After releasing 1980s Mode, I received an avalanche of extremely useful feedback from players; requests for quality-of-life improvements, suggestions for new features, and observations that highlighted certain flaws and exploits in the game. I put all of this feedback into a massive "To-Do List," and began working on it. As time passed, it gradually evolved into a sort of general-purpose, "Things I want to fix, improve, or implement before the crowdfunding campaign" checklist. I put dozens of different things on the list, from features I had promised years ago, but never implemented to features that would make the game more approachable for new players.

Over the course of 2022, how many checklist items did I take care of? A lot. So many that it's difficult to count the exact number. You can see a (mostly complete) list of (almost) everything I did in 2022 here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pcMJ9PjFMR96GAFa98KfCzUSKDMTHaG-vBLk_bTAf5E/edit

In general, I don't enjoy telling people what I plan to work on next, since it's very disheartening when I say, "I'm going to work on (X) next!" and I hear people respond with, "Ew, I don't care about (X)! Don't work on that! It would be a waste of time!" However, there are people who are very generously supporting Yandere Simulator's development, and I feel that they have a right to know what my current priorities are, and what I'm planning to focus my time on for the foreseeable future. So, I'm going to share the remaining items on my checklist, and I'm going to make it public, too.

The only thing I ask is that you just keep three things in mind:

• I might add new things to the checklist in the future, if I think of anything that I feel is absolutely crucial to add to the game before the crowdfunding campaign.
• I might remove things from this checklist in the future, if I decide it's not worth the time.
• There might be things on this checklist that you personally don't care about, but I'm still going to work on those things anyway.

With those notes out of the way, here are the remaining checklist items, in no particular order:

✔️ Add a tutorial to 202X Mode

If you've been following development, then you're aware that this checklist item is already well underway. You can track my progress on this one here.

• Add support for custom button remapping

Most modern games allow you to re-map the buttons, but Yandere Simulator lacks this feature. I should really investigate this and find out what would need to be done to make it happen.

• Add support for PS4 and PS5 controllers

Unfortunately, enabling support for PS4 and PS5 is going to be tricky. Apparently, they handle horizontal and vertical input differently than Xbox controllers do. Still, I'd like to make it so that people who own PS controllers - but not Xbox controllers - can enjoy playing the game on controller, since that's the way Yandere Sim is honestly meant to be played.

✔️ Add visuals to the 1980s Mode rival introductions

Currently, at the beginning of each week in 1980s Mode, Ryoba gives a monologue that describes her next rival and how she is becoming closer to Senpai. An extremely talented 3D artist volunteer has generously created several dozen renders that depict the events described in Ryoba's monologues! This means that, instead of staring at a solid blue screen, you will actually be able to see the events that Ryoba is describing onscreen. However, just a few renders are missing - maybe 5 maximum. If I can get a handful of volunteers to assist me, then those 5 remaining renders can be made, and then the rivals of 1980s Mode will be able to have visuals during Ryoba's introductory monologues.

✔️ Adjust 1980s Mode student routines so that rivals are never alone

There are dozens of points in time throughout 1980s Mode where your rivals are 100% alone, and can be killed easily with zero witnesses. That's awful! It should be *possible* to kill every rival with a direct attack, but it should require some work from the player - like distracting nearby witnesses or changing the rival's routine. I really want to go through each rival's week and completely re-position all students throughout school so that no rival is ever completely alone, unless the player puts in some work to make it happen.

✔️ Allow the player to adjust the game's resolution from the Settings screen

Most modern-day games allow you to change the game's resolution at runtime, from the pause screen's settings menu. However, this feature is absent from Yandere Simulator! Whoops! I really ought to implement that functionality.

✔️ Allow the player to read manga while at school

The player is allowed to go to the library and study, which grants 1 Study Point and also advances the clock by 30 minutes. Logically, the player should also be allowed to bring a manga book to school and read it in the library, if they wish to. This would allow the player to potentially finish an entire manga book in one day, speeding through manga much faster than usual.

So, is there any reason not to let the player do this? Well, I can think of one reason: balance.

Previously, it was possible for the player to read 5 "Romance" manga within 5 days, completely maxing out the "Seduction" stat in only 5 days. Maxed Seduction gives you the ability to tell any male or female to follow you or instantly leave a location. That's POWERFUL! Seduction basically trivializes every mechanic in the game, so it shouldn't be unlocked that soon or that easily. To balance this potentially-overpowered feature, I decided that it should take a total of 5 days to read through a single manga book. This means that the player can only unlock Seduction at the end of Week 5, and that's ONLY if they commit to reading manga every single night. There! Problem solved, balance achieved! ...balance that would be completely shattered if the player could read manga in the library and finish a book a day, thereby putting us right back where we were before.

So, do I really want to implement a "read manga at school" feature? Maybe...but only for "Enlightenment" and "Horror". Romance manga wouldn't be allowed at school because...it's porn! Porn's not allowed at school! (Well, murder isn't supposed to be allowed at school, either, but let's not be pedantic here...)

✔️ Balance the overpowered "conceal corpse in garbage bag" feature

Currently, the single most broken and overpowered feature in the game is the ability to conceal an infinite number of corpses in an infinite number of bodybags by picking up an item that you can obtain within the first 30 seconds of gameplay. Yikes! This trivializes many of the game's features. This really needs to be changed. How do I plan to change it? I'll explain:

A single garbage bag should not be able to function as a bodybag. The player should have to craft a bodybag by combining garbage bags and duct tape at the crafting table. One roll of duct tape and one box of garbage bags should give the player multiple bodybags - at least 5, though I haven't decided the exact number. After the player has used up the duct tape and garbage bags, they should not be allowed to craft any more bodybags at school that day...but *maybe* they should be allowed to order more tape+bags from Info-chan. Duct tape and garbage bags would respawn the next day, since they are school supplies, and Akademi basically has infinite money for school supplies.

You know, there are such things as vending machines that sell school supplies. What if these vending machines could sell the player duct tape? Hm...

• Change or Replace many 1980s Mode student hairstyles

The cast of 1980s Mode was created through a very unconventional process. First, a set of 50 generic male haircuts and 50 generic female haircuts was designed. Then, all of them were modeled. Then, all of them were distributed randomly to all the students of the school. Then, identities were created for the students. This is exactly the opposite of how things usually work; usually, I create a character's identity first, and then give them an appearance that matches their identity.

This method created a large cast of very bland and unmemorable characters. I would really like to fix this, and I've already taken steps to do so:

• Visual themes and color schemes have been chosen for every club. ("The students in this club should have tidy hair" "The students in this club should have messy hair" etc).
• All of 1980s Mode's currently-existing hair models have been categorized (long, short, messy, tidy, etc).
• A document listing "which hairstyles correspond to which club's visual theme" has been created.
• The document also lists which hairstyles I have an insufficient number of.

With this document as a guide, all I need to do is ask some modeler volunteers to model the few remaining hairstyles that I need in order to have a full set of hair models corresponding to each club, and then I should be able to give a distinct visual style to the students of every 1980s Mode club. I'll probably be posting this document in my Discord server in the near future.

✔️ Create difficulty options for 1980s Mode

When I say "difficulty options", I'm not talking about easy/medium/hard; I'm talking about something completely different. I'll explain.

I've noticed that most players get rid of witnesses by befriending them and then telling them to leave the area. This means that befriending students is totally overpowered. What if the player wasn't allowed to befriend students? What then? What would become the "dominant strategy" if befriending wasn't an option? For the sake of potentially improving the game's design, I need to know. I want to implement a "NO FRIENDS" mode, where you're not allowed to make friends at all, so that I can watch how players maneuver through the game's challenges without being able to simply solve all problems through friendship.

And another thing: after I update the game so that rivals are never alone, there might still be exploits that allow the player to instantly kill their rivals with extremely little effort. If that's the case, I need to know about it. I need to implement a "KNIFE ONLY" mode where the player is challenged to eliminate all rivals by stabbing. Then, by watching the players' "Knife Only" playthroughs, I'll probably get to see some bugs and exploits I never would have seen under any other circumstance.

These kind of restrictions would be educational for me, but could actually be fun challenges for the player. So, I'd like to implement them as an official gameplay feature - difficulty options. "NO FRIENDS", "KNIFE ONLY", and several other restrictions, as well. You might not be able to see the wisdom in doing this, but trust me, it's an essential part of the "quality assurance" process.

• Fun

Strange, I was going to write something here, but I forgot it. It had something to do with a character that I haven't mentioned in a really long - owch, I suddenly have a headache...

✔️ Give all 1980s rivals unique tasks

This one is a "maybe;" if it proves to be something that would require a tremendous amount of time and new assets, I won't do it. But, basically, I really want to give every rival in 1980s Mode a unique task. 1980s Mode was created for the purpose of testing the 10 week system, but it's also the closest thing we have to a "demo" of the full game - and to truly represent what the full game will be like, each rival should have a completely unique task. So, this is something I'm really interested in doing, as long as it doesn't turn into a massive timesink.

• Give functionality to the Enlightenment stat

The Enlightenment stat has been in the game since 2015, and I've rarely dropped a single hint as to what my plans for it are. In short: it's a "just for fun" feature, not an "absolutely essential for the game to be complete" feature. However, it's something that has deep personal meaning for me, and something that I really want to put into the game. It's hard to rationalize spending any time on easter eggs at this stage of the game's development, when I am trying to focus my attention exclusively on high-priority, "must-have" features...but I currently possess most of the assets I would need in order to make this stat functional, and if I get the last few remaining assets I need, I'll probably implement the feature.

• Give functionality to the two remaining demons

This one is way at the bottom of the priority list, but it's still on my mind. Three of the demons in the Demon Realm - Pain, Flame, Empty - can be "summoned", granting the player supernatural powers. Easter eggs, basically. The other two - Death Demon and Lust Demon - have just been standing there without functionality for close to a decade now. I really want to implement their "rituals" and subsequent "rewards", and I know it wouldn't take much time...but it's nearly impossible to rationalize working on easter egg stuff at this point in time, so I can't guarantee it.

✔️ Implement 5 generic tasks

As of now, any student without a unique task is using the same generic placeholder task - "Go to the library and do my homework." Instead of just one generic task, I think that there should be a set of 5 generic tasks, so that there is much more variety in what students ask you to do. "Find my lost (X)" "Get me a drink" "Clean up the muddy footprints" "Take a picture of (X)", etc.

Ultimately, I want every student in the game to have a task that feels completely different from any other student. I never want to implement another "I dropped by (X), can you find it for me?" task again. But, it would take a long time to implement a unique task for every single student in the game. So, for the time being, it would be more time-efficient to simply implement a set of 5 generic tasks.

• Implement Custom Mode and Random Mode

Now that Yandere Simulator has a fully-functional 10-week system, and all of the kinks have been ironed out after a year of bug-fixes, the game now has the ability to support two new gameplay modes that I initially proposed a long time ago:

• "Custom Mode" would allow the player to design an entire student body - including 10 rivals - design routines for them, and play through a 10-week-long gameplay mode where they win their Senpai's love at the end.
• "Random Mode" would randomly generate a 10-week-long gameplay mode, using all of the options available to the player in Custom Mode.

These two modes would massively extend the game's replayability. Tired of 1980s Mode? Tired of waiting for the "original" set of rivals to be implemented? Then create your own rivals, tell the game to generate 10 random rivals, or play through a 10-week gameplay mode designed by another player!

Looking at the system I built for 1980s Mode, which was designed to be as "modular" as possible, I'm 100% confident in my ability to do this...but I'm not 100% sure how long it would take. Building it - and more importantly, testing it - could take just as long as it took to build 1980s Mode...and I could receive so much feedback on it that I wind up spending another year on nothing but fixes and improvements. It really depends on whether or not I would want this to become the new focus of the game - "Yandere Simulator is a platform where you build your own yandere story" rather than "Yandere Simulator is a game about one specific girl eliminating 10 specific rivals."

This item has a very low chance of actually getting worked on, since it would probably take more time than everything else on the list combined - but it's something I think about almost constantly.

✔️ Implement an "aiming" state

Many of Yandere Simulator's mechanics revolve around throwing an object. Bang snaps, stink bombs, and car batteries, to name a few. However, all of these objects are thrown in a really awkward way; you don't get to aim exactly where you want to throw. Instead, you just see a "trajectory arc" appear out of the protagonist's hand. That's lame! There should be an "aiming" state where the protagonist enters a "preparing to throw object" animation and the camera positions itself over her shoulder, and the player is able to precisely fine-tune exactly how and where they want to throw the object.

✔️ Implement a better inventory screen

Yandere Simulator doesn't have a true "inventory" system. You essentially have infinite inventory space (aside from being limited to carrying only two concealed weapons simultaneously). I don't think that I should change this; limiting the player's inventory space would completely change how you have to play the game, and would probably be seen as an annoyance by the majority of players. However, there should, at the very least, be a much better interface for viewing what you are currently carrying with you in your inventory. As of now, it's a vertical text list...lame. It should be a grid or something, instead.

• Implement a better social interaction system

Yandere Simulator's current social interaction system kinda sucks. "Hey, (name)! I really enjoy (topic)! Do you also enjoy (topic)?" It's like an alien pretending to be human. In a way, that kind of suits Ayano - an empty, apathetic, emotionless girl who is completely faking interest in things she doesn't care about - but from a gameplay perspective, it's boring as heck. I already have a design document for a much better social interaction system, and I would really, really love to implement it.

✔️ Implement a "Choose Your Strategy" feature at the beginning of the week

Last year, the most popular livestreamer on YouTube played Yandere Sim for his audience! What an honor! However, he seemed a little lost. He kept saying, "What am I supposed to do?" and walking around Osana without attacking her. It became clear to me that, when someone plays Yandere Sim for the first time, they really have no way of knowing how to execute any of the game's many elimination methods.

There is a feature that was put into the game specifically to aid new players: Info-chan's "Schemes", which are literally step-by-step walkthroughs for each of the game's elimination methods. However, a completely new player isn't going to know that the Schemes menu exists. As I pondered this, I realized that the "Schemes" feature needs to be completely overhauled in several ways:

• Schemes need to be free.
• Schemes need to come from Ayano's own mind, not from Info-chan.
• The player should be incapable of entering gameplay without seeing the Schemes and thus learning all of the potential ways that they can eliminate their rival, and getting presented with the option of being guided through any elimination of their choice.

After the Intro Cutscene, but before the Calendar screen even appears, the player should see a shot of Ayano standing in her room in front of her corkboard, looking at a bunch of photographs. Each photograph should represent a different way to eliminate her next rival. The player will be prompted to select the elimination method that they'd like to use, and then they will advance to the Calendar screen.

If you're nervous about the addition of this new feature, allow me to ease your concerns.

• The player will be able to say, "No Scheme please, I'm gonna freestyle it" and just play the game like normal.
• The player will be able to change Schemes mid-week (unless the Scheme is no longer available, like drowning Osana on Thursday).
• If the player fails the Scheme, there will not be a game over. They will simply be told that they must find a different way to eliminate Osana.

Long-time fans of the game may be displeased to know that there will be a new mandatory screen at the beginning of every week, but this kind of addition is absolutely necessary to guide new players into the experience without them feeling completely lost.

• Implement the 1989 equivalent of Mission Mode

I've heard dozens - perhaps, at this point, hundreds - of players praise the nearly-infinite replayability of Mission Mode, and I'd like to let the player do it in 1980s Mode as well. However, there would be a twist - instead of getting missions from Info-chan, you'd be getting missions from the Yakuza. It could be a straight "port" where nothing changes except the screen where you get your mission and the music that plays, or it could be a completely different type of gameplay mode with complete focus on stealth and not being spotted at all, because you're an intruder at school, rather than disguised as a student. It's something I am super-interested in adding to the game, but I know it would take time, and it's not really completely necessary, just a fun "bonus", so I'm hesitant to do it. I'd need to look into it and investigate whether or not it'd be a huge time-sink or something that could be accomplished quickly.

• Implement voice lines for the 1980s delinquent boys

I have received voice lines for the 1980s delinquent boys; I just haven't implemented them yet, because there is always something higher in priority that needs to be taken care of. I'd like to put them in the game, though. It won't take much time, I just need to decide when to do it.

✔️ Improve the intro cutscene

I was so, SO proud of the intro cutscene when I first implemented it a few years ago...but, looking at it today, I can easily identify a few dozen ways that I can improve the visuals. Some of those improvements would only take a few minutes - like putting doors and windows into the corridor where Ayano meets Taro - but other improvements would require new animations to be created, which would be entirely dependent on volunteer assistance.

• Investigate feasibility of implementing new character models prior to the crowdfunding campaign

Unfortunately, the act of putting new character models into the game will not be a simple drag-and-drop operation. The new character models are meant to use a completely different "system" from the current character models. I think it's going to take at least a solid month of work to refactor everything in the game to be compatible with the new character models. It'll probably create a ton of new bugs, too. So, it would be really risky to try implementing new character models before the crowdfunding campaign - it would delay the campaign by a lot, and could even make the game buggy around the time of the crowdfunding campaign, which would be a disaster. However...updating the character models would be the biggest possible visual indication of how much the game has completely changed since development began. If it could be done BEFORE the crowdfunding campaign, it would make the game look way better, and could give people a lot more faith in the game. It's something that will require some serious thought.

I'll elaborate about the new character models in the near future, hopefully tomorrow if possible.

• Investigate whether or not the framerate would drop if I put more decorations around the school exterior and interior

Have you seen the "New School Environment" mod? It's a mod that adds dozens of new models around the exterior of the school, making it way more pretty and detailed. It looks so good! It's an amazing demonstration of what can be accomplished by simply duplicating some of the game's currently-existing assets and cleverly positioning them around school. It would be trivially easy to replicate that mod and make the school exterior just as detailed as it is in that mod...but I'm worried that the addition of all those models would impact the framerate significantly. So, even though it would be easy (and fun!) to redecorate the school in that fashion, I'm hesitant to do so until I've confirmed for a fact that it wouldn't harm the framerate. Investigating this matter is one of those things that I really want to do, but never find the time for, because there's always a higher priority. I do want to look into it, though...

• Make students along Osana's route perform appropriate animations instead of just chatting

Currently, there are dozens of students positioned along Osana's daily path through school. These students are usually in pairs, talking to each other...but that's boring. They could probably be doing much more interesting things. For example...

Maybe Occult Club students should be investigating "haunted" objects along Osana's route. Maybe Art Club students should be painting beautiful sculptures/flowers along Osana's route. Maybe Gardening Club students should be adjusting flower arrangements along Osana's route. Maybe these characters should be doing, you know, absolutely anything aside from just performing generic talking animations for hours at a time.

With that said...it's easy to decide what some students should be doing, but not the rest of them. Like, should Cooking Club students be cooking food in the middle of the hallway, along Osana's route? Obviously not. Should Science Club students be building robots in the middle of the hallway, along Osana's route? Hell no. Some club students can perform their club activities anywhere, but others really have no business doing their normal actions anywhere but their clubrooms. So, this one is a big "maybe" and might require some smart suggestions from players.

• Re-evaluate student behavior after their club shuts down

Currently, when a club shuts down, all members of that club respond by simply gathering outside of the locked clubroom and chatting. Is this really what they should be doing? Maybe their routines should change in completely different ways. Maybe the Cooking Club should go prepare food in the Home Ec room, instead. Maybe the Art Club should just continue painting things around school. I'm really not sure. I think it's worth considering, at the least, but I'm not ready to make any firm decisions about it just yet.

✔️ Replace modern-day models that appear within 1980s Mode

There are still one or two lingering models/textures in 1980s Mode which represent things that were not invented until *after* 1989. Oops! Most of them are incredibly minor details, but still, those things are "stains" on my game that I want to clean up. Fortunately, at this point, not many of those things remain.

In Closing

Phew! That was a lot of writing. But, it's worth it, to keep you guys informed of what's going on and what's coming up soon. Hopefully, you approve of most of the features on the list. If there are a couple of items on this list that make you roll your eyes and think, "C'mon, man, that's not necessary, don't waste time on that..." please don't be too angry. And if the list grows or shrinks over the next few months, please try to be understanding.

Thank you for supporting the development of Yandere Simulator!