Video when? Progress report?

Sorry – no video today. I decided that it was more important to spend time working on Osana/Raibaru. If you’d like to hear details about specifically what I’ve been doing recently, I’ll elaborate below, along with screenshots.

As usual, I’d like to share a fan creation with you! Sakura Media has created another episode of LOVESICK! Check it out!

I really love the way Ayano is portrayed here – this video does a great job of depicting her obsession! It reminded me about a feature that is currently missing from Yandere Sim; the ability to collect items that Senpai leaves behind. This is how the player will fill the Senpai shrine. (It’s not supposed to have items at the beginning of the game.)

I’ve uploaded a new build with some bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements. To read a list of all the changes in the new build, and to read a progress report about what I’ve been doing recently, click “Continue Reading”.

Will there be a video? Do you have progress to report?

In 2015, I created something for Yandere Simulator, but never publicly revealed it or told anyone about it. I put a lot of effort into it, so it’s kind of a shame that it never saw the light of day. I think that the story behind it would make an interesting video, so I wrote a script for a video about it. I even requested some Dev/Midori illustrations for the video; I was planning to have a little skit where Dev/Midori comically bicker with one another, which eventually leads to a conversation about that forgotten creation from 2015.

I really wanted to release that video on September 1st. I thought it would be super fun to reveal a “lost chapter” from Yandere Simulator’s history. However, it would be a “filler” video, not a true progress report video, so I knew that some people would be annoyed, and would say, “You should have spent your time working on Yandere Sim instead of making this video!” I started feeling really anxious about how the video would be received, and in the end, I simply decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble. I felt that the value of making Osana/Raibaru progress outweighed the value of the video.

I always feel nervous when I say, “I can’t show you what I’ve been working on, it’s a spoiler!” because there’s no way for me to prove my words are true without showing evidence, and any evidence would be a spoiler. I try to resolve this by showing short clips or screenshots which demonstrate something that doesn’t spoil too much…but I’m sure that there are people who are still doubtful.

As a result, I’d like to elaborate about exactly what I’ve been working on lately (to the degree that I can, without spoilers). Because Osana’s “Senpai Interaction Events” were implemented before Raibaru was implemented, there isn’t any code telling Raibaru what to do during an event, so she just stands around awkwardly. What I’ve been doing recently is going through all of Osana’s events and finding a purpose for Raibaru in each event.

This takes a tremendous amount of time; testing a change to one of Osana’s events can sometimes require me to play through an entire school day (since the consequences of an event can affect other events occurring that day). Want to see proof? Each time I play through a day, I have to attend class. I’ve attended class enough times that I’ve fully maxed-out all of the school subjects! (Multiple times, in fact!)

However, what takes up the most time is fixing various problems that I observe during the process of implementing Raibaru. I really want to avoid a “janky” Raibaru, so I’m taking time to add as much polish as possible, and fix every problem I see.

At this point, I’ve implemented Raibaru into all of Osana’s events from Monday through Thursday. After completing Friday, it’ll be time to implement Osana’s suitor, and then her Befriend/Betray event. I still need some assets for her Befriend/Betray event, so it’s possible that we’ll reach a point where I go back to implementing minor improvements for a week or two, while waiting for some of the remaining assets I need.

Over the course of Yandere Simulator’s development, I have occasionally been asked if Yandere Simulator has a “development roadmap”. It always existed in my mind, but I never created a document or an image to convey it to others. Recently, I’ve been working on an image that, hopefully, communicates my plans for Yandere Simulator’s future. Please take a look at it and let me know if it’s adequate! If not, I’ll consider updating it to convey information more clearly.

Click here for a larger version!

I think that’s everything there is to say regarding the Osana/Raibaru situation for now! I hope that this post answered any questions you might have had about the current state of development!

As mentioned above, I’ve uploaded a new build today with some bug fixes. Here’s a list of everything that I fixed or changed:

Fixes, Changes, Additions

• In a student’s profile, you can see a list of their likes/dislikes. Most social butterflies dislike the topic of “Gossip”, but were responding positively if the player left a note in their locker about the subject of “Juicy Gossip”. To fix this contradiction, I have removed the “Juicy Gossip” option and replaced it with something else that social butterflies would respond positively to.
• Students will now become suspicious of you at 2x the speed that they previously would. (This is a sign that we’ve reached a stage of the game’s development where the game is complete enough to begin accurately judging the overall experience of playing the game, and tweak the balance of the difficulty accordingly.)
• Fixed bug that would cause students to get distracted by dropped weapons even though they were supposed to be running out of the school in a panic (due to Info-chan’s Send Home service).
• Fixed bug that would prevent some characters from returning to their normal routines after rejecting a note that was placed in their locker.
• Fixed bug that caused some male students’ hair to have an outline in Yandere Vision, even if they had not yet been photographed.
• Fixed bug that caused the game to soft-lock if the player spoke to Supana Churu about her task, and then rejected the task.
• Fixed bug that would cause male students to hold notes in a very awkward way, after retrieving a note from their locker.
• Teachers will no longer scold you for being late to class if they are not present in the classroom.
• Restored “Near Mode” to the easter egg menu (accidentally removed it in the last build, whoops).
• Fixed bug that prevented the player from being able to complete some students’ Tasks.
• Fixed bug that prevented sliding doors from being able to fully close.
• Prevented Osana/Raibaru’s hair from being accessed through Pose Mode. This was an oversight; they were never supposed to be available through Pose Mode.
• Trying something new for the first time – using one of Unity’s compression options to lower the file size of the build. Not sure yet if it’ll have adverse side-effects (like prolonging loading times). This is a test-drive to see if it negatively impacts the build.