Happy Halloween!

The time has come! Get ready for another…

If you’re new around here, I’ll provide a brief introduction: every year, on Halloween, I post two dancing skeletons and release a simple game. Sometimes I add a new minigame to Yandere Simulator, and sometimes I release a small standalone game that is completely disconnected from Yandere Sim. These games usually contain horror-themed or Halloween-themed elements, but there have been a handful of exceptions.

I understand that some of you might want this year’s minigame to be a complete surprise, and that you might want to experience it firsthand instead of have it spoiled for you through a blog post. Out of consideration for those of you who want it to be a surprise, I won’t describe the exact nature of the minigame until the bottom of this blog post; directly underneath the fan art in this post, I’ll only tell you the information you need in order to access the minigame.

If you’d like to find out how to unlock the minigame – and also read the changelog for the latest build – scroll down past this beautiful Halloween artwork by an artist known as Ayano Aishi!

First, to get into the Halloween spirit, I’ll share some recent Halloween-themed fan art.

From spaceycherry, we’ve got this adorable artwork of Hanako!

And from McKeyosya, we’ve got this outstanding illustration of Oka cosplaying up as Sadako from The Ring!

Amazing art – I love it so much!!

Now that we’re all warmed up and ready for something spooky, I’ll tell you how to access this year’s Halloween minigame…

Unlocking the Minigame

A mysterious USB stick has appeared at school!

Well, it’s not actually mysterious; if you grab it while Gema Taku is nearby, he’ll tell you exactly what it is, and invite you to take it home. Once you’re in your home at night…well, the rest really should be obvious!

If you’d like to know more about the contents of that USB stick and why such an addition was made to the game, scroll down to the bottom of this blog post. But, first, I’ll tell you about all of the other additions that were made to the game in this build. Starting with…

More Voice Lines and Animations

Amai now has animations to accompany each of her Task voice lines!

The above video only shows off 4/6 of Amai’s Task animations; if you’d like to see her animation for “the player has refused her request” or “the player has completed her request,” you’ll have to play the game yourself.

That’s not the only Amai-related addition to this build, though; Amai’s Monday Lunchtime event with Senpai now has voice acting and animation!

(If you notice audio distortion problems, don’t worry – those will be fixed in the next update.)

Currently, the “sabotaged” version of the event does not have voiceover or animation. Hopefully, that addition will be made in the next build.

Additionally, several other characters now have new voice lines:

• Kenko’s Task is now voiced
• Seiyo’s Task is now voiced
• Kenko and Seiyo now have voice lines when Ayano talks to them about Amai’s social media.

Note: Saki was supposed to have a voice line when Ayano talked to her about Amai’s social media, but, due to a bug, her voice line isn’t playing. Sorry; that’ll be fixed in the next build.

Unique Hair Models for 1989 Rival Delinquent Gang

One of the things that made me think, “Yuck, this makes the game look so low-budget!” is the fact that the enemy delinquents in the 1989 delinquent beat-em-up game were using the same hair models as the 202X delinquents. This really bothered me, so those delinquents now have unique hair models!

I’m much happier with their appearances now!

Improvements

• The Week Select screen now has music – for both 202X Mode and 1980s Mode.
• Updated the 1989 “POOL’S CLOSED” artwork.

Fixes

• If the player gives a student a headache, that student becomes “Distracted” and ignores certain actions (such as the player holding a weapon). However, if the player gave a student a headache, waited until the student was sitting on a bench in the infirmary, saved, and then loaded that save, that student would no longer be “distracted” and would react to things they shouldn’t have been reacting to. This bug has been fixed.
• To prevent bugs from happening, delinquents will no longer react to corpses while walking through the shower building until after they’ve put their clothing on. (Official in-universe reasoning: The steam in the shower building is very thick, obstructing their vision, so they can’t really see anything in there.)
• If the player started a new game, went to school, saved, then returned to the title screen, deleted that profile, started a new game in the same slot as the old profile, went to school, and loaded the save file they had created, bugs would occur. This is no longer possible.
• If the player purchased blonde hair dye, played the Miyuki minigame, then exited the minigame, Ayano’s hair would be blonde, even though the blonde hair dye she ordered couldn’t possibly have arrived at her home yet. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player repeatedly mashed the “skip to next line of dialogue” button during the cutscene where Toga congratulates Ryoba for defeating the delinquent gang, Toga would repeat one animation over and over. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player wore gloves, saved, loaded that save, walked away from the location where they created that save, and removed their gloves, the gloves would teleport to the place where the save was made. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player has dyed Ayano’s hair blonde, her hair would not appear blonde in the “Stalking Senpai as he walks to school” cutscene, or the “Cooking food after eliminating Amai” cutscene. this bug has been fixed.
• In the beat-em-up minigame, delinquents’ heads and bodies were not using the same shader, leading to their lighting/shading looking different from their heads to their bodies. This oversight has been corrected.
• If the player has customized Ayano’s hairstyle using the vanity at home, her customized hair would not appear in the “Stalking Senpai as he walks to school” cutscene. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player stepped in a puddle of blood and walked around, leaving bloody footprints, and then activated the blood censor, the bloody footprints would not be censored. This bug has been fixed.
• When interacting with a student and “Asking A Task-Related Inquiry,” the student would stop talking to Ayano and walk away before their voice line had finished playing. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player pushed a student off the rooftop while that student was wearing a gym uniform, the dumpster wouldn’t properly register that a student had landed in it. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player ran up against certain walls in Ayano’s home, it was possible to “climb up” tiny pieces of geometry that the player shouldn’t be able to stand on. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player performed the sewing machine animation while using Shiromi’s “hands behind head” idle animation, the sewing animation would be screwed up. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player enabled the blood censor and then disabled the blood censor, the circular saw’s blood effects would be white instead of red. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player killed a bully, saved their game, then loaded that save, “speaking” visual effects would emit from the dead bully’s head. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player giggled to distract a delinquent away from their bento while they were eating, their bento would float in midair. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player placed a corpse into the freezer in the biology lab, saved, and then loaded that save, the corpse would vanish. This bug has been fixed.
• It was possible to save during Mission Mode, even though this was completely unintentional – oops! This inadvertent functionality has been removed.
• If the player chose hairstyle #7 for Senpai, his hair would not appear correctly during the “Senpai meets Amai” cutscene. This bug has been fixed.
• On the title screen, if the player enabled the blood censor, blood would still be visible on the knife in Ayano’s hands. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player broke any glass in the Foreign Studies room, saved, then loaded that save, the glass would not be broken. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player approached Ryoba’s grandma from a very specific angle, it was possible to walk on top of her. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player saved and loaded while at school, the Warhammer in the Foreign Studies room would vanish. This bug has been fixed.
• After the “tell a suitor what to say via an earpiece” minigame, a rival’s stockings would vanish. This bug has been fixed.
• After the previous update, blood stopped being visible on weapons that had been used for murder. This bug has been fixed.
• When loading into Ayano’s bedroom, Yanvania would be visible for a second on Ayano’s TV. This visual bug has been fixed.
• At the end of some of Amai’s events, Senpai would stand still and never move again. This bug has been fixed.
• One of the content creator plushies in the sewing room had a jacked-up texture. This bug has been fixed.
• The TV in Ayano’s bedroom stopped displaying images. This bug has been fixed.

Halloween Update: New Minigame

SPOILER WARNING: If you want the Halloween minigame to be a complete surprise, stop reading the blog post here!

However, if you want to learn everything about it…scroll down!

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If you scroll any further, you’re going to see the surprise!

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Okay, here it is!

Ayano can now play a hack-and-slash action game on her video game console at home! Why? It’s directly related to something that was added to the game exactly 365 days ago! I’ll explain…

Last year’s Halloween surprise was a cutscene which depicted Ayano exploring a cave underneath the cherry tree where girls confess to Senpai. In this cave, Ayano discovered a mysterious corpse impaled by a sword. Ayano inspected the sword, and found that it was capable of transforming between a sword form and a whip form. Immediately afterwards, she was confronted by Sakyu and Inkyu, who revealed themselves to be supernatural beings. The Basu Sisters explained that the mysterious corpse was their mother, that they planned to revive her, and that the sword in Ayano’s hands was one of the few weapons that could actually harm or kill supernatural creatures such as themselves. The cutscene ends with the implication that Ayano, Sakyu, and Inkyu are moments away from having a fight to the death.

So – if you were setting up a scenario in which your human protagonist is about to have a fight with two 238-year-old monsters, how would you put them on equal footing? How would you make your protagonist familiar with the concept of a transforming whip-sword, or give her a valid reason to have expertise in wielding such a weapon?

More importantly, if you’re developing a video game that does not have hack-and-slash combat in it, and you’re planning to throw the player into a hack-and-slash boss fight against two incredibly powerful opponents, how would you give the player an opportunity to become accustomed to the controls? How would you give the player a way to “practice” the gameplay before actually risking the protagonist’s life in a real boss fight?

The answer I came up with: Video games.

One of Ayano’s classmates at school aspires to become a game developer one day, and has developed a game prototype where the protagonist fights against waves of monsters using a transforming whip-sword. Ayano can take the prototype home and play on her game console, which establishes a plausible reason for Ayano to be comfortable wielding a whip-sword, and a way for the player to practice the gameplay that will be featured in the Basu Sister Boss Fight. (Or, “Basu Fight,” if you will.)

(Actually, for a long time now, I’ve been considering the idea that, immediately after Info-chan introduces herself to Ayano, she should purchase a VR headset and send it to Ayano’s house so that Ayano can rehearse various murder methods. Basically, this would let the player replay the “Kokona Tutorials.” If this feature actually does get added to the game, it would be the ideal platform for the whip sword minigame.)

The whip-sword minigame is bare bones, resembling a “grey box game prototype,” because…well, in-universe, that’s exactly what it is. The current implementation of the minigame isn’t a 100% accurate re-creation of exactly what the Basu Fight will be like, because its primary purpose is to give the player an opportunity to familiarize themself with the controls.

And, in case you’re thinking, “Wow, I hate the way this combat feels! If this is what the Basu Fight is going to feel like, I’m going to hate it!” please relax. The current implementation of the hack-and-slash minigame is merely the first prototype; it’ll be refined over time.

“YandereDev, I can’t believe you wasted your time building a stupid minigame instead of working on the rivals!”

Not so fast! Before you jump to any conclusions, take a moment to hear me out.

I knew that, in order to produce a meaningful addition to the game by October 31st, I’d have to sacrifice pretty much the entire month and do nothing but develop a minigame – which I did not wish to do. I understand that making progress on the rivals is more important than maintaining a silly holiday tradition. So, I was mentally preparing myself to give up and accept the fact that I wouldn’t be releasing anything interesting in Halloween…

…but, then, a miracle happened!

A long-time acquaintance of mine, AMZE, basically read my mind; he contacted me and directly said, “I bet it’s difficult for you to make time in your schedule to develop a Halloween minigame, so if you’d like, I can make one for you.” This was the ideal solution to my predicament! I told him what kind of minigame I wanted, and he got to work.

Well, I’m drastically simplifying the process for the sake of brevity; I was the designer/director, and he was the programmer. Instead of simply saying “make me a hack-and-slash game,” I described absolutely every detail of how I envisioned the gameplay – “The player should be able to cancel out of attack animations by dodge-rolling!” “The player should only be able to dodge-roll two consecutive times before running out of stamina!” “The hitbox of the enemy’s incoming attack should be represented by a red shape on the ground!” – and he implemented those mechanics exactly as I described them. He actually did a phenomenal, 10/10 job – I’m immensely satisfied with how the combat system turned out; it’s basically an exact 1-to-1 replica of what I imagined in my mind! He’s a miracle worker!

The one and only part of the combat system I’m not 100% satisfied with is the exact behavior of the camera when locked on to an enemy. Implementing a perfect lock-on system is particularly tricky and time-consuming, and there simply wasn’t enough time to make it feel AAA-quality before the Halloween deadline. I would say that, for this initial release of the combat system, you probably shouldn’t bother locking on to enemies (unless you’re trying to use your Ultimate). The current feeling of the lock-on system doesn’t represent what I want it to be like in the final version.

Currently, the hack-and-slash minigame only has three pieces of content to experience: Slow Enemies, Fast Enemies, and Flying Enemies. Once you’ve successfully survived a wave that has two Flying Enemies in it, you’ve experienced 100% of the content of the minigame, and you can basically just quit at that point.

Oh, but please don’t fight the two flying enemies and think you’re getting a 100% accurate preview of exactly what the Basu Fight will be like; the flying enemies were created to prototype the general concept of two flying enemies launching attacks at you, but the final implementation will be a lot different than the current implementation.

The actual Inkyu/Sakyu Boss Fight can’t be implemented until after I have a ton of animations for the various actions that the sisters will perform during the fight, the cutscene after the fight, etc. And, currently, my animator’s top priority is creating animations for Amai’s week, not creating animations for a supernatural boss fight that leads to an alternate ending. So, that just wasn’t a realistic goal for Halloween 2025.

…however…

If there is ever a point in time when I’m waiting for the voice actors to record lines, and my animator has no rival-related animations to work on…I’ll probably ask him to create some Sakyu/Inkyu animations. So, even though the long-awaited boss fight between Ayano and the Basu Sisters won’t happen this Halloween…it’s entirely possible that, one year from now, I’ll finally have all the assets I need to actually implement that fight as it appears in my mind.

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!