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Are you looking for information about the latest build of the game? Click here!
A lot of people have expressed that they are losing faith in me and losing faith that the game will ever be finished, because it’s taking me a long time to implement the game’s first rival, Osana. I feel a need to defend myself, explain why the game’s development speed has slowed down, and explain why it won’t be this way forever.
In this blog post, I’m going to show you some recent progress that I’ve made on Osana, tell you why it’s taking so long to make any progress with her, and tell you what is being done to speed up development.
I usually try my best to upload a new build of the game and a new video on the 1st and 15th day of every month. July 1st is coming up soon…but I won’t be available to update the game on that day. I’m traveling to Los Angeles on June 29th, I’m taking the day off on June 30th (since it’s my birthday), I’ll be at Anime Expo from July 1st ~ July 4th, and I’ll be returning to my home on July 5th. Today is my last window of opportunity to upload a new build of the game, so that’s what I’m going to do!
To read a list of all the changes in this new build, scroll down past this gruesome-yet-gorgeous illustration by Ologica!
I’ll be attending Anime Expo 2017! I’m planning to be there for all 4 days of the convention.
Last year, I had a fantastic time at AX! My most favorite part of the experience was meeting up with Yandere Sim fans. There were two gatherings; one on July 1st, and one July 4th. I’d love to meet up with fans again this year, too!
Even outside of the meetup, I want people to be able to recognize me so they can approach and say hi. You can see what my face looks like in this video. To make it even easier for you to spot me at AX, I’ll show you what I’ll be wearing while I’m at the expo. Click “Continue Reading” to see!
I’ve made progress on Osana, but not enough progress to justify a whole video about the subject. It feels wrong to let two weeks pass without a video, so I’ve decided to make a video about a subject related to the game’s development.
Occasionally, I hear people say that they find Yandere-chan to be a boring character because of her lack of emotions. I felt a need to explain what led me to create that type of character, and that’s what made me decide to create this video. Over the course of this video, I also discussed related subjects, such as whether or not the other characters in the game will be simple or complex, and whether or not the statements in my videos are set in stone, or subject to change.
Spending so much time thinking about these subjects has made me wonder whether or not it would be appropriate to change Yandere-chan’s identity. It feels strange to suggest making significant changes to the protagonist after 3 years, but if the majority of the fanbase is disappointed in her, then it seems like the wise thing to do would be to change the type of character that she is.
In the above video, I proposed the idea of changing her identity from “a girl who can’t experience emotions” to “a girl who can’t experience happiness”. It’s tough to find the right words to describe exactly what I am imagining; I tried to phrase it a few different ways:
“A girl who has felt like something is missing for her entire life.”
“A lifelong sensation of having a craving that cannot be fulfilled.”
“Being unable to ever truly experience happiness.”
It’s easy to summarize her current identity with one word: “emotionless”. But, unfortunately, there is no one word that adequately describes the new identity that I’m proposing for her. Terms like “something’s missing” and “perpetually craving” and “never happy” just don’t adequately describe it. I can communicate the concept pretty effectively with a speech in a video or with a bullet-point list, but not with a single phrase or word.
The condition that I’m proposing isn’t something that exists in real life, and it’s also possible that what I’m proposing is something that hasn’t ever been featured in fiction before, either. This would explain why there’s no pre-existing word for it, and no way to succinctly summarize it. It’s almost like we’d have to invent a new word just to describe the condition that I’m proposing.
The closest I can come to summarizing her condition is by calling her an “Empty Girl”. For her entire life, she’s felt hollow and incomplete – but she can’t even explain what’s missing, or what’s wrong. She craves something and yearns for something, but she can’t even explain what that “something” is. Then, on the day she meets Senpai, she finally feels “complete” and “whole” for the first time in her life. There’s no one word that accurately describes exactlyhow she feels before she meets Senpai, but “Empty” might do the trick for now.
You might be wondering, “Why go through the trouble of changing her identity into something that is difficult to define? Why not give her an identity that is easier to summarize?” Well, if it’s difficult to summarize or explain something because of a lack of comparisons, then it’s clearly something original. If I could summarize it in one word, then it would be something that’s already cliche. This is why I don’t want to take the easy way out and give her an identity that is easy to describe. Get it?
If you’re worried that it’s going to be jarring to adapt to a completely new Yandere-chan, I don’t think you should worry about it. What I’m proposing isn’t too different from her previous identity. In both cases:
She cannot experience life in the same way as other people.
She’s had an inexplicable, incurable condition her entire life.
She pretends to be normal around others in order to avoid negative attention.
She doesn’t realize what’s been missing from her life until she meets Senpai.
You might be wondering, “What’s the point of changing her identity, if so little is going to change?” The difference is that an “emotionless” character is like a machine; no personality, no desires, no reason to care about anything. This type of character is boring and uninteresting. But if she canfeel emotions – but cannot ever experience satisfaction, fulfillment, or happiness – then she can have a personality, have desires, and care about things, which gives her waaaaay more potential as a character.
Crafting a believable serial killer requires more of an explanation than just “she lacks emotions” or “she felt empty and then found someone who made her feel whole”. I think that Yandere-chan’s nature can be attributed to the way that she was raised by her parents – specifically, her mother.
Yandere-chan’s mother (Ryoba) has gone through the same experience as her daughter – feeling “empty” for nearly two decades. So, she is the only person who could possibly relate to Yandere-chan or give her more information about her condition. Yandere-chan would seek answers from her mother, who would tell her, “One day you’ll meet someone who will make you feel complete,” These words would become a point of obsession for Yandere-chan. She would obsess over the idea of meeting her “prince charming” for over a decade, which explains how she could “fall in love” with a boy after just one meeting, and why she’d be willing to commit multiple homicides for his sake.
Yandere-chan’s father, having knowledge of his wife’s true nature, would do everything in his power to raise his daughter into someone who wouldn’t dare to spill a single drop of blood, which is why Yandere-chan would be willing to consider the possibility of eliminating her rivals in non-lethal ways…but, ultimately, it’s up to the player how Yandere-chan decides to solve her problems.
I don’t want to make any decisions that would anger the majority of the fanbase, so I’d like to ask you to vote on a few polls for me. Please note that the outcome of these polls won’t guarantee my next course of action, so if an option that you dislike is “winning”, don’t freak out about it.
Do you disapprove of Yandere-chan’s current identity as an “emotionless” character?
I’m sorry! While I was producing my next video, I felt extremely dissatisfied with it, so I decided to revise it. I removed lame sections, added new sections, re-worded awkward portions of the script, re-recorded disappointing parts of the narration, and requested some new artwork. The narration now runs for 15:35 total, and, so far, I’ve produced 12:48 of the necessary material. This means that about 3 more hours of work are necessary in order to complete the video…but I’m exhausted, so I will have to resume working on the video tomorrow.
In the meantime, I want to share something else with you! First, a bit of backstory:
In the second half of 2014, I started creating an intro cutscene for Yandere Simulator. I produced four videos in total:
Unfortunately, there was a very strong negative reaction to these videos. Many people complained that the protagonist didn’t seem like a yandere girl, and that Info-chan was playing too large of a role in the game’s story. People didn’t like the idea of the protagonist being coaxed into becoming yandere; they wanted a girl who was yandere right from the outset, without any influence from a secondary character.
A fifth video was planned, but was never made. This fifth video would have shown the protagonist’s obsessive, psychotic side, and would have made it clear that she was yandere way before Info-chan ever suggested the idea of murder. However, because of the negative reception that the first four videos received, I decided to just scrap that whole storyline and go with a completely different characterization for the protagonist.
Earlier this month, a team of people called “Sakura Media” launched the first episode of “Lovesick”, an animated series based on Yandere Simulator. The first episode is largely a re-creation of the original intro cutscenes that are linked above, but with better models, better animations, the addition of music, and different dialogue. Even though this storyline was abandoned three years ago, I think it’s sooooo cool to see those old videos from 2014 being re-created with much better production values!
I’m fairly certain that I’ll be able to finish and release my next video tomorrow. I hope that “Lovesick Episode One” keeps you entertained until then!
I’m working on a new video that will be about 14 minutes long. Currently, 8 minutes of it have been produced. It takes about 1 hour of work to produce 1 minute of video, so I need at least 6 more hours to finish off this video. I’m dead tired, so I have to call it quits for tonight and resume working on the video tomorrow…but, before I go to bed, I’ll release a new build!
But before that, I’d like to share an illustration created by an artist named Womu!
Such gorgeous artwork!
Click “Continue Reading” to see what’s new in the latest build:
(If you’re looking for my latest video, click here! If you’re looking for info on the latest build, click here!)
There was a bug in the game’s launcher that was preventing it from detecting when a new build had been uploaded. As of now, that pesky bug has finally been fixed! The new launcher is available for download here!
Additionally, the launcher has been updated with two new buttons to help facilitate better bug-reporting. Check out the top-right corner:
A lot of people were reporting launcher bugs to me – but I’m not the right person to send launcher bugs to. I didn’t program the launcher; someone else did! Now there is a button within the launcher itself for reporting launcher-related bugs to the appropriate person:
Now, hopefully, launcher bugs will go straight to the correct person.
I’d like to mention one last thing. Today, a young animator named Katarina Čipčić uploaded an anime-style trailer for Yandere Simulator! (Or, perhaps you could consider it a trailer for a hypothetical Yandere Sim anime!) I think she did a very impressive job, and I’d like to share it with you!
I think she did an excellent job creating the vibe of a trailer! In general, the mood and atmosphere of this trailer are very cool. I like it a lot!
I’m so happy to see Yandere Simulator inspiring people to create things like this! I hope that I’ll be able to share more awesome things like this with you in the future!
My newest video is ready! It’s another “in-between” video; a video to fill the space between “big” updates. Because my previous video received a positive reception, this video is similar – the origin story of one of Yandere Simulator’s most popular characters: Midori Gurin!
If you’re only interested in hearing about Osana progress, I have good news! The first minute of this video is all about Osana. Check it out!
I’m really psyched that I was able to make progress on Osana! I really hope that I’m able to keep up this momentum and make even more progress by the next scheduled update (June 15th). If there is a lot of interest in hearing more about Osana’s development, I can write a blog post detailing how much work has been done, what remains to be done, and why it isn’t going faster. But, if you think it would be better if I focus my time on writing code rather than writing blog posts, that’s perfectly understandable.
Yesterday’s build had a very strange bug in it. I wanted to fix it and release a new build immediately…but I don’t feel comfortable uploading a build with just one tiny change. So, I fixed a few other things until I felt satisfied, and now I’m ready to release a new build!
Before I show you a list of everything that is new and different in the latest build, I want to direct you to this incredible video!
The woman who has been providing Yandere-chan’s voice for the past 2 years, Michaela Laws, is the vocalist for this song! She did a fantastic job, don’t you think? The lyrics were written by Mom0ki, the voice of Midori (and Kokona, and Saki, and others)! The illustrations were made by Shy, and the music and video editing was done by Xandu. I’m super impressed with their work!
If you’d like to read a list of everything that has been fixed in the latest build, check it out below:
Yandere Simulator Development Blog 