Debunk

Read Me First

Before we begin, it's crucial that you understand my situation.

For about 5 years now, I've been dealing with many different forms of harassment. People spam me with pictures of bestiality / animal abuse, prank call my phone, send weird things to my house, hack my accounts, and send me messages advising me to kill myself. There has been one occasion when someone submitted false reports to the police in an attempt to get the SWAT team to show up at my house. People have also done much worse things that I have never publicly disclosed, but I won't describe those things here, because I know that they did these things for attention, and acknowledging them here would only encourage them to intensify their harassment.

The reason why these things happen to me is because YouTubers have made videos portraying me as a villain, which has had the side-effect of convincing hundreds of thousands of people to believe that I deserve to receive harassment.

The fastest way to get attention and money on the Internet is to make scandalous accusations about a person with a lot of followers. I have 2.7 million subscribers, so I am an attractive target to make scandalous drama videos about. I've become a target for dishonest YouTubers who make tabloid-style videos in pursuit of attention and money.

The content of these videos is 1% criticism and 99% cruelty. These YouTubers display forum posts I made in 2007, photographs I took of myself as a minor, stories I wrote as a teenage kid, and mistakes I made up to 9 years ago. It's common for these videos to take my words out of context, cherry-pick information that will make me look as bad as possible, and sometimes just make completely false accusations with zero evidence to back up the claims.

As you will learn by scrolling down this page, it is trivially easy to debunk the misinformation and false accusations in these videos. However, whenever I speak up in my defense, people rarely listen to what I have to say. Keeping me in the category of "demonic villain who does not deserve compassion" will ensure that it's always possible to make highly profitable videos about me, so no YouTuber is interested in listening to my side of the story. They are only interested in portraying me as an evil monster.

When you make a video to ridicule, shame, humiliate, degrade, and dehumanize a person, you convince hundreds of thousands of people that the subject of your video deserves to be treated like garbage. Although it may sound melodramatic, it's not an exaggeration to say that these videos have made it impossible for me to live in peace. I receive an overwhelming avalanche of harassment on a daily basis, and the harassment only becomes more intense with the passage of time. It is clear that the harassment will never go away, and that nothing I can do will ever fix it or stop it.

Please keep this information in mind when reading the text below. Knowing my situation is crucial to understanding why I have said certain things or acted in certain ways.

YandereDev is rude to his fans, and refuses to apologize!

In short: 99.98% of the time, my interactions with fans are perfectly civil. The other 0.02% occured under very stressful circumstances, and it would be unreasonable to judge me for those interactions.

Please read the "Read Me First" text above before proceeding.

If you are harassed and abused for an extended period of time, it's eventually going to affect your mood. If your mood gets bad enough, it will cloud your judgement and affect how you speak to others. There have been times when, while I was under a lot of stress due to the constant harassment, I said something rude to another person. But, this is not an indication that I'm a bad guy; it's an indication that if a person is treated like garbage for several years, it will begin to affect their behavior.

I have about 600 interactions with fans per month. Yandere Simulator has been in development for over 80 months; that means I've had more than 48,000 interactions with fans.

Once or twice per year, I have a negative interaction with a fan. It's possible to find screenshots and video clips of these extremely rare negative interactions. However, this does not change the fact that I've had over 48,000 positive interactions. The negative interactions account for less than 0.01% of my total interactions.

Clickbait drama YouTubers have attempted to claim that these negative interactions represent how I treat people. That doesn't make sense; that's like accusing me of being an alcoholic because I drank two beers over the course of one year. It's simply not reasonable to say that I treat my fans badly just because there were a handful of interactions that went poorly.

Every day, I recieve messages like "I hope you die in a fire," "I hope you get raped to death by dogs," "I hope your whole family gets AIDS," etc. The most rude thing I've ever said to another person is tame compared to the abuse that I receive on a daily basis.

When someone contacts me and says, "Hey YandereDev, you said something rude to me in the past, and it hurt me a lot." I feel bad about it, and I naturally feel compelled to apologize to them. So far, I've said "I'm sorry" to every single person who has approached me and confronted me about something rude I've said to them in the past.

I don't think it's reasonable to judge me for being rude just a handful of times, after I was put through prolonged harassment and abuse for several years. With that said, I'm always willing to speak one-on-one with anyone that feels hurt by something I've said, and if I regret what I've said to them, I will apologize to them directly.

YandereDev is a bad programmer!

In short: At the beginning of Yandere Simulator's development, my goal was to quickly create a rough proof-of-concept that could be used for pitching the game on Kickstarter. During that period of time, writing efficient and optimized code was not a priority, since I was not planning for any of that code to be in the final version of the game. Using screenshots of my code from that period of time to portray me as a bad programmer is misleading.

At many points throughout development, Yandere Simulator shapeshifted from one type of project into a different type of project.

In the beginning, in April of 2014, I was planning to make a small, short, simple game that could be completed within 8 months.

Gradually, I increased the scope of the game; it began to morph into a large and complex project that would need team members and money in order to complete. I considered launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise a budget. However, around that point in time, several high-profile crowdfunded projects turned out to be massive disappointments, and a lot of people were losing faith in crowdfunded projects.

I decided that I shouldn't launch a crowdfunding campaign until I could prove to people, "I won't be like those other projects that failed!" I felt that the best way to do this was to develop a feature-complete demo. A "playable proof-of-concept" that would allow people to experience a rough approximation of the planned gameplay. I felt that, if Yandere Simulator was a tangible thing that people could download and play, rather than just a concept being described in a video presentation, they would be more likely to contribute to a crowdfunding campaign.

So, my plan shifted from "make a short and simple game in 8 months" to "build a demo, release the demo, then launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund the actual game."

During that point in time, my mentality was, "I'm not building the final game right now. I'm just building a proof-of-concept. None of the code that I'm writing right will matter in the future. None of this code will be in the final game. None of this code needs to be clean or efficient. All of this code exists purely so that I can show people a rough approximation of what the final game is meant to be like. I'm building something that will allow me to communicate my vision for the final game, and nothing more."

It's also worth mentioning that, at this point in time, I felt a strong obligation to upload videos to YouTube on a regular basis. In order to maintain a steady and frequent upload schedule, I implemented features in a quick and sloppy way, functioning just well enough for me to record some footage and say, "See? This is a feature I plan for the final game to have."

It's like I was using Unity was a movie studio where I recorded footage depicting my game concept, rather than actually building a game.

As the months passed, however, Yandere Simulator shapeshifted again - but this time, it happened very gradually, slowly, over time.

Because the game was intended to have dozens of features, building a feature-complete demo required me to implement a tremendous number of systems, mechanics, and assets. As I put features into the game one by one, my "playable proof-of-concept" gradually started to become an actual piece of the final game. Around this point in time, I started to use the term "V-Slice" to refer to what I was making.

The game morphed from "rough proof-of-concept that exists so I can record footage" to "an actual piece of the final game." But, a lot of the "rough proof-of concept" code remained in the game for quite a while. And, whenever someone used third-party tools to open up the game's files and looked at the oldest and least-efficient code from the earliest stages of the game's development, they drew the conclusion that I was "bad at writing code."

In short, any inefficient or sub-optimal code was written during a phase of the game's development where I was entirely convinced that I wasn't actually building the final game, and was simply building a rough proof-of-concept that would allow me to record footage for YouTube and pitch an idea on Kickstarter. It was code that I didn't take seriously, because I thought would be deleting it in a few months.

In present day, the vast majority of any code I write for the game is written with efficiency and optimization in mind, and a lot of old code has been re-written to be much more efficient.

Whenever someone posts a screenshot of Yandere Simulator's code and says "Look how bad his code is!" they usually post a screenshot of ancient code that was re-written years ago.

If someone digs through the game's scripts in modern day and finds inefficient / sub-optimal code that remains in the game from the old days, that code is usually in a script that only runs for 1 frame, and thus it doesn't actually have any meaningful impact on the game. When code is executing its intended purpose without a problem, and changing it / updating it would have zero impact on the game's performance, there is simply no reason to waste time going back and refactoring it.

Furthermore, it is also worth mentioning that many of the allegations that have been made about my code are factually incorrect. I've written a page about that subject here: https://yanderesimulator.com/code/

YandereDev fired a tinyBuild programmer!

In short: No, I didn't.

I never wanted to work with a publisher. I always saw it as something that is completely unnecessary in this day and age, when it's extremely easy for an independent developer to self-publish on platforms like Steam. However, for three reasons, I decided to work with a publisher.

Yandere Simulator is banned from Twitch.tv, the biggest streaming website on the Internet. tinyBuild told me that if I signed up with them, they would try to get the game unbanned from Twitch. tinyBuild also offered to hire a programmer to help me develop Yandere Simulator. I also thought that, if I signed up with tinyBuild, maybe the people who were harassing me would recognize me as a success, and would finally back off and leave me alone. Because of these three reasons (getting the game unbanned, getting programming assistance, and ending harassment), I decided to sign a contract with tinyBuild.

(However, in the end, tinyBuild couldn't actually get the game unbanned from Twitch, and the harassment didn't actually stop.)

tinyBuild hired a professional programmer so that I could have assistance in developing the game. The programmer converted the game's code from JavaScript to C#, and upgraded the game from Unity 4 to Unity 5. Both of those things were a great help. However, after that, there wasn't really much more that he could do. In order for him to do anything significant, he would first have to re-write some of the game's core systems. I would be perfectly okay with that, but it would take several months to re-write those systems, and during that time, I wouldn't be able to produce any updates or release any new builds. We all agreed that it would be a very bad thing if I lost the ability to release updates and builds for a period of several months. So, the programmer's hands were tied, and he couldn't actually do anything significant. He still wanted to help, so made little changes to the game's code, but it was mostly just busywork that didn't actually improve the game, and it was kinda starting to interfere with my work. Things weren't working out.

The game wasn't unbanned from Twitch, the harassment didn't stop, and the programmer couldn't do anything significant. As a result, the tinyBuild partnership really wasn't benefiting anyone, so tinyBuild and I simply decided to part ways. I avoided talking about this for many months, because I didn't want to cause unneccesary drama. However, I broke my silence about the matter on June 10th, 2018: https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/hey-whatever-happened-with-that-whole-tinybuild-thing/

On January 2nd of 2018, I made a post on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/2017-16179684 In this post, I described the reasons why I was reluctant to consider the possibility of bringing another programmer onboard the project. I mentioned the possibility that a hypothetical programmer might "modify my code in ways that make it alien and foreign to me" and mentioned that such a scenario had already occured. Unfortunately, a lot of people drew false conclusions from this statement; they assumed that I must have been unable to understand tinyBuild programmer's code and kicked him off the project. However, that is just fanfiction that people invented in their imaginations; nothing like that actually happened.

Above, I mentioned that the programmer "still wanted to help, so made little changes to the game's code, but it was mostly just busywork that didn't actually improve the game." I will provide a few examples.

Sometimes the programmer would convert code like (variable == false) into (!variable). This was a little irritating, because I sometimes relied on using ctrl+f to search for instances of code that was written a very specific way.

The tinyBuild programmer also converted a lot of code into "ternary expressions." I'll give you an example. If I wrote...

if (Clothing == 1)
{
Uniform = true;
}
else if (Clothing == 2)
{
Uniform = false;
}


The tinyBuild programmer would convert this into

Uniform = Clothing ? 1 : 2;

Both of these blocks of code serve the same purpose and take the same amount of time to execute. However, the top one is easier for me to understand at a glance. If re-writing the code doesn't make the game run any better and makes it confusing to look at, then there is no reason to make this kind of change. When I made a comment on Patreon about wanting to avoid code becoming alien and foreign to me, I was talking about this one specific thing.

One day, the programmer told me that tinyBuild was assigning him to another project that needed a programmer urgently. I never "fired" any tinyBuild programmer. He was just assigned to some other project that needed him more. Anyone who claims that I "fired" a tinyBuild programmer because I "couldn't understand his code" is making a complete false statement.

YandereDev steals assets!

In short: No, I don't.

Sometimes, when developing a game prototype, it is convenient to temporarily use placeholder assets until original assets can be made. An example of a placeholder asset would be a texture that was found through Google Image Search.

Extremely early in the game's development, I would sometimes use a texture I found on Google as a placeholder until an original texture could be created. Obviously, I had no intention of keeping such assets in the game forever; they were merely placeholders that were used briefly during the prototyping stage of the game. Referring to this as "stealing" or "theft" would be a ridiculous exaggeration.

I already explained all of this in a video, back in 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLw9Ym49HnE&t=4m49s

Also, it's worth mentioning that if anyone ever contacted me and told me that they were uncomfortable with their asset being used in my game as a temporary placeholder, I removed their asset immediately.

Ever since early 2015, the majority of the game's assets have been original. 2014 was the last year when the majority of the game's assets were unoriginal.

As of now, Yandere Simulator no longer contains any assets from other games. Every single model presently in Yandere Simulator is a model that was created exclusively for Yandere Simulator, or a model that was legally purchased from an online store. (And, in case you're curious, the models that come from online stores make up a very small fraction of the total number of assets in the game.)

YandereDev streams video games all day long instead of working!

In short: No, I don't. I work on Yandere Simulator for over 8 hours every day, including on weekends. I take a 3-hour break to play video games once per day, but I'm still working on the game for more hours than a normal full-time job.

Working "full-time" means working 40 hours a week. This requires a person to work 8 hours a day (not counting weekends). That leaves 16 hours in the day. In theory, a person could play video games for 16 hours per day, and still work full-time.

I actually work more hours than a full-time job, and I also work on weekends. I've been working "overtime" for several years straight. In order to maintain a steady rate of progress on Yandere Sim, three hours of leisure per day is all I allow myself.

It would be pretty unreasonable to suggest that I have to be a slave who works non-stop, every hour of the day, without even being allowed any time for leisure whatsoever.

Years ago, I would sometimes permit myself to take a day off once per month. On these days, I would stream for 12 hours. These rare streams of the past should, obviously, not be taken as an indication of how long I usually stream for.

YandereDev manipulated his audience by using the words "Chill" and "Heated!"

In short: Sometimes, I choose my words poorly. However, this is not because I'm intentionally trying to be manipulative.

This accusation stems from a video that I made in 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF-VWc3aEsE In this video, I stated that I felt pressured to work nonstop because I didn't want to disappoint the fans. I wanted to know if the majority of fans would be okay with it if I spent more time taking care of myself. I used the words "heated" and "chill" to describe two categories of fans; the ones who wanted the game as fast as possible, and the ones who didn't mind how long the game would be in development for.

At the time, I thought that those two words were relatively neutral, and wouldn't skew poll results. However, in retrospect, I realize that these two words carry stronger connotations than I initially thought. I wish I had said "Category A" and "Category B" instead.

This is one example of how sometimes a poor choice of words can make it seem like I am trying to "guilt-trip" my audience. This is never and has never been my intention.

YandereDev couldn't take criticism from another game developer!

In short: One time in 2013, yeah, but you should be aware that it was only because of an extremely specific set of circumstances.

Mike Z is a programmer who has worked on such titles as "Skullgirls" and "Indivisible". There was a point in time when I put Mike on a huge pedastal; I idolized him and thought of him as a mythical, godlike figure. I practically worshipped him. So, when he criticized a game prototype that I developed in 2013, I took it personally, and felt really hurt. I felt like my dreams had been crushed by my hero. I responded by getting really upset and throwing a childish tantrum.

That exact circumstance - idolizing someone to an unhealthy degree and taking their words way too personally - only occured once, in 2013. Over the past 7 years, there has never been a similar incident. That one-time event does not represent me in the slightest.

If you're curious to know more about the situation, you can read this post: https://yanderedev.tumblr.com/post/120037118895/clearing-up-misunderstandings-part-1-mike-z

YandereDev's fans harassed one of his critics, and YandereDev refused to condemn the harassment!

In short: That technically happened, but you should consider the circumstances before casting judgement.

After being harassed for over a year, I eventually became very angry and bitter. One day, I heard that one of the people who harassed me was receiving harassment from Yandere Sim fans.

I thought, "Wow! Sounds like karma! If you preach hate all day long, you'll eventually receive hate in return. It's about time this person was given a taste of their own medicine."

I was asked to condemn the harassment that this person was receiving. I didn't have the heart to do it. I had been tormented for too long, and I had grown too angry and too bitter. I could not bring myself to condemn the fans who were striking back at the people who had been harassing me for over a year.

You might think it's really easy to say the words, "Harassment is wrong, and I condemn harassment!" But, you need to put yourself in my shoes. I want to ask you to imagine something for me. Seriously imagine it, as vividly as you can:

Imagine that you are the target of a harassment campaign for 12 months. A full year of people abusing you, trying to sabotage every aspect of your life, trying to ruin whatever projects you're working on, trying to make your friends turn against you, and trying to ruin your reputation. After enduring that kind of treatment for an extended period of time, you'd gradually undergo some changes. You would become weary and miserable. But more importantly, you would become bitter and spiteful.

You might not be able to imagine yourself ever doing something like this, but eventually, you'd actually begin to wish harm upon the people who had been abusing you. You'd eventually reach a point where you HOPE that your tormentors would start receiving the same treatment they had been giving to you. You'd want to see them brought to justice. It's not easy to say the words "Harassment is wrong!" when your life is being shattered to pieces, and you want your enemies to finally have a taste of their own medicine.

Imagine how broken a person has to be to reach a point where they can't condemn harassment, because they are so desperate for a solution that absolutely any option is on the table.That's the point I was driven to. People hammered away at me for months and months and months and months until I finally broke, and I couldn't even bring myself to say, "Stop harassing that person."

Eventually, I did condemn the harassment, though: https://yanderedev.tumblr.com/post/166739910330/harassment

YandereDev demonizes everyone who criticizes him!

In short: No, I don't.

There are various different types of people who offer criticism for Yandere Simulator:

1) Fans of the game who point out a legitimate problem with the game's design, and suggest an improvement. There are many occasions when I've responded, "That's a really good point, thanks!" and fixed a flaw or improved a feature based on criticism that I've read online.

2) Fans who express concerns about the game's development, but are simply asking for clarification. They ask questions in good faith, and their intention is to seek knowledge / get answers. I always respond to them and provide them with whatever clarification they seek.

3) Former fans who have become disenchanted with the game's development, and are now pessimistic about its future. Sometimes they express their disappointment in a civil way, and other times they don't. Sometimes their concerns are completely valid, and other times their concerns are a result of not understanding the nuances of game development.

4) People who have become completely convinced that I am some sort of con artist pulling off a tremendous scam. They believe that they are righteous heroes who are exposing an evil bad guy who deserves to be taken down for his heinous crimes. They are convinced I deserve no mercy or compassion because they think I'm some sort of cartoonish villain.

5) People who enjoy the act of shaming others, ridiculing others, humiliating others, gossiping about others, digging for dirt in peoples' pasts, and ruining other peoples' lives for entertainment. Their favorite activity is saying nasty things about other people. There is no component of righteousness involved; it's simply their hobby to be cruel to others over the Internet.

Categories 1, 2, and 3 are "critics". Category 4 are not "critics"; they are misguided people spreading misinformation. Category 5 are not "critics"; they are abusers who stalk, dox, and harass their targets.

YandereDev ignored a suicidal girl!

In short: Not intentionally.

There are weird people who record my video game streams for the sole purpose of trying to catch me saying something embarassing. To avoid providing these people with any new material, I try to ignore any sort of drama or touchy subject that comes up in my chatroom while I'm streaming.

At some point in time, I looked over at my chatroom and realized that people were having a discussion that somehow involved the topic of suicide. I wasn't sure what they were talking about, but I knew that it was drama, and I knew that if I commented on what they were discussing, my stalkers would have new material for their channels, so I decided to completely ignore whatever conversation was occuring in the chat room.

Much later, I learned the reason why my chatroom was discussing the subject of suicide. Apparently, a girl had been expressing suicidal feelings in my chatroom.

If I wasn't constantly being harassed by weirdos on the Internet, then I never would have made the decision to ignore my chat at that point in time.

YandereDev doesn't credit his volunteers!

In short: Yes, I do.

Yandere Simulator has a "Credits" scene that is accessed from the main menu. As you might imagine, it's dedicated entirely to crediting people for their work.

Outside of the game, there are two reasons why I usually don't publicly mention the names of volunteers:

  1. I worry that if I make volunteer names public, Internet trolls will contact the volunteers and harass them in the same way that they harass me.
  2. Sometimes volunteers want to be anonymous, without telling me ahead of time. There are times when I've credited a volunteer, then received an e-mail within minutes, saying, "Please don't credit me!! Please remove my username!!" so, I usually default to not publicly mentioning anyone's name, just to avoid this situation.

But, if a volunteer asks me to credit them, I credit them as they wish.

YandereDev wants to include a rape feature in Yandere Simulator!

In short: No, I don't.

Over a year ago, I wrote a post on Reddit about taking care of your kidnapped victims by feeding them: https://i.imgur.com/qvEJoAo.png

Someone photoshopped my post and replaced the word "feed" with "rape": https://imgur.com/OS1NV0w.png

You can see the original Reddit post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/4weq7l/caring_for_the_kidnapped_girls/

YandereDev deletes comments!

In short: Yes, I delete abusive and hateful comments, as well as misinformation and false accusations.

If you visit someone's Twitter, blog, or YouTube videos purely because you want to be nasty and cruel towards them, that's awful. A good person does not spend their time doing things like that. If you post abusive and hateful messages on my blog or YouTube channel, your comment will be deleted, and you will be blocked or banned. Most people would probably respond the same way.

YandereDev blocks and bans people for criticism!

In short: No, I don't.

Nobody ever gets banned for criticism. People get banned for things that are completely unrelated to criticism. I'll run you through a few scenarios.

"John Smith" makes a post in a hate-subreddit, and announces his intention to come to my subreddit and troll. He announces that his intention is to pretend to be a fan at first. John Smith then comes to my subreddit and posts a harmless suggestion, pretending to be a fan. A moderator checks John Smith's post history, sees his trolling plans, and decides to simply ban John Smith outright. John Smith flips out and says, "I was banned just for making a suggestion?!" He is completely unaware of the real reason he was banned.

"John Smith" posts something on my Discord server that breaks the rules. No moderators are online to notice it. Later, John Smith posts some harmless criticism on my Discord server. At the same time, a moderator notices that John Smith broke the server rules earlier that day, and bans him. John Smith flips out and says, "I was banned for criticism?!" He is completely unaware of the real reason he was banned.

"John Smith" posts some valid criticism, but in the same post where he writes valid criticism, he does something that breaks the rules. He is banned for breaking the rules, but erroneously believes that he was banned for criticism.

Each time someone thinks that they were wrongfully banned or blocked, they take a screenshot. After about 6 years, there are several dozen such screenshots - enough to create a false narrative that I delete all criticism...even though I'm almost never responsible for personally deleting anything, and everyone who gets banned is banned for breaking a rule, not for saying something critical.

YandereDev wants to kill his parents!

In short: No, I don't.

I was extremely surprised to learn that, when I was a teenage kid, I apparently wrote a post about being so angry with my parents that I wanted them to die. I have absolutely no memory of ever feeling that way towards my parents, but since the post exists, I guess I must have felt that way at some point in time.

That post was written when I was a teenage kid. "Grrrrr, I hate my parents, I wish they were dead!" is the sort of thing that an edgy teenage kid would say. This doesn't seem like a reflection of who I am; it seems like a reflection of what edgy teenage kids are like.

That post feels alien and foreign, like words that were written by a completely different person. I honestly have no idea what to say about it, other than the obvious: it's from over a decade ago, and it doesn't reflect how I feel in modern day at all. It seems absurd that there are actually people who judge me for it.

YandereDev wrote an erotic story about rape!

In short: No, I didn't.

In 2009, I wrote a fanfic set in the Fallout universe, which is a setting that contains slavery. I wanted to write a story about a badass vigilante that travels around the Fallout setting with the objective of hunting and killing slave owners. To establish the protagonist's motivation to wage a genocide campaign against slave owners, I wrote her a backstory that involved being sexually abused as a child slave.

So, there is a scene in the story where the protagonist - a little girl - is raped.

Drama YouTubers have used this fanfic to accuse me of being a pedophile and a rape fetishist. However, they always fail to mention the fact that the rape scene was not erotic at all; it was deliberately written to reflect the disgusting nature of sexual abuse, to vilify the slave owner, and to make the reader desire justice for the protagonist. The slave owner was portrayed as a nasty, evil, ugly person, and he died a gruesome, undignified death. The rape scene was written to establish the main character's motivation to become a vigilante who kills pedophiles, rapists, and slave owners, not to be sexy. If it was written to be sexy, the tone of the scene would have been completely different. Also, if I wanted to write stories about little girls being raped, I wouldn't have written a story where the protagonist escapes slavery in Chapter 1 of the story.

But, even though I wrote a story that vilifies rapists, was going to be about the genocide of rapists, and has nothing erotic in its rape scene, Drama YouTubers summarize the story as, "YandereDev wrote an erotic child rape story!" which is as far from the truth as possible.

As usual, it's an Anti-YandereDev false accusation that only holds up when you have about 5% of the truth. As soon as you have 100% of the truth, the false narrative crumbles to pieces and doesn't make sense anymore.

YandereDev portrayed himself as a cute, innocent girl in order to gain sympathy!

In short: No, I didn't.

This is about my "Hate and Shame" video, which features a female protagonist.

The point of the video was to ask people to imagine themselves in my position. YouTube's analytics page tells me that the majority of my audience is female. I decided to make the protagonist of the video a female character so that it would be easier for my audience to relate to her.

At the end of the video, the girl's body splits apart, and reveals me within her. This is to communicate to the audience that I experienced everything that the girl experienced in the video. This is not meant to be interpreted as a dramatic plot twist that "The girl was YandereDev all along," or anything else along those lines.

YandereDev portrays his critics as demons!

In short: No, I don't.

In my "Hate and Shame" video, I was not describing critics. I was describing a group of people who stalk, dox, and harass others for fun. I don't think that stalkers/doxxers/harassers should be portrayed with dignity, so I depicted them as grey-colored inhuman creatures. I called them "gremlins" because "stalkers/doxxers/harassers" is way too many syllables.

Around 11 minutes and 57 seconds into the video, I depicted the protagonist receiving feedback from a critic. The critic is depicted in a neutral way; not as an inhuman monster.

YandereDev spends all day reading e-mails instead of working on the game!

In short: No, I don't.

In early 2016, I was receiving an overwhelming amount of e-mail from very young children. The majority of these e-mails were very cringey and annoying. I didn't bother replying to them; I only used e-mail to speak with volunteers, have business discussions, and review bug reports. However, it was still irritating to see my inbox always filling up with cringey messages from little kids.

Eventually, I decided to try and do something about it. I tried to convince all the young children to leave me alone by making a video depicting stupid e-mails as the worst threat to Yandere Simulator's development. Unfortunately, it didn't really work; it only increased the amount of dumb e-mails that I was getting. It also caused a lot of people to develop the misconception that I spend every day doing nothing but replying to stupid messages.

The last time I complained about e-mails was several years ago. I shouldn't need to spell this out, but: E-mails are not a problem for the game's development.

YandereDev is intentionally prolonging the game's development to make as much money as possible from Patreon!

In short: No, I'm not.

I rarely mention my Patreon. I've uploaded over 150 videos to my YouTube channel, and I think I've only mentioned my Patreon about 3~4 times in total. If my intention was to milk the Patreon, wouldn't I constantly be mentioning it in my YouTube videos?

I don't mention the Patreon in my video descriptions. I don't mention the Patreon in my blog posts. I don't put a link to Patreon on the main menu of the game. If my intention was to milk the Patreon, wouldn't I be trying to draw more attention to it? I think that most people are actually completely unaware that I even have a Patreon.

If my intention was to make lots of money, I would:

  • Not make a game with controversial content
  • Promote my merchandise at every opportunity
  • Already be selling the game as an early access title

However, I'm not doing any of these things. I'm actually doing the direct opposite of all of these things.

It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to conclude that I'm intentionally prolonging the game's development. There is no person on earth who wants Yandere Simulator to be finished more than I do; nothing would make me happier than to see this project reach completion. However, I refuse to rush the project, because I don't want the quality of the game to suffer.

The game is taking a long time to develop for several reasons:

  • Yandere Simulator is much more ambitious and complex than an average indie game. The premise itself may seem straightforward, but the number of features and depth of mechanics is comparable to that of AAA open-world sandbox titles. It's unrealistic to expect a game like this to be completed in less than 6 years, simply due to the unusually large scope and deep complexity of the game, coupled with the fact that it's mostly being developed by a single person. Nobody can accurately estimate how long it should take to complete this project, because there isn't a pre-existing project it can be compared to. No solo developer has ever attempted to build a social stealth school simulation sandbox game before. The length of time that it takes for a single man develop a game like this has simply not been established yet, so it's not reasonable to claim that it's being developed "slowly".
  • Early in the game's development, I adopted an unreasonable update schedule - one major feature every 2 weeks. As a result, the game was developed under "crunch time" for several years straight; 15-hour workdays, no vacations, constantly sacrificing physical and psychological health, etc. This caused me to become "burned out", which severely reduced my productivity. Due to my ongoing obligation to devote most of my time to Yandere Simulator, I have never had an opportunity to recover from this burnout and return to normal levels of productivity.
  • I have been mischaracterized, misportrayed, misrepresented, and character assassinated by drama YouTubers who financially benefit from producing content where they ridicule, shame, humiliate, and vilify their target. Going through this experience has caused me to feel like my life and career are permanently destroyed, which has killed my motivation to work on the game, reducing my productivity further.
  • I have been harassed and abused on a daily basis for about 5 years, and the constant mistreatment has compounded the problem of lost enthusiasm/motivation/productivity.

All of the above factors - ambitious scope, solo developer, burnout, character assassination, constant harassment - have slowed down the game's development. The burnout is my own fault, but the game would doubtlessly be much further into development by now if it wasn't for the constant slander and mistreatment.

YandereDev defends pedophiles! YandereDev believes that pedophilia is a sexual orientation!

In short: No, I don't.

Pedophilia is a disorder. It's a mental illness. It's a defect of the mind. Your brain isn't supposed to work that way. If you're a pedophile, it means something is broken inside of your head.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable ridiculing people who suffer from mental disorders. Nobody asks for a mental illness. A mental condition is something that happens to you without your consent. Nobody develops Alzheimer's Disease on purpose. Nobody asks for Schizophrenia. And likewise, I don't think anyone actually wants to be a pedophile. If you have Dementia, you can't just snap your fingers and get rid of it. Likewise, if you have pedophilia, you're stuck that way, and you are forced to live with it forever.

If you're attracted to redheads, that's harmless, as long as you never kidnap a redhead. If you fantasize about robbing banks, that's harmless, as long as you never actually rob a real bank. If you are forced to have sexual thoughts about children because you are afflicted with a mental illness that you never asked for, that sucks. It's going to interfere with your ability to live a normal life, and it might cause you to feel so much shame that you eventually commit suicide. But obviously, it's absolutely no excuse whatsoever for you to actually touch a kid.

No adult ever has any excuse to do anything sexual with a child. As soon as you touch a kid, you have crossed the line from being someone with a mental disorder to being the worst scum imaginable. Having a mental illness is involuntary, but touching a kid is a choice. If you have a mental illness, I feel bad for you. If you violate a child, I feel disgust and contempt for you, and I think you deserve the death penalty.

Because I have stated that there is a distinction between "pedophiles" and "child molestors", there are people who have somehow developed the impression that I advocate for the normalization of pedophilia, or that I am trying to defend child molesters, even though that's literally the exact opposite of everything I just said. It boggles my mind.

I once had a conversation where I compared pedophilia to sexual orientation. I made this comparision to communicate the fact that you can't snap your fingers and remove a mental illness, in the same way that you can't snap your fingers and change your sexual orientation. Obviously, I was never attempting to state that pedophilia is a valid sexual orientation. But, unfortunately, numerous people insist on spreading this false narrative, anyway.

YandereDev wants to abolish the age of consent and replace it with a "sex license"!

In short: No, I don't.

One day, in 2014, I received hatemail from someone who was offended by Yandere Simulator. It was actually the very first time anyone had ever sent me hatemail about Yandere Sim. Because I felt attacked, I started arguing with the person who sent the hatemail.

They said, "Your game is creepy because the characters are underage," and I responded, "The age of consent is different in every country, so does that mean the game is only creepy in SOME countries?" The reason why I responded this way is because I wanted to feel like I was slapping them with a witty comeback. I wanted to be contrarian towards them purely for the sake of being contrarian. I was pursuing the sensation of, "Ha ha! Got 'em! They must feel really stupid right now!" To cope with the fact that I had received hatemail, I wanted to feel like I had "defeated" the person who sent the hatemail.

They had a rebuttal, so I responded with a rebuttal of my own, and we kept going back and forth. I focused exclusively on trying to contradict everything they said.

Eventually, they started talking about pedophilia. In order to continue pursuing the sensation of, "Haha, I slapped them with an epic comeback!" I had to start contradicting whatever they said about pedophiles, which led to me making a series of statements that looked like I was defending pedophiles. For example, if they said, "Pedophiles are evil," I would respond by saying, "Pedophilia is involuntary, just like a mental illness or sexual orientation!" because I only cared about one thing: contradicting everything they said, in order to feel like I had "won" the arguement.

Eventually, the conversation somehow turned to the topic of "abolishing the age of consent." This was the first time in the conversation that I actually felt like we had arrived at an intellectually engaging subject. Some people mentally develop at different speeds than other people - this means that one "age of consent" doesn't work for everyone. For example, some people might be mentally developed enough to have sex at age 18, but other people might not be mentally developed enough to make that decision until age 19 or 20. For this reason, the concept of an age of consent is slightly flawed.

It was an interesting hypothetical thought experiment, so I actually put a bit of thought into it. If the age of consent had to be replaced by something else, what would it be replaced with? Instead of selecting an arbitrary number to permit people to have sex, what else could you do? Well, it would be convenient if there was a machine you could place on your head that would scan your brain and determine your current level of mental development. If this machine was 100% accurate, then it would be able to objectively determine whether or not a person is "ready for sex".

The way I phrased this was really stupid; I said something like, "What if there was a sex test, and if you pass it, you get a sex license? Wouldn't that be better than having an age of consent?" This was a stupid explanation, because it completely left out all of the nuance of what I was actually trying to say.

The person I was arguing with was mortified, and asked, "What if a 14-year-old passed the test? Would you permit them to have sex?" It was an invalid question, because no 14-year-old could possibly mentally develop fast enough to pass the brain-scan test. It simply would never happen. But, because I was in "Contrarian Mode" and just wanted to contradict everything this person said, I simply responded, "Yeah! If the test is designed to prove something objectively true, then it must be objectively true!" Which has created a false narrative that I think 14-year-olds should be allowed to have sex.

In short, everything I said during that conversation was said purely to be contrarian and contradictory towards my opponent so that I could feel like I was "winning" the arguement. I don't stand by those statements; they are as meaningless as any other statement that you might make in a moment of anger when you're in a heated debate with someone.

After hearing this, my opponent expressed an intention to screenshot the e-mails we'd exchanged, and post the screenshots publicly in order to "expose" me as an evil pedophile. As soon as I was aware that this person was planning to spread bizarre propaganda and smear my name, I wrote a pre-emptive response where I summarized the entire situation so that they couldn't create a false narrative about me.

Unfortunately, ill-meaning individuals cropped my post to create a false narrative that I want to abolish the age of consent and replace it with "sex licenses".

Please don't be gullible enough to be fooled by trolls who take my words out-of-context in an attempt to commit character assassination.

YandereDev lies about his framerate!

In short: No, I don't.

Recently, I stated that I never see my framerate drop below 30 FPS when I play Yandere Simulator. Somebody looked through my YouTube videos and found a moment where the FPS was less than 30, and accused me of lying about my framerate. However, there is a lot of information that they aren't aware of.

Whenever I record footage for a YouTube video, I record the footage inside of the Unity editor. The Unity editor has a lower framerate than an exported build; the framerate is actually about 15 FPS lower when playing the game inside of the Unity editor. When I play the game in an exported build, the framerate never goes below 30 FPS. That's the only time when the framerate actually matters, since that's the framerate that other players will see when they play the game.

In short, the framerate that I get when I'm playing the game within the Unity editor is irrelevant, and the only framerate that matters is the one I get when I play an exported build of the game - which is always 30~60, depending on exact circumstances.

The person who accused me of lying is spreading misinformation, and it's depressing that there are people who are actually taking him seriously.

YandereDev refuses to accept programming assistance!

In short: That's not true at all.

Over the course of Yandere Simulator's development, I have accepted assistance numerous times, and it's very common for me to mention it on my blog when another programmer has assisted me in a significant way. In some cases, volunteer programmers aren't mentioned because they specifically requested anonymity.

I have always welcomed, and will always welcome, suggestions from fellow programmers. Most of Yandere Simulator's biggest breakthroughs were only possible through the assistance of other programmers. I am absolutely delighted and bursting with gratitute when a fellow programmer is able to help me solve a problem that I've been struggling with.

Currently, I am not willing to share Yandere Simulator's project files / source code with anyone, and I am not currently seeking a programmer to work on the game alongside me, for the reasons described in this blog post. However, I am always delighted to hear suggestions or words of wisdom from other programmers.

YandereDev attacked the developer of Way To The Woods!

In short: No, I didn't.

Many people have difficulty pronouncing the word "Yandere"; the most common mispronunciation is "Yan-Deer", leading many people to refer to Yandere Sim as "Yan-Deer Simulator".

During E3 2019, a trailer was shown for a beautiful game called "Way To The Woods" about a deer and a fawn. Seeing a game about a playable deer made me think of the words "Deer Simulator", which reminded me of the countless times I've heard Yandere Sim called "Yan-Deer Simulator".

I decided to Tweet a screenshot of Way To The Woods with the caption "Deer Simulator" in the Yandere Sim font, knowing that long-time Yandere Sim fans would get the joke. A lot of people responded positively to the tweet, but, unfortunately, there were also people who mistakenly believed that my tweet was an attempt to throw shade at the developer of the game.

This was completely baffling to me, since there was absolutely nothing ill-natured about my tweet. It was a pun; an especially silly pun, on par with a "dad joke". I know, firsthand, how difficult and time-consuming it is to make a video game. I would never hop on Twitter purely to fire attacks at other developers. It doesn't make any sense at all to assume that my tweet was malicious.

This is actually pretty ridiculous, and one of the best examples of how the Anti-YandereDev crowd will freak out at absolutely anything I do or say, no matter how harmless it is.

YandereDev bans people and blocks people when they post an image he's insecure about!

In short: People get banned and blocked, but not for the reason you think.

First, it's important to mention that it's exceptionally rare for me to personally ban anyone. I'm too busy working on the game to spend my time doing that. If someone gets banned from my subreddit or my Discord server, the ban came from a moderator or a bot. Second, people don't get banned for what they are posting; they get banned for why they are posting it.

If someone is being a dick towards you, the mature and intelligent thing to do is to block them and move on with your day. This is common sense on the Internet.

Likewise, if someone shows up to a Discord server and immediately announces that the purpose of their visit is to be a dick, they're obviously going to get banned right away; this shouldn't be shocking. If you walk into a bank and immediately announce that your intention is to rob it, you'll be tackled to the ground by security guards pretty fast.

Again, it's important to keep in mind that nobody gets banned for what they post; only for why they post it. I'll provide you with a metaphor.

Imagine that someone thinks you hate kittens. They want to harass you, so they spam you with pictures of kittens. The pictures don't bother you, but you still understand that this person's objective is to offend you. Even though they are failing miserably, they are still clearly communicating that their intention is to harass you. They are revealing themself to be the type of person who enjoys abusing other people. Even if they aren't actually succeeding, blocking them is still the only sensible choice, because there is no reason to interact with a person like that.

If you enter any community on the Internet and immediately start spamming stupid images, you're pretty much guaranteed to get banned almost immediately. It's been this way on the Internet for decades. My subreddit / Discord server are not special exceptions.

YandereDev told someone to kill themself, live on stream!

In short: This did actually happen, but there is context that you are probably unaware of.

First, it's extremely important to acknowledge that there is a massive difference between sincerely telling someone to commit suicide, and simply saying a rude phrase in a brief moment of anger. Those two things are not even remotely comparable.

In order to understand what happened, you need to remember what I stated at the top of this page: a group of people spent more than a year harassing me on a daily basis. You really need to keep this in mind; it's extremely important. Being subjected to that much abuse had an extremely negative impact on my mental health.

One time, when I was streaming a video game, someone came into my stream and started harassing me. I figured that it was one of the trolls who had been tormenting me for more than a year. After more than a year of daily harassment, I was fed up with being abused and mistreated. In a spontaneous moment of anger, I said "Kill yourself!" to the troll.

I've only said "kill yourself" once in my entire life. I am not the sort of guy who normally says this sort of thing. However, if you torment, abuse, and mistreat someone for long enough, you will eventually break that person, and cause them to say things that they wouldn't normally say.

I later learned that the person I said "kill yourself" to was actually a fan of Yandere Simulator who was inadvertantly being annoying and obnoxious. I had accidentally mistaken them for one of the trolls who had been harassing me. I actually said "kill yourself" to an innocent person, and I feel bad about that. If that person ever contacted me, I would apologize to them. However, the fact remains that this situation never would have occured if I hadn't been harassed for over a year.

YandereDev put a racist easter egg into Yandere Simulator!

In short: No, that's ridiculous.

On the Internet, everything gets drawn as an anime girl. The planet earth has been drawn as an anime girl, dish soap has been drawn as an anime girl, and the Ebola virus has been drawn as an anime girl. No matter what, the ultimate fate of anything is to be drawn as an anime girl.

Predictably, the COVID-19 virus has also been drawn as an anime girl, just like everything else. She is named "Corona-chan". Because the virus was first identified in China, Corona-chan is depicted wearing a traditional Chinese dress called a "cheongsam", also known as a "qipao".

There is a massive difference between a racist caricature designed to ricidule and degrade Chinese people, and a cute anime girl designed to personify a virus. Equating these two things with one another is completely stupid. Additionally, Corona-chan is often depicted as cute (or sexy) so it should be obvious that she is not in any way meant to ridicule or degrade an ethnic group.

Saying that Corona-chan is "insulting to Chinese people" because she is wearing a Chinese dress is just as stupid as saying that Corona-chan is "insulting to beer" because she is often depicted holding a bottle of "Corona Extra" beer.

I put the Corona-chan easter egg into Yandere Simulator because I love her design, not because I think it's funny to ridicule Chinese people. If anything, it's an indication that I think Chinese dresses look amazing.

What's next? Will I be accused of being racist if I play chess and use the white pieces? The "YandereDev put a racist easter egg in Yandere Simulator!" controversy proves that the Anti-YandereDev crowd chooses extremely trivial and petty matters to ridicule me for.

YandereDev uses the Patreon money to purchase things for himself!

In short: Of course I do. There's nothing wrong with that. That is the purpose of my Patreon. It's my payment for working on Yandere Simulator. It's not Yandere Simulator's budget; it's my personal income. I can spend it on whatever I want. This is public knowledge. Read what it says on my Patreon page before you make accusations.

With that said, I do set aside some of my Patreon income for game development, and I have always been extremely clear about what amount of my Patreon income goes to myself and what amount goes to development. I'll explain the history of my Patreon page below.

In 2014, I was a freelance programmer doing short contract jobs for money. I started developing Yandere Simulator as a hobby.

When Yandere Simulator started getting popular, people started begging me to give them a way to donate money to me. I was hesitant about this at first, but eventually I gave in, and made a Patreon.

I stated, "If I can earn at least $1,000 per month on Patreon, I will make Yandere Sim my full time job." I was able to reach that goal - however, 1k per month is a very small amount of money, less than minimum wage. It simply wasn't sustainable. I kept my promise and turned Yandere Sim into my full time job, but I made it clear that $1,000 per month did not qualify as a living wage, and I hoped to earn at least $3,500 per month. And, only 2 months later, I reached that goal.

3.5k was my only goal, and I didn't need any more money than that. So, once I started earning beyond $3,500 per month on Patreon, I started putting the surplus money towards Yandere Sim. I stated this extremely clearly in the "Goals" section on my Patreon page.

I logged all the money I earned and how it was spent in a series of "Transparency" posts.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/transparency-6085972
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2016-and-polls-7685057
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2017-16179684
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2018-23800861
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2019-32882029
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2020-47158527
https://www.patreon.com/posts/2021-60625700

In short, I "capped" my salary at $3,500. I only allowed a limited amount of money to go to myself, and have always put the rest of the money towards Yandere Sim.

If we divide my money into categories, it looks like this:

1. Money I saved up from before I started working on Yandere Sim
2. Money I earned through Patreon as payment for working on Yandere Sim
3. Money that is reserved to be used exclusively on Yandere Sim

Whenever I make a personal purchase, it comes from my personal savings, not the Yandere Sim budget.

YandereDev owes tinyBuild money!

In short: No, I don't.

First, let it be known that I do not intend to say anything negative about tinyBuild, and nothing below is intended to be interpreted negatively.

tinyBuild and I decided to part ways in December of 2017. On March 21st, 2019, we signed a termination agreement that dissolved our original contract. The reason why it took so long to sign the agreement is because I wanted to negotiate some of the terms. There are people who believe - erroneously - that I signed an agreement which put me in debt to tinyBuild. That is not true. The final draft of the agreement did not involve a debt to tinyBuild.

In my final e-mail to tinyBuild, I stated that I had no grievances with them. In tinyBuild's final e-mail to me, they wished me good luck with my project. We parted on amicable terms.

YandereDev wastes time arguing with people on 4chan!

In short: Actually, I've been physically incapable of posting on 4chan for several years. Even if I wanted to, I can't.

When I moved into my new house, I started getting this error every time I tried to make a post on 4chan: https://i.imgur.com/ormWzjt.png

It was right after the website got a new administrator - "Hiro". Around that point in time, a lot of people were suddenly IP range-banned. Some people have theroized that Hiro banned a bunch of IP-ranges as a method of reducing server costs. I don't actually know if there is any truth to that theory.

Regardless, I'm physically incapable of posting on 4chan, even if I wanted to.

YandereDev kills Midori because he hates his own fans, and Midori represents his fans!

In short: No.

Midori is a ditzy girl who asks silly questions with obvious answers. If anything, Midori represents the type of person who doesn't read the FAQ before asking a question, frustrating the people around her. Midori does not represent "the audience". At some point in time, it became a running gag for me to kill Midori in my videos. This is a slapstick comedy gag, and it has nothing to do with how I feel towards my audience.

YandereDev submitted false copyright strikes to take down a critic's videos!

In short: No, I've never done that, and would never do that.

If someone re-uploads your content to their channel without making any type of edit whatsoever, they have violated your copyright, and you have the legal right to submit a DMCA takedown request to YouTube to have the infringing content removed.

A YouTuber re-uploaded some of my content (Twitch streams) with no commentary, additions, or transformations that would make the re-uploads fall under "fair use".

Anytime anyone ever re-uploads my content without making any kind of edit, I submit a copyright complaint to YouTube, because that's what the copyright complaint system is actually supposed to be used for. (If someone was re-uploading your content without making any changes, you'd submit a DMCA takedown request too, wouldn't you?)

However, clickbait drama YouTubers falsely reported the story as "YandereDev illegally copyright claimed a critic to silence him!" Even though it wasn't true, it was an entertaining concept, so that is the narrative that people chose to spread.

Someone re-created Yandere Simulator in less than 2 weeks!

In short: No, that isn't true.

Over the course of Yandere Simulator's development, countless people have said "I can do better than YandereDev!" and started developing similar projects. All of these projects lasted a few months, sometimes weeks, sometimes only days, before collapsing.

It is extremely easy to use the Unity engine to quickly produce a simple game prototype that superficially resembles Yandere Simulator; to quickly replicate the surface-level aspects of Yandere Sim, such as "Schoolgirl walking around a school" and "Student turns into ragdoll after being stabbed." These are beginner-level tasks that anyone with access to the Unity engine can do without any effort.

When someone says "I re-created Yandere Simulator in two weeks!" what they are really saying is that they copy-pasted a bunch of my game's assets into a Unity project and then made a character walk around a school environment, creating the flimsy illusion that they are developing a game. And, sadly, there are actually people who are gullible enough to fall for that illusion. The situation is actually pretty ridiculous.

Needless to say, it's a problem for me if thousands of people get tricked into believing that it's possible to re-create all of Yandere Sim in 2 weeks, even though these "imitation" games don't even have 10% of Yandere Sim's functionality. It's a depressing and demotivating set of circumstances to be in.

Aside from that, though, it's worth mentioning that anyone building a Yandere Sim clone using assets ripped from Yandere Sim is treading in very dangerous legal territory.

First, it must be mentioned that anyone can purchase Unity Asset Store models and use those models to make a game. There's no legal problem with that. Anyone can go to the Unity Asset Store, purchase the Aoi character model, and gain the legal right to use that model in a video game.

However, if a developer simply rips the characters models from Yandere Sim and starts using those models to build a game, they are violating the law, because they obtained the character models illegally, without paying for them.

Furthermore, there is something else to consider, aside from the Aoi model. Numerous environment models were created specifically for Yandere Simulator; those models are NOT unity asset store models that anyone can purchase and use. Those models were created and given to me, to be used in Yandere Sim only. Stealing them and building a game with them is asking for legal trouble.

When a volunteer creates an asset, that asset is the volunteer's copyrighted content. When a volunteer gives the asset to me and says "My work now belongs to you, you are now the owner of this asset," they have transferred the copyright to me. Sometimes an actual written contract and signature is involved. Someone who is using these models in their game is, in fact, violating my copyright, and I have the legal right to take action against them. If they are in denial about this, it's an indication that they do not understand how copyright law works.

(An extremely small amount of Yandere Sim's assets - like, less than 1% - are from the Unity Asset Store. The vast majority of the game's assets are completely original, and the copyright is either owned by me or the volunteer that created the asset for me.)

YandereDev threatened to commit suicide to pressure a game developer into cancelling his game project!

In short: No, I didn't.

Someone extracted Yandere Simulator's assets and used those assets to develop a simple game prototype. They created an announcement trailer showing off what they had done. Despite the fact that their prototype only contains a fraction of the functionality of Yandere Simulator, their announcement trailer gave hundreds of thousands of people the false impression that it was possible to "re-create" the entirety of Yandere Sim in only two weeks.

The only reason that their prototype looks even remotely presentable is because they simply copy-pasted all of the assets that were created for me over the course of 6 years. (Not store-bought assets, but Yandere Simulator's original, copyrighted assets.) They created nothing original, and simply stole all of my material. It's the most blatant theft I've ever seen in the history of the game industry.

Because hundreds of thousands of people were tricked into believing that it's possible to re-create Yandere Sim within two weeks, my work has been completely devalued, I have begun to receive a massive amount of harassment, and I have started to lose all of the support that I had spent 6 years building up.

This is not a case of "another developer is making a superior game!" but is a case of a con artist pulling a scam that is tricking hundreds of thousands of people into hating me.

If it truly was a "fan project", and if the developer truly was a "fan" of Yandere Simulator, then he would acknowledge the damage he was doing to me and my project, and he would take action to avoid threatening Yandere Simulator's existance.

I reached out to him to discuss this. During the discussion, I expressed my feelings honestly. I told him that I felt his project was "ruining my life," "destroying my life," "ending my life," etc.

He posted screenshots of our discussion. People used those screenshots to create an untrue accustion that I contacted him to "threaten suicide", even though I never actually said that.

What the actual fuck.

This is the screenshot that people use in order to push this false narrative: https://i.imgur.com/sjz6RfN.png There is not a single sentence there where I "threaten suicide". It simply doesn't happen.

In case you need me to spell it out for you, the meaning of the last sentence is, "If Yandere Simulator would ruin/destroy someone's life and end their career, I would cancel Yandere Sim."

YandereDev threatened a competitor to stop developing his game!

In short: No, I didn't.

This is an event that occured in 2019. To save this "developer" from too much humiliation, I don't want to say his name.

A "developer" started uploading videos to YouTube of a game that he was supposedly developing. A lot of people felt justified in harassing me or dropping their support for me, because they were tricked into believing that this "developer" was creating a superior game, and he was doing it faster than me.

However, was not actually developing a real video game. He was just creating footage for YouTube to give the impression that a game was under development. He was a con man; a scam artist. I learned this from his former partners, who abandoned his "project" when they realized he had simply been using them to make his scam look like a legitimate video game.

Because his fake game project was having a lot of negative consequences for my real game project, I confronted him and told him that he should stop being dishonest and confess the truth. I explained that if he kept tricking people into believing that Yandere Simulator was being surpassed by a new game project, I would eventually have to make a video defending my project by explaining the truth: that his "game" was not actually a real game at all, but was an illusion created for the sake of YouTube videos. This was not a "threat", but was a simple, factual state of affairs.

Later, in 2020, another developer (who is also a con man for completely different reasons) showed screenshots of my conversation with the 2019 developer, and spread the false narrative that I "threatened" a "competitor" into ceasing his "development", even though all I was really doing was telling a con man to stop scamming people.

YandereDev doesn't think games improve from criticism!

In short: I never said that.

This is a perfect example of how people spread out-of-context screenshots and misinformation.

On the Yandere Simulator Discord, I was involved in a conversation with several other people. Somebody made a false statement, and I responded "I don't agree with that." In the time it took me to type that message, someone typed "Criticism is how a game improves..." and sent their message before mine. As a result, my message showed up directly under their message: https://i.imgur.com/jiee7OU.jpg

Someone took a screenshot, cropped out the message I was actually responding to, and then began spreading the false narrative that I don't think games improve from criticism.

This is exactly the sort of thing that people are doing to me all the time. Don't allow yourself to be manipulated by the people who do these things.

YandereDev can't take criticism!

In short: No, I have a long history of responding well to criticism.

When I proposed a beat-em-up feature, people criticized the idea. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I retracted my proposal.

When I proposed a new inventory system, people criticized the idea. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I offered multiple different solutions.

When Yandere-chan didn't have a backstory, people criticized that. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I gave her a more elaborate backstory.


When I described my plans for Kizana, people criticized my plans. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I announced plans to make Kizana a better character.

When I suggested the idea of allowing the player to choose the game's presentation, people criticized the idea. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I retracted the suggestion.

When I attached a wooden deck to the hill behind the cherry tree, people criticized it. I listened to their feedback, I understood their concerns, and I replaced the deck with a natural cliff.

If I couldn't take criticism, then I would have fought people about the beat-em-up idea, the inventory system, the backstory, Kizana, LoveSick Mode, the wooden deck, etc. But, I didn't reject that feedback. I listened to criticism, and I used it to improve the game. I've been doing this for years.

The history of Yandere Simulator is the history of me hearing criticism, accepting it, and using it to make the game better. The notion that I can't take criticism just doesn't make sense.

Occasionally, people say things about me that are untrue. People have called me a pedophile, but I'm not actually a pedophile. People have called me a scam artist, but I'm not actually a scam artist. People have said I'm rude to my fans, but I'm not actually rude to my fans. People have called me a bad programmer, but I'm not actually a bad programmer. People have claimed I play video games all day long, but I don't actually do that.

If someone says something that is not true, it can't be considered "criticism". If I refuse to accept things that aren't true, this doesn't mean that I "can't take criticism". I am always willing to accept criticism, as long as it's actually valid.

I'm fine with criticism, but I am not fine with ignorance or misinformation. I will always delete ignorant/misinforming posts. This is not "censorship", it's merely preventing the spread of misleading statements.

Imagine that someone says they want to criticize the hat you're wearing, but you're not wearing a hat. You correct them, and then they start screaming you can't "take criticism". That would be stupid, right? You would not be dealing with a "critic", but with a delusional weirdo who is getting mad at an imaginary problem that doesn't actually exist. Usually, the people who say I can't "take criticism" are people who believe completely false things about me, and get butthurt when I tell them that they're wrong.

YandereDev has an account on an embarrassing website!

In short: No, I don't.

For many years now, people have been creating accounts on various websites using my e-mail addresses. They sign me up for Donald Trump newsletters, religious mailing lists, gay porn, etc.

It's no surprise that my e-mail addresses can activate the "We've sent a password recovery e-mail to your account" message on lots of sites, since there are a lot of pathetic people who spend hours of their day just signing me up for all kinds of stupid stuff.

Whenever I get a "click here to verify your account" e-mail, I always delete the e-mail immediately. But, that doesn't change the fact that there are still unverified accounts on many websites and forums that are connected to my e-mail address.

Some websites completely restrict all your activity until you've verified your e-mail, but many websites let you do a bunch of stuff even without a verified e-mail. Just because you find posts on a website that are made by account that is linked to my e-mail address, it doesn't actually mean that I made the account or the posts.

YandereDev doesn't believe that Dissociative Identity Disorder is a real condition!

In short: I do believe that it's a real condition, but I also believe that there are people who fake mental illness as an excuse for inappropriate behavior.

One of the people on my moderation team claimed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder. I was supportive towards him for multiple years.

Gradually, after observing his behavior for a long time, I slowly grew skeptical towards him. The more I interacted with him, the more I began to doubt that he actually had real DID. Eventually, I drew the conclusion that he was faking the disorder, and was using it as an excuse to "roleplay" as one of several "characters" anytime he wanted. Faking a mental illness is a reprehensible thing to do, so I made the decision to remove him from the moderation team.

My experiences with that moderator heavily influenced my understanding of DID, and led me to feel doubtful towards anyone claiming to have DID. I gradually developed suspicions that anyone claiming to have DID was faking a mental illness as an excuse to spontaneously roleplay.

I posted an announcement to the private moderators-only channel, explaining why a moderator had been removed from the moderation team. In this post, I expressed my skepticism towards people claiming to have DID.

This is the post that I wrote: https://i.imgur.com/3O0svKM.png

When I wrote that post, I was very fired up, because I believed that I had just caught someone faking a mental illness. In that post, I made a sweeping generalization about all people claiming to have DID, which was a mistake on my part. It is not the existance of DID that I am skeptical about; only people who may be lying about having it, as an excuse for inappropriate behavior. Even then, I still recognize that I should not have allowed a negative experience with a single person to influence my understanding of an entire mental condition.

It was a post hastily written in a heated moment, and doesn't reflect how I actually feel. Spreading the post and making the accusation that I'm "ableist" is an example of how the Anti-YandereDev community paints a false image of me without knowing the truth or the details surrounding a situation.

In the time since the post was made, I have spoken to the moderator in question, and learned that I was incorrect; he does, in fact, suffer from legitimate DID. I apologized to him for mishandling the situation, and, in the time since then, I have also developed a more comprehensive understanding of DID.

It was a misunderstanding that lasted a few hours before it was resolved, and bringing it up years afterwards is a reflection of the fact that people are desperately grasping at straws to find any reason to discredit me.

YandereDev hates it when people make games that are similar to Yandere Sim!

In short: I don't have a problem with people developing similar games. I have a problem with the harmful behavior that is often demonstrated by people who try to develop similar games.

On multiple occasions, there have been game developers who...

1. Announced "YandereDev sucks, I can do better than him!" and begun developing their own version of Yandere Simulator out of spite for me, while constantly making disparaging remarks about me and actively fostering anti-YandereDev sentiment among their fanbase.

2. Extracted 3D models from Yandere Simulator (original models, not store-bought models) and used them without permission.

3. Promoted their game using logos/graphics/screenshots from Yandere Simulator.

4. Announced "Look at me, I've completely re-created the entirety of Yandere Simulator from scratch in 2 weeks and made it run at 60 FPS" after developing a simple and bare-bones game prototype that only contains a handful of surface-level superficial aspects of Yandere Simulator.

It is extremely rare to see a developer building a game similar to Yandere Simulator without doing one or more of the above things.

Theoretically, if someone could actually develop a game similar to Yandere Simulator without engaging in harmful, dishonest, unethical, or misleading behavior, I would have absolutely no problem with their game.