Happy Halloween

It’s that time of year again – Halloween! Time for another…

The yearly tradition where I post two dancing skeletons and release a horror-themed minigame! Before I announce this year’s minigame, let’s take a look back at the ones that came before…

• In 2015, I released Yanvania, a parody of the opening sequence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
• In 2016, I released Yandertale, a parody of the Sans boss fight from Undertale.
• In 2017, I released Midori Forest, a minigame about being chased through a dark forest by dozens of flying Midoris.
• In 2018, one of Yandere Simulator’s volunteers, AMZE, developed a horror-themed minigame called YandereDev’s Greatest Nightmare.
• In 2019, I released a minigame that a volunteer had created for me: the dance machine in the Gaming Club.
• In 2020, October 31st was the release date of Yandere no Sutoka, a parody of Saiko no Sutoka.
• In 2021, I released Witch Game, a game prototype based on a dream that I had.

So, what did I develop this year? Well…

Recently, I began to miss the feeling of developing game prototypes. It’s the one thing I enjoy the most, but I haven’t done it in years. The type of game I want to work on the most is an action game; a game with running, jumping, slashing, weapon-swapping, spell-casting, monsters, etc. Every time I play a game with those kinds of features, I think, “Maaaaan, I wish I could work on a game like that…” Well, a couple weeks ago, I got tired of wishing for it, and actually do it, instead!

Every day, I take a break from work to stream on Twitch. Usually, I play a game – but recently, I’ve been using my daily break to develop a game prototype, instead. A game with running, jumping, slashing, that sort of thing. Every time someone asked, “What is this game going to be about?” I gave very vague and evasive answers. That’s because I had a secret plan – to give the prototype a horror theme and release it on Halloween as this year’s Spooktacular minigame.

It was really close – I only put the finishing touches on it about 3 hours before the calendar date rolled over to October 31st – but I did it! I’ve completed the game prototype! It has all of the different types of features that I most wanted to work on, AND it’s appropriate for Halloween, too! So, what is it? Well…

Ever since October of 2015, not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought about Yanvania. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if it was made into a full game. What would the gameplay be like? What would the story be? How would I differentiate it from Castlevania? How could I give it an original identity, instead of just developing a parody that exists as a shadow of another game?

Since it’s something that I’ve remained enthusiastic about for 7 years straight, I decided that it was the perfect candidate for my game prototyping project, and for this year’s Spooktacular! I’m calling it “Yanvania 2022.” It contains everything that I have the most fun working on when I’m developing a game, and it represents the gameplay and atmosphere that I imagine Yanvania would have, if it was ever turned into a full game. Double-jumping, powerful magic spells, a fantastical setting, etc!

There are only two things that I wish were different: I wish that I had been able to include more than just one type of enemy, and I wish that I had been able to make the character travel up and down ramps in a smoother fashion. Aside from that, though, I’m really happy with how it turned out!

You can download it from this link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/leas2xluem288rb/Yanvania+2022.zip/file

There is a “Read Me” document inside the zip file. Make sure to read it so that you understand how to play the game before you begin!

I had a lot of fun developing the prototype on stream, so it’s very likely that I’ll continue to do game prototyping streams on Twitch. You’re welcome to drop by! I’m just letting you know, though – my next few streams will be about Bayonetta 3, and I won’t return to making game prototypes on stream until after I’ve beaten it.

But that’s not all – the Spooktacular isn’t over just yet! I have more to how you! Click “Continue Reading” to see the rest!

October 24th Bug-Fixing Build

Oops x2! The last build introduced a new bug, so I’m releasing a new build to fix it. Sorry about the instability of recent builds!

To read a list of everything that was fixed, changed, or improved in the latest update, scroll down past this amazing Ayano cosplay!

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October 23rd Bug-Fixing Build

Ooooops! There were a handful of pretty annoying bugs in the last build, and a lot of players let me know about them. Here’s an update that fixes the issues that many players had with the previous build.

It’s a fairly sizable update, though – 25 improvements and 49 bug fixes in total! To read the full list, scroll down past this cake that was tweeted by Dianavaleriafu2!

October 16th Bug-Fixing Build

Oops! There were a few bugs in the last build. Please get the latest build so you don’t have to deal with those issues.

To see a list of everything that was fixed or improved in the latest build, scroll down past this meme parody!

It always puts a huge smile on my face whenever someone creates a Yandere Simulator version of the latest dancing meme, like the Helltaker dance meme or the Ankha dance meme. I appreciate these a lot!

October 15th Update

New build! Several new features and improvements, and 46 bug fixes! The checklist of remaining tasks is always getting smaller every day!

To read a list of everything that was added / changed / improved / fixed in the latest build, scroll down past this incredibly well-made video by ReubenThePig080! It’s very impressive how well he captured the look-and-feel of an Ace Attorney games, specifically the “Dance of Deduction” sequences from the Great Ace Attorney titles:

Happy 1980s Mode Anniversary!

Hello! Today is the one-year anniversary of the release of 1980s Mode – the day that Yandere Simulator got 10 rivals and a complete story with a proper beginning, middle, and end! Over the past 12 months, 1980s Mode has been updated with a bunch of new features, dozens of improvements, and literally hundreds of bug fixes. It’s come a long way since its initial release, and I hope that you’ve been enjoying the journey!

The one-year anniversary of 1980s Mode might seem like the perfect time to write up a long blog post documenting all of the ways that the mode has changed and improved over the past year. However, I’m not ready to do that just yet – I’m still planning to make several very significant changes, additions, and improvements to 1980s Mode in the near future. Because some of the biggest and most important changes will be happening over the next few weeks, I would prefer not to do a retrospective at this point in time; if I did, it would quickly become very outdated!

When I finally resume uploading videos to my main YouTube channel, the first thing I’m going to upload will be a giant (I’m predicting over 30 minutes) video discussing all of the ways that the game changed and improved over the past year, specifically because of user feedback. So, you will eventually get a giant 1980s Mode retrospective…it just won’t be happening today, that’s all.

However, with that said – I don’t want to leave you empty-handed on the anniversary of 1980s Mode! So, I’ll give you a small sneak preview of something that will be added to the game in the near future. Take a look!

To preserve a sense of surprise, I’m not tell you the precise nature of exactly what you’re looking at, so that you can speculate about what kind of addition it’s going to be. Have fun guessing!

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

Horror-themed Ayano Shirt available throughout October!

Recently, Crowdmade contacted me and offered to design a horror-themed shirt for me to sell during October. I was interested in seeing what kind of design they would come up with, so I accepted – and I’m glad I did! They came up with a super badass design; check it out!

Chilling and scary, a perfect design for Spooky Month! If you look closely, you’ll notice that there are eyeballs growing out of Ayano’s arms and legs! It suits her perfectly, since it fits right in with the horror-themed easter eggs in Yandere Simulator that feature things like creepy floating eyeballs.

Since it’s a Halloween-themed shirt, it only makes sense to sell it during October specifically. So, this shirt will be going away on November 1st. I think it’s a top-tier design, so I’m really happy to be offering it! Be sure to pick it up if you’re interested!

https://crowdmade.com/collections/yandere/products/yandere-dev-limited-edition-yandere-dev-halloween-shirt

EDIT: And now a sweater version is available, too!

https://crowdmade.com/collections/yandere/products/yandere-dev-limited-edition-yandere-dev-halloween-sweater

Big October Update

For the past few months, you’ve heard me say the same thing over and over: “I haven’t been able able to focus on adding new features to the game recently, since I’ve been fixing bugs. I’ll return to adding new features once the bug reports stop.”

Well, that long-awaited time has come; I received very few significant bug reports recently, so I was finally able to spend the majority of the past two weeks adding new features and improvements to the game! I made a massive amount of progress through my “Every change I want to make to the game before the crowdfunding campaign” checklist, and I’ve got a LOT to show you today! How much, exactly? Well, I’ll put it this way: this blog post is over 4,300 words long! That ought to give you a sense of just how much progress I’ve made!

To begin reading about everything that was added or improved about the game recently, scroll down past this absolutely fabulous illustration by Almer, who created it for this hilarious meme video!