Hi! I’m sorry that I’ve gone so long without a blog post. I’ve been really busy over the past few weeks; I’ll tell you all about it.
After I released my “Hate and Shame” video, I received hundreds of e-mails from people who wished to offer me their encouragement! Hearing kind words from hundreds of people has done a great deal to restore my enthusiasm and motivation for this project. Thank you very, very much for your support!
In addition to speaking with fans, I also spent a significant amount of time speaking with lawyers about my legal options and speaking with members of the game industry about what can be done to speed up the game’s development. I’ve also been having interviews with YouTubers and talking with some of my most vocal critics to debunk some of the things they believe about me. Sometimes we see eye-to-eye, and sometimes we don’t, but it feels like every conversation ends with both parties understanding each other a little better. I’ve also been achieving a handful of personal goals, like acquiring the /r/yandere_simulator subreddit, which had become completely overrun by trolls, and has now been restored to a civil environment where fans can discuss the game peacefully without an atmosphere of hate.
In the “Hate and Shame” video, I made it clear that I am always available to debunk false accusations, provide context for screenshots, and correct misinformation. True to my word, I’ve been spending a lot of time responding to people who who have been reaching out to me with various concerns. Dispelling rumors, refuting accusations, and clearing up misunderstandings has consumed the majority of my time over the past 2 weeks, which has led me to realize that I need to find a more efficient way to address the problem.
The Hate and Shame poll tells me that two-thirds of the fanbase only wants me to work on the game, but the remaining third wants me to address the drama. Even if one-third is the minority, that’s still a giant chunk of the fanbase; it would be unacceptable to simply ignore the concerns of an entire third of my audience.
I was originally planning on defending myself in a massive video where I go down a list of every allegation and respond to each one using illustrations and motion graphics. However, I eventually realized that there was a much more efficient way to do it. When you are frequently receiving the same questions over and over, and you’re tired of replying to them, the solution is to create a FAQ – a list of common inquiries, along with their answers. So, instead of creating a debunking video, I’ve decided to simply create a debunking FAQ.
I would like to introduce you to yanderesim.com/debunk – a webpage dedicated to debunking false accusations, clearing up misunderstandings, and providing my side of the story. This is only the first draft of the webpage; I will probably expand it in the future. If you have any concerns that you feel I have not addressed, please e-mail me, tell me what you want me to account for, and I’ll update the Debunk page accordingly.
Amidst all of the discussions I’ve been having – with fans, with legal advisers, with industry professionals, with critics, with concerned fans – I had very little time to actually work on the game itself. I haven’t worked on any new features over the past two weeks. It’s been one of the most productive months in the game’s history…just not in terms of code.
With that said, I do have a new build prepared. It contains triple the number of bug fixes/changes/additions in a normal Bug-Fixing Build, but you’ll probably be more interested to learn that in this build, I’ve made some significant adjustments to the environment outside of the school.
To read a list of everything that is new or different in the latest build, scroll down past this amazing cosplay creation:
Just think of the sheer amount of time it must have taken to create and arrange all of those photographs! That’s amazing! This was created by the same group of cosplayers who recorded the footage used in the Yandere Simulator Live-Action Trailer. You can find more of their phenomenal work here: https://www.deviantart.com/famous-and-fabulous/gallery/64625360/Yandere-Simulator-Yandere-chan
Fixes, Changes, and Additions
- The music that played upon completion of a mission in Mission Mode was a royalty-free track from the Internet. Although it was legal to use this track in the game, I’ve decided to replace it with a new, original track created specifically for Yandere Simulator. This track was composed by stallod_orch!
- Fixed bug involving the “Low-Detail Students” feature. There was a bug that would cause the low-detail character model to appear at the location where a student died, instead of appearing at the location of their corpse. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed bug that would cause the entire Photography Club to psychically know that you were a murderer if you killed one of their members on a previous day, even with no witnesses present.
- Fixed bug that allowed the Void Goddess to follow you into the Demon Realm. (She’s not welcome there. She caused a bunch of trouble and the other demons got mad at her.)
- It is no longer possible to perform the Light Music Club rhythm minigame (or the Martial Arts Club sparring minigame) while the police are on their way to the school.
- From now on, if Yandere-chan is eavesdropping on a student, the act of eavesdropping will only be suspicious to the person who is having a private conversation.
- Fixed bug that would prevent a mind-broken Horuda from taking a knife from Yandere-chan, if she was broken through torture instead of broken through bullying.
- Fixed bug that would cause a Sleuth to exhibit really weird behavior if Yandere-chan asked them to follow her before the Sleuth meeting had taken place.
- Fixed bug that would cause Cooking Club members’ food trays to disappear from their hands if they reacted to Yandere-chan doing something weird.
- Fixed bug that caused sleuths to freeze in place after witnessing a murder, if they weren’t in “sleuthing mode” when they witnessed the murder.
- Fixed bug that prevented Yandere-chan’s text from displaying when apologizing for carrying around cleaning equipment outside of cleaning time.
- Itachi now uses a different texting animation than other students (he’s a moody character, so he needs a moody-looking animation).
- Fixed bug that was preventing certain characters from entering their “paranoid” animation when school atmosphere was low.
- Slightly adjusted the appearance of the Student profile screen; the screen now displays what class a student is in.
- Fixed bug that would make Yandere-chan perform the “nervous around Senpai” animation at the End-of-Day sequence.
- Geiju will no longer attempt to enter the Art Club during Cleaning Time if the Art Club has been shut down.
- Fixed bug in the school gym that would allow Yandere-chan to walk in midair while walking down the stairs.
- Kokona will no longer try to prepare food in the Cooking Club if the Cooking Club has been shut down.
- Male victims of a murder-suicide now have voiced lines for when they are being stabbed to death.
- Fixed bug that caused Yandere-chan to hold a weapon in her hands during the counselor minigame.
- Fixed bug that would allow Yandere-chan to hold objects in the End-of-Day Results screen.
- Fixed bug that caused Yandere-chan to be arrested for having red paint on her clothing.
- Fixed bug that caused “Husk” hair to be invisible when viewed by the Witness Camera.
- Fixed bug that would cause the game to soft-lock after the player expelled Kokona.
- It is now possible to invert the Y-Axis from the pause screen’s “Settings” menu.
- Gardening Club members now have different-colored watering cans.
- Replaced the model used in the Shipgirl easter egg.
- Updated the Basu twin’s portraits.
Changes to School Exterior
- Shrank the overall size of the environment outside of the school; it has decreased from 250×250 meters to 145×192 meters.
- Added dirt pathways to the gardening club’s area.
- The mythical cherry tree is now closer to the school.
- The gardening club and hedge maze are now closer to the school entrance.
- The giant oval-shaped running track has been replaced with a straight 100-meter-dash running track.
- There is now an outdoor eating area on the east side of the school building (mirroring the incinerator area on the west side).
- Kokona now takes her private Monday morning phone call in the outdoor eating area, instead of taking her call in front of the school.
I anticipate that some features may have broken due to all of these areas being moved around, so please test as many features as possible and tell me if anything is no longer working.
What’s Next?
Now that I feel like I’ve adequately defended myself, fixed a bunch of bugs, and changed a lot of the things that were bothering me about the school exterior, I feel prepared to resume working on the game’s next core feature. I’m most likely going to continue going down the checklist of features necessary to implement Osana; making students react to blood, improving the framerate, adding a save/load system, etc. I doubt that these features will seem especially glamorous, but trust me, it’s all necessary for me to give you a good experience while eliminating Osana.
Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!