Potential Game Design Change
I'm considering a change to one aspect of Yandere Simulator's game design.
Currently, the "Gossip" feature works like this: To damage your rival's reputation, speak to a student and say negative things about your rival.
This feature functions just fine, but there's a problem: It's tedious. The gameplay boils down to "speak to NPC, mash through dialogue, speak to NPC, mash through dialogue..." it's functional, but it's not fun. It would be better if the process was less brain-dead, and involved more meaningful actions and choices.
Here's a concept that came to mind: To damage your rival's reputation, you'll need to blame them for something bad that happened at school by fabricating evidence. I'll provide an example.
Find a marker. Drop it in the outdoor cafeteria. Approach your rival. Tell her that you lost a marker in the outdoor cafeteria, and ask her to look for it. She will find the marker in the cafeteria and pick it up. When she does this, take a photo of her. After she returns the marker to you, use the marker to put nasty graffiti all over the outdoor cafeteria. Then, use the photo of the rival holding the marker in the outdoor cafeteria to frame her for the graffiti.
I think that this concept could definitely work out. However, I wouldn't want the player to be forced to perform the marker process over and over, because then it would eventually become just as boring and tedious as the current gossip process. So, ideally, I'd like to have a whole bunch of different "frame for misbehavior" options that the player can choose from.
To reduce the amount of code that needs to be written, it would be best if every "frame for misbehavior" option involves the same steps. For example...
Pretend to lose marker, get rival to pick up marker, take photo, use marker to vandalize area, blame the rival for it.
Pretend to be helping a student find their lost shoes, get rival to pick up shoes, take photo, vandalize the shoes, frame the rival for bullying that student.
Potentially, if I could come up with a whole bunch of different "frame for misbehavior" situations that all follow this exact same formula (obtain item, drop item in location, tell rival to go interact with item, photograph rival with item, do something bad with item) then it would be very easy to implement this feature in the game using just one "modular" script that gives the player many different ways to frame their rival.
I'd only want to implement this feature if I could think of 10 different "frame for misbehavior" situations so that the player could use a different framing process on each rival. (Ideally, it would be possible to implement this feature without requesting any new assets, and by simply re-purposing existing assets.)
I'm not ready to promise or guarantee that this change will come to the game, but I think that the gossip feature is probably one of the weakest and lamest parts of the game, and if I had to think of ways to improve it, this is what I'd go with.
Any thoughts?
Comments (24)
Of course it's something I'd like, since I too emailed you such a suggestion a while ago, to make bullying a worthier elimination. Looking forward to when this changes creep into the game
Hey dev, do you think, without promising anything of course, that Kizana could be released in 2025?
It's looking less and less likely. It's heavily dependent on things that are completely outside of my control.
Just an interesting question I thought of! What are the gaming club members’s favorite games?
Probably fictional games that only exist within the Yandere Sim universe. Like, instead of Minecraft, it's Digbuild or something. For Pippi and Ryuto it'd be rhythm games. For Mai and Midori it'd probably be some gacha game. For Gema, probably an MMO.
Hello! I have a question. If you can, would you tell me about some of the timelines that exist in the yansim universe and their differences from the main timeline?
I sometimes change the names of these timelines, but... Timeline 0: Base timeline. Our world. Timeline 1: The first timeline with a deviation from our timeline, but I can't say exactly what happens in this timeline, because it's a spoiler. Timeline 2: Saisho Saikou exists, invents the transistor and a bunch of other technology, has two daughters. Timeline 3: Saisho Saikou only has one daughter. 1980s Mode takes place, 202X Mode takes place. Timeline 3-H: "Happy Ending" Timeline. Ui never rats on Ryoba. Ryoba eliminates 9 rivals, confesses to Jokichi. Timeline 3-M: "1980s Mission Mode" Timeline. Sumire kills Jokichi, Ryoba starts working for hte Yakuza. Timeline 3-2X: The moment before gameplay begins. This is the point at which the timeline can branch farther. Timeline 3-2X-P: The timeline you're in if you play through the game as a pacifist. Timeline 3-2X-G: The Genocide Ending timeline. Timeline 3-2X-M: The Mission Mode timeline. Ayano murders Taro, begins working as an assassin for Info-chan. Etc.
Hey! 1. Can I ask how many endings you plan on adding to yandere simulator and what they would be like or what would trigger it? 2. How many parts will the retribution manga be and when is the next part coming out?
1. The answer I wrote here is pretty much the best answer I can give to this question: https://yanderesimulator.com/about/ 2. Three at most. No clue when the next part will come out. Dependent on artist, not me.
In the mission mode timeline, 1. Since Ryoba killed her Senpai, who would be Ayano’s dad? 2. Are the Aishi’s a family of skilled assasins that don’t have the condition? 3. What would be their origin in that timeline?
1. Ryoba would be single forever and Ayano would never be born. 2. Some Aishi lived as assassins. Not all. 3. I don't understand.
Hello! In the timeline where Ryoba gets her happy ending, what is the canon elimination for each rival?
I've never thought about it, since it's an alternate timeline and not the main timeline. Ryoba probably befriends each rival. (Who, ideally, would each have a different befriend/betray mission.)
I think this idea is great and a lot more involved! However, a feature that has long gone under-utilised is the "social media" feature - currently we can only post from the computer at night, but if we could post from our phones directly after taking a picture, for example of the rival vomiting or carrying something dangerous, that'd be super useful. There could even be an Info-Chan option to "boost" your current post. I think making an actual post on social media of someone doing something strange would be a bit weird, so maybe limiting it to posting a "story" from phones would be effective?
Valid suggestion.
I think there are a few flaws for the "framing a rival for graffiti" concept. The biggest one being that, well, wouldn't it cause a rival to get immediately expelled? Or at least in some sort of big punishment? I think that process is cool and entertaining, but for gossip and public humiliation, it should be something a lot more embarrassing if that makes sense. That's also why the embarrassing secret , like writing cringey fanfiction, boosts the effect of our gossip. Because it's genuinely humiliating and makes the rival want to curl up in a ball and die. Also, I just think that the "framing" concept isn't that efficient, I mean it's a huge school with a ton of supplies probably, it would be pretty casual and natural if someone just picked up a marker. Also....why would the bullies even care that the rival drew on the walls, when they do the same exact things on desks? I just feel like they couldn't care less if that happened. What do you think? So, I have a proposal. Maybe, the player could already use the existing mechanics in-game to embarrass your rival. You could take photos of them vomiting, covered in brown paint, covered in blood so that she develops the reputation as a dangerous person, etc. You could then post these pictures on social media. This would be super effective, I imagine that an embarrassing photo of a girl throwing up would make the bullies go crazy. I've mentioned this on the server, and people seemed to agree with this idea. Thoughts?
I was imagining this: If you report the student to the counselor, it would count towards getting the student expelled. (Five infractions are necessary to expel someone.) If you just spread nasty gossip about the student, it won't get them expelled, and will just damage their reputation. Why would bullies think less of a rival for graffiti, when bullies do that themselves? Easy. They're hypocrites. They're bullies, not good people. I understand how pictures of a student vomiting / covered in brown paint could also be used to embarrass them. I think of this as an extra additional bonus way to damage reputation, rather than the one and only mechanic for it.
I love this idea! Definitely more fun and realistic than spamming 'this student loves violence'. I think focus on adding kizana first and then go through with these ideas as fun updates in between waiting for the next rival
This would be really fun honestly, Gossiping is actually kinda boring cause we just spam the rival likes Violence that’s basically the cheat lol. How about on the Social Media app or Ayano’s PC we can leak the Rivals Embarrassing Secret In 1980s mode it’s basically the same thing we already have but alittle bit more entertaining if we ruin a rival’s reputation in the newspaper club what if we actually Leak there Embarrassing secret there too, and then there secret gets on the Daily Newspaper in the hallway for people to see.🤭
Maybe you could take a photo of your rival doing something embarrassing or something that looks shady out of context and post it to either social media or info chan and get it sent to every single student who will begin gossiping
Well, that's the issue. Either I have to 1. Design each rival routine so that, at some point in time, they do something embarrassing that the player can photograph. The player just has to follow the rival around and wait for it to happen. or... 2. Give the player the ability to manipulate their rival into doing something that is harmless within context, but can be used as evidence to frame them for something they never did. Between these two options, I prefer the 2nd one.
I really love this new framing idea — it's way more engaging than the current gossip system. But I just wanted to share one concern: If the core structure (get item → drop it → trick rival into picking it up → take photo → commit misbehavior → frame rival) stays the same across all scenarios, it might eventually become repetitive too — just like the current gossip mechanic. Maybe introducing some variations in the steps or consequences could help keep it fresh. Still, I think this is a fantastic direction overall! (And sorry if my English sounds awkward — I’m not a native speaker 😅)
I understand your suggestion. The feature would be much easier to add to the game if all events use the same core structure. However, I do acknowledge the possibility that this could make the feature become repetitive. I'll continue to consider this. (Your English sounds fine to me!)
If you do decide to go through with this it would be amazing to see and really fun! It's an amazing idea to think about and it would be cool if it's possible to do something like this.