Amai Progress Report (and New Build!)

Hello!

After I began work on adding a new rival into the game, I stopped writing blog posts about my latest progress, and only reported my most recent progress on my Patreon page. However, I’m finally ready to give out some details about how much work has been done on Amai so far, and what work remains to be done.

To read a blog post about how far I’ve come with Amai, scroll down past this gorgeous artwork by eeennnnenen celebrating Yandere Simulator’s 10th anniversary!

10th Anniversary Celebration Artwork

Before I start talking about Amai, I’d like to share some really touching artwork that fans have sent to me over the past 48 hours to celebrate Yandere Sim’s 10th anniversary (and, also, technically, Ayano’s birthday).

Anonymous:

Suha_mgm5275:

Anonymous:

miserablehoney:

Ad0:

kyorinsan_831:

Aya_0w0__:

yuku_ap:

Anonymous:

Amai Progress Report

Okay! With that out of the way, let’s talk about Amai.

I’m sorry if this gives you deja vu, but the first thing I’m going to do is re-use a graphic from my previous blog post…

The act of implementing a new rival into the game requires a lot of work, but if I had to divide it into 5 categories, those categories would be…

Planning/Design/Writing
Befriend/Betray Elimination Method
Rejection Elimination Method
Additions Unique to Specific Rivals
Every other aspect of the rival’s week

I’ve finished all of the planning/design/writing required for Amai, I’ve implemented the entire storyline and stealth mission for Amai’s Befriend/Betray elimination method, and I’ve implemented all of her events with Senpai – including all of the gameplay required for sabotaging them.

Those three things, alone, comprise more than 50% of the work that needs to be done to implement a rival. I’m past the halfway point. At this point, what remains is the “miscellaneous other stuff” that isn’t very glamorous, but is required for the addition of a new rival. Stuff like…

Creating a cutscene where Senpai meets Kizana, and a cutscene where Info-chan texts Ayano to warn her about Kizana.
Positioning students around the school so that there is never a moment when Amai isn’t in view of a witness.
Creating a cutscene that provides the player with the hints necessary to achieve Amai’s unique elimination.
Implementing Amai’s unique elimination method.
Implementing her suitor’s routine.

Et cetera. It’s also worth mentioning that, every few days, I suddenly remember, “Oh, yeah, that’s right, there is one more task I need to do!” One example would be…

Amai is a club leader, so she should attend the club leader meeting on Friday. However, she plans to confess to Senpai on Friday. So, she should send Shoko in her place. But, what if Amai has already been eliminated through the Befriend method, and doesn’t plan to confess anymore? Then, she should attend the Friday club leader meeting personally, instead of send Shoko.

There are also some other aspects of adding a new week to the game that I just personally want to include because it’s part of my vision for the game:

Give the player the opportunity to obtain a new collectible for the Senpai Shrine
Add a “weekly postcard from Ryoba” feature
Add five new Basu Sister conversations
Add five new bounties for Info-chan
Add one new basement tape

But, we’re still not done yet; once I finally feel that “Amai is 100% finished!” there is still one last phase I need to get through before I can release her:

Determine if there are any obvious exploits to eliminate Amai with zero effort, and remove any that are discovered
Test absolutely all elimination methods on Amai, and confirm that every one of them is working
Test absolutely all new content related to Amai, and confirm that there are no bugs

The B/B elimination method and the Rejection elimination method were the only tasks that were huge, complex, and tedious enough to require weeks to accomplish. The remaining tasks are far more simple in nature, and can each be completed in very little time; I’m absolutely certain that many of the above tasks are, easily, going to take less than a day to accomplish.

Looking at the work that has been accomplished so far, and the work that remains, I feel like I can easily make an educated guess about when Amai will be 100% finished and ready for release. However, I don’t want to make any announcements at this point in time; if my estimate is incorrect, people will get disappointed and mad at me. So, instead, I’m just going to leave you with the information above, and get back to work.

Before I proceed to the rest of the blog post, I want to inform you that I recently uploaded a 20-minute-long video to my Patreon page, demonstrating the system I created to make it easy to put new rival events into the game quickly. If you miss hearing the sound of my voice talking about the latest additions to the game, now you know where to find it!

Okay; with all of that out of the way, now it’s time to tell you what has changed in the latest build of the game.

Improvements

When investing study points into school subjects at classtime, the “Here’s what benefits you will gain from studying this school subject!” text has been updated to reflect the fact that upgrading your Language stat will make your anonymous love letters more effective.
A lot of players did not understand the difference between completing a rival’s Task and befriending a rival, so a “Progress Towards Friendship” message will now appear at the top of the screen whenever the player talks to a rival.
The player is not supposed to change clothing in Yakuza Mode, so I’ve removed the ability to switch outfits in the girls’ shower building in Yakuza Mode.
Pippi, Midori, and Mai now use a different idle animation. (Their previous idle animation, shared with the bullies, made them look too mean.)
Body-hiding lockers in the Alphabet Killer Challenge now have a cyan outline in Yandere Vision – and an orange outline when they are full.
It is now possible to mute and unmute the background music of Yakuza Mode by pressing the “m” key on your keyboard while at school.
Finally replaced the low-quality board models that some of the club advertisements were posted on.
The location of the bag of sugar has been moved from the Cooking Club to the Home Ec room.
Improved the texture of the green lockers that can be found in some of the school’s rooms.
The protagonist now wears an apron when she joins the Cooking Club.
A simple pause screen has been added to the street scene.

Fixes

If a character realizes that you killed their loved one (sister, best friend, crush), they will switch to the Heroic Persona and attack you. However, it was possible for this protocol to be triggered even if the player was not presently attacking a character’s loved one. Due to a bug, a character would think “My loved one is being attacked!” if they saw the player holding any character’s corpse, after the player had killed that character’s loved one. This bug has been fixed.
If a rival was meant to carry around a camera or smartphone as part of their walking animation, and they had a meeting with a suitor, their camera/smartphone would disappear from their hands, and they would walk around performing a “walking while holding object” animation, even though no object was visible in their hands. This bug has been fixed.
Geiju’s unique character trait is that he only speaks in one-or-two-word sentences. Unique lines of dialogue were written for him to say during the game’s new “Socialize” feature. However, due to a bug, the game wasn’t pulling up his unique dialogue when the player interacted with him through that feature. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, if the player gave a student the “Protective” Persona, turned them into a mind-broken slave, and instructed them to kill the first rival, they would inadvertently trigger code that was meant for Raibaru only, and would be unable to kill the rival. This bug has been fixed.
If the player started an 1980s Mode save file, returned to the title screen, then started a 202X Mode save file, the photograph of Taro in the Senpai Shrine would show Jokichi’s face, but only in the “plotting how to eliminate Osana” cutscene. This bug has been fixed.
If the player sent a mind-broken slave to kill Osana on Friday during her “making a mixtape for Senpai” event, Osana would not rotate into the animation correctly, causing her animation to be de-synchronized from the attacker’s animation. This bug has been fixed.
If the player designed a Custom Mode rival who did not speak to Senpai in the usual spot on Friday, the rival would never follow through with the Friday event, making it impossible to sabotage that event. This bug has been fixed.
After the player used the woodchipper to dispose of a corpse, the “Activate” button prompt would not go away, allowing the player to use the woodchipper again, even though it was supposed to be empty. This bug has been fixed.
Previously, rivals in Mission Mode and Custom Mode were using the “map markers” for the canon rivals, even if the player’s target or custom rivals looked completely different from the canon rivals. This bug has been fixed.
Characters will not pose for a photograph if they are in the middle of an event. However – due to a bug – Osana was not posing for photographs even when she was outside of events. This bug has been fixed.
If the player killed the nurse and then accepted a “get headache medicine from nurse” Task, the button prompt to ask the nurse for medicine would appear over the nurse’s corpse. This bug has been fixed.
If the player distracted Sonoko or bumped into Sonoko while she was walking to a water fountain or drinking water, she would become unable to return to her routine properly. This bug has been fixed.
If the player was talking to a character and a second character began speaking nearby, the first character’s lips would move in sync with the second character’s voice line. This bug has been fixed.
Due to an error with Raibaru’s textures, she sometimes appeared to be wearing two pairs of socks (black and white) depending on which school uniform she was wearing. This error has been corrected.
It was possible for the player to see a small object floating above the Headmaster’s room with Yandere Vision active. This was unintentional and a mistake, so the object has been removed.
By standing in front of the doors to Info-chan’s room and rotating the camera, it was possible to make the camera clip through the doors, into the room. This oversight has been corrected.
If the player saved the game during “Class Time” and then loaded that save, Senpai and Osana would teleport back to the location of their morning interaction. This bug has been fixed.
Taro and Jokichi’s portraits would appear in the Student Info Menu during Mission Mode, even though they were supposed to be absent from school in that mode. This bug has been fixed.
After the player confirmed a decision on Ayano’s computer and the screen began fading to black, it was still possible to push buttons and make menu choices. This bug has been fixed.
When using the mouse cursor to position a photograph on the corkboard in the player’s room, it was possible for the mouse to leave the game window. Oops! This bug has been fixed.
In the Alphabet Killer Challenge, it is no longer possible to change into club attire while the cloaking device is active, or use the cloaking device while wearing club attire.
Under some circumstances, it was possible for the “Custom Mode Confession Cutscene” to have improper depth-of-field and appear super blurry. This should no longer be possible.
In 1980s Mode, Ai’s singing voice could be heard in the school gym even after she was dead if her corpse was nearby the microphone that she sang at. This bug has been fixed.
If the player took a photograph of two characters engaged in a murder-suicide, the photograph would be labeled as a “picture of a sleeping student.” This bug has been fixed.
If the player joined the delinquent gang and then checked their “Stats” screen, the stats screen would not properly populate the “Club” text field. This bug has been fixed.
If the player picked up an object right before another character was about to pick it up, both characters would simultaneously possess the object. This bug has been fixed.
Due to an oversight, it was possible to tell a rival to go to the matchmaking area before they had even changed their shoes. This oversight has been corrected.
In Custom Mode, if the player attempted to give a student the “Ayano” eye type, the student’s eyes would not update correctly. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, Ryoba’s name could appear in the Calendar Stats screen instead of the name of the player’s custom protagonist. This bug is now fixed.
Previously, walking/running on the dirt in the gardening club area would not produce the correct sound effect. This oversight has been corrected.
If the player entered first-person mode, it became possible to walk on top of the spherical bushes around the school. This bug has been fixed.
In 1980s Mode, the “Peeking into rival’s bookbag” window was using the 202X aesthetic instead of the 1980s aesthetic. This bug has been fixed.
The arches inside of the school plaza were inconsistent between the title screen and the school scene. This inconsistency has been corrected.
Fixed bug that prevented the game from recognizing that a Mission Mode ID was invalid due to the weapon not being available in Mission Mode.
Sometimes, the text describing a photograph would extend out of the window that it was contained within. This oversight has been corrected.
Fixed bug that made the protagonist visibly clip through their classroom seat when exiting classtime and resuming gameplay.
It was possible for the player to climb on top of the table at a dead student’s memorial. This bug has been fixed.
Fixed bug that allowed the player to put a large, full garbage bag into a much smaller bookbag.
Ryoba’s bust size was incorrect when she was in the town on weekends. This bug has been fixed.