Got a big update for you today, with a long backstory behind it! This is going to be a pretty long post, so I’ll put most of it behind a “Continue Reading” link.
To see the rest of the post, scroll down past this badass illustration of Budo by Keimoneuwu!
Click “Continue Reading” to see the rest of the post – along with another illustration by Keimoneuwu!
For a long time – probably since 2014 – I’ve had a text file sitting on my desktop with a big checklist of incomplete tasks and missing features that needed to go into the game before it could be considered complete. A lot of these tasks and features were long overdue, but I decided not to begin working on that checklist until after Osana was complete.
After I released Osana, I wanted to collect players’ feedback and improve the demo. After improving the demo, I wanted to make a bunch of videos about all of the ways that the demo had changed. After that, I wanted to fix some more of the game’s flaws. After that, I wanted to make improvements to Raibaru. And after that, I wanted to make a video talking in depth about the game’s history, and my personal game design philosophy.
It was just one thing after another! It felt like I was never going to find a good opportunity to finally turn my attention to that big text file that had been waiting patiently on my desktop for years…but, at long last, the time has come! The past couple of weeks were all about making a series of long-overdue changes and additions to the game. Basically, wrapping up every last loose end before I finally turn my attention to putting 10 rivals in the game!
You might have noticed that, at some point in time, I put the words “REVISION B” on the title screen. That was to mark the moment that I considered the demo to have made a significant step forward, like moving from “A” to “B”. As of this build, I feel that the demo has changed enough to have taken another step forward, so I’ve updated the title screen to say “REVISION C”!
However, it’s worth mentioning that one of the additions I’ve made to the game in this build is probably going to be completely unexpected. Depending on how you feel about it, you might say, “Huh? What? Why did he add this to the game? Did the game really need to have this? Didn’t he say a long time ago that he wasn’t going to put this feature in the game? What was he thinking?!” So, I’ll take a moment to provide an explanation…
In 2016, I implemented the Befriend/Betray elimination method into Yandere Sim. However, it was mostly just a bunch of cutscenes, with very little actual gameplay. To make the method more interactive, I proposed a new idea: Sometimes, helping a rival might involve beating up a bunch of people for her. This would require adding a beat-em-up combat system to the game.
When I initially suggested this idea, the proposal was met with a very negative reaction. A lot of people thought that the idea of a schoolgirl beating up a bunch of grown men was just way too outlandish. After seeing so much negative feedback, I announced that I would abandon the idea of putting a beat-em-up combat system into the game.
In a video that I released in December of 2020, I mentioned the rejected beat-em-up proposal, and I actually saw a lot of enthusiasm for the idea in the comments! Many people seemed to think that it sounded like a very cool idea! To be honest, ever since 2016, I’ve never been able to stop thinking about the concept, or coming up with potential reasons for Yandere-chan to engage in a brawl.
One of Yandere Simulator’s rivals will have a storyline that involves a very strong emphasis on combat; her violent history, her physical prowess, her ongoing conflict with a group of dangerous individuals, etc. Yandere Simulator’s current combat system just isn’t appropriate for fighting against this rival, or for participating in her conflict, either.
To do this rival justice, the game would need a completely different type of combat system; one that would only be used in certain outside-of-school situations. Also, my upcoming plan to “put 10 rivals into the game in a timely fashion” involves a feature that would require the use of new combat mechanics. So, with all of these factors in mind, I set aside a few days to put something new into the game:
That’s right; it’s a beat-em-up combat system!
If it seems underwhelming, don’t worry. This is only “version 1”; basically just a prototype. I simply wanted to set down the framework; movement, camera, win/loss criteria, etc. It can be polished and refined in the future. However, I feel that this is a good starting point. I feel proud of it, considering how quickly it went into the game!
(Obviously, as someone who has been playing video games for over 25 years, I know that there is still a lot of room for improvement here. However, due to a lack of animations, I’m very limited in what I can do with the gameplay at this point in time.)
(To truly make the gameplay shine, I’d need assistance from an animator to give Yandere-chan a wider variety of attacks and techniques. However, if an animator volunteered to help me out, there are honestly a few other things that would be higher in priority than requesting new beat-em-up animations. So, it might be a while before you’ll see this new combat system get a significant update.)
There are a few traditional beat-em-up mechanics here, such as a meter that you can build up in order to unleash a devastating attack…but, don’t expect Yandere-chan to shoot fireballs out of her hands, or anything crazy like that. Even if some of her special attacks might be a bit flashy, this mode will remain grounded in reality.
To activate the new beat-em-up combat system, you’ll have to meet the criteria for joining the delinquents, then talk to their leader and select “Practice” from the dialogue wheel. You remember the criteria for joining the delinquents, right? Just in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll write it out for you:
- Dye your hair blonde
- Befriend all of the delinquents
- Beat all of the delinquents in a fight
- Use a mirror to give yourself the “Tough” Persona
- Damage your reputation to be lower than -33, but higher than -100
(Remember that you have to attend class in order to make your reputation update. Word of your reputation doesn’t spread until after classtime.)
(Oh, yeah, and one more thing – Yandere Simulator is meant to be played on controller, and I have a feeling that the beat-em-up minigame might be especially uncomfortable to play using a keyboard. Please, play this game with a controller!)
Okay! That’s pretty much everything I wanted to say about this build! Next, I’ll share the complete list of everything that was added or changed in this update:
New Features
- Yandere-chan can now find a bucket of brown paint in the Art Club. This paint can be added to a bucket of water to make the water look like mud (or something worse). Why did I add this to the game? Well, it doesn’t make sense for students to take a shower after being splashed with water. They should only feel compelled to take a shower if they have been splashed with blood, gasoline, or an unidentified disgusting brown fluid. That’s why the player has the ability to color water brown; to trick students into thinking it’s something worse than water; something worth taking a shower over. However, I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to go ahead with this decision yet, so for now, a simple bucket of water will still cause someone to take a shower.
- It is now possible to leave a note on Senpai’s desk at school. Like leaving gifts on Senpai’s desk, the purpose of this feature is to give Yandere-chan a way to anonymously build a relationship with Senpai without interacting with him directly, and also restore his sanity if it is damaged by her actions throughout the game. The “Language” stat will determine the effectiveness of your notes. (This feature doesn’t affect anything during the demo, but once the game has 10 weeks, and Senpai’s sanity becomes a larger component of the game, it’ll seem much more meaningful. Please don’t expect this feature to look impressive at this point in time; it doesn’t result in any unique animations, or anything like that. I’m just getting the functionality in.)
- When leaving leaving Yandere-chan’s home and going to school, the player now has the option of bringing an item from home to school. For now, the only options are some household items that could be used as weapons, and rat poison. To get rat poison, you must purchase it from the convenience store in the street. Also, if you destroy something that you’ve brought to school, it will stop being an option on the list of things that you can bring to school. More items will be added to this list in the future.
- From now on, whenever you sabotage one of a rival’s events with Senpai, a “progress bar” will appear after the End-of-Day Results screen that shows you how close you are to sabotaging your rival’s love confession. If you tried to sabotage an event, but you don’t see this progress bar, it means that your sabotage attempt was unsuccessful.
- There are now 5 bounties available from Info-chan, one for each day of the week. Ryuto’s bounty is still on Monday, but Kashiko’s bounty has been moved to Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the days that contain the new bounties.
- There is now a “Subtitle Size” option in the game’s Settings menu for people who want the game’s subtitles to be a bit larger. This currently only effects subtitles that appear during gameplay, and not during cutscenes.
- New debug functionality for the turtle: Press the “O” key on your keyboard to make the “Spawn Victim” command spawn Osana, even if she is dead. (You can use this to revive Osana from death an infinite number of times.)
- The 3D model that appears when ordering a clean uniform from Info-chan or removing a bloody uniform from Yandere-chan’s body will now reflect the actual uniform that the player chose for the school’s female students.
- As of now, when you kill Osana with a weapon, the game will go into slow motion to make the kill more dramatic. This is something I always envisioned as part of the game even as far back as 2014.
- On a day when a memorial service is being held for a student’s death, a vase with a flower inside of it will now appear on the deceased student’s desk.
- Taking a photo of a plushie doll and sending it to Info-chan will now display the name of the person that the doll represents.
- When a mind-broken slave attacks a victim, blood splatters will now appear on the slave and victim’s clothing.
- Updated the character model of Ebola-chan in Ebola Mode.
Psychology Stat Functionality
Up until now, the “Psychology” stat didn’t actually do anything. As of now, it finally has a purpose – multiple purposes, in fact! From now on, leveling up the Psychology stat will:
- Reduce the amount of sanity you lose from performing violent actions
- Increase the amount of reputation that you gain from positive social interactions
- Increase the effectiveness of your matchmaking advice during the matchmaking minigame
- Increase the amount of psychological damage that you deal to someone while torturing them
Bug Fixes
- Restored Aoi’s routine to normal. (I changed her routine in order to record video footage of her doing something, but I forgot to reset her routine after I was done recording the footage.)
- The “Osana holding cat” model that appears on the title screen if the player eliminates Osana using the Befriend/Betray elimination method has been updated to use the cat’s new model.
- Fixed bug that prevented Otohiko from spawning in the correct location (he was supposed to spawn outside of school and then run to school in a panic over being late).
- Fixed bug that would cause the game to get stuck at the “End of Day Results” screen if the player orchestrated a murder-suicide and then cleaned up both corpses.
- Attempted to fix bug that could result in a corpse floating upwards into the air during the “dump corpse into sewer” mini-cutscene.
- Fixed bug that caused the Drama Club students to not return to the correct stage of their routine when reloading a save file.
- The player will now receive a reputation penalty for standing directly in front of a student for an extended period of time.
- Attempted to fix bug that could result in a corpse not appearing onscreen during the “dump corpse into sewer” mini-cutscene.
- Some of the models around school were clipping into walls or had texture problems; there issues have now been fixed.
- Some students’ routines are now different at lunchtime to make it more difficult to eliminate Osana by drowning.
- Fixed issues with the wall texture inside the bathrooms.
Audio Updates
It might not sound like something very important, but actually, audio is a huge part of the overall experience of playing a video game. Previously, many aspects of Yandere Simulator were actually completely lacking any type of sound effect, which really dragged down the production value of the game! In this build, I’ve added sound effects to many features that were previously completely silent. There are still a lot of features that still need sound effects, but this is a good start.
- There are now sound effects for opening the panty drawer, moving panties left/right, choosing a pair of panties, and closing the panty drawer.
- Replaced some of the game’s oldest and lowest-quality sound effects (like the camera shutter sound effect) with newer, better ones.
- There are now sound effects when picking up a bucket, filling a bucket with water, and emptying a bucket.
- There are now sound effects when making menu selections at the title screen.
- There are now sound effects when a door opens or closes.
What’s Next?
With this build, I’ve accomplished about 99% of the tasks that I wanted to complete before I switch my focus entirely to the “put 10 rivals into the game into a timely fashion” goal that I mentioned at the end of my most recent video. There are still one or two little things I may decide to put into the game over the next few days, so you might see another build really soon…but, either way, this means that this build, or the next build, will probably be the last build of the game that contains less than 10 rivals! How exciting!
Thank you for your patience, and thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!