YandereDev has announced that the 1.0 version of Yandere Simulator may soon be complete, after seven years of development.
The developer, YandereDev, explained in a recent progress report that the 10 Rivals Update (the game’s main story) was almost complete with mere days to go. An announcement video is planned soon, complete with a release date. However, production of that video could take longer than expected, preventing a solid announcement of (as a given example) a mid-September release.
YandereDev has stated he will produce daily progress reports showing images from the game, until the update is live. This was followed the next day by blurry screenshots of what seems to be the main character’s bedroom, ad other blurred teaser images each day thereafter [1, 2, 3].
For those unfamiliar, the game was born of a proposed idea in a 4Chan thread in 2014. Akin to Hitman, players would play as a yandere in a typical anime horror/high-school setting; using stealth gameplay to kill off perceived rivals.
The yandere trope (combining the words yanderu/sick and deredere/love) refers to a character psychotically obsessed with their romantic interest; to the point of killing others or even their interest.
The game would later begin development, becoming Yandere Simulator. Features that were added to the game include kidnapping and torture to make someone do your bidding for a short time, selling victims into human trafficking, dismemberment, setting up accidents and traps, framing students for breaking rules, getting them expelled, and using gossip to blackmail students into doing what you want.
Less morbid additions included joining clubs and social groups for various boons, and being able to help your love rivals in exchange for them not pursuing your love interest.
As expected the game gained some infamy due to its concept, but even through the message board that had initially shown interest in the idea. The game’s work-in-progress builds were banned from Twitch in January 2016, and in June of that year YandereDev had caused controversy due to the reaction to a proposed inventory system.
Suggesting a Resident Evil 4 style inventory system, YandereDev suggested that the main character would open her skirt to the camera, showing her panties. Despite a community poll showing 89% were happy with the idea, YandereDev would later side with the “very vocal” 11% who felt uncomfortable with it.
This was despite YandereDev pointing out the hypocrisy of those being OK with violent but not sexual content, and later implementing a currency system where players would take panty shots in exchange for favors from an NPC. Nonetheless, fans were outraged over this, and were concerned it would lead to other compromises.
What seemed to be a major breaking point was when YandereDev accepted or offered an interview with Kotaku. Thanks to the then ongoing GamerGate controversy (and even long before then), mainstream gaming websites like Kotaku were loathed by “chan” message board users- criticizing their lack of knowledge, poor reviews, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, and disgust at all but mainstream themes in games.
The interview was seen as a betrayal by members of 8Chan and beyond; seeing it as a sign the developer would compromise the idea of a classic stealth and niche title into something more palatable to a wider audience.
The game’s long development time, allegedly clunky code [1, 2, 3, 4], and banning those mocking the developer from the game’s official Discord [1, 2] only exacerbated this. Nonetheless, YandereDev has continued to develop the game, and it may soon be released.
Yandere Simulator is coming soon to Windows PC. A demo is currently available.
Image: Yandere Simulator official website
