New Aiming System and Bug-Fixing Build

Hello,

I’ve prepared a new build with a bunch of bug fixes, and also something else that I believe is quite a significant change to the game – a new “aiming” system.

I wanted to make a video thoroughly describing every detail of it, but I am extremely sick right now with the worst sore throat I’ve ever had in my life, so I had to cobble together a “no narration, just text on screen” video to demonstrate what’s new. (I haven’t done that since 2014…)

Mouse and Keyboard:

• Hold right mouse button to aim, click left mouse button to throw.

Gamepad:

• Hold left trigger to aim, pull right trigger to throw.

(Yes, that’s right – same controls as aiming the camera and snapping a photo!)

Currently, this new form of aiming only works with two objects – the bang snaps and the stink bombs. I think that this aiming system should be used by any object that can be thrown, such as the car battery. However, I think that the animation for throwing a car battery should look way different than the animation for throwing a small handheld object, so I won’t implement this feature for the car battery until I get a different throwing animation.

Actually, speaking of the animation…the current animation is all wrong. Since Yandere Sim is meant to be a stealth game, the protagonist should be trying to perform a subtle throw, more like this:

I’ll ask an animator to make me a “subtle aim” and “subtle throw” animation, but there is no guarantee when it will get finished or implemented into the game.

I’m thinking about letting the player switch between two aiming modes: “Subtle” and “Obvious.” The subtle aim would not look suspicious until the moment that the throw occurs, and it wouldn’t allow you to throw very far; just a few meters. But the obvious aim would look much more suspicious (basically looks like you’re about to throw a baseball at top speed) and would allow you to throw much farther. It all depends on whether or not I get the animations.

For now, the way it’ll work is that it’s not suspicious to aim, and it’s only suspicious to throw. This is because I lack the animations necessary to switch between a “subtle aiming” and “obvious aiming” state.

Oh, you’ll probably get a “stuck in aiming state” bug if a student council member catches you throwing, so try not to let that happen. It’ll be fixed in the next build.

By the way, I think it would be trivially easy to update this aiming system to accommodate a “throw knife at student’s head for instant kill” feature…but if it does get into the game, it’ll have to be as an easter egg, since it would probably be one of the most imbalanced features imaginable.

Normally, I would have waited until the 15th to upload a “new feature” build, but there were some critical bugs in the game that I really wanted to fix ASAP, so I’m uploading a new build sooner than usual. For that reason, there most likely won’t be a build on the 15th this month, even though development will continue.

To read a list of the things I fixed in the latest build, click “Continue Reading.”

Yandere Simulator Anime Opening Storyboard

This song was created for Yandere Simulator on October 8th, 2015. I decided not to reveal it until I had visuals for it. After 8 years, the visuals still aren’t finished, so I’ve decided to just release it in its current state, and let people see how far it got.

When deciding what visuals would be the most fitting for an “Anime Opening” for Yandere Simulator, I had ideas that were incompatible with the lyrics – for example, I wanted the animation to start by showing how “empty” Ayano felt before meeting Taro, so I wanted the song to begin with sad lyrics instead of happy ones. In the end, I decided to just not use this song and design one myself that would suit my vision of the ideal Yandere Simulator opening.

Over the years, I commissioned various composers, lyricists, and artists in an attempt to create the “perfect” Yandere Simulator opening theme and animation. However, I was never satisfied; I always wanted further tweaks to the music, the lyrics, the art…I could never get it the way I wanted it to be. In the end, it became such a frustrating project to work on that I just stopped working on it.

Last night, while I was looking through some old folders for something completely unrelated, I stumbled across this ancient song from 2015, and all of the artwork that had been created for it. I thought to myself, “What a shame that I never used this amazing song that someone generously created for me, and wasted a bunch of time completely failing to make a superior one.” I decided that it would simply be too much of a waste to never release this song, or reveal the visuals that were created for a potential Yandere Sim anime-style opening animation.

It feels wrong to release a half-finished, partially-animated storyboard; game developers typically don’t reveal cinematics until they are 100% finished and ready to be seen by the public. But, at this point in time, I just don’t know if this opening animation will ever get finished. So, I feel that it’s time to just share it, and let people see how far along it was before production stopped.

If you check my video descriptions, you’ll see that I almost always go through great lengths to credit absolutely anyone who created even a single asset for my videos. However, it would be exceptionally difficult to do that in this case. The vocalist wishes to remain anonymous. The composer has changed their name and identity. From 2015 to 2020, so many different artists touched this project that I would have to do absurd amounts of detective work to list them all.

All I can do is present it as-is, and hope that you enjoy it.

Maybe one day it’ll get finished, but it would be post-crowdfunding campaign, for sure.

February 8th Bug-Fixing Build

There was one really annoying bug in the previous build that was frustrating a lot of players, so even though it’s a bit early, I’m releasing another bug-fixing build. It doesn’t just contain one bug fix, though; it contains a set of improvements, mostly aimed at improving the experience of the Kokona Tutorial sequence.

To read a list of everything that was changed or fixed in the latest build, scroll down past this cute animation by 1tata1tata:

動画で使ったやつ#YandereSimulator #ヤンデレシミュレーター pic.twitter.com/Siw2ov7RRD

— たた (@1tata1tata) February 7, 2023

Yandere Simulator Character Trivia Video

Hello!

While browsing YouTube, I’ve seen a certain type of video; videos that communicate interesting trivia and little-known facts by having “info cards” scroll by. Every time I saw one of those videos, I wondered, “Am I capable of creating something similar to that?” So, I decided to give it a try!

Every few days, fans of the game will e-mail me and ask me questions about various characters in the game. If someone asks a question like, “Does Borupen have a brother?” I give it some thought and then come up with an answer: “Yes, he does have a brother, and he’s the polar opposite of Borupen, very energetic and lively…” In this manner, a lot of characters have gradually developed a lot of depth and backstory, but that information usually doesn’t get shared with the Yandere Sim community, so all of that depth is kinda going to waste. I think that a “scrolling trivia cards” video might be one potential way to communicate interesting facts about the characters to the fanbase!

I created a Unity project that can produce videos like this very quickly (under 3 minutes). So, if people are interested in this type of video, I could upload them on a regular basis. It’s so fast and easy that I could spit out a video like this on a daily basis…but once per week would probably be better, so that I don’t overwhelm people with uploads (especially if we learn that most people care about this type of video).

This is my first attempt at making this type of video, so I anticipate that there will be a lot of room for improvement. Please let me know if:

1. The visuals are boring
2. The trivia isn’t interesting
3. The music isn’t appropriate
4. The cards are moving too fast, too slow, etc
5. There are obvious ways to improve the production values of the video and make it more fancy and visually engaging

Putting this video together was super fun, so please let me know if you want to see more of this in the future, or if you’re simply not interested.

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

A Yandere Simulator “PMV”

In 2018, eleven artists from the Chinese Yandere Simulator fan community created illustrations of the rivals being eliminated in various ways to celebrate the game’s 4th anniversary. I never forgot about those incredible illustrations, and I’ve always wanted to use the artwork to create a “PMV” – a “Picture Music Video”, which is a series of still images synchronized to music. I knew it would only take a few minutes to put it together, so yesterday, I finally made it:

A Chinese fan explained to me that “because of China’s special national condition, it’s hard to visit foreign websites.” In fact, YouTube is blocked in China. This means that, even though I finally created a PMV using the artwork provided by those eleven Chinese artists, they have no way of watching the video or knowing about it. That’s a little sad, huh?

The Chinese fans get their news from someone who takes photographs of my blog posts and translates them into Chinese. So, I’ve decided to write this blog post. It’s my way of saying, “Hello, Chinese community! I acknowledge you! And I still remember and appreciate the artwork you made for me!”

A Chinese fan has suggested that I should start uploading my videos to a particular video website that is not blocked in China. I’ll consider it, but I can’t make any promises, since I have to focus the majority of my time on game development and not videos.

(That’s an ironic statement, because the next thing I’ll be posting will be a video unrelated to game development…)

In any case: No matter what country you’re in, thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

February 3rd Bug-Fixing Build

The latest build was mostly stable, but did have a few noticeable bugs in it, so I’m releasing a bug-fixing build that resolves the issues that some people were reporting.

To read a list of everything that was fixed or changed in the latest build, please scroll down past this amazing illustration of Oka by Kirnx!

202X Tutorial Update

Hello! I’ve just released a new build. This build contains a pretty important addition – a tutorial for 202X Mode. Hopefully, this will help new player become familiar with the game’s systems, resulting in more people having a good first experience with the game.

In my previous blog post, I talked about how I was so proud of the tutorial that I was considering uploading a video to my main channel to show off the entire sequence. In the end, I weighed the pros and cons, and decided that it would probably be better to not upload a video to my main channel. Instead, I’ve uploaded a 20-minute-long video about the tutorial to my secondary channel. If you would like to experience the tutorial firsthand, then consider this your “spoiler warning.” But, if you want to watch it instead, then check it out below:

I was originally planning on releasing the pre-tutorial cutscene with no background audio at all – just dead silence. CameronF305 volunteered to create sound effects and music for the cutscene, and pulled an all-nighter to deliver it in time for the build! Also, he did the music for the tutorial, as well! Thank you, Cam!

The 202X Tutorial is the “star feature” of the latest build, but there are a lot of other significant things in the new build, as well. to hear about all of them, click Continue Reading!

February 2nd Status Report

The tutorial cutscene is now 100% finished! Barring some slight animation tweaks that might come in a future update later this month, I’m satisfied with it, and I’m ready to release a new build containing it. I’ve also finished the “overhaul” that I mentioned I was doing to one of the game’s features. The new build is ready to be released! It’s going to be a really big build; I’ve already written the blog post for it, and it’s a very long one! But…there’s one thing holding me back from releasing it.

I’d like to elaborate and share all of my thoughts on the matter, but first, let’s get something out of the way; for every day that passes that I don’t release the update, I’m going to share a preview of something that will appear in the next update. Here is today’s preview:

It’s an adjustment to the visuals of the intro animation; now there are shards of glass floating around Ayano, symbolizing the feeling of being broken, shattered, and torn into pieces. I still plan to make other changes to the rest of the intro cutscene, as well; the rest of the intro cutscene will gradually get updated little by little over time.

Okay! With that out of the way, let’s get to the reasoning for why I’m not releasing a new build right this very minute. Please click Continue Reading:

February 1st Status Report

The gameplay and voice acting for the 202X Mode tutorial are 100% finished, implemented, and tested. Everything is almost ready to go; only one thing remains.

The “first draft” of the pre-tutorial cutscene has been completed, but I would like for the animations to be tweaked and adjusted in a few ways before I release a build containing the tutorial. I know that it might be disappointing to hear that it’s not done yet, but I really don’t want to release the tutorial with flaws in the intro cutscene. Working so hard on the tutorial – and then releasing it with a flawed cutscene attached – would be like running a 10km race and then tripping right before the finish line. I won’t release it until that cutscene is ready.

While I was waiting for animations to come in, I looked at my checklist and wondered what to work on while waiting for the animations. I selected a checklist item and started working on it. What item was it? I want it to be a surprise, but I’ll say that it’s less of a “new feature” and more of an “overhaul” to an existing feature. Anyway, I thought that I would be able to complete the task before Feb 1st…but I couldn’t get it done in time. As a result, I can’t really release a new build right now, since one of the game’s features is in a half-functional “in the middle of being overhauled” state.

In short, what I’m saying is that I don’t have a new build for you today. I won’t release a new build until after I’ve finalized the tutorial cutscene and finished overhauling the other feature. To make up for it, though, I’d like to tell you some details about what the next build is going to contain.

It’s tradition to give you a glimpse of upcoming content using blurry screenshots, so…take a look at this!

Hey, want to hear something really stupid? YouTube flagged that video for “content identified as not suitable for most advertisers.” What the heck, YouTube? It’s so blurry that you can’t even tell what is happening! How can it possibly be “unsuitable for advertisers” if you can’t even see anything or hear anything? Chill out!

Anyway, that’s not the only preview I have to share with you. Get a load of this:

What the heck was that video all about? I’m not going to tell you! You’ll just have to wait and find out!

In addition to the tutorial and the mysterious thing above, the next build will also have 24 improvements. Miscellaneous improvements, quality-of-life improvements, players-have-been-asking-for-this-FOREVER improvements, etc. A lot of the additions coming in the next build are new animations for the game. Some of the game’s worst and oldest animations are finally getting replaced by much more smooth and polished animations. I’m so grateful for that! The next build will also contain bug fixes – a lot of them. 35, to be exact.

Between the tutorial, the overhauled feature, the mystery video above, the improved animations, and everything else, the next build is going to be a pretty big one. I cannot give you an exact release date, but I will be posting a preview screenshot/video here on this blog once per day every day until the next build is out. I’d like to imagine it will only take 1 more day, 2 days maximum, but I don’t want to make any promises. I’ll need some help from one of my animation volunteers, and I don’t want to make any assumptions about the availability of other people.

That’s all I’ve got to say for now. Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!

January 15th Bug-Fixing Build

Hello!

All of the 202X tutorials are complete, and all of the voice acting has been recorded! But, before I can fully release the tutorial, I need to:

1. Review the voice acting and request any changes if necessary
2. Put the voice acting into the game
3. Implement the tutorial cutscene
4. Adjust the game’s opening sequence so that the game transitions from Intro Cutscene > Tutorial Cutscene > Tutorial > Info-chan Cutscene > Calendar
5. Do final testing, confirm that it’s possible to repeat tutorials any number of times and do tutorials in any order without anything breaking.

The animations for the tutorial cutscene aren’t finished yet. If they’re not finished by Feb 1st, I guess I’ll just implement a simple “characters pop between static poses and don’t actually move” cutscene, like the original “Senpai meets Amai” cutscene, and use that as a placeholder until proper animations can be created.

Over the past 2 weeks, a lot of valid suggestions/requests were made and a lot of bugs were reported, so a lot of improvements and fixes were made to the game. To see a list, scroll down past this adorable artwork by Emmaria!