Blood and Incinerators

I’ve been working on blood-related stuff lately. Here’s what’s new:

• When you stab a victim, blood sprays out of the wound.
• A dead body creates a pool of blood.
• Dragging a dead body creates a trail of blood.
• Stepping in a pool of blood causes you to leave bloody footprints with each step.
• You can make drawings using a girl’s blood.

Here’s a WEBM of the new blood features in action: http://webmup.com/SbTRA/vid.webm

Also, I’ve added a way to dispose of dead bodies; incinerators. Drag a corpse over to an incinerator, toss it in, activate the incinerator, and you’ll have one less problem.

Here’s a WEBM of an incinerator in action: http://webmup.com/FSC2F/vid.webm

Webm Gallery

Here’s a gallery of video clips that I’ve made while working on the game, in webm format. The latest feature to get added to the game is at the bottom of the list. Please note that all of the below animations are temporary placeholders.

Funny bug that happened while giving NPCs the ability to watch Yandere-chan: http://webmup.com/KnZd8/vid.webm

Demonstration of real-time mesh deformation and preview of potential character customization: http://webmup.com/VtrSW/vid.webm

Building a staircase out of dead bodies to reach previously inaccessible areas: http://webmup.com/xRdNG/vid.webm

Visual Novel Preview: http://webmup.com/pGGpP/vid.webm

Visual Novel Preview with tiny heads and huge hands: http://webmup.com/zWXRF/vid.webm

Visual Novel Preview with chainsaws for hands: http://webmup.com/DbqAa/vid.webm

*Newest Feature* The ability to drag around around dead bodies by each of their four limbs: [link down for now]

Obviously, the final game won’t ship with limbs that spaz out and wobble around. I just wanted to get the basic functionality working so I can test body-hiding gameplay.

Visual Novel Preview

It’s been two weeks since my last update, so I thought I’d post something up here to let you guys know that the game is still happening.

Today, I wrote a script that makes it easy to define what facial expression / animation a character should be displaying during the “visual novel” segments. It’s pretty easy to create entire dialogue sequences now, complete with the characters’ models moving around and emoting appropriately.

Please keep in mind that the character models aren’t final, the animations aren’t final, the dialogue isn’t final, the background art isn’t final, etc – I just wanted to confirm that I’m still developing the game.

Audio Design and Music Demos

EDIT: This blog post once had links to vocaroo tracks, but it looks like those links have expired, so you can no longer listen to the test tracks that were made for this game.

It’s been two weeks since the last update, so I’d like to post something cool to let you know that this project is still alive.

I was fortunate enough to be contacted by a very talented musician who has produced some tracks that closely match my ideas for the game’s soundtrack. The idea is that we only hear one melody during gameplay, but depending on the player’s actions, that melody is altered to sound soothing, unsettling, or outright horrifying. Here are some music samples that, hopefully, convey what I’m talking about:

Peaceful Music: http://vocaroo.com/i/s098sD6upLFc Broken link

Doing-Something-Suspicious Music: http://vocaroo.com/i/s02CZp9YDuH1 Broken link (The same track as above, but edited to sound more creepy)

In addition to using one melody that sounds progressively more disturbing depending on the player’s actions, we might completely change to a new track once the player has been spotted, or has limited time to perform an urgent task.

Endangered Music: http://vocaroo.com/i/s07ot5FVcQYR Broken link (Too dramatic? Better suited for a battle in a Final Fantasy game?)

Here’s another track that I feel would be right at home during an especially creepy moment; when Yandere-chan opens an envelope that says “I know what you did”, or when Yandere-chan or has a subtley threatening conversation with a girl, or when she arranges pictures of Senpai-kun in her room. It might also be appropriate gameplay background music for certain situations, such as trespassing in the school after midnight.

Creepy Music: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0IdrphU4lHH Broken link

The last track I’d like to share with you is a “concept” track created by another musician. It’s not a track that would actually appear in the game, this track is only meant to demonstrates how the tone of the music might change throughout gameplay depending on the player’s actions. Be sure to listen to it all the way through, because it changes significantly after the halfway point.

Concept Demo: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0NsQzy1OYXt Broken link

What kind of soundtrack do you think the game should have? A generic slice-of-life high-school anime soundtrack, with “disturbing” and “horrifying” versions of each track, depending on the player’s actions? Or something else entirely?

Progress Update

I’m sorry for not updating the blog sooner. I originally planned to update more frequently, but other events in my life have been pulling my attention away from Yandere Sim.

I’ve still been making progress at the game, just not at the same speed as before. I’ve got some new features in. They’re not particularly exciting, but they are proof that I’m still working on the project.

I started implementing NPCs. So far, NPCs have a cone of vision, and can tell if Yandere-chan is in their cone of vision, and can tell whether or not they have direct line-of-sight with Yandere-chan. Here’s an example:

Here, the NPC confirms that Yandere-chan is in her cone of vision, but fires a raycast to obtain direct line-of-sight, and determines that Yandere-chan is hiding behind a wall. The NPC takes no action.

When Yandere-chan is nearby other NPCs, they turn to face her.

When Yandere-chan is armed and nearby an NPC, a button prompt to attack that NPC appears.

When Yandere-chan attacks an NPC, their facial expression changes, and they raise their hands in defense.

After killing an NPC, they turn into a ragdoll.

Here are some of the next features I plan to work on:

1. NPCs should have a “fear meter” that increases when Yandere-chan is holding a weapon. The closer Yandere-chan is to the NPC, the quicker the fear meter will rise. A maximum fear meter will cause the NPC to run away in fear.
2. Scaring an NPC causes them to spread nasty rumors about Yandere-chan, lowering her reputation at school. A low reputation will cause other NPCs to be wary of Yandere-chan. They will keep their eyes on her when she enters a room, making it more difficult to steal things or get stealth kills.
3. If Yandere-chan’s reputation hits rock bottom, Senpai will never love her, and it’s Game Over.
4. When an NPC is scared of Yandere-chan, they will be expecting her to attack them, so they will put up a struggle if attacked head-on. They will still die, but they will scream upon their death.
5. When other NPCs hear a scream or another suspicious sound, one of them will walk over to investigate the source of the noise.
6. If an NPC witnesses Yandere-chan committing a murder, they will run away from Yandere-chan until they reach a safe distance, take out their cell phone, call the police, and name Yandere-chan as the murderer.
7. Once the police are called, they will arrive within 5 minutes. Yandere-chan has that amount of time to kill the witness, hide their body, and dispose of any evidence of her murders. If she successfully removes all evidence that a murder took place, the police will assume that the call was a prank. If a body is discovered and/or the witness is still alive, but there is no incriminating evidence, the school day will end, and Yandere-chan will be interrogated for the rest of the day. If any incriminating evidence is present, the police will arrest Yandere-chan, and it’s Game Over. With no evidence, she can’t be arrested.
8. Yandere-chan should be able to pickpocket other students’ cell phones. This will prevent them from calling the police. Yandere-chan can also send text messages from a student’s phone in order to impersonate them.
9. A student with no cell phone who witnesses Yandere-chan commit a murder will attempt to run out of the school, and warn other students about Yandere-chan as he runs past them. The student will run to the police station and give his eyewitness testimony to the police. The police will then head over to the school.
10. A student who finds a dead body or a pool of blood will inform the police. The police will then head over to the school to investigate.
11. Whenever the police arrive at school, the school day instantly ends, and the game continues on the next day.
12. Blood should shoot out and make a puddle when Yandere-chan stabs an NPC.
13. Yandere-chan should be able to drag dead bodies and dump them into hiding places. The blood should make a trail to the body.
14. Yandere-chan should be able to mop up blood. (Carrying around a mop and a water bucket is not suspicious at all during cleaning time at Japanese high-schools. The best time to commit a murder?)

What do you guys think of these features? Please let me know in the comments below. How do you think these components of the game should work? How should students react to the various things they can witness or discover? How would you design it?

Main character concept art

It’s important to me to make sure that the game’s protagonist has a unique and memorable appearance. I’d like her to be easily recognizable so that people can say, “Oh, I know that character, I know what game she’s from!” and tell her apart from other anime girls. I’d like Yandere-chan to be the “face” of the game, appear in the promotional art, etc.

I’ve teamed up with a talented artist who goes by the name of “aea” to produce some character designs for the game. I’m not sure how many revisions we’ll go through before we nail the final look of the main character, but I think the first draft looks absolutely awesome, so I wanted to share it:

I’m hoping to wind up with a character who has a signature trait that makes her easy to identify; her personal trademark. I asked aea to design a character with unique silhouette, and in this design, he’s given her tufts of hair on her head that resemble horns, or perhaps bobcat ears. It definitely achieves the desired effect; I can’t think of another character she could be mistaken for!

The “horns” also carry the added bonus of making her look slightly devilish, which suits a serial killer. However, is that too on-the-nose? “She’s a bad person, therefore she gets devil horns.” Is that how it comes across? Or, is it subtle enough to not invoke that kind of reaction?

My philosophy towards the school uniform is the same as my thought process regarding the character; I want it to be unique from other school uniforms, so that people can instantly recognize what game it’s from when they see it.

I’d like to ask you what you personally think of this design. How do you imagine this character? How do you think she should look? Keep in mind that her primary objective is to be stealthy and inconspicuous. With that in mind, should she look as plain and non-threatening as possible? Or would a sinister, almost “predatory” appearance suit a stealth game about hunting and killing? I think this design strikes a nice balance between the two – but what do you think? What would you change about it?

What does this mean for character customization?

My desire to have a main character with a memorable appearance runs contrary to the concept of allowing the player to customize the character and design his own Yandere-chan. I understand how fun character creation is, but I would highly prefer to give the game a “face”. Ask yourself this: If someone sees a screenshot from Yandere Sim, how will they be able to tell what game it’s from? If someone sees a customized Yandere-chan, how will they be able to recognize what character she is or what game she is from?

This doesn’t mean that character creation / customization is entirely out the window, but it’s not the option I’m currently leaning towards.

Please share your thoughts and suggestions!

Yandere Clicker Update

Please forgive me. I had so much fun making Yandere Clicker that I decided to update it.

Now you can buy upgrades to stab Senpai even more.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/YandereDev/yandere-clicker

There’s still a lot more I could add to this game, like achievements and perks that boost the effectiveness of your upgrades, but I think I’m done working on this thing for a while. I should get back to the development of Yandere Sim now…