Hello! A new update is now available!
This is primarily a “bug-fixing” build – an update that provides quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, rather than the addition of a major new feature to the game. This build does not contain the “1980s Mode Revamp” that I discussed in my previous blog post. I’ll talk about that – and a bunch of other things, too – below.
To read a list of everything that was added/changed/fixed/improved in the latest build, please scroll down past this absolutely gorgeous artwork by kitsuyamir!
Oh, did you think I was done sharing kitsuyamir‘s incredible artwork? Think again! Check out this 1989 version of the above artwork!
Ah, I love it so much! Okay, now we can continue!
Improvements
- Some users have reported a low framerate in the Dream sequences. This is puzzling to me, because those scenes are sparse, with extremely few models or scripts present. Even the Unity Profiler doesn’t show anything especially taxing occurring in those scenes. To determine the source of the problem through process of elimination, I have added a new debug command: press the “P” key in the Dream scenes to disable post-processing effects. If the low framerate persists even with post-processing effects disabled, then that will help me to narrow down the cause of the bug.
- Previously, if the protagonist was a member of the Sports Club, characters would not react negatively to the sight of the player carrying a spiked baseball bat. From now on, characters will think that a spiked baseball bat is frightening regardless of whether or not you’re in the Sports Club.
- Previously, if a character witnessed the protagonist carrying around a spiked baseball bat, they would react to it with the same line of dialogue as reacting to a normal bat. Characters will now say a different line of dialogue if the bat is covered in nails.
- If the player aimed their camera at Osana, Raibaru would stand between Osana and the player, blocking the shot. Raibaru will now stand behind Osana and pose, like she wants to be included in the photo – just in the background instead of the foreground.
- Most players probably won’t notice without the aid of third-party tools that let you navigate through a game environment with a free-flying camera, but the textures used by Amai in her “Title Screen Eliminations” have been updated.
- From now on, if Ayano is a member of the Cooking Club, it will not be considered suspicious to see her tamper with the ingredients for Amai’s bake sale; other students will simply assume that she is adding sugar or something.
- Updated the Gardening Club’s watering cans. Their watering cans now reflect the color of their hair accessories, rather than their hair colors.
- Students’ eyes now shrink in horror when a robot rips out their heart, instead of retaining completely normal eyes.
- There is now an “Are You Sure?” confirmation window when using the “Reset Data” feature in Custom Mode.
- Shin’s sad idle and sad walk have been added to Custom Mode’s selection of male idle/walk animations.
- Reverted Kuu, Saki, and Himari’s hair textures to previous, higher-quality versions.
- Updated the appearance of Nemesis’ hair again.
Fixes
- If the player dropped a car battery into a puddle of water right as they were entering an armed struggle with a teacher, the player would get electrocuted and die, but would still be engaging in the struggle minigame, and would not be able to exit the minigame or reach the game over screen. This bug has been fixed.
- When talking to a student, it’s supposed to be possible to skip dialogue by pressing a button. However, this wasn’t possible under one circumstance – if the player asked a rival to remove a box cutter from a box, and the rival refused, the player would be unable to skip the rival’s dialogue about it.
- If the player spoke to a character with “Task Criteria” (such as a suitor), but the criteria was not met (such as the suitor’s rival not being at school), it was possible to infinitely “stall” that character in one location by repeatedly asking them for the Task. This exploit has been removed.
- If the player uses the book in the school library to study and pass time, students teleport to their destinations. However, a bug would occur where students would teleport at the end of the “pass time” sequence, instead of teleporting while the screen was solid black. this bug has been fixed.
- If a student heard a scream, started investigating it, and then the player spoke to that student while covered in blood, the student would become alarmed 16 times instead of just 1 time, resulting in 16x the normal reputation loss. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player gives Raibaru a headache, it’s possible to attack her without being counter-attacked. However, this did not apply to mind-broken slaves; Raibaru would counter-attack slaves even if she had a headache. This oversight has been corrected.
- When the player used the “Offer Help” feature to speak to a student on the school rooftop, the protagonist and the student would not be perfectly aligned, and would not be making eye contact with each other. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player arrived at school late on Monday, Amai would run out of class at 8:00 AM to have a phone call, even though her phone call event should have already been finished at that point in time. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player designed a Mission Mode mission that involved bringing hardware tools to school, the camera would not smoothly move towards the player’s position at the beginning of the school day. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player started a Mission Mode mission that involved a hardware tool weapon, failed the mission, and then restarted the mission, that hardware tool would not appear at school. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player used a robot to kill a student whose default expression included a smile on their face, they would retain that smile during and after being killed by the robot. This bug has been fixed.
- The text in the button prompt for the Occult Robe was red, symbolizing that people would be alarmed to see player picking it up, carrying it, or using it. This was an error. This bug has been fixed.
- If a student council member attempted to apprehend the player while the Pain Demon easter egg was active, the protagonist would freeze in place and become unable to move. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player arrived at school late, Otohiko would arrive at school after 8:00 AM, even though he already should have arrived at school by that point in time. This bug has been fixed.
- After playing the delinquent beat-em-up minigame, the pathfinding grid would break, preventing students from being able to pathfind for the rest of the day. This bug has been fixed.
- On rare occasion, the game could get stuck when attempting to transition from the “choose your resolution” screen to the “legal disclaimer” screen. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player angled the camera in a specific way in the Art Club room, it was possible to see models outside of the Art Club stop rendering. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed bug that prevented students from subtracting reputation points from the player after observing the player carrying a cleaning product outside of Cleaning Time.
- If the player sent a robot to murder a student and then saved and reloaded, the robot would not be in “murder mode” in the reloaded save. This is no longer possible.
- If the player removed a bucket from a doorway while crouching, the player would perform the “carrying bucket” animation while crouching. This bug has been fixed.
- After a member of the Cooking Club gave food to Chigusa, she should leave the photoshoot area and stand amongst the sunbathing chairs. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player spoke to a student while the protagonist was standing really close to a wall, the camera would clip into the wall. This bug has been fixed.
- It is no longer possible to assign a character the “Phone Addict” persona in Custom Mode, since phone addicts can’t exist in an era without smartphones.
- If the player was playing with a Sony controller, the button prompts at the Mission Mode game over screen would be incorrect. This bug has been fixed.
- When Mai would perform the “running to the bathroom to vomit” animation, her hair would clip through her body. This bug has been fixed.
- If the player chose Saki Miyu’s old hair model in Custom Mode, a grey blob would appear on her chest. This bug has been fixed.
- The artwork for the Ramen Shop’s owner had blurry outlines. These outlines have been removed, and now the artwork looks clean.
- Kuroko’s hair would clip into her body when she was running. This bug has been fixed.
- Due to a bug, music would not play in Mission Mode. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed typo in “You must kill the target with a…” text in Mission Mode.
- Fixed texture error with Miyuji’s hair accessory.
- Fixed a typo in the chemistry level-up window.
- Fixed various typos throughout the game.
Characters Page Updates
Several changes/additions have been made to the Characters page of the official website:
- Amai’s profile has been updated to feature the “Driven to Murder” artwork that was created for her in October of 2017.
- Kyoshi Tatsuhara’s profile has been updated to be much longer and more detailed.
- New “Driven to Murder” artwork has been created for Osana Najimi’s profile.
- New “Driven to Murder” artwork has been created for Oka Ruto’s profile.
- Kokona Haruka has been added to the Characters page.
- Raibaru Fumetsu’s artwork has been updated.
“Why did you update Amai, Osana, and Oka’s profiles with ‘Driven to Murder’ artwork?”
Amai’s Driven to Murder artwork was created back in 2017, but a high-quality, full-resolution version of it was never made available to the public. I thought it was a terrible shame that such incredible artwork was never available in high res, so I uploaded it. This kinda started a “snowball effect” where, once I uploaded one, I wanted to start creating more – so an artist has been helping me with that. I’d like to continue updating the Characters page until all 202X rivals have “Driven to Murder” artwork!
“Is each rival going to get a unique ‘Driven to Murder’ elimination method that has an elaborate story, like the one created for Kokona in 2017?”
Although I would love to promise something like that, it would require a massive amount of new 3D models, animations, and voice acting, so I’m not ready to commit to it at this point in time.
“Are you adding bloody, gorey ‘Driven to Murder’ artwork to the official site this month because October is a good time for spooky things?”
No, it’s purely a coinciden…I mean…yes! That’s exactly the reason! I had it planned all along! It definitely wasn’t a spontaneous decision…
Supporter Characters
Occasionally, a superfan of Yandere Simulator will help out the game’s development in a big way. When this happens, I want to show them my gratitude and appreciation, so I turn them (or their OC) into a character in Yandere Simulator!
So far, this has happened 3 times. However, I’ve never publicly spoken about it; if I add something to the game as a personal gift for a very specific person, I don’t see a need to announce it to the world.
However, the latest superfan to get an OC added to the game had a special request: He wanted me to let everyone know how to activate his OC! So, here are the instructions: Type “ChessterTrap” while at school, and Senpai will transform into the fan’s OC, ChessterTrap!
(I’m not sure whether I will make this an official service that is open to everyone if they donate a specific amount to support the game’s development, or if I will only do this sort of thing on a case-by-case basis whenever I feel that someone has really earned it. I haven’t decided yet.)
Announcement Coming Soon!
If you only check the blog twice a month – the 1st and the 15th – please make an exception and stop by the blog again tomorrow. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be announcing and releasing something special within the next 24 hours!
Where’s the 1980s Mode Revamp?
In my last blog post, I said that my next priority would be “The 1980s Mode Revamp” – a massive update to 1980s Mode that would drastically change the appearances of many characters. However, I wasn’t able to accomplish that. In short, my schedule got thrown off by a variety of different things, and I didn’t get to have as much time as I wanted to work on the game. I really hope that it won’t happen again, and that, over the next 2 weeks, I’ll be able to focus my time and attention on the 1980s Mode Revamp without many interruptions or distractions.
On a positive note…
Part of the reason why I wasn’t able to spend much time on the 1980s Mode revamp was because I got extra busy working with 2D artists, 3D modelers, and 3D animators to create something very special that will be added to the game later this month – something that I’ve been envisioning and planning since October of 2015! It’s meant to be a surprise, so I’m not going to tell you what it is…but I will say that it has been incredibly gratifying to finally bring it into reality after 9 years of planning it! I really hope that you’re going to enjoy what will be added to the game at the end of October!
To close out this blog post, check out this fantastic render of Amai made by ad0:
Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!