Hi! Got a new build for you! How big is it? I’ll let you decide, but this blog post is 20,000

To read a list of everything that was added/changed/improved in the latest update, scroll down past this gorgeous and artistic illustration by idil ayvaz!

New Amai Bake Sale Animations

A set of animations has been created for the students who are interacting with Amai’s bake sale:

There are 20 new animations in total:

Three variations of “Amai greets customer” and “Customer greets Amai” (6 total)
Three variations of “Amai describes all of the different food for sale” and “Customer listens to Amai describe food” (6 total)
Three variations of “Amai watches customer purchase food” and “Customer purchases food and says goodbye” (6 total)
Animations depicting the customer reacting to Amai’s food, determined by whether or not the food was poisoned (2 total)

Hopefully, this will make Amai’s bake sale seem a lot more lively and interesting!

(After making a sale, Amai logs the purchase on her phone. While doing this, she is distracted, and doesn’t notice how the customer in front of her is reacting to her food. This is why she is unaware of whether or not her food is making people sick.)

By the way, I’ve added a few little details to the bake sale that I’ve always wanted it to have:

Previously, only one student could walk towards the bake sale at a time. This would sometimes lead to very long stretches of time where nobody was interacting with the bake sale. Now, multiple students can set the bake sale as their “target destination” – and if multiple students arrive at the bake sale while someone else is already interacting with it, the other students will form a crowd behind the customer and “wait their turn” to interact with the bake sale.
There is now a jar on the bake sale table where students drop money whenever they purchase something from Amai. This jar can be seen visibly filling up with money each time a new purchase is made.
There is now a little piece of paper on the bake sale table keeping track of how much money the bake sale has raised so far. This number changes absolutely nothing about Amai’s week, but it’s something I always wanted to add. (Still, in the future, I might tweak the exact cost of the food Amai is selling.)

Flip-Flopping on Rival Deaths Closing Clubs

At some point in time, I made a game design decision: “If the player kills a club leader, their club will close, even if every other member of the club is still alive.”

A lot of people questioned this decision. “Wait, shouldn’t the club remain open? The substitute club leader can simply step up and become the new club leader.”

I replied, “No. The rival was the glue that held the club together. Her death would devastate the other club members so much that they wouldn’t even want to be in the club anymore.”

However, I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I’ve decided that this was a bad call. Thematically, it might make sense if I insist that everyone in the club really loved the rival…but, in terms of gameplay, it sucks for the player to lose access to gameplay mechanics just because they successfully performed their objective and defeated their enemy.

So, from now on, the death of a rival will not cause a club to shut down. For example, after Amai is eliminated, her clubmates will simply return to their normal routines.

As of right now, this only applies to Amai, but it’ll also apply to all other rivals moving forward, as well.

Leaving Ryoba’s Room and Interacting with Her Family

In 1980s Mode, it is now possible to leave Ryoba’s room and interact with her family!

You can see Ryoba’s mother, father, and grandmother in person. You can speak to her sister through a door, and hear the sound of her grandfather snoring, but you can’t actually interact with them in person.

Currently, each character only offers one “conversation,” and they spend each day in the same locations, performing the same actions. Ideally, they would relocate to a new location every day, and offer a new conversation every day. However, it would take a lot of time to write that much dialogue, so, for now, they each only offer one interaction.

New Fountain Water Effects

Eagle-eyed readers may have already noticed this in a screenshot up above, but the iconic fountain at the center of the school has been updated with new water effects!

You might think it’s a bit hard to tell the difference without seeing it in motion (or seeing a direct side-by-side comparison) but I think it’s a huge improvement over the previous one!

New Chiptune Music in Pass Time Minigame

Hey, you know the little minigame you can play while using the “Pass Time” feature?

From now on, when you activate that feature, you will hear a chiptune version of the “Schoolday” background music. And since there are 13 different schoolday tracks, this meant adding 13 different chiptune tracks to the game. That’s a lot of new music!

New 1980s Mode Light Music Club Rhythm Minigame Artwork

The Light Music Club’s rhythm minigame now has new artwork!

I’m completely in love with the artwork that was created for the minigame – I hope that you like it, too!

UI Navigation Sound Effects

Recently, one of Yandere Simulator’s volunteers pointed out that a large number of features in Yandere Simulator lack sound effects, and provided me with some sounds to implement. After implementing these effects in situations that were previously silent, I immediately noticed a huge leap forward in terms of the “user experience” and overall production value of the game. Many of these areas were, specifically, in the game’s menus:

I’ll list out a few of the places that now have audio where none existed before:

Opening/closing the pause screen phone menu.
Selecting icons in the pause screen phone menu.
Opening menus or backing out of menus in the pause screen phone menu.
Opening/closing the weapon menu.
Making selections in the weapon menu.
When equipping a bag, putting an item away in the bag, taking an item out of the bag, or dropping the bag.
Confirming a decision to leave the protagonist’s home and go to school/town.

(Some of these sound effects might get adjusted or replaced in the future, so if you listen to them and don’t like them, please don’t panic about it.)

I’m still trying to decide what is a better idea – use a consistent set of sound effects for all menus, or use different sound effects for each menu, depending on the specific type of menu it is, and the purpose of the menu. As a result, you might come across menus that have one singular sound effect implemented but are otherwise silent, because I’m currently testing out whether or not that sound effect sounds “correct” there. Don’t worry about reporting these as bugs; they are just works-in-progress.

Improvements

Updated the profiles of Nagaharu and Raizo (also known as Study-Kun A and Study-Kun B) to reference their nicknames. Also updated their likes/dislikes to include positive feelings towards “Reading.”
The Student Info screen has been upgraded so that anyone who is not in an official club (such as “The Delinquents” or “The Bullies”) is described as being in a “Group” instead of a “Club.”
The 1980s Mode gravure photo shoot minigame has been updated with a new “camera flash” sound effect, so that it’s not using the same one that is used when the protagonist takes a photo.
The stove in the Cooking Club has been updated to use the Akademi white-and-gold color scheme, just like every other prop in that room.
From now on, if a character has been blinded by a Smoke Bomb, Ayano can kill them without being countered or entering a struggle.
Updated Mantaro’s hair texture, because his previous hair texture was solid black and that looked pretty bad.
The ramen shop in town now has new background music. This background music may be replaced in the future.
In Custom Mode, there is now an “Are you sure?” confirmation window before you randomize a student.
Updated Supana Churu’s hair model.
Updated Kuu Dere’s hair texture.

Fixes

In Mission Mode, if the player was given the mission objective of “Feed your target to a carnivorous plant,” and the player dismembered their target and fed each limb to the plant, the game would not acknowledge that the player had met the criteria for completing the mission. This bug has been fixed.
Apparently, I left a debug command in the game – if you press the spacebar key during Osana’s Wednesday “take a photo to share with Senpai” event, you teleport to the place where Osana takes the photo. Wow! It took like 5 years for someone to find this! Anyway, this debug command has been removed.
In 1980s Mode, if the player expelled their rival, Senpai would still go stand at the location where he and the rival were meant to have their next event. He would stand there indefinitely, even while other students were going to class. This bug has been fixed.
If the player stood too close to Geiju, he would say one of the generic “You’re standing too close, get away from me,” lines – but this would be out of character for him, since he is only supposed to speak in 2-word sentences. This oversight has been corrected.
After 5:00 PM, if the player spoke to a rival who was walking towards the shower building in order to change into their school uniform, the rival would forget about changing clothing and would walk through the school wearing a swimsuit. this bug has been fixed.
If the player loaded a save, the player would not be able to interact with anything a certain distance away from the initial spawn point until a certain number of seconds had passed – up to 10 in some circumstances. This bug has been fixed.
If Ayano stood extremely close to Budo and then participated in the Martial Arts Club’s club activity, Ayano would slowly “orbit” around Budo instead of standing in place, as she was supposed to. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used Info-chan’s Services menu to force a student to leave school, saved the game, and then loaded the game, that student would simply run in place instead of running out of school. This bug has been fixed.
If the player tried to electrocute Senpai during a “Senpai and Osana talk before going home” event, the event would not end, and Senpai would glide across the ground while in a fixed pose. This bug has been fixed.
If the player killed a student, wrapped their corpse in a body bag, then got sent to the counselor…upon leaving the counselor’s office, the corpse would have a “Talk” prompt above it. This bug has been fixed.
At home, if the player opened the Stokr menu, closed it, then paused the game and then entered the Student Info menu, then closed it, the player would lose the ability to walk around. This bug has been fixed.
If the player plugged a power strip into a power outlet and then saved the game, the game would not accurately remember the state of that power strip or outlet upon loading the game. This bug has been fixed.
When moving photographs around on the protagonist’s corkboard at home, the speed of the cursor and the photograph was ridiculously inconsistent (but only for keyboard+mouse users). This bug has been fixed.
If the player expelled Osana on Friday, Senpai would spend the rest of Friday standing on the school rooftop for hours and hours, waiting for an Osana that will never come. This bug has been fixed.
If a student council member broke up a fight and then sent the player to the counselor for “disturbing behavior,” the game would softlock during the counselor conversation. This bug has been fixed.
If the player performed a “subtle stab” on a student who was struggling with a mind-broken slave, they would lose the ability to attack anyone for the rest of the day. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, if the player gave a student council member the “Violent” Persona and then let them witness the protagonist carrying a weapon, the game would softlock. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, if the player designed a character with a non-default skin color, the character’s skin color would become incorrect if that character was kidnapped. This bug has been fixed.
In Pose Mode, if the player activated Raibaru’s loose socks and then tried to switch to a different pair of socks, the loose socks would never deactivate. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, if the player tried to design a delinquent character with a positive reputation, his reputation would immediately drop down to -67. This bug has been fixed.
If the player pushed a student to their death from the rooftop, they would lose the ability to attack anyone for the rest of the day. This bug has been fixed.
In Custom Mode, certain neck accessories would appear on a character’s body when designing them, but not when taking their portrait. This bug has been fixed.
One of Raibaru’s uniform textures was incorrect, and featured details (red trim) that other students didn’t have on their uniforms. This bug has been fixed.
If Ayano disarmed a delinquent, and then that delinquent witnessed Ayano carrying Nemesis, the delinquent would freeze permanently. This bug has been fixed.
If the player repeatedly stole students’ smartphones, with each theft, the smartphone model would become more and more distorted. This bug has been fixed.
During Osana’s “talk with Raibaru about touring all of the clubs in school” event, Osana would perform the wrong idle animation. This bug has been fixed.
After I updated the way that the game handles outlines, Science Club lab coats lost their outlines when being worn by students. This bug has been fixed.
If the player saved and loaded during Week 2, all students would go back to following the routines they followed during Week 1. This bug has been fixed.
When skipping the intro cutscene, the narration and background music did not fade out into silence, as they were supposed to. This bug has been fixed.
Sumire’s “Missing” poster appeared during the 1980s Mode tutorial, even though nobody knew she was missing yet. This oversight has been corrected.
If the player saved and loaded the game during Amai’s bake sale, the bake sale would not resume when the save was loaded. This bug has been fixed.
Budo would still offer his “talk to Raibaru for me” Task even if Raibaru was dead and Budo had attended her memorial. This bug has been fixed.
If the player photographed a student, that student would not instantly gain an outline, as they were supposed to. This bug has been fixed.
If the player photographed a student and sent the photo to Info-chan, the student would not gain an outline. This bug has been fixed.
After changing out of her swimsuit, Ritsuko would not change from her indoor shoes into her outdoor shoes. This bug has been fixed.
After I updated the way that the game handles outlines, some of Senpai’s hairstyles lost their outlines. This bug has been fixed.
If the player drowned a student, they would lose the ability to attack anyone for the rest of the day. This bug has been fixed.
Amai’s new hair model was not appearing in her Thursday “walk to school with Senpai” event. This oversight has been corrected.
If a student had a grudge on the player, they would have a green outline instead of a yellow outline. This bug has been fixed.
Fixed bug that would cause Chigusa’s Yandere Vision outline to turn white instead of red after she changed into her bikini.
If the player smothered Amai, then saved and loaded the game, Amai would come back to life. This bug has been fixed.
The balcony you jump from in the Rival Bakery Stealth Mission had a stretched texture. This texture has been fixed.
After I updated the way that the game handles outlines, Ayano’s ponytail lost its outline. This bug has been fixed.
The game’s credits were ending before all names had finished scrolling across the screen. This bug has been fixed.
The “boxes of foil and boxes of trash bags make different sound effects” feature wasn’t working. Now it is.
Gita’s Task was impossible to complete – but only in LoveSick Mode, specifically. This bug has been fixed.
The button prompt for Osana’s Monday rooftop event would sometimes not appear. This bug has been fixed.
Shinako Bunzai’s glasses were not rendering properly in her student portrait. This bug has been fixed.
In the 202X Kokona tutorial, “Yandere Vision Outlines” were not functioning. This bug has been fixed.
Amai was using the wrong hair model in the scene where she commits suicide. This bug has been fixed.
It is no longer possible to wear a swimsuit and gloves/a raincoat/an occult robe. It created bugs.
The “Senpai meets Amai” cutscene was blurry when played at 1080p. This bug has been fixed.
It is no longer possible to open the map while using Yandere Vision. It created bugs.
Fixed a typo in the subtitles for Ai’s Tuesday afternoon event.

1st and 15th Updates

You might be wondering if I’m planning to dump the “update the game on the 1st and 15th days of every month” update schedule and adopt a new “Only release a build when there is exciting new content” policy.

Well, let’s see what the fanbase thinks about it: https://poal.me/ep4top

Looks pretty conclusive! But…what about the patrons? The opinions of my paid supporters are worth a lot to me, so I want to check in with them and see how they feel.

Hmm – interesting! Different ratio, but same prevailing opinion.

Over the past 2 weeks, I received a tremendous amount of feedback regarding the “should I abandon the 1st and 15th schedule?” question. Both sides made a lot of incredibly good points.

“Now that you don’t upload YouTube videos anymore, the twice-a-month updates are the only thing to look forward to. The only thing keeping the game on life support. Take that away from us, and the game will die.”

Gulp!

“A game project simply cannot move closer to completion while the developer is held to two-week deadlines, because it ignores the reality of game development: Most significant tasks will require more than two weeks of exclusive focus.”

Gulp again!

After hearing everything that both sides have to say, it feels like the two-week schedule grants short-term benefits, but holds me back in the long term.

My current plan is to achieve a sort of compromise; a middle-ground. If I’ve accomplished a ton of cool stuff during the most recent two-week cycle, I’ll release a new build on the 1st or 15th day of the month. But, if my next task is something that cannot be completed before the end of the current two-week cycle, I won’t release a new build until after that task is complete. Feels like it’s the best of both worlds.

And, if you’re ever thinking, “Is the game dead?! Did he quit?! Is he actually making progress?!” you can visit my Patreon, where I’ll occasionally share previews of upcoming content.

On that note…

Birthday Stream

The reason why I released a build today on June 30th instead of tomorrow on July 1st is because today is…my birthday!

Preparing a new build can be quite time-consuming; I didn’t want to spend my birthday doing something so tedious, so I decided to just release the build one day early, and then take a rare vacation day.

If there are any critical game-breaking bugs in the current build…I’m sorry, but I won’t be fixing them for a full 24 hours. If anything is broken in this build, you’ll just have to wait until July 2nd (at the earliest) to get a bug-fixing build.

By the way, in case you’re curious what I plan to do for my birthday…I’m going to stream a video game! There was once a point in time when I streamed daily, and rigorously followed a very specific schedule. It was something I was incredibly passionate about. However, I eventually decided to “lock in” and focus more of my time on Yandere Simulator, which led me to gradually stream less and less until I stopped altogether. In fact, I haven’t streamed at all in over 5 months! (My last stream was way back on January 19th!)

If you’d like to catch my stream, you’re welcome to visit https://kick.com/yanderedev – I plan to start streaming around 2:00 PM in the PST timezone. Hope to see you there!