It’s that time of year again – Halloween! Time for another…
The yearly tradition where I post two dancing skeletons and release a horror-themed minigame! Before I announce this year’s minigame, let’s take a look back at the ones that came before…
- In 2015, I released Yanvania, a parody of the opening sequence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
- In 2016, I released Yandertale, a parody of the Sans boss fight from Undertale.
- In 2017, I released Midori Forest, a minigame about being chased through a dark forest by dozens of flying Midoris.
- In 2018, one of Yandere Simulator’s volunteers, AMZE, developed a horror-themed minigame called YandereDev’s Greatest Nightmare.
- In 2019, I released a minigame that a volunteer had created for me: the dance machine in the Gaming Club.
- In 2020, October 31st was the release date of Yandere no Sutoka, a parody of Saiko no Sutoka.
- In 2021, I released Witch Game, a game prototype based on a dream that I had.
So, what did I develop this year? Well…
Recently, I began to miss the feeling of developing game prototypes. It’s the one thing I enjoy the most, but I haven’t done it in years. The type of game I want to work on the most is an action game; a game with running, jumping, slashing, weapon-swapping, spell-casting, monsters, etc. Every time I play a game with those kinds of features, I think, “Maaaaan, I wish I could work on a game like that…” Well, a couple weeks ago, I got tired of wishing for it, and actually do it, instead!
Every day, I take a break from work to stream on Twitch. Usually, I play a game – but recently, I’ve been using my daily break to develop a game prototype, instead. A game with running, jumping, slashing, that sort of thing. Every time someone asked, “What is this game going to be about?” I gave very vague and evasive answers. That’s because I had a secret plan – to give the prototype a horror theme and release it on Halloween as this year’s Spooktacular minigame.
It was really close – I only put the finishing touches on it about 3 hours before the calendar date rolled over to October 31st – but I did it! I’ve completed the game prototype! It has all of the different types of features that I most wanted to work on, AND it’s appropriate for Halloween, too! So, what is it? Well…
Ever since October of 2015, not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought about Yanvania. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if it was made into a full game. What would the gameplay be like? What would the story be? How would I differentiate it from Castlevania? How could I give it an original identity, instead of just developing a parody that exists as a shadow of another game?
Since it’s something that I’ve remained enthusiastic about for 7 years straight, I decided that it was the perfect candidate for my game prototyping project, and for this year’s Spooktacular! I’m calling it “Yanvania 2022.” It contains everything that I have the most fun working on when I’m developing a game, and it represents the gameplay and atmosphere that I imagine Yanvania would have, if it was ever turned into a full game. Double-jumping, powerful magic spells, a fantastical setting, etc!
There are only two things that I wish were different: I wish that I had been able to include more than just one type of enemy, and I wish that I had been able to make the character travel up and down ramps in a smoother fashion. Aside from that, though, I’m really happy with how it turned out!
You can download it from this link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/leas2xluem288rb/Yanvania+2022.zip/file
There is a “Read Me” document inside the zip file. Make sure to read it so that you understand how to play the game before you begin!
I had a lot of fun developing the prototype on stream, so it’s very likely that I’ll continue to do game prototyping streams on Twitch. You’re welcome to drop by! I’m just letting you know, though – my next few streams will be about Bayonetta 3, and I won’t return to making game prototypes on stream until after I’ve beaten it.
The Spooktacular isn’t over just! Click “Continue Reading” to see the rest!
The incredible Hatluk made an absolutely phenomenal Halloween Mod for Yandere Simulator this year! Check it out:
Oh! And on the topic of fan-made Halloween creations, the talented ExceedPrince drew this lovely artwork of Nemesis and Ayano trick-or-treating together!
They might be mortal enemies who logically would try to kill each other on sight, but that doesn’t stop them from getting into the Halloween spirit!
Yeah, okay, sure, whatever. Happy Halloween and all that. But what about Yandere Sim?
The next update will be released on November 1st. I’m sorry, it won’t be a huge collection of exciting new features, like the October 1st update was. I’ve been receiving a lot of bug reports lately, so I had to focus mostly on bug fixes over the past two weeks. Yes, I know, it’s not exciting or glamorous, but it still needs to get done, nonetheless.
Hopefully, during the month of November, I’ll be able to return my attention to putting exciting new content into the game rather than fixing bugs.
Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!