March 15th Amai Progress Report

Amai's Befriend/Betray elimination method is 100% finished! No further work needs to be done on it.

The Befriend/Betray elimination method is one of the most elaborate elimination methods, requiring more assets, time, and work than almost anything else in the rival's week, with the exception of the 15+ Senpai interaction events.

The Befriend/Betray content that is now fully functional is:

• The player can eavesdrop on a private conversation involving Amai to learn about her "Dark Secret."
• The player can do a task for Amai and make friends with her.
• The player can leave a note in Amai's locker and arrange a meeting about her Dark Secret.
• The player can have a conversation with Amai about her Dark Secret.
• The player can travel to a new environment and complete a stealth mission to infiltrate a building and complete an objective. The stealth mission involves seven NPCs and four different ways to enter the building.
• The player can watch a cutscene where Amai and Ayano exchange text messages about the successful stealth mission.
• The player can watch a "visual novel"-style cutscene where Amai expresses her gratitude towards Ayano and Ayano has the opportunity to either befriend or betray Amai.

Return of Visual Novel Cutscenes

The final item on the list above is probably not something you were expecting - the return of "visual novel"-style cutscenes. Long-term fans of the game may remember that, once upon a time, I planned to tell the entire game's story through visual novel cutscenes, and uploaded a few examples to YouTube.

Now that the inclusion of animated cutscenes / voice acting is no longer a guarantee, I've decided to depict the Befriend/Betray event in the format of a visual novel rather than a elaborate cutscene.

(It took 2 weeks to fully implement Osana's Befriend/Betray cutscene, but it only took 1 day to get this visual novel cutscene functional. Making time-saving decisions like this will help the remaining rivals get implemented in a reasonable span of time.)

Other Amai Progress

Even though the Befriend/Betray elimination method has dominated this blog post so far, it actually didn't dominate the past 2 weeks. The majority of the past 14 days were actually spent on other aspects of Amai's week:

• All of Amai's "Senpai Interaction Events" have been fully designed.
• All of the dialogue for those events has been written - including the "sabotaged" outcomes for each event, which enable the Rejection elimination method.
• I have begun the process of re-positioning characters around the school environment to serve as "living security cameras" so that it's not too easy to eliminate Amai without being spotted by witnesses.
• I've decided that all 202X rivals post-Osana will use the 1980s Mode "system" of starting their day by putting their bookbag on their desk, and letting the player rummage through that bookbag for useful information, and I've begun the process of getting this feature functional for Amai.
• When Amai arrives at school, Shoko stops being the Cooking Club Leader, and Amai starts being the Cooking Club leader.
• I've decided that any "club leader rival" will begin their week with an event where they either address their clubmembers or react to the closure of their club while they were absent from school, and I've implemented this event for Amai.
• I've begun the process of properly implementing the "Bake Sale" event; Amai's clubmembers will travel to the Home Ec room, make desserts, and transport them to the Bake Sale table in the school plaza.

Miscellaneous Amai Details

Aside from everything mentioned above, I also did a lot of small, miscellaneous things that might not be significant, but may be appreciated by members of the community who appreciate it when a developer pays attention to details:

• Just like how all of the 1980s Mode rivals had unique diaries, Amai's diary uses a unique texture that suits her color scheme and personality.
• After Amai's week begins, the Gift Shop in town begins selling new accessories that cater to Amai's tastes.
• Amai's phone has a unique phone charm.
• Amai's bookbag uses a unique texture.
• Amai's phone uses a unique texture.

Delivery of New Assets

Amai's events will require the creation of completely new 3D assets that the game didn't have before. I've already requested and received the assets I'll need for these events - you can find renders for some of these assets in the gallery above. I'm extremely happy with the 3D artists that I'm currently working with, and I hope that I'll be working with them for a long time to come!

Amai Release Date Estimate

I have an estimate for when Amai will be finished!

...however, I will not be announcing that estimate, neither publicly nor privately. If my calculations turn out to be inaccurate, and Amai will be in development for longer than I've estimated, there could be a strong negative reaction from people who are disappointed that they have to wait longer than anticipated. To avoid this outcome, I'd rather just not make any kind of announcements about my estimate at all until I'm about 1 or 2 weeks away from her release.

Privately, I will aim for a specific deadline, plan my schedule accordingly, and hold myself to it. Publicly, I will not be announcing anything, because I feel that nothing good would come from doing so. I hope that you can understand my reasoning.

In Closing

Progress on Amai has been moving along at a slightly slower pace than I had initially expected, but I'm still making a lot of tangible, measurable, demonstrable progress every day, and I'm eagerly anticipating the day I can unveil all of it to the world!

Thank you very much for continuing to support the development of Yandere Simulator!