Mid-September Update

Hello! I’ve prepared a new build for you!

The “Social Media” feature that I described on September 1st is now fully functional! Additionally, I’ve also made several changes to Amai’s week that might be significant to you, depending on how you play the game.

To read a list of everything that was added/changed/fixed/improved over the past 2 weeks, scroll down past this absolutely adorable illustration of Amai by otohiko_loveeee:

Social Media Feature

Starting on Week 2, you are able to open a “Social Media” app on Ayano’s phone. This app allows you to access 4 different social media platforms:

To visit any of these platforms, you must first discover your rival’s username there. In Amai’s case, you will learn her usernames from her friends: the boys and girls of the Cooking Club. If you complete their Tasks and make friends with them, a button will appear beneath the dialogue wheel when speaking to them. This button will reveal how to find Amai on specific sites:

Once you know Amai’s usernames, you can start cyberstalking her. This allows you to learn the information that was previously provided by the “snoop through diary” feature – her likes/dislikes, what kind of traits she finds attractive, an embarrassing secret from her past, and a personal problem that is deeply troubling her.

It is no longer possible to “Read Magazine” or “Read Diary” when interacting with Amai’s bookbag. It made sense in 1989, but not in 202X; in modern day, diaries have been replaced by blogs, and magazines have been replaced by websites. Plus, the gameplay was just way too basic and simple to be interesting. I feel that befriending 4 students to gain the information necessary to cyberstalk a rival is a much more interesting and entertaining experience than just walking up to a bag and looking inside.

Of course, I understand that you may not wish to go through that much trouble if it’s your 10th playthrough or if you’re speedrunning the game, and you just want to get Amai’s information as quickly as possible. I intend to make it possible to simply pay Info-chan for Amai’s social media usernames – but it will probably be expensive, since that information is directly linked to two of her elimination methods…

Speaking of elimination methods, the process for two of Amai’s eliminations have changed slightly! I’ll tell you all about them:

Changes to Amai’s Week

• In order to have a conversation with Amai about the rival bakery owner who is sabotaging her family’s bakery, the player must now obtain two pieces of information instead of just one. One piece of information is learned by eavesdropping on her phone call, and the other piece of information is learned by cyberstalking her private, friends-only, password-protected blog. (You gain access to this blog by completing Saki’s Task and then asking Saki about Amai.) A few of Amai’s dialogue lines (during her phone conversation and her “explain problem to Ayano” conversation) have been adjusted to reflect these changes. Additionally, Amai’s Student Info profile will now display the information that you’ve learned about her.
• Shoku’s Task has been changed. Instead of asking you to learn Amai’s likes and dislikes, he now wants you to obtain all 4 of Amai’s social media usernames for him. Because this requires more time and effort than his previous task, Amai’s Matchmaking elimination method is now a bit more time-consuming and difficult than it was before.
• Kenko, Seiyo, Ajia, and Saki now use unique idle/walk animations, instead of using the defaults. this gives them a lot more personality!

Of course, these are not the only changes I wanted to make to Amai’s week. I still plan to make numerous other changes, too, such as changing the activities that “living security camera” students perform in the hallways, changing the dialogue and gameplay of some of Amai’s events, and a bunch of other things. These are just the changes I made for this build. More will come in the future.

Improvements

• It’s only supposed to be possible to achieve the Genocide Ending on Monday of Osana’s Week. It’s not supposed to be possible to get it on any subsequent week. The premise of the ending is “Ayano just kills everyone as soon as possible” and that premise breaks if she waits a week to do it. So, from now on, the player can only get the Genocide Ending if she’s doing it on Day 1 of Week 1; it’s no longer possible during Amai’s week.
• The player will now be presented with a “Content Warning” screen after setting their resolution. I have always hated these screens, but, sadly, there are a lot of good reasons why they are necessary. I think that the current design of the screen is very ugly, and I may tweak it in the future.
• When Ayano/Ryoba is using Yandere Vision, her eyes glow red. However, this effect was absent from the Befriend/Betray stealth missions. The player will now see Ayano/Ryoba’s eyes glowing red when she is using Yandere Vision during those missions.
• From now on, the VHS tapes at the Custom Mode “Week Select” screen will show male and female silhouettes (depending on what gender the player has designed a custom rival to be) instead of the 1980s Mode rivals.
• Characters who have been traumatized by the experience of being kidnapped will now longer revert back to their default cheerful animations when the player speaks to them.
• Players with low-end computers can now disable shadows in town by pausing the game with the escape key or enter key and then using the “Toggle Shadows On/Off” option.
• In the Student Info menu, dead characters now have a Japanese-style black “funeral frame” around their portraits.
• In the Student Info menu, kidnapped characters now have a shadow over their portraits.
• Updated Nemesis’ hair model so that it looks more like her concept artwork.
• Updated the eye textures for the Martial Arts Club and also Miyuji.

Fixes

• If the player reported their rival to the counselor after classes had ended for the day and then triggered the “rival is sent to counselor” cutscene, a string of text would describe the Counselor as speaking to the rival “in her classroom” even though the rival wouldn’t be present in class at the time. Also, the screen would sometimes permanently freeze and never move to the next phase of the End-of-Day sequence. Both of these bugs have been fixed.
• Whenever Miyuji (or Ai) would make guitar sounds with their mouth, the sound would be audible from the floor above/below Miyuji, even though it didn’t make much sense to be able to hear the sounds from beyond floors/ceilings. This oversight has been corrected.
• If the player attempted to perform a 1980s Mode “generic task” while holding an object in their hands, the object would remain in their hands for the direction of the task, and the correct “performing task” animation would not play. This bug has been fixed.
• In Custom Mode, if the player placed the “Shocked” destination into a student’s routine and then loaded into the school scene, the game would be unable to assign that student with their destination, leading to various bugs. This oversight has been fixed.
• If the player brought a weapon from home to school, was caught carrying it around, and was sent to the guidance counselor, the game would softlock at a permanent black screen when attempting to leave the counselor’s office. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player created a Custom Mode and then used the “Reset Game” feature at the Calendar screen, the game would forget some of the player’s preferences (Journalist present or school or not present at school, etc). This bug has been fixed.
• If the player stood between a student and a wall and aimed their camera at the student, the game would teleport the player backwards a short distance, leading the player to clip into the wall behind them. This is no longer possible.
• If the player electrocuted Osana to death during her Thursday rooftop “nap before going to see a movie” event, Osana would die but then immediately enter her “walk around school and clean” routine. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player distracted a member of the Sports Club while they were jogging at the running track, they would become unable to enter the proper walking/running animation later in the day. This bug has been fixed.
• On any day when a memorial for a dead student had taken place, if the player attempted to pick up a heavy weight, the weight would vanish at the start of the “pick up weight” animation. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player approaches a student, talks to them, uses the “Ask Task-Related Question” option, and then immediately skips the dialogue, the student’s voice line would continue to play. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player carried a corpse into a changing booth and dropped it, the corpse’s legs would clip into the changing booth’s walls, and the corpse would hang there, suspended in midair. This bug has been fixed.
• If a mind-broken murder-suicide was occurring somewhere at school, the player would be able to hear it from anywhere in school, even if they were on the opposite side of the map. This bug has been fixed.
• After speaking to a bully about Gema, the “Ask a Task-Related Question” window would continue to be present, even though the player had already asked the relevant question. This bug has been fixed.
• If Ayano repeatedly spoke to Kokona during her tutorial, she would eventually enter the “annoyed and reuses to talk” state, making it impossible to complete the tutorial. This bug has been fixed.
• If a student council member was guarding a corpse and the student stood behind the student and concealed the corpse, the student council member wouldn’t notice or react. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player started a 1980s Mode playthrough using the Week Select screen, the characters’ reputations would use the values from 202X instead of the values from 1989. This bug has been fixed.
• When the bullies were giggling/laughing while bullying a student, their giggle/laugh audio could be heard a great distance away from where they were actually standing. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player used the “Send Home” command to send a student home while a mind-broken slave was on her way to kill them, the slave would spin in circles forever. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player used the “Week Select” feature to start their Custom Mode playthrough on a specific week, their custom student portraits would never be generated. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player lost a struggle with a Heroic student while 4 or more witnesses were present, the Heroic student wouldn’t enter into their apprehension animation. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player attempted to complete Homu’s “bring me a car battery” task without a bookbag equipped, the game would not recognize the task as being complete. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player sedated two students’ bentos and then went to class to advance time, the two sedated students would sleep in the same bed in the infirmary. This bug has been fixed.
• In the “Ayano stands in front of her corkboard and plans how to kill her next rival” cutscene, a pink “target reticle” was visible on the corkboard. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player tried to make Senpai trigger a “doorway bucket trap” while he was in an event, he would freeze in place permanently. This bug has been fixed.
• If the player saved while a clean school uniform was on the ground at school, that uniform would disappear upon loading the save. This bug has been fixed.
• In 1980s Mode, Moeko (Student #12) would appear in the Cooking Club where Amai (Student #12) stands in 202X. This bug has been fixed.
• Sakyu’s hair would clip into her body when she was running. This bug has been fixed.
• Due to a bug, the “catering list” was inaccessible. This bug has been fixed.
• Fixed bug that made Sakura’s hair accessories clip inside of her hair.

What’s Next?

You may recall hearing me mention that I think most of the student characters in 1980s Mode look unremarkable and boring, and that I desperately want to improve (or, in some cases, completely re-design) their appearances.

Well, on June 17th of 2023, a project began – the “1980s Mode Revamp.” The purpose of this project was to re-design the majority of the students in 1980s Mode, and create all the new assets necessary to make them much more appealing characters.

Over the months, this project faced numerous delays and setbacks. It was only a few days ago – on September 12th – when the last model was finally finished, and the project finally reached completion. After 1 year, 2 months, and 26 days, all of the models necessary to perform the 1980s Mode Revamp are finally in my hands! (It’s over a gigabyte of new assets!)

I think that a lot of the new 1980s Mode character designs look absolutely fantastic, and I think you’re going to love seeing the characters’ new looks! They’ll have the same names as before, but in many cases, they will have completely different faces, eyes, hair color, and hair style.

I understand that seeing the 1989 cast get a facelift might not be at the top of your priority list…but, I’ve been waiting 453 days for this; it’s a big deal to me. So, I’ll be pausing my work on Amai/Kizana for a short while to focus on implementing the new 1980s Mode assets. I anticipate that it will take 2 weeks maximum to complete the entire process – hopefully less.

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!