The Hardware Update - Yandere Simulator

Hello! I’ve prepared an update for you that contains a new feature I’ve put a lot of work into!

To find out why I’m calling it “The Hardware Update” – and to read a list of everything that has been added, improved, or fixed in the latest build – but first, check out this incredibly well-made animation by sakuras_yans!

Hardware Store Functionality, New Weapons, And More

A street filled with stores was added to Yandere Simulator back in October of 2017 – but even after all these years, several of those stores still lack functionality! This has bothered me for a very long time, so I’ve decided to finally make one of those stores completely functional – the Hardware Store!

You can now purchase all 10 of these items from the Hardware Store! This means that the game now has 3 new functioning weapons – the hammer, pickaxe, and sledgehammer. Anything you buy from the Hardware Store will appear in the shed in the protagonist’s backyard.

Some of these items would be very suspicious to carry around, and also wouldn’t fit into a school-issued bag. So, to transport these items to school, the protagonist will use a duffel bag.

It didn’t make logical sense for the Gardening Club to have a scythe, so the scythe has been changed from a “free weapon you can find at school” to a weapon that must be purchased from the Hardware Store and then brought to school. Additionally, because the scythe was too large to be transported inside of a duffel bag, it has been re-designed; the scythe will now “fold up” when it is not being wielded as a weapon. (Kind of like trick weapons from Bloodborne!) This is how the player is able to transport it to school in a duffel bag.

A chainsaw has been modeled for the game! However, none of the game’s currently-existing animations would be compatible with it…so, it’s not possible to wield it as a weapon yet. You can buy it and see it appear in the protagonist’s house if you want, but you can’t bring it to school yet.

You might be wondering, “Some of these weapons already exist at school. Why would the player buy an extra one from the Hardware Store?” I can think of multiple reasons why. For example, maybe the Headmaster will decide “Any dangerous objects on school grounds that could potentially be used for murder must be removed from the school!” in the game’s later weeks, to increase difficulty. This would mean that, during later weeks, the only way for the player to gain access to certain objects (like the Pipe Wrench) would be to purchase them form the Hardware Store. Also, keep in mind that some of these objects might just be placeholders for now, and might be replaced with objects that have much more meaningful utility in the future. For example…

You know how there’s a car battery at Akademi Academy? A lot of people have questioned why something like this is present at a school. I’ve always justified it by explaining that it exists for the benefit of the teachers, who drive to school, and might need it if their car’s battery ever dies. However, it might be a lot more logical if there is not a car battery at school by default, and the player has to actually purchase a battery from the Hardware Store in order to have access to one at school. (Also, the electrocution elimination method is kind of overpowered. Forcing the player to purchase a car battery might be a good way to balance it!)

Some of these weapons don’t actually have any utility yet, which means that they are currently redundant additions to the game. However, they might gain important functionality in the future. For example, the player might be required to purchase a hammer to craft certain things at the crafting table in the school workshop room, or might be able to use a sledgehammer to break down locked doors instead of lockpicking them. “But, what could the player use a pickaxe for?” Well, I have something in mind…but I want it to be a surprise, so I won’t spoil it here. (I wonder if anyone in the comments can guess it correctly…)

Please note that the Hardware Store currently has no meaningful functionality in 1980s Mode; Ryoba can’t leave her room and go to her shed in 1980s, so there’s no way to access anything that you purchase from the Hardware Store in 1980s Mode (yet). That functionality will probably be added in a future update.

I know that the Hardware Store probably wasn’t at the top of your “most wanted new feature” list, but getting this functionality into the game was important to me. Now that the Hardware Store is finally functional, there’s one less thing on my to-do list; one less thing between us and the addition of Kizana!

(In this initial release of the Hardware feature, the screwdriver is present in both the “Bring Item To School” menu and the shed’s “Hardware” menu. It is likely that I will eventually remove the screwdriver from the door menu and replace it with something else. I just haven’t decided yet what the replacement should be.)

Of course, the Hardware Store wasn’t the only thing I added to the new build; scroll down to learn more!

Improvements

Players who are pursuing the “Genocide Ending” frequently use the radio, and have complained that the loud and obnoxious radio music becomes very annoying when they need to use the radio dozens of times in a short period. So, I’ve given the player the ability to decide what music plays from the radio. Drop a file named radio.ogg into the StreamingAssets/Music folder, and you can now decide for yourself what music comes out of the radio at school. Make it play Beethoven’s Moonlit Sonata, Cardi B’s WAP, or anything else that your heart desires. Even a track that is completely silent and only lasts for 1 second.
If Osana and Kyuji were in a relationship, and Raibaru approached Osana (while she was with Kyuji) to tell her that a killer was present at school, Raibaru and Osana would flee school, but Kyuji would just stand there. From now on, Kyuji will run out of school, too, if he overhears Raibaru telling Osana that a killer is at school.
Sakyu, Saki, Midori, and the 5 bully girls can be seen posting on the social media page accessed from Ayano’s computer at home. From now on, if any of those characters are dead, they will no longer be seen posting on social media. (Anonymous people will post in their place.)
The “Taro meets Kizana” cutscene now takes place in an original environment instead of the same environment where Taro met Amai. In the future, I may further improve the production values of this scene (more variety in the pedestrians walking around, etc).
The curtains of the school gym can now animate open/closed. This functionality will be used during Kizana’s week. (There is a hidden button prompt somewhere on the gym stage that allows you to test the opening/closing functionality! Can you find it?)
From now on, if one of Info-chan’s bounties cannot be completed because a character relevant to that bounty is dead, Info-chan’s bounty screen will display a message stating that no bounty is available.
The walkway above the school gym has been raised 2 meters higher. (This resulted in a lot of changes to the architecture of the interior and the exterior of the school gym.)
When starting a Custom Mode playthrough, it is now possible to use the Difficulty Options menu to decide if “Invincible” students can be fought after upgrading the PE stat.
The food models at Amai’s bake sale are now unique models, instead of models that have been repurposed from elsewhere in the game.
The “Censor Panties” option will now also censor the protagonist’s panties when they are in town and wearing a skirt.
Jokichi now uses an idle animation and walk animation that should be a better match for his personality.
Replaced the 3D models for the photography props in the Photography clubroom.
Improved the texture for the recipe that Amai gives to Senpai.
Added voice lines for the 1980s Mode suitors.
Restored Sakura’s original eye color.

Fixes

If the player attacked Raibaru while she was eating a snack, and the “finish eating snack and return to normal routine” timer ran out while Raibaru was in her “dramatic reaction to being attacked” state, Raibaru would exit the “dramatic reaction” state and attempt to return to her normal routine while she was supposed to be fighting with the player. This bug has been fixed.
Inside of the “stalker house,” there were places where the player could walk on top of potted plants, objects without collision, and also places where the player could stand and not get spotted by the father, even though he should definitely be able to see the player form that spot. All of these issues have been resolved.
The gym teacher uses special code to detect murder. If the player committed murder in specific locations, the gym teacher’s murder-detection code would accidentally be triggered, and she would psychically become aware of murder happening somewhere she should not be able to see it. This bug has been fixed.
If a teacher realized that Ayano was a murderer and tried to apprehend her while she was fighting a delinquent, and the teacher automatically died due to Ayano having the Martial Arts Club benefit, the delinquent that Ayano was in a fight with would permanently freeze. This bug has been fixed.
One of the security guards in Amai’s befriend/betray stealth mission is standing next to a wall, and if the played tried to pickpocket him from certain angles, the game would be unable to re-position the player behind the guard because of the wall. This bug has been fixed.
If the player killed a student, saved their game, then started a new game and loaded that save file, the student who was dead in the original save file would become unable to spawn in any subsequent playthrough of the game. This bug should never be able to happen again.
If the player eliminated Osana by betraying her and then advanced to Sunday of Amai’s week, the stats screen would report that Amai had been eliminated by betrayal, even though the player had not had an opportunity to do anything to her yet. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used the “Skip School” feature to skip any day when Senpai was supposed to be mourning a rival’s death, Senpai would not stop mourning the rival, and would be absent from school on the next day that the player attended school. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used a stink bomb to scare a rival away from her book bag at 3:30 PM, they could access the rival’s bookbag and sabotage its contents even though all sabotage-able events were supposed to be over by that point in time. This bug has been fixed.
If the player angled the camera in a very specific position while inside of a gym storage room, the game would stop rendering the protagonist’s hair, the props inside of the room, and sometimes even the entire room itself. This bug has been fixed.
At the Week Select screen, if you set a rival’s state to “Rejected,” her description would say “Suffering from depression,” but, at the Calendar screen, her description would say “Staying away from Senpai.” This inconsistency has been fixed.
If the player framed a student for bullying Horuda and then kidnapped Horuda on the same day, the game would encounter an error attempting to spawn Horuda the following day, and no students would spawn at school. This bug has been fixed.
If a student died (or the player picked up their corpse and dropped it) extremely close to a wall, there was a possibility that students on the opposite side of the wall would be able to see the corpse. This bug should now be fixed.
If a student noticed the corpse of a sibling/loved one while they were following the player, they would become unable to leave the “following player” state to properly react to the corpse of their loved one. This bug has been fixed.
If a mind-broken slave came into contact with their target while their target was performing a “discovering lost phone” animation, the target would exit the mind-broken slave murder animation. this bug has been fixed.
If the police arrived at school while Taro was wearing an apron, he would continue to wear the apron in the End-of-Day sequence, and the apron would noticeably clip into his school uniform. This bug has been fixed.
It was possible to encounter a bug where the player tried to spar with a martial arts club student, and the student would walk away in the middle of the sparring match. This should no longer be possible.
On the screen where the player decides what item(s) to bring to school, the description of the sedative did not clearly explain what the sedative could be used for. This description has been re-written.
If the player alarmed a student who was carrying a tray of food to Amai’s bake sale, the tray would disappear from their hands, but they would remain in the “holding tray” pose. This bug has been fixed.
If the player interrupted Amai’s “speaking with club” event, the characters involved in the event would never be able to exit the event and prepare food for Amai’s bake sale. This bug has been fixed.
If the player checked a rival’s profile while at home, an eliminated rival’s crush would be displayed as “Taro” and the current rival’s crush would be set to “None Anymore.” This bug has been fixed.
In Yakuza Mode, if a delinquent attempted to fight the player immediately after the player won a struggle against another student, the delinquent would freeze permanently. This bug has been fixed.
If the player changed into club attire while wearing a raincoat, the protagonist would wear both the raincoat and the club attire simultaneously, leading to visual bugs. This bug has been fixed.
If Osana’s suitor cuddled her on a bench while wearing any uniform other than the default uniform, his blushing texture would not appear on the correct part of his body. This bug has been fixed.
During Osana’s pool event, while Osana was sleeping, it was possible for her to witness the player misbehaving, even though Osana was supposed to be asleep at the time. This bug has been fixed.
The checklist – and button prompts – for sabotaging Amai’s stove were appearing in Custom Mode, even though that elimination method was supposed to be Amai-specific. This bug has been fixed.
If the player got beaten up by a delinquent and then saved the game, the player’s bruises would disappear, and they would lose the ability to rest in the infirmary. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used the binoculars in town, rotated the camera around, and then exited the binoculars, the camera would be pointing off in some weird direction. This bug has been fixed.
It was possible to enter the “Meme Closet” using a lockpick, which was unintentional; it should be inaccessible unless the player has enabled debug commands. This bug has been fixed.
When playing the game at resolutions higher than 1280×720, the depth-of-field effects in the town and the stealth missions were much stronger than intended. This bug has been fixed.
It was possible to see a rival’s “Wednesday gift for Senpai” appear on her desk even after the “rival presents gift to Senpai” event had taken place. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used the “Frame a student for bullying Horuda” feature and then tried to leave a note in any student’s locker, the game would softlock. This bug has been fixed.
In the last build, I attempted to make a slight update to Kokoro’s likes/dislikes, but the change didn’t get saved. Oops! This time, the change has definitely been saved.
If the player attempted to “Show Off Psychology” while socializing with a student, they would respond as if the player was giving them money. This bug has been fixed.
If the player used the “gossip on social media” feature to slander Amai, the sentence that she produced would not be grammatically correct. This bug has been fixed.
During Osana’s “sabotage her phone alarm to make her oversleep” event, social media was displaying on her phone instead of her alarm clock. This bug has been fixed.
If the player killed every member of the Cooking Club in Week 1, Amai would not be able to advance to her bake sale event properly. This bug has been fixed.
Sometimes, the player’s Reputation bar could display very long values (such as 1.099999). These values are now rounded to one decimal place (such as 1.1).
If the clock reached 6:00 PM while the player was talking to a student, the dialogue wheel would appear at the end-of-day screen. This bug has been fixed.
If the player completed Kokona’s tutorial and then exited the tutorial the size of Kokona’s bust would abruptly shrink. This bug has been fixed.
If the player placed a bucket trap over the doors leading to the incinerator, the bucket would clip into the doors. This bug has been fixed.
Fixed bug that caused a giant green rectangle to appear at the bottom of the map when viewing the top-down map of the school.
One of Teiko’s likes/dislikes was not incorrect. This oversight has been corrected.
Fixed typos in Amai and Senpai’s Tuesday conversations.
Fixed typos in the Basu sisters’ Week 2 conversations.

What’s Next?

Looking back on the “What do you want YandereDev to work on next?” survey, I wish I had worded some of the options a bit differently. I offered to give unique tasks to “all students” in 202X Mode, and make “all stores” become functional. However, I would prefer to give new tasks to just a few students and add functionality to just one store in each inter-rival period. So, I’ll be updating that text accordingly (and continuing to cross out things that I feel I’ve delivered on). In each inter-rival period, a handful of students will get tasks, one more store will get functionality, and the protagonist’s home will sometimes get a new feature.

You’re probably wondering which of the tasks on that list will take priority over the others. The answer is that I intend to do the shortest and easiest tasks first, as long as I have the necessary assets. For example: right now, I don’t have 3D renders for Ryoba’s cutscenes…but, if I did have those renders, I would be able to take care of that task in 5 minutes, so it would instantly jump to the top of my priority list. Because of circumstances like that, I can’t really write out a priority list; it’s something that would be dynamically re-ordered in real time depending on which assets are currently available and which aren’t.

I would not like to declare, “This is what I will work on next!” …but, I can tell you how I am mentally categorizing each of the tasks from the survey:

First, I should mention that I don’t plan to make it possible to join the student council or the bully gang anytime this year. I’m sorry if this is disappointing to hear. The reasons for this decision are complex; maybe I’ll talk about it another time.

The tasks that I consider to be absolutely essential before working on Kizana are:

Schemes for Amai’s eliminations
More events occurring in Amai’s week
Voice acting and animations for Amai’s week
Replacing the “snooping through rival’s bookbag” feature

The tasks that I consider to be non-essential – but can be added to the game in less than 24 hours (as long as I have the necessary assets) – are:

A new “Dream”
A new basement tape
3D renders for Ryoba’s cutscenes

The tasks that I consider to be non-essential and time-consuming – but still worth doing because it would be important (to me or to the fanbase) – are:

More functionality for Custom Mode
Visual updates for 1980’s Mode students
New, unique tasks for some of the students in 202X Mode
At least one YouTube video about game development or lore, even if it’s only a short video on my secondary channel

The tasks that I consider to be so non-essential that I am willing to postpone them indefinitely are:

Endless Mode
Spinoff games

(I really want to update the “Plan how to eliminate your rival on a corkboard” scene, but if the majority of the fanbase put it near the bottom of their priority list, then I guess I shouldn’t bother. …I really think I could really make that scene much more helpful to new players, though…)

In short, I would prefer to avoid promising what I will be working on next, or announcing what order I plan to do things in, because my priorities can change rapidly depending on what assets become available to me. However, I don’t want to just leave you completely in the dark, so I tried to give you you some insight into my thought process above.

(There is one last thing I’d like to mention: Even though I’m not focusing on implementing Kizana as my top priority right now, I’m actively requesting and receiving the models that I’ll need for her week. I occasionally share renders of these things on my Patreon page.)

Thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!