FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this game about?

Yandere Simulator is a stealth game about stalking a boy and secretly eliminating anyone who seems interested in him while maintaining the image of an innocent schoolgirl.

What does “Yandere” mean?

A “yandere girl” is a girl who loves a boy so much that she is willing to threaten, harm, or kill any other girl who seems interested in him.

What is the gameplay like?

The gameplay is similar to the Hitman series; you are put into a large environment filled with many NPCs, and you must track down a specific target and eliminate them. You can use stealth to kill your target without any witnesses, stage an accident that leaves no evidence, or just slaughter anyone who gets in your way. If you don’t dispose of corpses, clean up blood, and destroy evidence, then the police might be able to link you to murder and arrest you.

If you don’t want to get any blood on your hands, you can use social sabotage to get rid of a girl; frame her for one of your crimes, get her expelled from school, or ruin her reputation. If you truly want her to suffer, you could convince every other girl in school to bully her until she commits suicide and saves you the trouble.

If the boy you love witnesses you committing murder, he could never love you, and the game would be over.

What kind of features does this game have?

Here is a short list of some of the features you can look forward to:

• Persistent Reputation: When you are spotted doing something incriminating, students will gossip about you. When your reputation is low, students will be cautious around you and will consider you to be suspicious. When your reputation is high, students will let their guard down around you and will be willing to do favors for you.

• Sanity Level: When you perform an act of violence, you will lose Sanity. This will cause you to appear visibly insane. If you lose too much Sanity, people will be able to tell that you are insane just by looking at you. If the boy you love sees you like this, he could never love you, and the game would be over.

• Sanity-Determined Kill Animations: The killing animations will be determined by your current level of Sanity. When your Sanity is high, your kills will be efficient, quick, and silent. When your Sanity is low, your kills will be sloppy, messy, and noisy. When you have lost all Sanity, your kills will be long, brutal, and sadistic.

• Yandere Vision: A button on the keyboard/controller will be dedicated entirely to “Yandere” actions, such as creepy laughter. When Yandere Vision is active, important characters and objects will be highlighted and visible through walls.

What game engine are you using?

I am developing Yandere Simulator using the Unity game engine.

Will it be possible to win the game without committing murder?

Yes! There will be several non-lethal elimination methods available.

Will you put this game on Steam?

I plan to eventually put the game on Steam, but not until the game has reached a more presentable and respectable state.

Is there character customization? Do I have a selection of boys to stalk? Can I have a female “Senpai” instead of a male “Senpai”?

Currently, the player can customize their Senpai’s appearance at the beginning of the game.

I’d like to allow the player to change the gender of their Senpai, but this would require a lot of extra animations/models/voice acting, so it’s not something I can guarantee at this point.

Can I choose the protagonist’s gender?

I would like to allow the player to choose the protagonist’s gender, but it would require a lot of additional animations/models/voice acting. It may become a “stretch goal” for the game’s eventual crowd-funding campaign.

Will it be possible to mod the game?

I have already seen several mods for Yandere Simulator. However, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide an official “modding API” for the game.

Will this game have voice-acting?

Several voice actors have volunteered to provide voices for some of the game’s most significant characters. However, it is not guaranteed that every individual character will have a unique voice.

Can I translate the game into another language for you?

I am grateful that you would like to help me out with the game. However, I would not like to ask anyone for a translation until after the game’s English script has been 100% finalized. Once the game’s English script is final, I will begin seeking translation assistance.

Is “Yandere Simulator” the game’s final name?

“Yandere Simulator” was only meant to be a placeholder title. I can think of several very compelling reasons to change the game’s name to something that sounds more serious. However, at this point, I am not yet ready to decide on the game’s final title.

Will this game have an online multiplayer mode?

I have zero experience programming anything related to online multiplayer. It could take me a very long time to learn how to implement those kinds of features, so it’s not something I can promise at this point.

Instead of attempting to implement online multiplayer, it might be a better idea to find a volunteer – or hire someone – who has experience programming online multiplayer modes.

What is the main character’s name? What is the name of the love interest?

The protagonist’s name is Ayano Aishi, and the boy she is in love with is named Taro Yamada.

Will the game have multiple endings?

At the end of the game, Ayano will confess her love to Taro underneath the legendary cherry tree behind the school. The exact nature of the confession – and the outcome of the confession – will depend on the decisions that the player made throughout the game. In short, there will be one ending, but with numerous variations.

(There is also a hidden ending called the “Genocide Ending” that is only obtained by killing everyone at school within one day.)

How much time will pass over the course of the game?

The game will take place over 10 weeks. Each week, a new “rival” will appear and get a crush on Senpai. You will have one week to eliminate her. Yandere-chan will not confess her love to Senpai until all rivals have been eliminated.

Will it be possible for the main character to interact with Senpai?

Originally, I was not planning on allowing the player to interact with Senpai. I was imagining Yandere Simulator as a game about sabotaging a boy’s love life, with no gameplay that involves befriending and romancing the boy. However, recently, I have been reconsidering this.

A lot of players have expressed that they would appreciate the ability to interact with Senpai in some way and that it would be weird if Senpai accepted a love confession from a random stranger. I understand these sentiments, and I agree with them, to an extent.

However, I have established that one of the protagonist’s primary character traits is that she cannot control herself in Senpai’s presence, so directly interacting with him is simply not an option for her. If I want to allow the player to interact with Senpai, it’ll have to be indirect.

Currently, it is possible to leave anonymous letters and anonymous gifts on Senpai’s desks. This way, the player can develop a bond between Senpai and the protagonist without direct interaction. The strength of this bond will probably influence the ending of the game.

Other ways to interact with Senpai have also been suggested: For example, interacting with him online, so that the protagonist could speak to him without experiencing a sensory overload and becoming overwhelmed. However, at this point, I have not yet committed to this plan. This is only an idea.

I’m not ready to confirm exactly how much the player will be able to interact with Senpai in the final game.

What kind of weapons are in the game? How many weapons will the final game have?

I am only planning on including weapons that a student could reasonably find in a school setting. The post-high school academy in Yandere Simulator will have a wide variety of clubs, so there should be a lot of potential to find interesting weapons. There will probably not be any projectile weapons or guns in the game.

I’ve come up with a list of about 30 weapons that I’d like to have in the final game. These weapons won’t be available in the game’s first official demo, since I don’t want to give away too much in the demo.

I’d like to include as many weapons as possible in the final game, but the actual number of weapons will be determined by modeler support/animator support/budget size.

Will this game have one environment (school) or multiple environments?

For now, the scope of the game is limited to the school, the protagonist’s house, and one street. I would love to include more environments in the game, but each environment would require modeling, texturing, sound effects, unique characters with unique animations, etc. For each environment I’d like to add to the game, I’d need a team of volunteers willing to create it, or I’d need a large budget so that I could hire some people to build more environments for me.

Is this game coming to Mac / Linux / Chromebook / PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo / iPhone / Android / Atari?

At some point in the future, I may release Yandere Simulator on multiple platforms. However, right now, I am only releasing builds for Windows PC. There are two main reasons for this:

1) I only have a Windows PC. I don’t own any computers using the Mac or Linux operating systems. If I exported a Mac / Linux build, I’d have no way to test it. I’d just be throwing a build onto the Internet and praying that people can run it, with no real way to debug it if it doesn’t work.

2) Yandere Simulator is developed using the Unity game engine. Within Unity, the process of switching from one platform (Windows) to another platform (Mac, Linux) requires Unity to re-import every one of the game’s assets. See the box that appears onscreen, 1 minute and 21 seconds into this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6SrpQf3Fdw&t=1m21s For an empty Unity project, that box is only there for a few seconds. But, Yandere Simulator is a huge game with thousands of assets, so when I click that button, it hangs there for about 15 minutes. Exporting a new build takes 15 minutes, too. It’s simply too time-consuming to export PC+Mac+Linux every time I want to make a new build, especially when I can’t even test the Mac or Linux builds.

I can’t justify working on multiple platforms right now; so I will be maintaining my focus exclusively on PC for the time being. I won’t begin to consider exporting Mac or Linux builds of the game until after the first official rival is implemented.

Regarding the possibility of releasing Yandere Simulator on console…developing console games is extremely expensive, so this is something that I can’t promise unless Yandere Simulator is very financially successful, or unless I host a crowd-funding campaign to raise funds for releasing the game on other platforms.

Yandere Simulator may seem like a simple game on the surface, but it is an extremely complex game. It is extremely unlikely that a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android could ever run the full version of the Yandere Simulator. To run on a mobile device, the game would have to be simplified so much that it wouldn’t even be the same game anymore.

Can I help you program the game?

I am currently receiving some very useful programming assistance from some trusted volunteers. I don’t need to ask for any more programming help at this point.

Is the game going to be free? How much is it going to cost?

Yandere Simulator will be free until I am ready to include two rivals in the game. After that point, the game will have so much content that it will no longer be reasonable to give it away for free, and I’ll have to start charging money for it. After the second rival has been implemented, but before the final release date of the game, Yandere Simulator will be sold for a very cheap price (probably something along the lines of $5).

The price and release date of the final game will depend on a lot of different factors that are too difficult to estimate at this point.

Who are you, anyway?

I’m YandereDev! I worked at a video game company for 3 years, then left to become a freelance programmer and pursue my dream of becoming an independent game developer. In the past, I’ve worked on 5 console games (for Wii, 360, and PS3) and 5 mobile games (for Vita and iPhone).

Are you making the entire game by yourself, or is there a team? I want to help you with the game! How can I help?

You can find the answers to these questions on the “Volunteer” page.

When will the first official rival be implemented?

Osana, the first official rival, was released in August 2020.

Is it okay to use Yandere Simulator models in my parody video?

I don’t have any problem with that, as long as you’re only using the models for a parody video, and not a video game that you will charge money for.

Will there be a sequel?

I don’t think it would be wise to plan a sequel before the original game has been finished…but, aside from that, there are multiple factors to consider:

• If the game is a critical success (people love it) but a financial failure (few people buy it) then I won’t have a budget to make a sequel with.
• If the game is a financial success (many people buy it) but a critical failure (people hate it) then there would be no demand for a sequel.
• If people are 100% satisfied with the original game and don’t feel that a sequel is necessary, then there probably won’t be a sequel.
• If I get sick of Yandere Simulator by the time it is finished, then I will have no desire to make a sequel.

All of the above factors (critical reception, financial success, fan demand, and my feelings) will be considered when deciding whether or not to develop a sequel.

Will it ever be possible to kidnap male students?

When I first came up with the kidnapping idea, the plan was that it would only be possible for the player to kidnap rivals.

I wanted to be able to test the kidnapping feature without implementing a rival first, so I made it possible to kidnap any female student. I always considered the ability to kidnap any female student to be a temporary / placeholder feature that was only implemented for testing purposes.

However, now that the Yakuza has been implemented and part of his functionality involves the ability to purchase kidnapped victims, it seems as though the “kidnap non-rivals” feature has become official. So, with that in mind, now I have to begin to consider whether or not it should be possible to kidnap males.

Currently, I don’t have any strong feelings about whether I do or do not want to support that feature. However, I don’t have all of the animations that I’d need to make it possible to kidnap males. So, it’s not something I could implement at this point, even if I wanted to do so.

Will there be LGBT students in the game?

If I decide that any of the game’s characters are LGBT, I’ll keep that information to myself. I won’t publicly announce the sexualities or gender identities of any of the characters, and there won’t be super-obvious clues within the game.

In the future, will students carry bookbags at school?

If students carried bookbags, this would result in a lot of changes to their routine. They would have to start their day by going to their classroom and putting their bookbag on their desk; they wouldn’t be able to go about their normal routine until they had done this. They would also have to collect their bookbag from their class before leaving school for the day. To design a challenging experience for the player, I need complete control over exactly where a student will be standing, and exactly when they will be standing there. Adding bookbags to their routine would complicate the routine, so it’s not likely to be something that I’ll add to the game.

Will there be holidays or festivals at school?

I think it would be cool if the school changes on certain days, like holidays or festivals. It would be a lot of fun to design challenges or elimination opportunities around once-a-year school events. However, adding a bunch of holiday-themed decorations to the school would require a lot of assets, and changing every student’s routine to be related to the holiday would also take a lot of time. Although I think this type of feature would be cool, it’s something that I can’t guarantee and don’t want to promise, because I know that it would create huge amounts of work.

Will the final game have easter eggs and debug commands?

The game’s current “Easter Eggs” aren’t hidden; you just open a menu and press a button to activate them. In the future, I think that the player should have to meet some very, very specific criteria to activate an easter egg – for example, dismembering 10 students’ arms to unlock the “Demon Arms” easter egg. The player might also have to enter a cheat code at the main menu to enable the use of easter eggs or supernatural events. Entering this cheat code and using an easter egg would prevent the player from being able to acquire any Achievements, and would result in a “non-canon” joke ending. The only way to get a proper ending would be to avoid the use of any cheats or easter eggs.

As for debugging commands, there might be a way to access them in the final game, but it will involve entering a password at the title screen (and will disable Achievements).

What will you do after Yandere Simulator is finished?

It’ll depend on a large number of factors, most of which I can’t accurately predict at this point.

1. First, I’ll listen to feedback from users and make adjustments to the game to improve the overall experience and remove bugs/exploits.
2. Then, I’ll take a vacation and catch up on all the anime/video games I’ve been missing out on for the past few years.

3a. Then, if there is demand for additional content, I’ll design and develop DLC, such as additional rivals to eliminate.
3b. Then, if there is demand for a sequel, a prequel, or a spinoff game, I may begin developing Yandere Simulator 2.
3b. However, if there is no demand for DLC / spinoffs, then I won’t bother making either.

4a. By the time Yandere Simulator is finished, I’ll have all of the assets necessary to create a game set in a Japanese-style school environment. So, I might create a game that re-uses many of the assets used to create the Yandere Simulator.
4b. However, by the time Yandere Simulator is finished, I might be sick of Japanese school settings, and I might never want to make a similar game ever again. In this case, my next game will be completely unrelated to Japanese schools.

Will there be male teachers in the final game?

Female animations are incompatible with a male skeleton. To implement male teachers, I would need male versions of each female teacher animation – as well as male versions of each female voice line. This isn’t impossible, but it would require me to ask for a lot of assets, and it would be kind of time-consuming to implement. I might implement male teachers one day, but because it’s not necessary for gameplay, it’s not a high priority, so you might be waiting a while for it.

If a rival is eliminated non-lethally, will she continue to attend school?

If the player defeats a rival non-lethally (and doesn’t get them expelled or sent to jail) then the rival will continue to attend school on subsequent days/weeks. They shouldn’t be an obstacle to the player, or else the player will regret saving them – so, peacefully-eliminated rivals will spend most of their time far away from the player; for example, studying in the library.

Why does the school permit an Occult Club to exist?

The headmaster of the school is not superstitious; he doesn’t believe in ghosts or demons or magic. He thinks it’s harmless for a bunch of students to have a club revolving around occult research. He doesn’t think it’s a productive field of study, but he has decided that he doesn’t have the right to tell young people what passions they should or should not pursue.

How many students will be in the final game?

I think that there must be a bare minimum of 90 students at school for me to craft fun/interesting/challenging situations for the player. After 90 students are present at school, I will begin working on improving the game’s performance (increasing the framerate, fixing problems related to rendering/animation/physics, refactoring the code, etc). After I have optimized the game as much as possible, I will analyze how much the framerate has improved, which will determine whether or not I can afford to put more students into the game.

Are you going to change Yandere Simulator’s character models?

I am dissatisfied with Yandere Simulator’s current character models for multiple reasons:

• From an aesthetic standpoint, I dislike the way they look; their necks are super short, and their proportions make them look more like middle-schoolers than the 18-year-old young adults that they are supposed to be.
• From a practical standpoint, their faces don’t have much flexibility, so they cannot express extreme emotions, and aren’t able to be very expressive in general.
• From a technical standpoint, some parts of their bodies are super low-poly, which makes them look weird when I rotate or resize those parts of the model.
• From a game design standpoint, it would be better to have models that are custom-designed for the purposes that the models need to be used for (for example, if I want to make it possible to chop off students’ limbs, the character models should be built with that feature in mind).
• And from yet another standpoint, it’s just super inconvenient that their clothing is combined with their bodies. It would be better to have a single “base” model and then a variety of clothing models.

For all of these reasons – and more – I want a new set of character models to be created for Yandere Simulator. (I would like to keep the same general “art style” of the current models, but with a few tweaks to make them more appealing.)

However, whether or not Yandere Simulator gets new character models is dependent on the outcome of the game’s crowdfunding campaign, so it’s currently impossible to promise whether or not it will happen, or when it will happen.

Will it be possible to knock students unconscious?

Being able to knock someone unconscious at any time/location would create a large number of new scenarios. Here are some examples:

1. Students reacting to the sight of seeing someone getting knocked out.
2. Students reacting to discovering an unconscious body.
3. Students attempting to wake up unconscious students.
4. Unconscious students waking up and reacting to their situation.
5. Previously-unconscious students going to the nurse’s room.
6. End-of-day protocol for teachers who discover an unconscious student while walking around.
7. Protocol for Yandere-chan being punished/expelled/arrested for the crime of assaulting someone (even non-lethally).

Each of these scenarios would involve new animations, new voiced lines, and new code. I have to be selective about what kind of features I add to the game. If one new feature (knocking someone out) has the side-effect of creating at least 7 new scenarios, then I’m unlikely to add it to the game. At this point, I’m only considering features that only create one or two new scenarios.

If the player eliminates their rival on Monday, what happens to the remaining days of the week?

If the player eliminates a rival early, they will be given the option of either proceeding directly to the next week or continuing to play through the current week. If the player proceeds directly to the next week, they will be asked to allocate the remaining study points that they would have obtained for attending class every day that week.

What circumstances will cause a club to shut down?

If the total number of students in a club drops below 5, the club closes. (If Yandere-chan is in a club, she counts toward the club’s population.)

Normal clubs only have 5 members. However, any club containing a rival will have a total population of 6 members, so that the player can kill the rival without losing the club.

When a rival is not at school, one of the members of her club will act as a “substitute leader” who performs all of the functions that the rival would normally perform if she was at school. If a rival dies, her substitute will take over the club and become its new leader.

If a club’s substitute dies while a rival is absent from school, the club will shut down but will re-open when the rival returns to school (as long as the club’s 4 other members are still present at school).

A club that does not contain a rival does not use the “substitute leader” system. In other words, the death of the club leader will always result in the club shutting down, even if the club still has 5 living members in it (due to Yandere-chan joining the club).

The game looks like it’s going to be hard! Don’t you think you’re making it too difficult?

My current priority is to develop a demo that shows off the general experience of playing the game. The game’s demo should be interesting and challenging. So, in the demo, the first rival (Osana) will be moderately difficult. But, in the final game, Osana will be the easiest rival, and every other rival will get progressively harder than the previous one. In other words, the game’s current level of difficulty (as a debug sandbox for testing features) doesn’t reflect how difficult the final game is going to be.

A lot of rooms in the school are empty. What are your plans for these rooms?

I think that every room in the school should serve a gameplay-related purpose, and have a practical reason for existing. I don’t think there should be any rooms that serve no purpose or any rooms that students never bother to enter.

Some of the school’s current rooms don’t serve a purpose, and it’s very hard to come up with any reason why a student (or the player) might go inside that room. These unnecessary, pointless rooms may be removed in the future. If I remove these rooms, I will either replace them with more useful rooms, or I will extend the size of the school’s other rooms.

Will students in the final game have different heights and different body types?

I don’t want every character in the game to have an identical body, but giving each character a different height can result in animation problems. For example, imagine a handshake animation between two characters that are the same height, and then imagine a handshake between a very short person and a very tall person. These two characters couldn’t use the normal handshake animation; they would need to use a custom animation. Also, many killing animations involve the protagonist stabbing a certain spot on her victim’s body (head, neck, heart) and if victims have different heights then the animation might look wrong. Also, if characters have different body types, then their animations might cause their arms/legs to clip into their body; for example, a very overweight student would need a different “hands on hips” animation than other students.

It would be extremely easy to make characters have different heights, but it could result in animation problems, clipping problems, etc, so it’s not something I am planning on doing at this point. It’s possible that, if the game gets new character models, the new character models might be set up in a way that allows them to easily have different body types without clipping problems. However, it’s too soon to promise this.

Will it be possible to matchmake any two characters with each other or only pre-determined characters?

The current matchmaking process involves Yandere-chan giving instructions to another character via an earpiece. A character would only be willing to put an earpiece into their ear and take instructions from Yandere-chan if they were hopelessly in love with another character, and desperately desired a relationship.

Because the current matchmaking process requires one student to already have romantic feelings for another student, matchmaking can only occur between pre-determined characters. You can’t just convince a random stranger to wear an earpiece and follow instructions without a really good reason. You also can’t just make any two arbitrary people fall in love unless they were a good fit for one another in the first place.

At this point, under the current matchmaking process, it’s very unlikely that the player will have the ability to make any two arbitrary characters fall in love.

Will there be different weather conditions at school throughout the game?

Probably not. Unique weather conditions (such as rain) would impact many of the game’s features and many of the students’ routines in numerous significant ways. For example, student routines would have to be adjusted so that they don’t go outdoors during rain, blood pools would be washed away by rain, the protagonist’s clothing would get wet if she was outside in the rain, characters would have to use umbrellas when walking to school, etc. The weather would change the game in so many different ways that it would drastically increase the amount of work that must be done to complete the game, so it’s very unlikely to be added to the game.

Will it be possible for students to get a crush on the protagonist or stalk the protagonist?

Each new feature added to the game extends the game’s development time. If I keep adding every new feature that comes to mind, the game will be in development forever, and will never come out. For a long time, I’ve considered the idea of Yandere-chan developing stalkers, but I don’t want to promise this type of feature, because I know that it would just delay development further.

It’s possible that having a high reputation might be an imbalanced feature. If the player gets too many advantages from having a high reputation, then I may decide that there should be a downside to having a high reputation; for example, having a high reputation might result in the player developing stalkers.

In other words, I’d consider the possibility of adding crushes/stalkers to the game if it would fix a game design flaw, but I wouldn’t consider throwing this feature into the game without a good reason.

What age rating is the game going to receive?

I’m aiming for an “M” rating. If I submit the game for classification and it receives an “Adults Only” rating, I’ll have to edit aspects of the game until it receives an “M” rating.

Why does my anti-virus program say that Yandere Simulator is a virus?

An executable can be “signed” with a digital signature that identifies the creator of the executable. If an executable is signed, it’s possible to learn the identity of the person who created it, and therefore hold them accountable if their executable was malicious. For this reason, signed executables are considered to be trustworthy, and unsigned executables are considered to be untrustworthy.

To “sign” an executable, you need to pay for an expensive “code signing certificate”. A code-signing certificate costs hundreds of dollars per year. I have not bought one yet.

Some antivirus vendors go as far as declaring any executable (*.exe file) to be “malware” or “suspicious” if it does not have a digital signature. This is a very bad approach, and a lot of independent developers have had problems because of this. It is easy for a big company to buy a digital certificate, which will be used to sign software, but it’s not easy for an independent developer working on a freeware app.

In short: Some virus scanners say that Yandere Simulator is a virus (or “suspicious”) because I haven’t started paying hundreds of dollars to sign the executable.

Will Yandere Simulator ever be translated into other languages?

I can only speak English, so I would have to rely on help from others to translate the game into other languages.

Because I am constantly making changes and additions to the game’s text, it’s not feasible to translate the game right now, while it is still in development. I can’t begin to consider having the game’s text translated until after the game is 100% complete, and the text is guaranteed not to change anymore.

Even then, the game can only receive a translation if we meet certain funding goals, or if I obtain a publisher who is willing to handle the translation for me.

When I try to play the game, the entire screen is pink. What’s wrong?

I have been unable to determine why the screen is pink for some people; I only have a theory.

If the screen is pink, this is an indication that essential files were deleted. These files may have been automatically deleted by your anti-virus program. Try disabling your anti-virus program and downloading the game again. Either that or download the game again from a different source. Please check this webpage for a list of different places to download the game: https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/downloads/

When I try to use the Yandere Simulator launcher, I get error messages. What should I do?

Please read the giant flashing red text on this webpage:

Download

Will Yandere Simulator feature male rivals or DLC rivals?

I don’t think it would be wise to plan additional content before the original game has been finished…but, aside from that, there are multiple factors to consider:

• If the game is a critical success (people love it) but a financial failure (few people buy it) then I won’t have a budget to make additional content with.
• If the game is a financial success (many people buy it) but a critical failure (people hate it) then there would be no demand for additional content.
• If people are 100% satisfied with the original game and don’t feel that additional content is necessary, then there probably won’t be additional content.
• If I get sick of Yandere Simulator by the time it is finished, then I will have no desire to make additional content.

All of the above factors (critical reception, financial success, fan demand, and my feelings) will be considered when deciding whether or not to develop additional content.

Is the player allowed to steal a rival’s phone and then leave school with that phone in their possession?

If the player steals a rival’s phone, this will prevent many events from taking place. To balance the game, the player will not be allowed to leave school with a stolen phone. If the player does not return a stolen phone by the end of the school day, the rival whose phone was stolen will report the theft to the guidance counselor, who will personally check the belongings of every student at school. The counselor will find the stolen phone in the player’s inventory, and the player will be expelled from school, causing a game over.

Does Yandere Simulator have a “development roadmap”?

I attempted to create a development roadmap here: https://yanderesimulator.org/Roadmap.png If it leaves you with more questions than answers, please let me know, and I’ll attempt to improve it.

When is the game’s release date?

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to give a meaningful answer to this question, since the outcome relies on several factors that are out of my hands. I’ll explain:

After I have finished implementing the game’s first rival, “Osana”, I will hold a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to pay a team of professionals to help me complete the game. There are several potential outcomes for the crowdfunding campaign:

• If the crowdfunding campaign cannot meet its bare minimum goal, Yandere Simulator will have to be completed without professional assistance. I will be very limited in what I can do, so the production values will be low, and every rival will feel like a clone of Osana. The final game will feel nearly identical to the current debug sandbox, and it will most likely be released sometime in early 2021.
• If the crowdfunding campaign can meet its bare minimum goal, I will be able to afford to hire professionals to assist me in completing the game. Many of the game’s assets will be improved or replaced (such as the character models), the overall production values of the game will be much higher, and each rival will feel unique. Because of the additional work that will be done on the game, it will most likely be released sometime in late 2021.
• If the crowdfunding campaign can meet its first “stretch goal”, I will be able to hire a professional software engineer to replace me as the game’s lead programmer. As a result, the speed of the game’s development will increase drastically, since the rate of progress won’t be hindered by my availability. The engineer will most likely improve many aspects of the game, as well. In this scenario, the game would most likely be released in mid-2021.
• If the crowdfunding campaign can meet additional “stretch goals”, I will be able to pay professionals to work on the game for a longer amount of time, which would allow the game to have “dream” features such as a female Senpai, “1980s Mode”, a mode where the layout of the school can be customized, etc. Because of the time required to work on these additional features, the game would most likely be released in early 2022.
• Past this point, further funding could pay for more programmers so that various responsibilities could be spread across multiple people instead of held exclusively by one person, further increasing the game’s development speed.

If the crowdfunding campaign fails, there are alternate ways to secure funding for the game. It’s possible that I could raise money from investors (in exchange for promising them a portion of the game’s profits) or partner with a company (most likely in exchange for ownership of the Yandere Simulator brand). So, if the crowdfunding campaign fails, it doesn’t immediately spell doom for the project.

You can expect all of these numbers and estimates to change as we get closer to the crowdfunding campaign, and the amount of time/money/assets required to finish the game becomes more apparent.

What are the minimum specs/system requirements to play the Yandere Simulator?

Because the game is currently in development, it is changing all the time. I am constantly improving the performance and increasing the optimization of the code. Thus, the minimum specs are always getting lower.

It’s possible to run the game with only 6GB of RAM, but it’s recommended to have at least 8GB of RAM.

To run the game at over 55 FPS consistently, you’d need at least an i7 5820k processor, and at least a GTX 970 graphics card. (The hardware I just named is 6 years old.)

How did you create the rivals?

First, I came up with an interesting way for a person to die (like an actress being killed by a prop during a stage play), and then I designed characters around that concept (for example, making one of the rivals an aspiring actress who will perform on a stage).

How complete is the game? What percent remains?

This can be a tricky question because the answer depends on what type of formula is used to determine how “complete” a game is.

Yandere Simulator is composed of “gameplay elements” and “story elements”. 100% of all gameplay elements are implemented. One rival is 100% finished, and 10 rivals are planned, which means that the story elements are 10% done.

In my opinion, “gameplay elements” are 90% of the game’s content, and story elements are about 10% of the game’s content. This means that the game is about 91% complete.

If that answer is too broad and vague to be useful, it may be a good idea to change the question being asked. “Now that all the gameplay elements are finished, how long will it take to complete the story elements?” Yandere Simulator has such an abundance of gameplay mechanics that it took 6 years to finish implementing all of the mechanics necessary to make it possible to play through the story. However, implementing a rival takes mere months, so the rest of the game’s development should go by much faster. I predict that the game will reach completion in 12 to 24 months.

If Yandere Simulator takes place in Japan, why are prices in dollars instead of yen?

The characters in Yandere Simulator are speaking Japanese, but their words are translated into English for us westerners.

Likewise, they are using Yen as a currency, but the prices are translated into dollars for us westerners.

If Yandere-chan is 18 years old, why does she need to purchase a fake ID to buy alcohol, cigarettes, and adult books?

In Japan, you have to be at least 20 years old to purchase alcohol or cigarettes. Yandere Simulator takes place in a fictional version of Japan where you need to be at least 20 years old to purchase pornography, too. This is why Yandere-chan needs a fake ID, despite being 18.

If Raibaru is stronger than Budo, how did Budo beat Raibaru?

Did Raibaru deliberately lose because she was tired of maintaining a 100% win rate and doing martial arts, and wanted to throw it away?

Did Raibaru lose because something happened to her earlier that day that distracted her during the match with Budo?

Did Raibaru lose because she had feelings for Budo and couldn’t bring herself to use her full power against him?

Did Raibaru lose because Budo had surpassed her in both physical strength and martial arts ability?

Did Raibaru lose because Budo exploited a secret weakness that only he knew about?

Did Raibaru lose because Budo cheated?

Or, did Raibaru lose for a completely different reason altogether?

Maybe you’ll never know the truth. Maybe you’ll find out within the game itself. That’s the fun of it.

How can the player access the “Debug Menu”?

If you type the letters “D E B U G” while at school, you will enable debug commands. This will allow you to open the easter egg menu using the “?” key, open the debug menu using the “\” key, and also activate certain easter eggs such as the “Meme Closet” and “Entering the Demon Realm.”

What is your process for creating characters?

Most characters are created to serve a specific purpose. I work backward from their purpose.

> I want the player to be able to obtain a spare uniform.

> There should be a student who enjoys sewing uniforms.

> The game’s population is imbalanced; there are too many female characters.

> The sewing student could be a male student.

> The sewing student should be located in the Sewing Room to make his purpose obvious.

> Why would a single student be alone in a room just sewing all day long?

> Because he’s really shy.

> What appearance would suit a shy boy?
> Hair covering his eyes to represent how he “hides” from the world.

Outcome: The creation of a new character with hair covering his eyes who is shy and loves sewing.

My question wasn’t answered in the FAQ!

Try seeking an answer here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IXbfSuJexGEFLRxcUdv_pTQTpC6iEhTqPYcsHTIA48k/edit?usp=sharing

Will you add random events to the game?

I dislike the idea of adding random events/routines to the game. If the player prepares an elaborate plan and it is ruined by a random occurrence, the player would be very frustrated. The addition of randomness would completely ruin the player’s ability to create plans. Whether or not the player fails should be determined by their skill, not by randomly getting unlucky.

Yandere Simulator is also meant to be “speedrun-friendly,” meaning that it is supposed to be possible to completely plan out an entire playthrough. The addition of randomly-determined factors would interfere with the ability to speedrun the game.

I may consider the addition of a separate “Random Mode” that tests the player’s improvisational skills. However, the main story mode(s) will not involve any randomness.

When will the other Basement Tapes be added to the game?

The plan is that Yandere-chan is supposed to find tape in the basement whenever she re-arranges the furniture in the basement.

She would re-arrange the furniture in the basement every time she adds a new kidnapped victim to her basement.

So, the only way to unlock all the basement tapes would be to kidnap all 10 rivals.

As a result, the rest of the basement tapes won’t be added to the game until more rivals are in the game.

Will the player ever be able to join the bullies or join the student council?

For a long time, I have been considering the possibility of allowing the player to join the bully clique or become a member of the student council. I would like to give the player the ability to join those two groups, but it’s not a high priority to me at this point. It’s something that potentially won’t happen until sometime after the crowdfunding campaign.