Happy New Year!

Hey, everybody! It’s a new year! It’s 2026! Yippie!

To kick off the new year, I’d like to write two blog posts. The first blog post will describe what 2025 was like and what 2026 will probably be like. The second blog post will be my annual “Transparency Report” and will focus on factors that are slowing down the game’s development.

Scroll down past this cute artwork by unknown_ANN0, and then let’s get started!

A Look Back At 2025

To fully understand 2025, we have to start in 2024!

On May 1st of 2024, I released Ayano’s 2nd rival: Amai. Her release was an experiment; I wanted to learn how players would react to the release of a rival whose week did not contain any voice acting or new animations. I wanted to learn if it would be acceptable or unacceptable to release future rivals that way.

After Amai’s release, I received both positive and negative feedback. There were people who were happy with Amai’s week, but there were also many people who felt that the lack of voice acting and animations made her week feel basic, low-budget, and underwhelming. I, too, was unsatisfied with Amai’s week, and personally felt that it was disappointing compared to Osana’s week.

I eventually reached a verdict: Releasing a rival without voice acting or new animations is not acceptable. Rivals need voices and animations. That’s what a rival is; that’s what separates a rival from any random student at school.

With that in mind, my goal for 2024 became clear: Find voice actors for every character with speaking lines in Amai’s week, have an animator create animations for all of Amai’s events, and make a series of improvements to Amai’s week based on the feedback that I had received from players.

It can take a very long time to find the ideal voice for a character. I knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, and would likely take weeks or months. However, I didn’t want the game’s development to come to a grinding halt while I just spent a bunch of time searching for voice actors. So, I decided that, while searching for voice actors, I would request assets from the game’s other volunteers, and implement new content and new features that I’ve wanted the game to have for many years.

Which leads us directly into the next topic…

New Animations

Yandere Simulator received a tremendous number of additions over the course of 2025 that were only possible due to one animator. Here are all of the additions and improvements that were made to Yandere Simulator in 2025 that were only possible due to one specific member of the development team:

• A new murder method was added to the game: shoving a student into the Freezer Room to freeze them to death.
• Another a new murder method was added to the game: using a pillow to smother a sleeping student in the infirmary.
• An “Ayano learns how to cook to imitate Amai” cutscene was added to the game.
• A new weapon – the chainsaw – was added to the game
• The “Togo warns Ryoba about approaching delinquents” cutscene now has actual animation.
• The “Togo congratulates Ryoba after she beats up a bunch of delinquents” cutscene now has actual animation.
• The cutscenes where Ryoba interacts with the Yakuza are now fully animated.
• Info-chan now has animations in the Mission Mode menu.
• The “Magical Girl Pretty Miyuki” transformation sequence has been replaced with a completely new cutscene.
• In the 1980s Mode Tutorial, the sequence where Ryoba talks to Sumire now has animations.
• Amai now has a unique suicide cutscene instead of simply being a duplicate of Osana’s suicide cutscene.
• Amai now has unique animations when describing her Task to Ayano.
• Amai’s Monday Morning event with Senpai now has animation.
• Amai’s Monday Lunchtime event with Senpai now has animation.
• Amai’s Monday Lunchtime sabotaged event with Senpai now has animation.
• A total of 20 new animations were created for the students who are interacting with Amai’s bake sale.
• The Genocide Ending now has a proper cutscene instead of just being text on a black screen.

Furthermore,

• The store-bought Game Over animation (collapsing to the ground while “HEARTBROKEN” appears onscreen) was replaced with a new, original animation.
• Gardening Club members now perform a “flower arranging” animation when standing in front of a pot of flowers.
• The animation that plays when Miyuki fires her “Love Love Beam!” was replaced with a completely new animation.
• Chigusa and Ryoba recieved new “gravure photo shoot” animations.
• Ayano now has a much better “gazing lovingly at photo of Senpai” animation
• The chainsaw has a unique dismemberment animation.
• The “Push Ritsuko into pool” elimination now has an accompanying animation.
• The “prepare breakfast in Ayano’s kitchen in the morning” feature now has a new animation.
• The “police shrug because they cant figure out who the murderer is” scene now has a new animation.
• The “policeman looks left and right, searching for evidence of a crime” scene now has a new animation.
• The Yakuza now uses an original “leaning against wall” animation instead of a store-bought one.
• The monster in the “Origin Dream” now has animation.

Wow!! That is a LOT of new content!! Many of these additions – such as the new murder methods, chainsaw weapon, Yakuza cutscene, Togo cutscene, Miyuki cutscene, and Genocide cutscene – were things that I wanted to added to the game for many years, but wasn’t able to include, because I lacked the animations for it. I am extremely grateful to the animator for everything he provided to the game this year!

New Models

Of course, plenty of other volunteers also contributed some fantastic assets to the game over the past year:

• The 1989 gym teacher got a new character model.
• The clothing that Ryoba wears in town was replaced with a new and improved model.
• The game’s vending machines now look like Japanese vending machines instead of Western ones.
• Raibaru’s hair model was been replaced with a new hair model.
• The police of Yandere Simulator now have unique 3D character models instead of repurposing clothing models from elsewhere in the game.
• In the “prepare breakfast in Ayano’s kitchen in the morning” feature, every one of the food items on the menu now has a unique 3D model.
• Amai’s ancient hair model was replaced with a new hair model.
• Amai’s Task now involves a unique plate model and food model instead of repurposing models from elsewhere in the game.
• The Occult Club students are wearing now chokers which display different phases of the moon.
• The store-bought student bookbag model has been replaced with an original model.
• The police that appear in the end-of-day police investigation sequence now have slightly different faces and bodies, instead of being identical clones except for their hair colors.
• It is now possible to leave Ryoba’s room and interact with her family.
• The first shot of the game’s intro animation now has higher-quality hands.
• Every model in the Cooking Club was replaced.
• Bankotsuko’s model was replaced with a new one that is more accurate to her character artwork.
• Osana’s ancient hair model was replaced with a new hair model.
• Senpai now carries a plate of sandwiches to Amai’s picnic event.
• The Yakuza’s character model has been replaced.
• The 1989 Rival Delinquent Gang now has unique hair models.

…and more!

I tried to list every new animation and model added to the game over the course of 2025, but, honestly, there were so many to list that I probably missed a few! Consider the above list to be incomplete.

Of course, that’s not all; there were many more changes, as well. The Light Music Club rhythm game now has vastly improved artwork, a new minigame was added to the game console in Ayano’s bedroom, tons of new voice lines were added to the game…the list just goes on and on and on!

Oh, and in addition to amazing assets created for use within the game, there were also a tremendous number of assets created for use outside of the game. Specifically, dozens of characters got official illustrations, enabling me to write profiles for them on the game’s official website:

• Ui Tunesu
• Sureibu Broken
• Sureibu Young
• Otohiko
• Azebiki
• Horuda
• Torahiko Young
• Torahiko Old
• Mai
• Kenko
• Kokona
• Kataba Young
• Kataba Old
• Kataba Secret Agent
• Saisho’s Wife
• Reiichi
• Daisaku
• Ken
• Joze
• Bloody Osoro
• Kugi and Hiki
• Raibaru
• Kijiyose
• Hairdresser
• Oga
• Oga
• Hodaka
• Hanzo Student
• Hanzo Soldier
• Kanehira
• Evil Photographer
• Gita
• Daigo Old
• Daigo young
• Kiba
• Sakura
• Hazu
• Fushigi Adult
• Fushigi Child
• Sameba
• Anahiki
• First Aishi
• First Aishi Bloody

Whoa!! That’s over 40 character illustrations added!!

The entire history of the Aishi family dating back to the First Aishi was revealed, several mysterious characters finally had their backstories revealed, and a few seeds for future plot twists were planted. I had a fantastic time writing the backstories for all of those characters, and if you hadn’t read their profiles, I hope you do so!

And, speaking of artwork being created…

Akane Video

There are two videos that I’ve wanted to make for a long time: “How Aoi and Megami met and how Aoi lost her eye,” and “Akane’s Backstory.” Both videos would require a lot of illustrations; around 50 each. The Aoi/Megami video is a “cursed” project; artists keep accepting the task of creating the artwork, then disappearing. The Akane video has been proceeding much more smoothly, though:

Nearly all of the illustrations necessary to create the video have been illustrated! Only about 5~6 illustrations remain. I think that 2026 will be the year that this video finally sees the light of day! (Really not sure about the Aoi/Megami video, though…that one is sooooo cursed…)

Status of Amai and Plans for 2026

On January 1st of 2025, I described what I planned to accomplish over the course of the year: a series of improvements to Amai’s week, a bunch of new features for Custom Mode, and the addition of voice acting and animations to Amai’s week. I anticipated that, if I could complete all of those things quickly, then I could start developing Kizana before the end of the year.

However, that’s not how things turned out. It took an exceptionally long time to find suitable voice actors for Amai and Senpai – I didn’t find them until June – and I wound up spending the majority of 2025 adding new features and assets to the game (see the massive lists above) instead of making improvements to Amai’s week or Custom Mode. Some of those tasks from that blog post got completed, but not all of them.

It’s a little embarrassing to acknowledge that I had 365 days to complete a list of tasks, and didn’t complete the full list…however, I think that this is really just an indication that game development is fluid, and that plans change as you gain access to new resources/manpower. The addition of an extremely skilled animator to the development team bumped “new elimination methods, new weapon, new cutscenes” to the top of the priority list, and knocked “update Custom Mode” down to the bottom.

So, what is the current status of Amai? Well, as you can tell by all of the voice acting and animations that have been added to the game over the past few months, I did eventually find voice actors to fill the roles of Amai and Senpai. As soon as they recorded the necessary voice lines for Amai and Senpai’s interactions, I assigned the animator to the task of creating animations for the Amai/Senpai interaction events, and that’s what he’s been doing for the past few months.

Now, as you can tell by reading all of the praise above, I have nothing but respect and appreciation for this animator. I could praise his godlike animation skills all day long! However, with that said, it’s important to acknowledge that he is human, and not a machine. It takes him about 2 weeks to create one Amai/Senpai interaction animation. With that number in mind, we can calculate how long it’s going to take until all of the animations for Amai’s week have been created.

The remaining events that require animations are:

• Tuesday Morning
• Tuesday Lunch
• Tuesday Lunch Sabotaged
• Wednesday Morning
• Wednesday Lunch
• Wednesday Lunch Sabotaged
• Thursday Morning
• Thursday Lunch
• Thursday Lunch Sabotaged
• Friday Morning
• Friday Lunch
• Friday Lunch Sabotaged
• Confession (Accept variant and Reject variant)

Assuming that it takes 2 weeks to create the necessary animations for each one of these 13 events…

13 x 2 weeks is 26 weeks, which is 182 days. 182 days from now is…

…Wednesday, July 8th.

Hm.

This means that I wouldn’t have the animations necessary to finish Amai’s week until this year is more than half over.

The previous animator – the one who made all of Osana’s animations – had motion capture equipment, which enabled him to create animations super rapidly; in some cases, he could animate an entire “Osana and Senpai interacting” cutscene in less than 5 days. However, the current animator does not have motion capture equipment, so he can’t use the previous animator’s workflow.

Obviously, I’m not trying to blame the current animator; I’m simply describing reality and laying out the math…

…however, I do need to consider what this means for my schedule…

How Animation Creation Time Affects Future Plans

Let’s get the obvious questions out of the way first.

“Can you hire an additional animator?”

I’m not earning enough income to afford that.

“Can you launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to hire an additional animator?”

I feel that that public perception of Yandere Simulator is currently on a downswing, and that a crowdfunding campaign launched today would fail. I strongly believe that I should not launch a crowdfunding campaign until I’ve been able to improve public perception of Yandere Simulator.

“How are you planning to do that?”

I would like to return to YouTube and release a series of videos showing off all of the cool additions that have been made to the game since the release of 1980s Mode.

“When are you going to do that?”

After I’ve finished making all of the improvements to Amai’s week that I can make with code and voice acting, even if I lack animations for all of Amai and Senpai’s interaction events.

“What if you fail to improve the public perception of the game, and the crowdfunding campaign fails?”

Then, I guess we’d be stuck in a situation where I’ve only got 1 animator, and it takes around 200 days to create all of the necessary animations to add a single rival to the game.

Under those circumstances, I suppose I couldn’t afford to let animations be a roadblock to the game’s development; I’d have to implement rivals with generic animations and release rivals whenever I’m finished scripting their events and adding their voice acting, even if their events wouldn’t contain any unique animations.

Actually, this is a good time to mention something…

Beta Rivals

This is the big plot twist of this blog post: Amai actually benefited tremendously from being released without voice acting or animations. After releasing Amai, I received an avalanche of extremely helpful feedback; criticism for the dialogue, suggestions for ways to improve her events, etc. After considering all of that feedback, I re-wrote nearly every line of her dialogue and re-imagined most of her events. (Most of the updated dialogue and event changes aren’t in the game yet.)

I’m glad I didn’t have any voice actors read the original dialogue, and I’m glad that I didn’t task an animator with animating the original dialogue, because most of Amai’s interactions with Senpai were completely re-written, and most of her events were completely re-designed. If I had asked voice actors to read that original dialogue, I would have had to scrap their lines and ask them to re-record the new dialogue!

You know what this tells me? This tells me that it’s actually a good idea to release rivals in a “Beta” state with no voice acting or animations, so that I can collect criticism/feedback/suggestions, make a bunch of fixes and improvements, re-design anything that needs to be changed, and then proceed to request voice lines and animations.

So, maybe the correct course of action is to not even think about voice acting or animations at this stage of development, and only focus on releasing prototypes of each rival’s week.

I do see one major downside to this plan: drama YouTubers are going to ignore the context and say, “The 10 rivals are finally finished, but they all SUCK!” which will further damage public perception of the game. However, I think that if there is a clear “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING AN UNFINISHED WEEK THAT ONLY EXISTS FOR PLAYTESTING AND FEEDBACK PURPOSES” warning screen, and a big “BETA CONTENT – NOT INDICATIVE OF FINAL RELEASE” watermark onscreen when you’re playing a Beta Rival’s week, I probably won’t have to worry about that.

It took me 89 days to implement Amai. I can definitely do that 8 more times, and potentially release up to 3 “Beta Rivals” within a single year. (However, that’s only if I decide it should be my top priority to do so. In reality, I’ll also be working on bug fixes, making YouTube videos, adding new assets to the game, etc. So, expecting 3 Beta Rivals per year might be unrealistic.)

What happens now?

Things are probably going to go something like this:

1. I’m going to finish making the improvements to Amai’s week and Custom Mode that I described back in January of 2025.
2. I’m going to implement voice lines for all of Amai’s events, even if the accompanying animations for those voice lines are weeks or months away from being completed. Characters will simply perform a generic “talking” animation while speaking voice lines. As new animations come in, I’ll implement them, but I won’t let a lack of animations be a roadblock that just stops progress on the game.
3. Once Amai’s week is as close to “complete” as it can get, I will return to YouTube and start making YouTube videos about all of the work that I have done since the release of 1980s Mode.
4. After releasing a bunch of YouTube videos, I will gauge public perception of the game. If public sentiment towards the game is overall positive, and it seems like a crowdfunding campaign has a solid chance of success, I will probably launch a crowdfunding campaign and use the money to hire voice actors and animators moving forward.
5. If public perception towards the game never improves, and I remain in a position where I must wait around 200 days for all of the new animations required to add a single new rival to the game, then I will move forward with the “Beta Rivals” plan. Rivals will be released with no voice acting or new animations, and voices/animations will be added later.

Oh – it’s a bit of a buzzkill, but there’s one last thing I have to mention…

I wish that “difficulty finding voice actors” and “animation creation speed” were the only two factors affecting the speed of the game’s development…but, in reality, there are actually more factors than just that. I don’t want this blog post to get too bloated, though, so I’ll be writing about that in a separate blog post, which I plan to release later this month.

Even though not every word in this blog post was positive, I hope that it helped clarify the current state of the game’s development!

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!