and silly in my spare time…
…but, you know what I do feel guilty about? Easter eggs. I’ll explain.
I think that there are two different Yandere Simulators. There’s the one that exists in reality, and then the one that exists in my mind.
In my mind, Yandere Simulator is a horror game where you play as the monster. The protagonist specializes in sabotaging other peoples’ lives using every tool available to her, whether it’s gossiping, bullying, kidnapping, or worse. There is no boundary that the protagonist won’t cross; psychological torture, animal cruelty, and outright murder are all viable options, as long as they get her closer to what she wants.
In my mind, Yandere Simulator is a stealth game, but not a traditional stealth game; it’s a social stealth game. It’s not about hiding around corners…it’s about hiding in plain sight. You must hide your true nature so that nobody learns you are a bloodthirsty psychopath. You must hide your intentions so that nobody will suspect that you’re about to spill their blood. You must hide the truth from people so that you can deceive and manipulate them.
However, the Yandere Simulator that exists in reality is something quite different.
Working on such a grim, dark, and morbid game can get very tiresome, so sometimes I briefly pause development and create silly things just for fun. If I didn’t take short breaks to relax and create humorous things, I’d probably go insane from spending hundreds of hours working on such a morbid game! My humorous “easter eggs” have resulted in many smiles and laughs…but they have also had an unintended side-effect.
A “game” is something that has win conditions and loss conditions. It is currently impossible to “win” Yandere Simulator; in other words, it doesn’t even qualify as a game right now! Because Yandere Simulator is so far from completion, the easter eggs are some of the only ways to enjoy Yandere Sim. Unfortunately, the silly content has received far more attention than I ever anticipated, and has become a part of the game’s identity.
As a result, Yandere Simulator is often perceived as a joke game or “meme game”, which is the exact opposite of what I want. I have only myself to blame for this, since I’m the one who put in so many goofy easter eggs.
The solution may be to completely re-brand Yandere Simulator. To create the “horror game vibe” that I’ve always wanted it to have, many aspects of the game may need to change; the color scheme, the user interface, the soundtrack, and everything else that gives a game its “look and feel”. I’m going to focus on gameplay for the remainder of 2016…but, in 2017, the game’s branding may change completely.
This point in time – while Yandere Simulator is still regarded as a “joke game / meme game” – is the only point in time when it will be appropriate for me to produce “silly” content. After the Great Rebranding, I’ll have to abstain from silly “just for fun” stuff. So, before that time comes, I wanted to have a little fun, and produce a video that celebrates Yandere Simulator’s goofy side…and that’s where “Indestructible Rival 2” came from.
In short, this may be the last – or one of the last – “silly” videos that I produce, as part of my effort to stop producing content that would result in a “meme game” stigma.
With all of that said, I fully acknowledge the possibility that I could alienate a huge chunk of the game’s fanbase by rebranding the game. A lot of people probably became fans of the game because of the current balance of whimsical content and dark content, and wouldn’t find the game appealing if it moved too far in a different direction. This is something that I’m very concerned about, so this is a decision that I won’t be making without feedback.
Well, if you’ve been following this game’s development for a while, then you probably know what I like to do in situations like this…yes, that’s right:
It’s poll time!
Yandere Simulator Development Blog 
I like that there’s a lighthearted tone and theme running across the surface levels of the game. It to me conveys the fact that yandere chan lives in a world where she has the ‘traditional anime options’ we’ve seen used time and time again. The world itself doesn’t have a harmful quality to it. It needs to establish and reinforce that to the player sometimes, so it adequately conveys the fact that yandere-chan is the predator that’s affecting it with her … unconventional tactics. She see’s the opportunities, she notes the implements and strategies that can be weaponized.
The game IS going to be a hard-ass stealth and strategy game with horror overtones, we KNOW that already the atmosphere of the game can/will change as worse and worse things happen and are discovered. That’s why I feel the lighthearted things are important. People flipped their lids at the prospect of killing a kitten. (SO DAMN DARK!!)
How about using the kitten to expose a weakness in a supposed tough girl/ Maybe one who has a soft spot for cute things, may-be if we got her alone and away from her gang? YD offers a tool, tells us a horrid thing it can be used for in a dark ass way… I see no reason we can’t scheme to use it in a lighter tone, with more planning for a later payoff or advantage, even more horror. I’ll always be a fan of the Joss Whedon approach of mixing humor and horror, Either one increases the intensity and delivery of the other.
It’s also a game, meant to sink a substantial amount of hours into.. we’d need a few breaks from the horror and tension every now and then too. When the only other way to do that is to STOP PLAYING? That isn’t a desirable state for the game. The option already exists to turn the game into a dreary, terrified and colorless state.
The only other option I could suggest is UI modes where you CAN turn on the edgier ‘as intended vision’ YD has, but also retain some of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Horror-Camp that’s drawn the crowds. Jay “THAT DUDE!” has drawn a lot of people in with his YSmyths and spawned some pretty memetastic opinions of some of the girls. Even now i can’t un-“Kokona, spinning like an idiot.” in his voice, in my head.
The dream and the vision is important, but games are also meant to be FUN. Challenge can also be fun but that’s a precise nailing down of difficulty and mechanics to create reward and achievement. Too much challenge and a grim dark setting, you lose the casuals.
In my mind Yandere Simulators greatest strengths are that yandere chan is a monster, but it’s the players who make everything change, it already by nature.. evolves to our taste and based on our actions.The best of us will simply get away with a little more murder while keeping the bright colors, chirpy atmosphere and fun activities. My vote is as always, keep the silly, keep the horror and let people dabble and mix to their hearts content. If nothing else, in advertising and marketing… the sharp contrast between the two themes/styles should prove riveting and allow for appealing ads, a deceptively cute anime familiar setting with dark foreshadowing/flashes, eerily creepy horror school setting and fear while showing off the stealth and hunting skills, and the twisted lifesim angle with showing off some of yandere chans… creative problem-solving!
^ This guy said everything that was on my mind. High five dude!
I was one that didn’t like the killing cats but I will forgive yanderedev if it was just to get popular but I can also see that there won’t be a Five Nights At Freddy’s easter egg or any easter eggs, you know you’re not the only one with a game that could take a while to make because my game “A Hundred Nights With A Thousand Nightmares” is going to take me a while because it has over 1,000 characters.
True. Very true
I agree completely with Shannon. The great thing about Yandere Simulator is choice. Just as it is fun to choose a lethal and non-lethal way to get rid of a rival, it’s also great that you can choose between a dark, edgy theme alongside a light-hearted funny-anime kind of feel whenever you want. Animes such as Another and Mirai Nikki for example retain a very dark and serious feel to their story, all the way to the end, but it does so without completely removing the little light-hearted touches throughout the show. I think Yandere Dev can find the perfect balance between the two moods and make a game that can appeal to a large demographic ^^
I worry that if he works on these “silly” things to stop from burning out on the serious stuff that not doing so at all would adversely effect the game’s development. That being said, I feel that the easter eggs should not be so prominently in the game. That does not mean they shouldn’t be in there at all. Perhaps making it so that the cosmetic easter eggs or most of the accessories even, are unlocked by completing the main game and the easter eggs that allow you to kill people easily and quickly such as Bad Time Mode must be unlocked via an achievement or a challenge. Perhaps even making it so that you cannot earn other achievements while using one of the more powerful easter eggs. I feel that would bring a better balance to the game.
As far as the rebranding; I am all for it! I have always felt this game needed a darker image, however, as it takes place in a very anime-inspired setting, a little bit of cute or silly should actually be in the game. In fact, as a writer (though not a famous one unfortunately), I feel that juxtaposing the anime cute with Yandere-Chan’s true nature could be far more unsettling, that just a dark game by itself. One of the psychological principles I love to use when writing horror stories is that people let down their guard around something sweet and innocent. Adding something silly into the mix, then disturbs the reader, or in this case player, even further by completely changing everything on them all at once.
Of course that is easy to overdo and should be used sparingly, but I feel that would be a great way to balance tones in the game while making the dark stuff even more jarring.
As this is my opinion, I don’t expect everyone to agree with this, however, I would love to see what everyone else thinks about this Idea.
And YandereDev, love the game! Keep up the great work!
Couldn’t have said it better myself 🙂
Note: Games aren’t supposed to be fun, they are supposed to be engaging. Sorry, I’m pesky like that. xD
Due to the fact that it is just a sandbox build for debugging and testing purposes, nothing is wrong with creating these fun gimmicks and easter eggs for people to mess around with in between murdering people! Sure popularity of the game has in part been do with these easter eggs but for the majority here who persistently follow the development of Yandere Simulator understand what the true nature of the game is supposed to be and like me are eagerly awaiting for that finished product!
Easter Eggs provide a break and helps keep things fresh while we wait for the future updates until it becomes an actual game with a means to win and quite honestly I wouldn’t mind a few easter eggs to remain in the final product (Yandere Dev! Yandere Dev! You should make an easter egg where Indestructible Rival is a manga Yandere-chan can read! :P).
In short, while it is still in it’s debug sandbox stages, don’t be afraid to have a little fun. It helps you keep your sanity and it keeps us entertained till the game has enough content to stand on its own to legs without the support of easter eggs. Besides, Indestructible Rival is a great little series and I will be holding you up to that “To be concluded!” 😛
Naturally, Yandere Simulator seems to me an entertaining game now having humoristic content, and I do not like the idea that Yandere Dev has had to completely change the game environment, since there are people who do not like what is terror at its end (I). And on the issue of the cat, I think that feature highlighted in realism. For a simulator “SIMULATES” we are in real life, right? Otherwise, the game could be renamed directly Yandere Game. And if in real life are a Yandere crazy about a guy, and bury your opponent in the garden Garden Club, you discover and call the police, this comes with a trained dog and smell the body … If not you put a bait, you will discover, and if that happens go right to jail and your beloved learns and will not want to be with you, am I right? The bait would be perfect, just a cat. What better if the enemy own animal using this equipment. The fact that you have to kill him, from my point of view, seems quite logical. And I do not say it is okay to kill a cat, at all. But if I were in the skin of this young woman, probably he would do the same.
I hope this has helped them retrain those who from their point of view, and without getting into the skin of another, find it some cruel people … And I wonder, is it not Ayano Aishi a cruel person?
The silly jokes and the fact Yan-Sim isn’t even a game is the reason I haven’t played it for months. I’m waiting for the rival to be implemented. The “memes” and the fun features are nice – I guess – but I support the rebranding. The name Yandere Simulator isn’t being taken seriously.
Same here! I don’t want to sound negative but I haven’t played Yandere sim in months because there is nothing to do…. I think that Yanderedev should work on actually adding rivals and elimination methods! all the Easter eggs are fun, but there really should be more work on actually completing the game. This game is 2 years old now but there ‘s only one rival so far.
Agreed
Yes. Thats what i wrote in my last post. I was amazed when i heard “Yandere Simulator” the first time. Sadly i saw the community and meme’s around it afterwards. I instantly made 10 steps back and decided not to support it, until im sure, that this game is targeted towards my age (21) and not the average age of the community “~11-13”
And how do you know?
Agreed
What happens when an unstoppable force meets another unstoppable force?
I asked in the Barrens chat, they told me ut results in Chuck Norris dying.
According to Superman, “they stop”.
I feel the poll can’t express my full feelings, so I need to post this.
I love Yandere Simulator as it is. I love how you can play it and be laughing, and then think ‘holy crap… That was monstrous’. It’s a revelation the game manages without trying for it.
But the idea of a fully horrific version is very interesting. So my idea/compromise is this; why not use 1980’s mode? Or create another mode entirely? Yes it would take extra time, but it would let both types of fan feel included. And I think people would like having the choice between the current style of somehow light-hearted murder, and a much more intense, darker serious mode.
That is a amazing idea.
Okay, this is gonna be long…hope you’ll take the chance to read though it all.
There is no denying it’s a big “meme” game at this point in time. While you did put them in, since there is no way to ‘win’ yet, the builds would be rather boring without some of the silly elements. While the builds are meant to find bugs and test features, they have gotten very popular on streaming sites. So to have never put these funny elements in, you would not of had the large fan base you got now. While some may have originally came due to the jokes, many will still stay. I know I plan to stay and have been greatly anticipating things like the sanity based animations, discrete ways of sabotage and world building like the rival intro video (and I really want there to be a small town implemented and hope there will be more dialogue between characters interacting with each other whenever Yandere-chan walks by because it’s those little details that makes Akademi feel alive. Even tiny details like how Senpai now reads a book, Midori on her phone, the added assets to the faculty room and club rooms, there is even a pet turtle who is beyond adorable, or even how you plan to have each student wear their uniforms differently, giving each a more unique look can flesh it out and it’s great to see). A couple friends of mine are ecstatic on seeing all the brutal ways of murdering and while I am interested in those, I like there is so much social ways of elimination which requires a sequence of events to complete (which again adds to the world building via character personalities and interest).
The easy to access menu is something that would need to change. There are some Easter eggs I do think you could be just leave out, specifically ones that are just appearances and don’t even help you kill anyone. Though you did put effort into them and many do love them so if feels like a waste to get rid of them. Perhaps having certain ones be unlock-able through a list of criteria could work and can help add to it’s replay value.
Any Easter eggs that serve a function to help kill others should be unlock-able in the game. For those that are appearance based, I feel many could just be taken out. Exception being 47 mode considering the Hitman series is a big inspiration for you to do this stealth game. For fans that really love Easter eggs, the remaining ones can be unlocked as well but I feel ones like DK, Galo, Hatred, Huntress, Slender, Spooky, and X mode are things that can just be completely cut out. I feel Titan which has been popular for a long time could possibly be unlock able and outfits like punished or witch mode could be unlocked if say outside of school, say Yandere chan gets a job at a place where she could cosplay via anime/gaming store, cosplay cafés, etc. though I think it be best to simply remove the nonfunctioning Easter eggs besides 47 due to it’s influence.
However it’s not just Easter eggs that contributed to this. Certain accessories definitely kill the mood for me and while some are good, there are those that are downright ridiculous and perhaps changing them to be unlock-able (like the Easter eggs) later would be good but some I do feel aren’t needed in the game at all. I don’t dislike them per say but in the context of that Yandere-chan is meant to be in high school surrounding other students, having panties on her face would be ridiculous (kind of like how right now if you run around naked, they don’t react when in reality they should). Some are okay but used differently. For example the Senpai a Voodoo Doll, Octopus Plushy, and Alpaca with a top hat should be in Yandere-chan’s room. Reasoning can be, if senpai gave the plush toys to a rival and you eliminate her, you can have it. If a small town is implemented and you do a date with Senpai and he gives it to you, obviously Yandere-chan would cherish it. The senpai voodoo doll could be something Yandere-chan made and she keeps near her senpai shrine and always places love charms around it.
Items like the English Gentleman, devil horns+wings+tail, Mario cap, big red nose, the kitty ears (the sound ones, the white ones, and vanilla), popee noh masks, and witches hat should be unlock able or access in certain spots like drama club. (Tho I personally think of getting rid of the mario one and devil accessories would be better)
Some that I feel should be removed are the double eyepatch, shimapan, raw meat, and sombrero. They just look silly and have nothing that I feel would be acceptable to wear no matter what (right now NPCs don’t react to it but logically it wouldn’t be a normal thing to do so it really ruins the ‘legitimacy’ of the serious aspect to me).
Some others that I feel could be removed but I feel conflicted on are the toast, toaster, bubble tea, and Popsicle. I have been following the games development for quite a while, back when those were the only accessories so there is a bit of nostalgia for me. The toast is obviously an anime classic plus that and the bubble tea and Popsicle can be in there but to have them as an accessory that’s always in your mouth doesn’t work well. If you implement cut scenes that involve them ( like the original intro) then that would be okay, but to have them as they are as accessories is odd. The toaster wouldn’t work for many reasons but it was like the first “joke” we got in the game so there is a bit of bitter sweet love. However I still think you could reference in some way, either in say a background drawing, or a throwaway dialogue like “I said to draw my oc eating toast, not the toaster!” “You said toaster, I even asked if that was right and you said yes!” Which could be though via email/text/actual dialogue with someone in the art club and another student. Or someone says it was a weird dream they had or have a in-universe game called “Toaster Simulator”. While it might be simple to just be rid of it, it does feel rather classic to the game,similar to how the hairstyle for Yandere-chan is signature for her, even with the added hairstyles. So to add those small elements could keep them in a way where it would make sense in a real life scenario and gives a little nod to the origins of it.
That being said, due to the anime style and the fact it’s suppose to be her acting as a normal high school student, there should be the light elements on the surface to reflect that. However you shouldn’t rely on the Easter eggs for the lightheartedness, you can have light hearted elements in the game through conversations and cutscenes with characters. Right now they aren’t all implemented but when Yandere chan ends up doing club activities or say enters the room during the timeframe of a club activity, there could be silly moments like someone in the cooking club accidentally got flour all over them, an art club member could paint their face or another students face, drama club could have comedy moments of where a character falls/ being silly, etc., light music club has the members jamming out acting like they are at a concert/ feed the turtle, even in something like the martial arts club, when you do a spar and say lose/ end up falling, having the opponent help you up and be encouraging can add to the light hearted aspects. Or animations like when they eat during lunch and having the clichéd ‘got something stuck on your face, let me get it’ movement or the social butterflies constantly taking pictures of themselves. Basically anything that you have scene in any slice of life anime is applicable to have in the game.
The NPCs are rather basic right now and to have them all do animations/having conversations that would be fitting to their characters would make us more immersed: like social butterflies talk a lot, take selfies, perhaps have some of the guys who are social or have a bit of silliness could photo bomb in the back ground. Shy ones like Oka would avoid being to close to others but if talking to those in her club, she would be more relaxed and open. Right now most anything that’s in the game is the simplest way to test a feature. Example: making the hot dogs for reputation points + the chance to frame a rival. So far only one character does the animation and the only food that can be made is the hot dog pieces. In the final game I hope to see animations of other foods being made, others helping or making different foods essentially using up the entire kitchen area and not one making a snack while the others sit and talk. Even if only one is cooking, a friend or two should be up and talk with the one cooking to keep them company. Also it be neat to see more foods because I think that having the hot dogs, which are quick, simple, and light to eat, should only add say 1 rep point. If you participate in more of the cooking club activities, you’d learn more things and can unlock other food to make. While they would take longer to do, they’d give more reputation points then just a single point from the hot dogs.
Not just for comedy sake but to add life to the game, as the NPCs are now, it’s rather boring, even when you implement rivals, to have those in the background doing a generic loop cycle of motions can be boring. Also it would be good for more options/animation sequences for clubs because say you attempt to participate in the same club for all 10 weeks, getting stuck with the same thing over and over would be bland. I’m not saying all of them need fleshed out back stories and have super in depth bios, but some small things, like how each personality type would walk differently in the hallways. Loner/ cowardly types would stick along the walls and try to avoid bumping into others as much as possible. Social butterflies would stick in a group talking to each other and essentially take up the entire middle of the hallway, some could be walking backwards to talk to friends or say senpai’s little sister, due to her childish nature, would skip along in the halls. Some students, before class start could sit on top of their desk, chatting with others and get told by a teacher to sit iPad their desk properly. When it’s clean up time, having characters in the background also working on cleaning via sweeping or wiping down the tables, maybe even having a student attempting to walk down the stairs with a trash bin and end up tripping and have to pick it up (bonus if Yandere chan offers to help and get a bit of a rep. Boost).
I understand that it is not your main focus right now and that you should focus on things like elimination methods and rival AI. To do the things I listed above would require specific animations, voice lines and coding that takes time to do. So even if you don’t focus on it right now, after your crowd funding campaign and how much you can add in, place elements like those above so thar you can have the light hearted elements going on around the game so it keeps it’s ‘slice of life’ sort of surface image while Yandere-chan stalks, plans, and eliminates her rivals and all who stand in her way. It’s not ‘necessary’ per say to have funny elements to enjoy a dark game, as many have stated but I think part of Yandere Simulator’s charm is the contrast between the light and dark elements. Kind of like in Madoka Magica or playing horror rpg games where you have the cute girl protagonist with a light hearted background but then gain the dark undertones as well, ‘Fantasy Maiden’s Odd Hideout’ does this rather well with how the background starts off pastel and fairy tale like with a house of sweets and fairies then over time slowly ‘decays’ revealing the truth of what is really going on.
I mostly agree with this… Mostly. I agree about the NPCs and about making some of the Easter-Eggs unlockable. However, I don’t think YD should take the purely aesthetic Easter-Eggs out.
Another option is that maybe the Easter-Eggs will only be available in Endless Mode? I feel that by default Endless Mode could be a little bit more silly because really you are just playing to see how long it will take for you to screw up, but it also feels like the perfect mode to play when you don’t wanna worry about the story and just murder some people or other stuff like that. Maybe you first have to unlock the Easter-Eggs in Story Mode to be able to use them in Endless Mode.
I particularly like the idea of unlocking Easter-Eggs because the game space is quite big and it feels like there is enough space to allow for exploration and finding hidden stuff which can be very entertaining on its own. (I mean you just have to look at how everyone really wanted to find out how to activate the demon hands before they were even in the game officially!!)
^ Full support of this. It makes sense that would be considered a ‘fun’ or ‘troll’ mode because of the endless factor.
In order to balance the game, you have to have a mix of goofyness and seriousness. Until things live rivals get introduced, there is not enough ‘serious’ to balance out the ‘silly’. Once the full story/all rivals/other important stuff is added, THEN a rebranding should be done.
Wow i couldnt have said it better myself. i do think some of the accessories are meme like and shouldn`t belong. I also think if he gave the npc more life and invested in there personalitys the game would become more enjoyable. I 100 percent agree that light hearted elements should come from the cut scense not the easter eggs . not to say they shouldnt be there but just not so easily accessible.
I completely agree with you. I think the animations that are implemented in the game until now aren’t enough for the final game. 10 weeks where social butterflies don’t do anything social most of the time can get very boring really fast.
Plz make yandere simulator long to end so theres more gaming time and people will not get board easyly
Yandere Simulator Story Mode will take place over a ten week period in game, with a new rival each week.
He will also add 1989’s mode where you play as Yan-chan’s mom.
And a Scenario Editor Mode where you edit the events and scenes. This mode will be a mix of Yansim and Mario Maker.
Endless Mode will spawn a random rival each week.
He’s planning on adding different elimination methods and features so gamers can play this game again and again and never tire.
When you talk about a dark horror game that takes place in a school, which also combines with humor and anime style, reminds me of the game Corpse Party. In Corpse Party, horror and terror is constant, becoming darker falling into the “bad end”, but occasionally shows a more warm and soothing, especially at the beginning of the story face. In this way, you will slowly showing the dark side, until you face the cold reality.
Corpse Party does not resemble the style stealth game you want in Yandere Simulator, but I recommend so you can be inspired by the gradation of “happy face” and “mortal face”.
just add visible boobs and im happy
Yup, it totally won’t get the game banned in a bunch of countries and reduce the income
I think you have a good point here, but I don’t think you should make your game look sinister right off the bat. After all, as you said, keeping the facade of a cute Japanese schoolgirl is what YS is about, and, in my opinion, the game itself should keep that facade too. How about making a main menu screen even girlier and fluffier than it already is (maybe some lighter shade of pink, less rectangles and so on)? It could then become darker and darker depending on decisions made by the player throughout the game.
About easter eggs. I honestly think they wont be fitting in the actual game, but they are totally ok in the debug build (you cant even beat the game right now, not to mention getting full experience of it, so you can at least have fun with them).
Long story short: maybe YS needs to become more serious, but it doesn’t mean it should become more horror-like with those freaky menu screens and stuff. I thing it would be so much cooler if YS slowly exposed its true self along with Yandere-chan showing that “monster” side of herself.
I agree completely. One of my favorite aspects of Love Sick/YS is the way it presents itself as a innocent pretty anime game but, is secretly a brutal strategy game, where you hide your true nature among others as a psychopathic murderer. I wouldn’t want him to make that quality dulled out by obvious horror that ruins the element of surprise that it has now.
I voted on the poll. I really think that it should be more dark, maybe as dark as possible, but there should still be some fun and silly easter eggs in the game and still a few funny videos once in a while on your channel. 🙂
Rebranding sounds fair, the game can be renewed as the serious game it was intended to be. If you do rebrand the game and plan on keeping some of the easter eggs, when the finished game is released, they’ll be even more silly/ unexpected! That isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, I have yet to to see a horror game with a style like yours. That being said, I support your final decision no matter what you choose.
I’ve always thought of the easter eggs as silly extras. Like the chicken weapon in Draken or silly unlockable outfits in RPGS and fighting games.
I’m also of the opinion that having a few lighthearted moments is key to good storytelling. Darkness all the time is emotionally draining and when you get right down to it, Yan-chan is sabotaging and killing people in what would normally be a harem anime. And there’s always the seemingly comedic moments that become terrifying when you think about it. Or Yan-chan seeing the comedic moments and getting…ideas.
Even if you probably won’t read this:
The community of this game consists mostly of underage kids. Remember that its not your targeted customer group. Kids want fun, adults want immersion. The Meme parade, that Yandere Simulator is right now, aim towards those kids, and breaks all immersion for me.
Please consider Going more into the dark and brutal and serious direction, without considering the poll results. Because they were obvious before i even clicked on the poll.
I love the Idea and thank you for realising this amazing project and:
I will donate you 10€ /Month if this project gets more serious, instead of being a stupid Meme joke (the direction its going right now).
And im sure im not alone. Because from what i have seen, your backers want the exact same thing.
Do not discriminate people for their age. Maybe you should try using proper grammar before calling yourself an adult?
Im from Germany, and probably know 2 languages more than you. You don’t even know what the word discriminate means. So stop using it. This is not a game for kids. Period.
How do i know that the average age is under 13 years? Because i often look at the commentators profiles, and in 95% of cases their profile stated their age, or videos revealed it by the sound of their voices. Also most of the joke and meme comments come from kids. So i also see a pattern there.
There are comment threads his YouTube videos, where people share their age. The average of those threads was 11-13 years. The fact that pewdiepie and other channels with average age play Yandere Simulator is mostly the reason for this.
The word you have been desperately looking for, was “exclude”. And yes, i want to exclude kids. The developer himself, stated more than once, that he wants to exclude kids, but he is afraid to lose some popularity. I don’t even want to explain why kids have to be excluded from the development of a game about murder, torture and bullying. You should be able to figure that out yourself.
Since you’re apparently underage yourself its completely pointless to argue with you. Since you don’t care what adults say anyway. But i will still post, because it clarifies some things.
Hey, I’m also an adult and I’d have to disagree with you. Not on the aspect that children shouldn’t play games that involve murder, but on the fact that adults want more “immersion.” Really the gaming industry keeps trying to make “mature games” for adults and failing spectacularly, so I don’t think it’s beneficial for us to continue spreading the idea that “adults want grim and dark games” it’s dumb… Also, your use of the word “brutal” concerns me a little bit? Makes me think of Mortal Kombat and I don’t know about you, but I think that game is soo gory it borders on being silly. I personally can’t take a game that emphasises “brutality” and all that stuff seriously…
Changing subjects what’s the issue with the poll? Did you actually see the results? Because the top result, by far, is “keep some of the silliness but make it serious most of the time.” How is that not making the game more serious than it already is? Unless you are going for “All dark, all the time” and in that case, I have to disagree, going to extremes is not the right answer, ever, to anything. And you have to understand that Yandere Sim is still a game based around Anime tropes and those are pretty silly. To take every single silly thing away would actually be detrimental to the game. Say the Sempai Shrine, I find that a bit silly and funny in a creepy way (hard to explain, I laugh during horror movies, okay?) If you take that out in order to take all the silliness out then you are slowly taking out the fact that Yandere-chan is a fricken Yandere. On another note, the contrast of lightheartedness and horror is quite interesting, appealing and honestly enjoyable. I’m not even sure you would want that, to take out every single ounce of silliness from the game, I’m just reading into the implications on what you’ve said.
Finally, let’s be realistic here for a second: Should underage people play violent games? No. Will they? Yes. Sorry, there is no getting around that. My cousin has been playing Call of Duty every single fucking day since age 13, it drives me crazy ’cause I hate that stupid game, but I can’t stop him. My other cousin, who is 10 mind you, watches Southpark… That’s all I have to say. He Watches Southpark. I only saw that show once I was like 17 and I still found some of the things on questionable at best and downright disgusting at their worst. He watches that thing and doesn’t even bat an eye. We have to face the fact that we cannot control what kids play or do anymore. We just can’t. You can’t exclude them, you could try… but honestly it won’t work… All that you’ll accomplish is making one more thing that if their parents knew about they’d be horrified. Maybe taking out the silliness will get some of the younger range of the spectrum out of the fanbase, but you cannot make the fanbase be full of “adults” that will simply never happen, no matter how hard you try as far as you can possibly go is the majority being 13+, but you won’t get any farther than that.
Hmm… where do i even start? I think i will just clarify some things.
Adults want immersion. “Roleplaying” at its true form. Not only to see a story, but to feel it. Immersion is the key word for this. So many games did it right: Skyrim, Witcher 1 (having the best immersion) /2/3 etc.
I don’t want brutality in terms of “ripping somebody’s guts out”. The recent suicide animation is what i expect. I want more emotion while killing, instead of more blood and gore.
Correct me if im wrong, but you apparently didn’t understand the results of the poll. The game is very serious already. So basically the result is: “don’t change anything”.
It’s obvious that i want the school atmosphere changes to stay. This is what the game is about. BUT i want Yandere-chan to be evil, and a generally “bad” person. In this game i want to be the bad guy, the one that ruins the day. I want to play a psychopath, and feel what the psychopath feels, while i play. I want to think “Oh god… i killed someone… what now?” instead of “lololol lets see how many i can kill without a teacher / the police catching me”. The suicide animation was a HUGE step into the right direction. I want to “feel” the pressure of going to school and knowing that you are responsible for somebodys death. Thats the kind of “dark” and “brutal” content i want.
I told that so many times… charge 1$/month for download and testing on patreon. Not everyone will actually pay, but enough people would get together, to make huge progress on the games development. I would love to pay way more than 1$/month in that case aswell.
Sorry for any mistakes i made while typing, expressing myself unclearly or other structure issues. It’s 2:00 am now and i have to work at 6:00 so im extremely tired.
Hey, I kinda get what you originally meant better now. Altho I will still disagree with the notion that “adults want immersion” simply because every single player tends to want different things out of their games (and you talk about RPGs, which I enjoy, but I have a few friends that will strongly disagree with you because they dislike RPGs and say that what they want out of their games is challenge and competition).
Anyways, nevermind the issue of player types (altho if you find it interesting I can point you to a great video when this is explained) The point it that, now I understand what you originally meant by it. I personally want to play the game from the social perspective more than the murderous one, I want to go around the school manipulating people, basically seeing what I can get away with without having to kill anyone. So befriending Kokona was more interesting to me than the murder animations… (I’m also super excited about the matchmaking and the idea of simply sabotaging the Rival’s reputation and stuff so that Senpai rejects her.) But I get that what you actually want is the game to be more emotional. Brutal isn’t really the right choice of word, in this case, I think.
About the poll, well the thing is that there is an option in the poll for “don’t change anything.” So I don’t think that Yandere Dev will see that the winning option is “It’s okay to be silly, but keep it seriously most of the time” and think “Okay, I won’t change a thing” when he clearly put another option for that… The way I see it the poll is like on a scale, keepings things like they are right now is the middle option, and anything else is changing it towards either being more silly or more serious (in different degrees) and the option that is winning is the one for making it more serious (not a lot more serious, but more serious indeed.)
To be honest I think we should let Yandere Dev do what he originally intended and stop meddling so much with his ideas. That’s why I’ve never flipped out at any of the recent issues that produced backlash with other people. This is his vision, his game and I trust that he will do everything in his power to make his vision a reality. After all the simple vision of this game is what made me like it in the first place, so as long as he doesn’t change his vision I will agree with anything he wants to do. I feel like a fairly serious game with a bit of anime silliness on top it’s what it’s always meant to be, what whit you taking panty shots to use as currency to buy stuff that can help you murder high school girls, that sounds hilarious and yet it’s kind of creepy. But anyways, this is just my opinion.
The Easter Eggs are fun, but this game is a YANDERE simulator. I know that the game is not fineshed yet and the Easter Eggs are just for laughs, but the game needs to be more serious!!! In the debug build it’s OK to have Easter Eggs, but I think you should make more progress in animations, characters, elimination methods, etc.
As other said (hope you will read this) , make the game more serious please.
It’s ok to have 2-3 joke here and here , but not hundred… The actual chara design and menu design is very fine , it’s fit totally with the game , the only problem is: meme
Don’t rebrand the game , it is find like this, just stop adding goofy thing or at leat delet them in the final edition.
It is okey to have pinky menu and kawai logo when you are a psychopath , that’s a good mix.
But have trolololo and doge when you are here to kill… THIS is what make the game into a joke.
Hope you read this please…
Why not have all the silly content in a sandbox mode separate from the main game?
” hiding in plain sight” quote from dexter . A REALLY good netflix seriesabout a sociopath that kills people as a form of addiction because of a trauma that started it all when he was little. I wonder if Yandere Dev will throw some back story to Yander Chan along the way I’d love that so much. ^.^
I think keeping a check on your morale is also an important part of development, and will also indirectly help to improve the games Quality and development Speed. Don’t force yourself to be serious all the time if that doesn’t feel right for you.
I’m more a fan of the “dark” aspects of the game, but I think it’s best left to the individual Player to decide to Play the game as “dark” as he wants.
I voted for the “a little silly is okay” choice, but wanted to clarify my answer:
I *really* like the cognitive dissonance of having light colors, and cheerful music that give way to a dark, unsettling scene. I feel like the way the music changes as sanity and atmosphere decrease really lend to the eerie feel of the game, and the “social stealth” you’re talking about. It makes me think of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni/Higurash: When They Cry (which I mean as a compliment), in that it makes that contrast.
That said, I also agree with the concern that it might get *too* silly, but if it gets too *dark,* it risks being something that’s just too heavy for me to get enjoyment out of. I also *definitely* don’t want *you* to get burnt out on the project; if you can’t enjoy making the game, either it won’t be as good as it could be, or it won’t get finished at all.
All in all, I think if the poll had been “pick 1-10, where 5 is where it is now, 1 is Grimdark, and 10 is Saints Row 4,” I would have picked “4.”
Yeah I want it to become serious too…
Why don’t you have your dark game but also have a fun little sandbox mode to play around in and use the all these funny easter eggs?
Keep the Easter Eggs, but make them inaccessible until the player beats the game. Y’know, make the players play way you want the game to be played then give them the ability to play the game however they want when they beat it.
Also, please do not change the artstyle and music, they are perfect the way they are.
Yanderedev, i think you should keep easter eggs, but remove the menu. What I’m saying is, if you remove the menu, and also change the buttons a bit, it might be harder to activate the easter eggs. Making it so people can focus more on the real subject of the game. They can use easter eggs, sure, but its gonna be hard to find them all. Maybe try combinations of keys to make it a little bit harder? Or maybe thats too easy? I know your not going to take this idea, but i feel its worth it to put my ideas out.
Either way, its your game, yanderedev! Make it the way you want it to be! If you want to make it all serious and dark, make it that way! Anyway, can’t wait for the final product! Bye now, i’ll just leave.
Hey! I really love the easter eggs but maybe you could make them unlockable instead of adding a menu of them in the finished game? 🙂 That’d be very interesting and I think it’d be a fun way to add the sillyness without changing the serious tone of the game too much. Like for example the Bad Time mode could be unlocked by the undertale/skull in the occult club easter egg.
Regarding: ”A “game” is something that has win conditions and loss conditions.”
I will have to disagree on this. 32 years ago, a brilliant game called Elite had major trouble finding a publisher because it didn’t adhere to the ruling definition of a game at that time, namely having 3 lives, a point system and a victory condition. Elite was (one of) the first sandbox games. You decided where to go, what to do and what your goals were.
What I’m trying to convey is, don’t let yourself get restricted by definitions as if they’re set in stone.
Other than that, keep doing what you want to do with the game.
Well, if you wanted to, you could work (in the future, no rush) on REAL easter eggs, for example: the player finds a hidden “one punch man” manga, wins the game, and the One Punch mode is unlocked.
That’s just an example, if you wanted to keep the “easter eggs” or add more.
P.S: Sorry if my english is bad, I’m from Argentina, so….. yeah :v
But the easter eggs mostly wont even make into the final game due to copyright
Well, why not make those silly things a part of the aftergame, when you got senpai and can have fun with him, killing people together or whatever. It’s okay for a not finished game to have some silly content but rebranding and moving to final stages shoould eliminate all that memes and other irrelevant stuff. There is no such option in the poal. Moreover, i think that you should at some point hide new features and create some closed, not very big community, that will test all the new features so that we would have something unexplained by you to play with
I just can’t wait for the pre-alpha
Your poll didn’t have the exact answer I would have given, so I’m leaving feedback here.
I think you should stop making silly content so that the game is taken more seriously by the gaming community. In fact, you should even take some of the existing silly content out of the game!
BUT!
Please do NOT rebrand the game or change its name. By stopping making silly content and taking some (most/all?) out, its identity and mood will slowly change back to serious over time (maybe you can offer all the silly content you’ve created so far as free DLC in the final game for people who want it so that your effort in creating it isn’t wasted). However, such a drastic change as rebranding/renaming isn’t necessary. Rebranding will only alienate the fan base and will confuse future players who don’t know that Yandere Simulator even exists yet. Yandere Simulator is the perfect name for your game. Don’t fret over there being so many silly simulators out there that give the genre a whimsical feeling. There are a great many obscure simulators that are very serious, too, Train Simulator being one of my favorites (I’m a railfan and a fan of real simulators like Flight Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator and Ship Simulator, to name a few). The two words “Yandere” and “Simulator” say precisely what the game is.
i wish their was a like button so i could just like this, but I’ll have to comment instead.
I agree i dont think the game needs to be rebranded i think if more story is introduced 4 rivals and easter eggs truly became easter eggs it would fix the problem it 3 months
i want a stealthy game with a lot of thought but at the same time but…I ALSO WANT YUNO GASAI FRICKEN YANDERE SHIT AND BLOOD EVERYWHERE…BRUTALITY AND GORE…im a messed up person
This is great!
Rebranding the game WILL alienate the people who only follow this game as a meme game, but it will gain you so many more players in the end. Games that rely on shock value or comedy are never remembered, and they will never appeal to hardcore gamers who judge the worth of a game on its mechanics. The games that appeal to the widest demographic and are remembered far into the future are those with solid gameplay and meaningful stories. I’m personally following Yandere Simulator because I’m excited to see it turn into the dark, gritty vision that you have of it with game mechanics that are new and interesting. That said, I fully support rebranding it.
I think that the game should be darker , but these easter eggs like ” Demon Hand ” correspond to the dark side Yandere Simulator , even more so if we take the ” demonic ritual” – it really is the Easter eggs as it is necessary to make a bunch of procedures that can be quite complex , in order to get a result , and it does not just kill all and with a clear conscience to go home , though it was nothing, and the police do not pay attention to you .
No update ? No drug… Devpai…
Sorry but the August 7th update ? ..Okay then
prob tonight
like you said dev, making fun things in your spare time would keep you from going insane. i also agree that the easter eggs make it more of a silly game. my friend recently downloaded it just because of the sans easter egg and completely disregarded the fact that this is a stealth game, not a “go on a murderous rampage cosplaying sans” game. i told her how that’s not what the game stands for and she got all uppity about how if dev didn’t want people to use and abuse easter eggs he wouldn’t put them in it. so dev, for my own sanity, please please please make the game more creepy and less cute, make it harder to get away with murderous rampage, nerf the easter eggs at least if you don’t want to remove them right away.
The whole point of the game is to hide your true self, so don’t make it TOO dark, Devpai.
I see this as Hitman to be honest. Like in Hitman it’s super serious and all that but you can still do all of your super serious things in chicken suit. It gets a few giggles out of us but that doesn’t make the game any less serious. All the silly accessories are, in my eyes, is just Yan-chan thinking ‘if I wear this octopus on my head then everyone is gonna think i’m silly and light hearted and no one suspects a silly light hearted person to be a psychopath!’
And also, Japan or not, a high school with teens everywhere is going to need silly things to make it more natural. Take my school for example where there is a class that always has one person wearing suspenders. everyday it’s someone else, it’s weird. Or the school’s urban myths that always exists. Or that fanclub that always has show related merch with them.Or that one person who always has some weird gadget etc.
Teens will always have silly things with them. Regardless of where they are. Especially at school. Like the wand weapon is perfectly justifiable. Maybe it’s a drama club prop. Or it’s from the anime club! Or maybe someone brought it along to show off to their fellow fans. If anything it really helps to frame people.
So yeah. The easter eggs are too silly but everything else is just the right amount of silly.
agreed. to be the social stealth game YD was describing, at least for me, it needs to have the atmosphere of a high school. hand waving why people are coming to school despite a murderer is easy enough, its a game, after all, (though it would be interesting if the school closed if the school atmosphere got too low, ending the game) but there’s not any reason for a school to be so dark, unless its a prison school or something, which is a dumb idea for plenty of reasons. he should cut the easter eggs, but leave pretty much everything else.
I don’t think it would be a good idea too change the color screen and music too much. the atmosphere already changes as the game progresses, and i thought that was a good idea that makes sense. the world should start out being more cute, because, as you said, the game is about hiding in plain sight. if you want people to take it more seriously, the best thing to do is cut out the easter eggs and such. also, as a game, people are going to do whatever they find fun. if you don’t like them messing around and going on a murderous rampage, don’t put it in the game.changing atmosphere would imply that you have to kill, but we know thats not true, and a poll a while back has already said most of your fans like the social sabotage more than the murderous aspect. your is important, but you need to do what will benefit the game. I think changing the atmosphere of the game itself would be a MAJOR mistake, and would be removing a feature that i personally always liked about the game.
I love the whole feeling of it being a seemingly cute anime game but being dark under the surface.. but maybe tone the easter eggs down so people can see what it really is like 😀 also, maybe in the final game, to appease the “meme game” fans… keep them in a certain mode?
I feel that there’s plenty of room for a bit of humor along with the horror/drama. Remember your inspirations for this project, shows like Future Diary, When They Cry, Shuffle, and so on – all these sources, while varying in their levels of darkness, had lighthearted, silly moments all over the place. This isn’t just a stealth horror game – this is an ANIME stealth horror game. Folks are going to expect the anime tropes!
That said, obviously you shouldn’t be able to transform into Saitama and punch your way to victory or any of the other “instant win” stuff. Copyright issues aside, it’s simply too overpowered and out-of-place. The supernatural stuff is a great example of “silly” done (almost) right. It’s easy to imagine a Supernatural Studies club in an anime school, and certainly not a stretch to imagine that there might be some real supernatural stuff that they stumble across by accident. The “almost” comes into play because the arms thing is, again, overpowered; a player shouldn’t be allowed to enter an indestructible, kill-everything mode, even if it’s difficult to trigger. Maybe keep the sacrifice the same (it WOULD be difficult to pull off in game, after all!), but have the demon grant Yan-chan a boon instead: He’ll dismember one person of your choice. Instead of Yan-chan roaming the hall with the arms, you get treated to a cutscene after school in which the arms appear around the victim in a dark alley, and then slice her up.
I guess my take is this: Stay away from memes and references in the final game, but continue to include unusual and interesting solutions for the player to try.
It’s pretty useless making a poll knowing full well that the majority of your fanbase will vote against the serious approach because they’re braindead meme kids that only want to see Youtube funny videos, make it serious, make it dark, make it the way it should be. And if then you feel like adding something more silly, and I mean only at the very end of it when the game is complete and the tone for it is set, only then decide to add some silly things.
It’s alright that you want to give the game the horror theme, but that doesn’t means that you should get rid of every funny stuff there is in the game. A game can be of horror and still have some light-hearted things. Take Silent Hill, for example. It’s a game of horror, it has many disturbing aspects, but, it also has humorous aspects. The main game is focused on terror, but after completing it, you get extra items, some of which are joke items, and, also, it has joke endings, like the Dog ending in Silent Hill 2, and the famous UFO endings in Silent Hill 1, 2, 3, Origins and Homecoming. That’s what this game could do. Leave some of the joke items or some of the Easter Eggs characters only after completing the main game. You can even allow certain objects activate in the next game after completing certain objectives or getting certain achievements. Doing that would give people who love how the game currently looks even more reasons to play. They would do it to remember how the game progressed through the years. That’s why I think it would be a waste and big mistake to get rid of every single humorous thing. It’s OK to remove some of them, but not all. I don’t know if you will read this comment or not, but I really hope you do. Thank you.
Like, I feel that maybe the easter eggs, like the menu, and titan mode and things of course are a little much.
They’re fun to play with, yes, but when you can murder everyone in the school the first day with no consequence, it’s maybe not the horror part that you want.
I still think that there should be silly things in the games and easter eggs. Like running into people and making them fall over would be fun, throwing water balloons and things at people; things like that. It would all be in good fun, but it could still serve a purpose. If you wanted your social reputation to go down, why not prank people? Of course, eventually, the people in the school might be too scared to follow you, in fear that you’ll prank them. But eventually, your school reputation would stop going down, because everybody already knows and expects you to prank them.
Maybe you just want to make the easter eggs more hidden. Ooh! I have an idea! Maybe you could unlock the easter eggs by completing challenges. Then, you could still have plenty of fun with them, but you still have to play through the game to unlock them.
I personally think that easter eggs are perfectly fine. Which is why I imagine a menu that has, yes, Old Mode and Story Mode and Endless Mode, but also a ‘Sandbox’ or ‘Fun’ Mode, where it’s exactly like how the game is now. Yes, you could do the dark story mode, but when you need a break from the darkness, there’s a fun mode with easter eggs to have fun where you could blast away the rivals or try to kill Senpai or do anything!
I dunno, I thought that idea would be pretty cool.
There is nothing wrong with having easter eggs. Even in a dark story about a schoolgirl murdering her class… but the key is that they ARE easter eggs. They should be locked behind a win screen- available only after thee game’s completion. For now, as there is no win state, it doesn’t matter. A lot of modern games do this- go for serious gameplay and throw the silly crap in at the end for cheap replay value. They don’t hurt the main game like that, so there’s no need to feel guilty over having made them, but now would be a good time to slow down on making more.
Now is the time to bring in the darkness. A sudden re-branding would be a mistake, as it could alienate the fans you have attracted. Just slow down/stop the silly stuff for now (Or just don’t implement if you feel the need to make some for your own sanity) and spend a few updates focusing on the true meat of YanSim- Getting away with murder, and the consequences of it.
Agreed
I think the silly things in the game should be more well hidden. That way it does not distract from the dark atmosphere. Then gamers can actually play the game as it was meant to be played.
I’m afraid I voted “the game should be more serious!”
I like YanSim for it’s darkness, and I feel like this game has real potential for this. Ultimately, YanSim is a horror game as much as a stealth one. Making silly easter eggs is fun and cute in a trivial, and ironic way, but unforunately, it has distracted from the game’s true, core nature- that of a serious horror game, where you play as the monster. Not a silly, cutesy-wutesy internet meme sandbox. I fear that it has the serious danger of becoming the latter rather than the former.is.
This is why I fully support your proposition to focus on the horror aspect of the game, and redesigning it so the atmosphere and feel of the game accurately represents it. I don’t wanna see this game turn into another internet meme sandbox. That’s not what it’s meant to be, and you know it as well as I do.
– A true YanSim fan
I personally support the rebranding of Yandere Simulator. Don’t make it too dark, though, or it will get old very quickly. Keep some goofy easter eggs here and there, but mainly focus on making it dark and scary.
I’m not 100% against silly content if a serious game is what you’re going for. A perfect example of what I feel should happen is something like the Silent Hill games. A horror game that seems to have struck a chord with many people… and yet we have goofy shit like the dog endings. Do I think the game should be a 75/25 split between horror and silly? No, not at all. If anything, I feel like the silly stuff shouldn’t be the focus, but to be there in small segments to break up the insanity.
Maybe instead of having so much silly content, make the game as you intend it, then maybe just put a few easter eggs in to break up the tension, or as rewards for certain objectives.
Maybe when the game comez out, just rremove the Easter eggs from the game, but give some sort of achievement or way of unlocking them in a way. You can’t use them to win the game, but you we’re talking about making the game replayable,so maybe if you did keep them in you would have to beat the game once in order to unlock the ability to use them, then in like the options menu it gives you am option to turn them on or off, that way it’s not the main focus of the game however it is still there for those that want to use it. I personally don’t care if you keep them or not. I .more interested in playing the game by how you originally planned to make it. But having a little silly in the game will not destroy your vision of the game being as dark as it is. It gives it it’s own ‘charm’ I guess you can say. I but overall it is your choice. This is your game after all. I know for a fact I will still be interested in playing it weather you keep the Easter eggs in or take them out.
I’m just rereading everything and I am aware there are some grammatical errors…thank my phone for changing some of that for me. I can’t find an edit button so I can’t go back and fix what I said. -_-