Cultcow EvaXephon / Yanderedev / Alex Mahan / Alexander Stuart Mahan / cannotgoogleme - Edgy weeaboo coomer with pedo tendencies and 15+ years internet history as a lolcow, now known as a disaster developer behind eternal debug build called "Yandere Simulator", confirmed groomer and dollfucker

[Cyber Bowling]

Common mistake, but procgen/rangen stuff is generally harder, not easier, to deal with both in a development and design perspective, with relatively few advantages.

A game that is procgen has to make everything generic and smooth enough so that all the pieces can be put together any which way, without stepping on each others toes. A linear design allows the designer to better control and pace the scope of what is available to the player and what they are encouraged to do and able to do at any one time. A procgen design requires a careful understanding of what and how the players engage with all the disparate mechanics of the game, to avoid creating combinations of scenarios that can be functionally impossible for a player to resolve. A linear game can assure and even advise a player that the game isn't rigged against them in RNG.

The advantages are generally only manifest in the ability to play over and over and have a different experience, but that comes with the same downside that you'll play over and over and not get the same experience, good or bad. And on top of that, your players will only experience that if they actually play multiple times. Unless the game has a short session time, like Binding of Isaac, or individual levels in other games, your players aren't likely to engage repeatedly (most people don't even finish their first play of most games, much less a dozen reruns) and all that extra content and systems you designed will go to waste.

Procgen is something I only recommend to experienced designers with an understanding of what they are doing and how it impacts their game flow. Alex can't even get linear design down, he'd never fucking figure out solid procgen design.

Oh, I 100% agree that it is harder to design then a linear game, and well above anything Alex can do, since, well, we've seen he can't even make a linear game. This was just some fun "what if" theory crafting.

I really can't think of a way for Alex to salvage the game that doesn't involve starting over and handing it to a new team, which he's implied is his plan in the past, but given how he botched the TinyBuild stuff, who knows if that will happen. It feels like he has no idea what to do next, since he's really dragging his feet on getting that kickstarter going. I wouldn't be surprised if he plans to just coast by on Patreon bux while pretending to do critical bug fixes until the project just finally dies.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

I really can't think of a way for Alex to salvage the game that doesn't involve starting over and handing it to a new team, which he's implied is his plan in the past, but given how he botched the TinyBuild stuff, who knows if that will happen.

Even starting it over and handing it to a new team wouldn't fix it. As we've discussed in depth, the projects failures are not just in architecture and code standards, but also design. Now Alex has made it VERY clear in his videos that what he would love to do is hand off the development effort to peons, while being the project lead and creative lead. He does not want to, nor does he seem to intend to or even be inclined to consider giving up creative control of the project. He only seeks minions to do the lifting to build his vision, a behavior we see repeated to great lengths in his use of volunteers.

Now there may be some opinion that the publisher will prevent this, but history is not on that side. We're lucky enough to have at least a partial history of the TinyBuild situation, in which he was so controlling that he wouldn't allow the programmer to change the architecture of existing gameplay implementations. Not the mechanics, just the coding, at the cost of a few weeks of reduced scope easter eggs. He'd rather the agreement sink, in its entirety, than to allow anything from his garbage code to his mediocre update schedule to so much as shift; much less substantially change. If he's willing to flip the nuclear contract abort over That, then what hope is there for someone to come in and drop a "Your entire gameplay loop is fundamentally flawed" and actually have anything come from it.

Even if Alex becomes so desperate for funds that he agrees to concessions, it won't help. He'll either yield in the places it matters, and you'll end up with some designed by committee dross and likely a community chimpout when Alex decides to publicly decry these decisions. Or, he'll yield where it doesn't matter, drag his feet, and we'll get the same crap with less panty shots. More likely, he'll drag his feet on all of the above, and 505 exercises an escape clause in the contract and bails. Maybe if they're lucky they'll get to keep the kickstarter money if its progressed that far.

 

[Catgirls are Love]

Even if Alex becomes so desperate for funds that he agrees to concessions, it won't help. He'll either yield in the places it matters, and you'll end up with some designed by committee dross and likely a community chimpout when Alex decides to publicly decry these decisions. Or, he'll yield where it doesn't matter, drag his feet, and we'll get the same crap with less panty shots. More likely, he'll drag his feet on all of the above, and 505 exercises an escape clause in the contract and bails. Maybe if they're lucky they'll get to keep the kickstarter money if its progressed that far.

At this point in time I'm unsure if 505 is still involved with Alex in any fashion. Alex's initial pitch to them of releasing the demo in summer, doing a month of bugfixing then launching the Kickstarter has come and gone with only mentions of doing crowdfunding but no real action other than finally kicking the first rival out of the plane. There's reasonable odds they may have done a review of their potential investment, looked at Alex's pace of development/how he develops and seen the...varied reactions to the demo and decided they might be better off to not be involved. If the crowdfunding campaign doesn't begin within the next month or two, I think it's a safe assumption that Alex and 505 have likely parted ways.

 

[A Sign]

But if they didn't how much would 505 try to screw him over? like its can't be any worse than what hes doing now

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

At this point in time I'm unsure if 505 is still involved with Alex in any fashion. Alex's initial pitch to them of releasing the demo in summer, doing a month of bugfixing then launching the Kickstarter has come and gone with only mentions of doing crowdfunding but no real action other than finally kicking the first rival out of the plane. There's reasonable odds they may have done a review of their potential investment, looked at Alex's pace of development/how he develops and seen the...varied reactions to the demo and decided they might be better off to not be involved. If the crowdfunding campaign doesn't begin within the next month or two, I think it's a safe assumption that Alex and 505 have likely parted ways.

Its hard to say, as a lot of companies and industries have accepted some significant timeline shifts and shuffles due to the coof. Otherwise I'd be trying to find their fiscal year period, and if we'd passed the end of that without this happening, I'd say its missed.

But as it stands, the fact he released a demo at all and then did the closest Alex has ever done to crunch by skipping a few days of streaming to patch, tells me he's working towards some timeline and not just his ego. Whether that timeline is a financial crunch because shits falling down, or a kickstarter crunch to meet a contractual obligation, who knows at this time.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

Its hard to say, as a lot of companies and industries have accepted some significant timeline shifts and shuffles due to the coof. Otherwise I'd be trying to find their fiscal year period, and if we'd passed the end of that without this happening, I'd say its missed.

But as it stands, the fact he released a demo at all and then did the closest Alex has ever done to crunch by skipping a few days of streaming to patch, tells me he's working towards some timeline and not just his ego. Whether that timeline is a financial crunch because shits falling down, or a kickstarter crunch to meet a contractual obligation, who knows at this time.

That could be due to the Love Letter development. After it's cancellation it seems that Alex got back to his old ways. Also, if 505 dumps his ass, he will post about this, of course taking all the blame away from himself.

 

[Audioponics🎵⛲]

That could be due to the Love Letter development. After it's cancellation it seems that Alex got back to his old ways. Also, if 505 dumps his ass, he will post about this, of course taking all the blame away from himself.

Why would he post about something he purposefully kept hidden from his fanbase? We only know because of the leak. The TinyBuild partnership was proudly announced in a video on his channel. He had to cancel that publicly.

I think he didn't announce the 505 thing, because it was shakey. No need to let the fanbase know about it till its a done deal.

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

Why would he post about something he purposefully kept hidden from his fanbase?

Because it's not a secret anymore.

 

[Chariot Of Mara]

That could be due to the Love Letter development. After it's cancellation it seems that Alex got back to his old ways. Also, if 505 dumps his ass, he will post about this, of course taking all the blame away from himself.

Agree about Love Letter being the only reason for any progress. Has Alex flat out stated 505 was helping him? I know we got the company from leaked emails, but I thought Alex had only ever alluded to it as “I have two companies interested in Yandere Sim’s development.”
If 505 drops him I wouldn’t be surprised if either Alex stays absolutely silent about it, or says “It didn’t work out. Creative differences.” Aka They wanted to take out my fetish material and have me actually do work.

 

[odumegwu]

Since Alex is being boring recently, I've been wondering how to make a Yandere-Simulator-like game that is fun and I realized that the main reason YS is boring is having fixed rivals.
Run to rival #1 in Monday morning, slam with a baseball bat, burn the bat, week #1 done. Run to rival #2 in Monday morning, stab with scissors, burn the scissors, week #2 done. Rinse and repeat. The only way Alex attempts to make the gameplay more varied is by throwing random obstacles, which is more frustrating than fun.

Now what if.
There are still fixed rivals, but only like 5 of them, not 10. But they are just to give the game a semblance of the plot and serve as key bosses. The main meat of the game is that every single non-lesbian female student may become a rival, and Ayano should be busy either matchmaking them with male students, ruining their reputation, ruining their opinion of Tarou, and most importantly, building a gossip network that lets her know which of the girls is starting to become a danger. And killing would still be there, just as an ultimate solution for when nothing else works.

This would let the devs spread the plot thinner, give some characterization to more characters, make most of the students actually useful, and give the player something more interesting to do than following a paid-with-pantyshots paint-by-numbers scheme.

I remember suggesting something very similar way back ago in Logan thread. Additionally, I suggested not making tight schedule one-rival-per-week, but giving 3 months in total, for example. Player would eliminate rivals at his own tempo as he would see it fit. Making rivals like Alex did is just painting big target shield on their back. It would be nice if player would have to do some sleuthing as well. Or stalking. Obviously, it wouldn't be easy, but when you consider how Alex made a sandbox game, yet rivals - the most important thing in the game - are the least sandboxy of them all...

 

[A Sign]

Oh look

 

[Kosher Dill]

I remember suggesting something very similar way back ago in Logan thread. Additionally, I suggested not making tight schedule one-rival-per-week, but giving 3 months in total, for example.

And I suggested going the other way - you should have to eliminate all the rivals simultaneously with one Rube Goldberg-esque deathtrap scenario. You have as many "Groundhog Day" repeats as you want to observe the students, plot your plots, and test your traps, but the actual Big Day has to take out everyone at once while you're sitting at your desk in class.
"Osana gets poisoned and falls into the pool, the Swim Club sends someone to save her but the pool water's been electrified and they get shocked to death, then the circuit breakers blow out and the Electronics Club runs to the basement to see what's up but someone spilled grease on the stairs and they fall and break their necks..."

 

[Juan But Not Forgotten]

Why would he post about something he purposefully kept hidden from his fanbase? We only know because of the leak. The TinyBuild partnership was proudly announced in a video on his channel. He had to cancel that publicly.

I think he didn't announce the 505 thing, because it was shakey. No need to let the fanbase know about it till its a done deal.

Agree about Love Letter being the only reason for any progress. Has Alex flat out stated 505 was helping him? I know we got the company from leaked emails, but I thought Alex had only ever alluded to it as “I have two companies interested in Yandere Sim’s development.”
If 505 drops him I wouldn’t be surprised if either Alex stays absolutely silent about it, or says “It didn’t work out. Creative differences.” Aka They wanted to take out my fetish material and have me actually do work.

Wait, was he completely silent? I remember, he said something in his discord like "Ok, I've talked to publisher and if I make some minor changes, we will have a deal and can go to kickstarter" or something like this. So maybe he is yet to sign anything.

 

[PlasticOwls]

However, now that Love Letter is no longer a thing, both the user I'm talking about and all of the kiwis here (including me) have noted that Alex has significantly relaxed on updating YanSim and essentially working on it at all. Wonder why? It's because Alex no longer has a competitor threatening to usurp the spotlight

So you're telling me the key to making Alex do anything is to pretend to make a game faster than he is?

I kept joking that if Alex didn't finish Yandere Simulator by 2020, id give it shot, but with how repulsive the game idea is now to me years later, I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[Diesel Boogaloo]

Why would he post about something he purposefully kept hidden from his fanbase? We only know because of the leak.

Has Alex flat out stated 505 was helping him? I know we got the company from leaked emails, but I thought Alex had only ever alluded to it as “I have two companies interested in Yandere Sim’s development.”

The leaked emails suggested that 505 partnership was supposed to be kept under wraps until the Kickstarter succeeds. They don't want their name attached to a failed project after all.

Talking about the KS, the idea here would be that we agree on the general conditions and sign a deal to work together before any KS, with 505 involvement granted if the KS reaches a certain threshold of backers and/or money. Any copy of the game sold here will be counted as a presale of the game and calculated against the development costs.

We will be a “hidden partner” during the KS, so we’ll be available to help, but the company should not be associated with the project until we don’t commit to it. And as it would be unfair to leave everything on your shoulders for this, we’ll be happy to contribute to any expense you need to sustain for the KS with a sum of 40 or 50K$ (that of course will not be asked back no matter what happens, but if the KS succeed will be counted as a recoupable expense).

 

[SIGSEGV]

but with how repulsive the game idea is now to me years later, I'm not so sure anymore

There's also the curse to consider.

 

[SIGSEGV]

Just me and my daddy, hanging out I got pretty hungry so I started to pout He asked if I was down ⬇for something yummy and I asked what and he said he'd give me his cummies! Yeah! Yeah! I drink them! I slurp them! I swallow them whole It makes daddy happy so it's my only goal... Harder daddy! Harder daddy! 1 cummy, 2 cummy, 3 cummy, 4 I'm daddy's princess but I'm also a whore! He makes me feel squishy!He makes me feel good! He makes me feel everything a game dev should!~ Wa-What!

 

[The end is nigh]

Just me and my daddy, hanging out I got pretty hungry so I started to pout He asked if I was down ⬇for something yummy and I asked what and he said he'd give me his cummies! Yeah! Yeah! I drink them! I slurp them! I swallow them whole It makes daddy happy so it's my only goal... Harder daddy! Harder daddy! 1 cummy, 2 cummy, 3 cummy, 4 I'm daddy's princess but I'm also a whore! He makes me feel squishy!He makes me feel good! He makes me feel everything a game dev should!~ Wa-What!

This is what I normally expect from kiwifarms but God damn man. That caught me off guard.

I need a shower and 3 fucking bottles of Bacardi.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Just me and my daddy, hanging out I got pretty hungry so I started to pout He asked if I was down ⬇for something yummy and I asked what and he said he'd give me his cummies! Yeah! Yeah! I drink them! I slurp them! I swallow them whole It makes daddy happy so it's my only goal... Harder daddy! Harder daddy! 1 cummy, 2 cummy, 3 cummy, 4 I'm daddy's princess but I'm also a whore! He makes me feel squishy!He makes me feel good! He makes me feel everything a game dev should!~ Wa-What!

You ought to be in jail, and you deserve every moment of it.

 

[SIGSEGV]

You ought to be in jail, and you deserve every moment of it.

I regret nothing.