YandereDev
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Future Plans and Your Input
🕑 Added 2021-06-17 17:36:50 +0000 UTCHello!
After releasing the game's first rival, I paid close attention to user feedback, and made numerous changes to improve the overall experience of eliminating her. This process of "Release content, collect criticism, revise content" has been very effective so far, but it would be tricky to apply that process to the next stage of development. I'll explain:
My goal is to release a game about eliminating 10 rivals over the course of 10 weeks. To give players the best experience possible, I'll need to ask players for feedback like, "Does each rival feel more challenging than the previous one?" "Does each rival offer a unique experience?" and "Does the school need to change more significantly from week to week?"
But, I can't gather that type of feedback when there is only 1 rival in the game. To collect that type of feedback, there would need to be 10 rivals and 10 playable weeks in the game. However, once the 10 rival girls I announced in 2016 are present in the game, Yandere Simulator will become a complete experience with a beginning/middle/end. This is not something I can simply re-do if I mess it up.
When it comes to these 10 girls that people have been anticipating for the past 5 years, it would not be acceptable to release something that will eventually become fun after a few cycles of feedback and revisions. After more than a decade of anticipation, their inclusion in the game is going to be a major event. Delivering anything less than a stellar experience would be unacceptable.
In order to create a good experience, it's necessary to go through several rounds of feedback and revisions. However, these 10 highly-anticipated characters should shine at the exact moment they are released, not several updates after they are released. So, I can't use my usual approach for this one. So, what's the solution? Don't worry - I have an idea.
I've come up with a plan to "Put 10 rivals in the game" for the purpose of gathering feedback and making revisions, without doing a disservice to the 10 girls that I announced in 2016. Up until now, I've been extremely vague and secretive about it, but the people who are financially supporting me have a right to know what I'm doing, so I'll break the news here on Patreon:
I'm going to implement a new gameplay mode. In this new mode, you don't play as Yandere-chan; you play as a completely different protagonist. The star of this mode is a different yandere girl, who has her own 10 rivals to eliminate. The purpose of this mode is to allow people to playtest the experience of eliminating 10 rivals across 10 weeks, so I can gather feedback and criticism.
This mode will be created almost entirely using assets that already exist. This mode will not involve any new animations or voice acting. The focus will be 99% on gameplay and 1% on story. This mode will take place at Akademi, but will not feature Info-chan. (The player will use the workbench in the school workshop to craft items that were previously exclusive to Info-chan.)
The process of implementing this new gameplay mode will involve setting up the framework required to add the 10 rivals who were announced in 2016. In other words, this new mode is not a detour that will slow down development; it's an added bonus that will occur as a side-effect of me doing all of the work that I was going to do anyway.
The new batch of 10 rivals are fully designed and fully modeled, so I already have everything I need to drop them into the game. I don't have to wait for anything; I can dive into this task right away. I've been very excited about this idea over the past few months, and I hope that you're going to be really happy with the end result!
It's worth mentioning that I've only given you a basic summary of this upcoming gameplay mode; there are a bunch of details that I'm keeping a secret. There are very good reasons why I've been very tight-lipped about the name of this mode and the identity of the protagonist. I'd like to tell you more, but any further information might have to go into a post that is exclusive to Patrons.
Actually, that's a perfect segway into the other thing that I wanted to talk about in this post; I wanted to ask for your input on something!
First, I should let you know that it might take several weeks or possibly even multiple months to implement this new 10-week gameplay mode; I plan to make each rival as unique as possible, and ensure that each week presents a different challenge to the player. The goal, after all, is to provide players with a "10 rivals over 10 weeks" experience that fully emulates what the final game will be like.
Because this is new territory for me, it's not easy to predict how much time it's going to take to complete this task. In short, what I'm saying is that there might be a large gap between the current build and the next one. And, because I want to keep the details of this mode a complete secret, I don't plan on posting any screenshots or videos of what I'm working on. This puts me in a tricky spot:
The last thing I would ever want is for you to develop the impression that I'm not getting any work done, or that I've simply vanished. But, I'm about to go completely underground and disappear for a few weeks/months to work in secret on something that is meant to be a surprise...and I won't be able to show you any proof that I'm working on the game without spoiling my big surprise.
That makes me feel very nervous! I feel that it's very important to reassure the people who are financially supporting me that I'm still hard at work...but I don't want to post anything that would ruin the surprise. Well, I have one potential solution: Posting previews of upcoming content on Patreon...but locking these previews behind certain payment tiers.
I'll give you an example of how it might work:
- Low Tier: You get silhouettes of the new 10 rivals. You get vague text descriptions of what I'm working on.
- Mid Tier: You get blurred artwork of the new 10 rivals. You get blurred screenshots and video footage of what I'm working on.
- High Tier: You get high-resolution artwork of the new 10 rivals. You get completely un-obscured screenshots and video footage of what I'm working on.
The question is, what should each tier cost? I have to consider the possibility that if the prices are super low, trolls will join my Patreon just to leak upcoming content. I wouldn't want to set the prices so low that everyone in the world gets the upcoming mode spoiled for them, but I also wouldn't want to set the prices so high that I look greedy. So, I'd like to turn the discussion over to you!
What prices do you think would be fair? Does $10 / $20 / $30 sound good to you? If you were paying those prices, how often would you expect to see new posts? Also, what kind of rewards would you want to get for each tier? Would rival artwork and screenshots/footage suffice? If not, then what else would you want to be getting? I'd love to hear any and all feedback that you might have!
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below! Also, thank you very much for your patience, for your support, and as always, thank you for following the development of Yandere Simulator!
Comments
Away_From_Home
*It is not something you can just re-do.
Away_From_Home
When I read the blog post and everything it, I was thinking, "faster than I expected" and now we get a in depth transparency post on the patron and it's not what the whole world is probably thinking at the moment (they thinking Amai to Megami) - you do have my interest in this new concept. I don't hate the idea. I can see that some people might complain, but if you we're to throw Amai all the way to Megami in and begin revisions, you're right. It is nothing something you can just redo. I do believe you should take your time with each rival even if it requires a few month per rival. And this opposite, additional 10 rivals, different protag and no Info, use crafting would give some people something to do similar to Mission Mode, the ABC challenge (I am not a fan of the ABC tho, Mission Mode always had more appeal to me) - Can't wait for your idea to happen and be implemented!
YandereDev
I wish it was somehow easier to communicate this through Patreon's page, but $1 really meant "any amount", meaning that anyone who clicks the $1 tier can change it to $3 or $5 or whatever they prefer. Regardless of that, thank you very much for your input, I appreciate it!
Jade Annabel
Patreon has an option that payment must be offered up front, instead of at the end of the week. This was implemented specifically to stop people who joined just to leak content. The only issue is once this is implemented, you can't swap back to the previous system. I honestly suggest you implement it however, given the negativity surrounding the game. I'm a long term supporter who remembers the 'old days' where it was nothing but grey boxes and empty classrooms. I currently offer $10 a month because $5 felt too small, and $100 felt too much. With my own patreon, $20 is a tier that's pretty much labelled 'thank you for your super generous contribution' and I restrict how many people can use it, given how much it is. However, you're offering high res pictures AND video, which is pretty big. I still think $30 is a bit steep, especially if you implement the new system of payment up front. It's up to you in the end, I have faith in you and the game, I'll be here the whole time.
Sergey
I also support the projet without any regards to haters. I also not a fan of idea to add different tiers. Also I'd prefer if tiers are added all the content should be available to all of them (with some delays maybe, but not too long delays).
Soufrière
>>I do however think $10 is a little steep for silhouettes. This, I agree with. My suggestion was to have a single $15-20 tier for all the things. Anything below that would just get silhouettes by default, because even the lowest level patrons deserve text updates (so, no "silhouette tier"). And yeah, YanDev has managed over the years to attract trolls who would literally put a month's rent worth of cash into being spiteful.
Soufrière
I certainly agree that locking progress behind a higher money-tier is a good idea, if for no reason than it may give people incentive to come back, AND prove to others, as we already know, that you're good on your word. However, I also think multiple tiers might be unnecessarily complicated for you and a bit pricey if updates are sporadic. So a single intermediate "premium" tier of ~$15-20/mo (between the next-to-nothing and $100+) may be preferable. While I know I'd never leak anything, and most if not all commenters also wouldn't, you can't stop a troll from trolling. I'm guessing the reason I and most remaining Patrons are still here even after the coordinated attacks that led to your monthly take collapsing is that we believe in this project and want you and this game to succeed. Luckily I'm in a position that I can bump up my pledge to $15 or maybe $20 (any more is seriously pushing it thanks to other monthly bills). If you DO decide to do multiple content tiers, which again I don't favor, I think it would only be fair that "low-premium" patrons gain access to the blurred-out content after, say, a week-or-two delay. That's assuming of course that dissemination of leaks is kept to a minimum (as it's your IP and licenses you'd have a right to file DMCA claims but we all know that would earn you more enemies). As always, you have my support and I wish you good fortune!
We as your supporters don't have the data on the kind of feedback, positive or negative, that you get, but I feel like most of your supporters are like myself: We don't believe the claims in the smear campaigns against you and we're here no matter what with whatever financial support we can provide. Previews of what you are working on doesn't really appeal to me personally because I have faith that you will get it done and I'm willing to wait for you to do it. I watch your videos so I know why you haven't launched your crowdfunding campaign yet, but if you had launched it prior to this point I would have already put down money for it. If you do decide to do locked previews set up, I recommend just having one tier of $20 for the whole thing and call it good. Whatever you actually end up doing, best of luck and know that you have my support.
This is a great idea! Unfortunately no amount of money is going to stop a troll. I do however think $10 is a little steep for silhouettes.
Haile
Honestly, if you support a project, you shouldn't have to make demands of the individual you're supporting. You just support the project because you want it to succeed, not because you want some weekly or daily progress report. 10/20/30 sounds good to me although no dollar amount is going to block a true troll. I know people who'd spend $1,000 just to spite someone.
Stoney Garza
I believe 10 might be a decent amount for bonus previews. I certainly hope people don't take this the wrongest way possible.
i would pay $30 but id like updates weekly or even a couple of times a week for that amount of money. maybe a weekly big update where you share screenshots and videos and a few times a week you share small updates of what specifically youve been working on for the last few days?
Dragolly69
I like the amount I’m giving, but having various rewards for different amounts of money given is a really good idea! That’s exactly what most people do for kickstarters and for game development anyway!
