Yandere Simulator

About

Yandere Simulator is a stealth-action video game developed by YandereDev. In the game, players control a Japanese highschool student named Ayano "Yan-Chan" Aishi, who must eliminate other students who compete for her love interest.

Yandere

Yandere refers to a popular anime character archetype (typically female), used to describe someone who is consumed by infatuation for another. Yandere characters often appear normal at the beginning of a storyline, then progressively become more obsessed, sometimes reacting violently to perceived threats. The term is a portmanteau of the Japanese words "yanderu" ("sick" or "mentally ill" in English) and "deredere." Examples of yandere characters include Kotonoha Kastura from School Days and Yuno Gasai from Mirai Nikki.

History

The earliest reference to the game can be found on a thread submitted on April 1st, 2014 on 4chan's video game board /v/, where the original poster proposed a brainstorm for a "yandere simulator".^[4] During the following days, several threads about the game's development were submitted.^[5][6][7]

On April 4th, a game development blog^[2] was launched, along with a post linking to a FAQ section explaining the game.^[1][4] The same day, the developer created a YouTube account,^[14] gaining over 160,000 1.2 million subscribers in the next three years. The first video uploaded to the channel demonstrates an early prototype build of the game showing a simple combat system. On April 16th, YandereDev released Yandere Clicker, an incremental game in which the main character stabs her "senpai."^[8] On August 1st, the YandereDev Patreon^[17] page was launched, which gathers upwards of $5,000 per month in donations.

On February 28th, 2015, the Yandere Dev YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "How To Get Away With Murder In Yandere Simulator," showcasing how to kill a rival girl in the game (shown below, left). Each time an update is released for the game, the developer usually uploads a video to YouTube covering all the new content that has been added. These updates have been regular occurrences, being released on the 1st and 15th of each month. On July 1st, Yandere Dev uploaded a video titled "Let's Examine Natsuiro High School" in which he plays through the game analyzing various aspects that may be useful to have in Yandere Simulator (shown below, right).

Twitch Ban

On January 21st, 2016, Twitch added Yandere Simulator to their list of prohibited games. The following day, YandereDev uploaded a video announcing the game's Twitch ban (shown below).

On January 22nd, 2017, the Yandere Dev YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "A Warning To All Game Developers," which argued that the game's ban was unreasonable (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gained over 644,000 views and 28,000 comments. That day, the video reached the front page of /r/videos.^[16]

Parodies

On April 1st, 2015, YandereDev uploaded two April Fools videos. One video introduces a new game titled Kuudere Simulator in which the character sits in a room doing nothing, which also features a hidden tsundere mode. The other video is a parody of the trailer for the controversial shooter Hatred (shown below, right).

Online Presence

In late January 2015, YouTuber AzzMan^[15] began uploading a series of videos about the game. On March 30th, 2015, YouTuber PewDiePie posted the first of several Yandere Simulator Let's Play videos (shown below, left). On June 1st, the YouTuber Markiplier uploaded a similar gameplay video (shown below, right).. On July 24th, artist Jo-Shu uploaded a fancomic of the game, which was reported on the development blog a day later.^[13]

The game has a following on sites like Tumblr^[10] and 4chan^[3] and its own Wikia page.^[12] On April 2nd, 2015, a subreddit dedicated to the game was created, gaining over 700 subscribers in less than four months.^[9] On DeviantArt, numerous fan arts related to the game have been created.^[11]

Along with the game-related fanart and fan made content, there's also crossover fanart with some YouTubers PewDiePie and Markiplier.

Search Interest

External References