Yandere Simulator’s Official Demo Is Now Available!

Pretty much everything I wanted to say today is contained in that video, but there’s just one thing I’d like to elaborate on…bugs!

I spent the past 6 hours hunting for bugs in the build, and actually found a bunch of critical game-breaking glitches! Bugs that made the screen turn white and never return to normal, bugs that made multiple scripted events occur simultaneously, bugs that made Yandere-chan blink out of existence during cut-scenes…I managed to fix every issue that I encountered, but dang, I’m really glad that I decided to bug-hunt before releasing the demo!

Because I could easily find so many issues during a simple, cursory playthrough of the demo, I’m sure there are other issues that escaped my notice. This first release of the demo is doubtlessly going to be a bit rough around the edges. I’ll probably spend the rest of the day watching people stream the demo so that I can take note of bugs and quickly prepare a bug-fixing update to release within 24 hours. If you run into any issues, I apologize in advance!

There’s only one thing that I foresee being a problem. I usually test the game at a resolution of 1280×720. I recently learned that the depth-of-field effect looks different depending on the resolution that you’re playing the game at. So, if the game looks blurry for you, you might want to try switching to a resolution of 1280×720, until I can release an update that makes the depth-of-field effect appear consistent across all resolutions.

While implementing Osana, I made dozens of fixes / changes / additions / improvements to the game. Because I was making so many rapid changes to the game, I didn’t actually log most of the fixes/additions. I can show you a changelog, but it won’t actually be a complete list of all the changes. Click “Continue Reading” if you’re interested in seeing it, anyway!

Osana Release Date Announcement Video

She’s Done

Phew! It took a lot more time than I expected, but I’ve finished testing every one of Osana’s features and confirming that everything works the way it’s supposed to. I fixed every bug I was able to find, fixed every exploit I noticed, and fixed anything I saw that looked janky. It’s such a relief to finally get past this stage of development!!

Of course, I’m pretty sure that there are still bugs in there somewhere. When I release the first build that contains Osana, it’s certain that people will discover bugs that slipped past me. However, I’ve confirmed that it’s possible to complete every one of Info-chan’s Schemes and complete every one of Osana’s elimination methods, so even if there are still bugs buried somewhere in there, there should no longer be any bugs that prevent progression or completion of objectives. (I hope!)

I have removed all “Anti-Osana Countermeasures” that prevent Osana from spawning in public builds. This means that I am now physically incapable of releasing a build that lacks Osana, since all the “Don’t let Osana spawn” code is removed. The next build I release is guaranteed to contain Osana in it, because no other option exists.

As I’ve stated before, I want the demo to feel like it’s completely different from the debug sandbox. I don’t want you to play the demo and think, “Oh, it’s the same thing as before, but Osana’s here now.” I want you to think, “WOW!! It looks and feels completely different!! So THIS is what the final game is going to look like?? Cool!!”

To achieve this goal, there are various aesthetic changes I want to make. Over the next few days, I am going to completely re-make the game’s title screen, touch up the game’s UI, and implement some graphical improvements to make the game look a lot more pretty. I already have all the assets I need to accomplish this, so there won’t be a waiting period before we enter this stage; I can jump right into it immediately.

I usually release an update on the 1st and 15th days of every month. The pre-demo graphical update will probably take a few days to complete, so I won’t be releasing a build on the 15th of this month. It’s a little difficult to predict how long this final pre-demo task will take, but I don’t think it’ll take anywhere near as long as it took to test Osana’s features.

As usual, I’ll continue to update the Trello page with my progress: https://trello.com/b/J0BiY9CS/yandere-simulator The “Graphical Update To-Do List” will probably become more detailed in the future.

It means a whole lot to me if you’re still continuing to check in on my progress after all this time! As always, thank you very, very much for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

Live-Updating Osana Checklist

Every animation, cutscene, gameplay mechanic, feature, model, scripted event, and voiced line related to Osana is in the game. In that sense, she is “finished.”

However, I can’t release her until I’ve tested every feature related to her to confirm that everything is working properly – and that is a lengthy and elaborate process. When I test a feature, I don’t just test it once; I test it about 5~10 times in a row, doing things differently each time, to make sure that there aren’t any circumstances that would cause something to break. This process has been revealing a lot of aspects of Osana that require fixes and improvements. The last thing people want is a buggy and unstable Osana, so I’m taking the time to fix bugs, remove exploits, resolve game design flaws, and improve anything that looks janky.

Instead of attempting to estimate Osana’s release date, I’ve decided to use “Trello” to create a page where you can see a live-updating checklist of every feature that I’m currently testing, and every issue that I’m currently fixing:

https://trello.com/b/J0BiY9CS/yandere-simulator

You might be wondering, “Why does this phase of development take so long?” For a detailed explanation, scroll past this gorgeous artwork by Esther-shen!