conceived Yesterday around 2009, during the development of '. Due to economic turbulence in Spain, Yesterday was developed on a tight budget. Felipe Gomez Pinilla noted that it was created with "one-quarter of the budget that we made '". Josué Monchan of Pendulo compared the game's central conceit to that of , but adapted to an adventure game rather than a role-playing game format.
Release
Yesterday was released under multiple titles worldwide. According to Josué Monchan, the changes were made to tailor the game's marketing to each region, in an effort to increase sales. He noted that the Spanish title New York Crimes was selected by FX Interactive to "emphasize the thriller angle and comic aesthetic". The German title, The Case of John Yesterday, was designed to capitalize on the popularity of investigative games in that market, while the Russian title of Yesterday: Mark of Lucifer tried to appeal to Russia's interest in satanic subject matter. Monchan said that the game was entitled Yesterday: A Pendulo Studios Game in the English- and French-speaking world to lean on the company's brand.
Reception
According to Josué Monchan of Pendulo Studios, Yesterdays computer release was a commercial disappointment. He attributed the game's failure to its blend of casual gameplay with "hardcore storytelling", to its publisher's limited support and to Pendulo's lack of interaction with players and the press. The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Alasdair Duncan of Destructoid wrote in his review that, "Impressive effort with a few noticeable problems holding it back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash." Chris Watters of GameSpot wrote, "Yesterdays unsteady narrative is disappointingly brief, though solid puzzles and nice visuals make it a pleasant diversion." Richard Cobbett of GameSpy wrote, "Even with its cliches, Yesterday probably looked good on paper. It's a comic-book-style thriller about a mysterious amnesiac, which takes the graphical charm of the Runaway games and pushes them into the service of a much darker story full of mystery, murder, torture, and ancient conspiracies. All good stuff. In another life, it might even have worked. Unfortunately, in this one, the real dark secret has nothing to do with our hero John Yesterday's past. It's that his game is really, really stupid."
iOS port
According to Josué Monchan, Yesterdays iOS port achieved significantly greater success than its original computer version. He called it a "moderate hit" on the platform, and noted that it had out-earned the computer release as of December 2014. The iOS port of Yesterday received "generally favorable reviews", according to Metacritic. HobbyConsolas reported that the port remained one of the highest-rated Spanish games on Metacritic by 2017.
Aftermath and sequel
With the launch of its original computer version, Yesterday joined a list ofcommercial failures for Pendulo Studios, including The Next Big Thing and the console port of . Following Yesterday, the 2012 hidden object gameHidden Runaway flopped as well. These failures eroded publisher trust in Pendulo. The team was unable to find backing for a new game and resorted to crowdfunding for its title Day One, but its campaign did not reach its goal. With no way of funding a new title, the team began to port its back catalog to iOS in an effort to survive. Monchan compared the strategy to one previously used by Revolution Software. A sequel/prequel called Yesterday Origins was developed by Pendulo Studios and released by Microïds on 29 September 2016. It was released on Nintendo Switch on May 31, 2018. The game focuses on both the events that occurred centuries ago when John became an immortal and the present timeline after the first game. Yesterday Origins was the first 3D game developed by Pendulo.
