February 21st Bug-Fixing Build

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There was a bug preventing one of the tutorials from being completed, so I wanted to release a bug-fixing build.

The changelog for this build might look small, but that’s because I’ve been spending less of my time working on bug fixes and more of my time making progress on one of my checklist features. It’s almost complete, but I don’t plan to include it in the next build. Why? I’ll explain.

I’d like to collect information on how players complete their objectives when certain game mechanics are unavailable. What alternate strategies do players use when their default strategies are disallowed? Would players become frustrated with the game if they were no longer allowed to use certain features that they’ve become over-reliant on? Does the game actually become more fun and interesting when the player isn’t allowed to use certain shortcuts? What exploits are currently available that need to be fixed and removed?

To truly draw meaningful conclusions about these subjects, I would need to present players with a build of the game that is intended to be as balanced and exploit-free as possible, and then publicly challenge the playerbase to look for exploits and game-breaking flaws. The first step is patching up certain exploits that I’m already aware of, and making various changes to student and rival routines so that it’s never insanely easy to kill rivals with zero effort.

So, before I say, “Hey guys, play this build of the game and try to break it, I bet you can’t!” I first want to…

  1. Balance some mechanics that I know are already busted.
  2. Redesign some rival routines that I know are already full of exploits.
  3. Create an interface for enabling/disabling certain features, to challenge players to play the game with/without mechanics features being available.

One of those mechanics-that-needs-to-be-rebalanced is an aspect of the 1980s Mode tutorial, so we can add another item to the list:

4. Update the 1980s Mode tutorial to walk the player through the new version of an important rebalanced game mechanic.

In short, there is a long list of things I have to do before I can release the upcoming “Try and break the game, I dare you!” build. The point is to openly challenge players (and YouTubers) to try and expose exploits, and I want the game to be airtight before I do that. I’ll have to knock multiple things off of my checklist before I’ll be able to release a build that seems to contain a big exciting new feature, but when I do, I think you’re going to have fun playing the “I dare you to break it” update.

Okay! With that explanation out of the way, let’s move on. To see a list of the improvements and changes in the latest build, scroll down past this haunting artwork by haihondaitao!

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February 16th Bug-Fixing Build

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Hello! There was a bug in the previous build that was preventing two of the tutorials from being completed, and the tutorial is something that absolutely needs to work flawlessly so that new players don’t get confused, so I wanted to release a new build right away.

For a list of everything that was changed / fixed in the latest build, scroll down past this cute artwork by haihondaitao!

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February 15th Bug-Fixing Build

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Hey, remember when I said there wouldn’t be a build on the 15th? Haha, well…

Some annoying bugs were reported, so I decided to fix them all and upload a new build. To read a list of everything that was changed or fixed in the latest build, scroll down past this gorgeous artwork by AlaKZM4, depicting Ayano in the art style of Persona 5!

By the way, if you click Continue Reading, you’ll see a similar illustration of Osana!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day is a love-themed holiday, and Yandere Sim is a game about love (depending on how broadly you define the word “love”), so it feels wrong to let a Valentine’s Day pass by without making some kind of special post. I’ll be releasing a new build on the 15th, but for today, I’d like to share some of the coolest fan creations I’ve seen recently.

This video was created 6 months ago, but I didn’t actually discover it until recently! It’s absolutely amazing, please watch it!

And this cute little animation was made 3 whole years ago, but I didn’t even know it existed until yesterday! (Those teeth remind me of someone…)

I’m not even sure how creamstew_ekoda managed to make this video, but it’s hilarious to me:

In addition to those three videos, there are also dozens of fan-made illustrations I’d like to share. Please click Continue Reading to see what I’d like to show the community!

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New Aiming System and Bug-Fixing Build

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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.”

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Yandere Simulator Anime Opening Storyboard

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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

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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:

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Yandere Simulator Character Trivia Video

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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”

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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!

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