Where’s the update?

Over the course of the past 3 years, I’ve established an update schedule – on the 1st and 15th days of every month, I upload a new build and a new YouTube video. Sometimes, I’m a day or two late, because I’m working on a very elaborate video. In fact, my most recent video was 5 days late! But now we’re 5 days past the 15th, and there hasn’t been any sign of activity…so, what’s going on?

While I was producing my previous video, I stopped checking my e-mail so that I could to spend as much time as possible working on the video. Once the video was finally complete, I discovered a mountain of unread e-mails waiting for me. It took me several days to get through them all – and by then, there simply wasn’t enough time to put together a cool build or video for the 15th.

When I realize that a video deadline is a few days away, but I don’t have a new big feature to show off, I try to think of something to make a video about. I might make a video about a feature I’m considering for the game, or talk about the origin of a character, or examine a game that can teach me how to improve Yandere Simulator. I would describe these as “forced” videos; they exist purely because I feel pressured to release videos twice per month – even when I’d rather be working on the game instead.

Many of these “forced” videos receive a very negative response; the LoveSick video is one example. I added “LoveSick Mode” to the game and made a video about it purely because I felt obligated to a maintain the tradition of two videos per month. However, the concept of LoveSick Mode was rejected by a large portion of the fanbase because it represents the opposite of the reason that the game caught your attention in the first place. If I wasn’t forcing myself maintain an arbitrary schedule, I wouldn’t have implemented such a dumb feature and angered the fanbase.

So – why does the two-videos-per-month schedule exist in the first place? It’s a tradition that dates back to 2014, when I first began working on the game. Very early in the game’s development, I posted threads about the game on a message board once per day to talk about my progress and ask for suggestions. Every one of these threads was incredibly popular, often reaching 500 replies in a single night! However, one day, someone warned me that people might eventually get sick of hearing about the game if I made threads about it once per day. They suggested that I should only post about the game once every 2 weeks to prevent people from getting sick of hearing about Yandere Sim. I thought this sounded like very wise advice, so I decided to limit my threads to the 1st and 15th day of every month. This eventually morphed into the tradition of uploading new builds and new videos on the 1st and 15th.

For a long time, it was very easy to meet these deadlines, because there were all sorts of features that I could put into the game very easily in less than 2 weeks. However, at this point in time, there is no more “low-hanging-fruit” – in other words, all of the features that remain to be put into the game require more than 2 weeks of work. This is what has led to a lot of “forced” videos over the past year.

It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve come to realize that these “forced” videos are only hurting the game’s development. These videos take away from development time, introduce concepts that many people aren’t interested in, and usually just wind up making the fanbase angry. It’s a lose-lose for everyone. That’s why I think I should probably abandon the 1st-and-15th schedule that I’ve been using up until now.

From now on, I’d like to upload videos only when I have something significant to show off – not when the date on the calendar reaches an arbitrary number. This might result in less videos being uploaded, but each video would be more significant. Alternatively, videos might actually be uploaded more frequently, but each one would be shorter and would focus on a single subject – just like the really old videos that you can find waaaaay back at the beginning of my channel.

EDIT: But, don’t worry, I could still write a blog post on the 1st or 15th of every month as filler material between videos, and perhaps provide screenshots / teasers of upcoming content!

At this point in time, it’s too early to say how things will turn out – but I hope that this blog post helps you understand why there hasn’t been a new build or video recently, and why things might change in the future.

(On that note, I might actually release a new build very soon, since a lot of bug fixes have piled up recently.)

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

Making Senpai Reject A Love Confession In Yandere Simulator

At 34 minutes and 45 seconds long, this is definitely the most lengthy video I’ve ever made!

There are some obvious animation mistakes, some of the writing feels a little “cringey”, and I can’t really show off the gameplay I’m imagining until after the school has more students (and the “Mysterious Obstacle” character), but I hope that this video communicates the general idea of my plans for the Rejection method. If there’s anything about this video that underwhelms you, please rest assured that everything you see here will be polished and improved before it’s finally released to the public.

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

Hey! Where’s the video?!

I’m very sorry that my next video is so late!

Over the past year, there have been several times when I was extremely dissatisfied with how a video turned out, but I uploaded it anyway, because I don’t want to keep the fanbase waiting. Predictably, those videos received a negative reaction from the fans. If only I had taken the time to revise those videos – adjust the script, clarify my intentions, elaborate further – I could have avoided a lot of backlash and drama.

The more time I spend working on my latest video, the more apparent its flaws are becoming. I feel like I can already predict exactly what kind of criticism this video going to attract. I feel a lot of pressure to upload a video as soon as possible, but I really do NOT want to drop the ball with this video, since it’s covering most of the work I’ve done on Osana over the past year, and I don’t want that work to have been a waste.

This video is about the “Rejection” elimination method – sabotaging a rival’s interactions with Senpai until he hates her and ultimately rejects her love confession. All of the animations are implemented, all of the events are functional, everything’s working perfectly…but I can’t accurately depict my vision for what it’s like to eliminate a rival until several more features are in the game. Because those features are still missing, I worry that the “Rejection” method is going to seem underwhelming, no matter what kind of video I make about it.

I know that I could make a much cooler “Rejection” video if I had a few more weeks / months to add several more features to the game, but I’ve already kept the fanbase waiting for quite a long time, and I feel like it’s no longer acceptable for me to say “please wait just a little longer”.

Although I don’t intend to keep you waiting for weeks or months, I do want to take a day or two to revise this video; I want to re-write some parts of the narration that sound awkward, put more emphasis on what is supposed to be cool and fun about the Rejection method, and most importantly, take some time to clarify the fact that the game is currently missing some of the features I need in order to paint an accurate image of what the Rejection method is really going to be like.

Once again, I’m very sorry that the next video is taking me so long to make. In short, I don’t feel satisfied with it yet, and I really, really don’t want to drop the ball with this video, so I’m going to take another day – or two, or three if necessary – to make sure that I won’t regret anything about it.

November 1st Bug-Fixing Update

Now that Osana’s confession cutscene is finished, I can finally make a video about everything Osana-related that I’ve been working on over the past 12 months! I’m so excited to finally be able to share it all with you!

Before making the video, I decided to playtest every one of Osana’s interaction events to confirm that they were all working properly – and I discovered that some of them had become broken due to changes I’ve made over the past few months. Adding Cleaning Time, making time pass more slowly during lunchtime, changing students’ routines – all of these things threw a wrench into most of Osana’s events. So, instead of producing a video today, I had to spend some time fixing everything that had become broken. The good news is that, as of now, everything’s working as intended again! The not-so-good news is that you’ll have to wait an extra day or two to see the next video. Sorry!

In the meantime, I’ll share a different video with you – a live-action video by Cosplay Slayer, inspired by the Promo Concept from last year! You will definitely want to watch this video until the end – trust me on this one.

I’m also releasing a new build today which contains numerous bug fixes, several improvements, and a few new additions.

It’s important to note that the game’s launcher is currently not working properly, so if you want to play the latest build, you should probably use one of the links provided on the Downloads page. I hope to have the launcher fixed within the next few days.

Click “Continue Reading” to see a list of everything that is new or different in the latest build!