Deltarune - episodic Undertale sequel

[Gerrard]

Furries rejoice.

 

[lightbane]

That was fast, Infini probably doesn't want to scare people by having a western JRPG outside of this subforum.

As for the demo, it was pretty much more Undertale yep, but with more polish.

edit: Why is this character the most unbelievable cunt, christ

Which one? So far I've read that the game may be some sort of alternate timeline and prequel at the same time. The fact that monsters here seem to be physically stronger than humans is also another hint.

Spoiler

It's interesting how your character has actually done stuff before that is disturbing, just like a certain character from the first game. The ending pretty much spells it out you're controlling his body.

The game doesn't hold punches and I actually couldn't beat the final boss (I suck at shmups), so I watched an ending off youtube.

The game heavily emphasizes defense and using non-violent tactics, especially seeing that by Defending you receive less damage and get Tension Points, which lets you heal faster and better. Interestingly though, the king also demonstrates that attempting to be pacifist with everyone will not work, unsurprisingly.

Chances are that proper killing EXP gathering will happen later on, this is the prologue story-wise.

Since he already ripped off every cult indie game when making the original, he has nothing left to steal ideas from but his own game.

How so? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean, the fanbase is retarded indeed, but the game was quite unique when it came out.

I don't think this demo(?) has routes. The whole purpose of the intro was saying choices didn't matter, and whenever you fought baddies I thought they just ran away.

So far it seems to be the case. Of course, things will not stay like this forever.

I tried for the pacifist route and did defeat the hidden bo

Until someone discovers evidence to the contrary, the ending of the demo is always the same. We'll see. Also, as the first game, Deltarune has interesting reactions if you mess with the character creation process. Try one of these names.

"special_name_check_01": "SUSIE",
"special_name_check_02": "NOELLE",
"special_name_check_03": "KRIS",
"special_name_check_04": "TORIEL",
"special_name_check_05": "ASRIEL",
"special_name_check_06": "ASGORE",
"special_name_check_07": "SANS",
"special_name_check_08": "PAPYRUS",
"special_name_check_09": "ALPHYS",
"special_name_check_10": "UNDYNE",
"special_name_check_11": "RUDY",
"special_name_check_12": "BERDLY",
"special_name_check_13": "CATTY",
"special_name_check_14": "CATTI",
"special_name_check_15": "BRATTY",
"special_name_check_16": "GERSON",
"special_name_check_17": "JOCKINGTON",
"special_name_check_18": "QC"

 

[Siveon]

Oh a friend of mine tried a lot of names. If you name yourself Susie it says like "You're about to meet a wonderful person" (probably both in jest, and in earnest). Something like Gaster actually force closes the game. And most of the repeat UT characters just has a generic "what a coincidence".

 

[orcinator]

How so? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean, the fanbase is retarded indeed, but the game was quite unique when it came out.

Undertale copies so many things from obscure asian sources it's giving Quentin Tarantino a run for his money. So much of Undertale is just a reworked scene or moment from something else (The beginning of Cave Story and the ending of Earthbound being the most obvious) that it's clear it's not just a normal reference.

 

[Tweed]

Swipes a lot of stuff from MegaTen too.

 

[Siveon]

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqn3p9

Dogman doles out important info.

Here are my thoughts on Ch 1 of Deltarune. This should answer some questions.
It's October 4th. The DEMO (first chapter) of my game is supposed to come out on Halloween.

Actually it was done a little while ago but I'm waiting for the translation to be finished.

I feel like I should address what I think people will think before the game comes out.

Of course, if I'm all wrong about this, then I just wasted my time, but...



QUESTIONS I PREDICT PEOPLE HAVE

1. "Is this a sequel? What's going on?? I'm scared..."

Please don't worry too much about that.
Actually, I'm worried if people worry too much about "what it is," they might not be able to properly enjoy it... (laugh)

I will say that basically, what you're seeing here is not the world of UNDERTALE.
UNDERTALE's world and ending are the same as however you left them.
If everyone was happy in your ending, the people in the UNDERTALE world will still be happy.
So, please don't worry about those characters, and that world. It will remain untouched.

To rephrase that, DELTARUNE's world is a different one.
With different characters, that have lived different lives.
A whole new story will happen...

I don't know what you call this kind of game.

It's just a game you can play after you complete UNDERTALE, if you want to.

That's all.


2. "I have questions I want to ask about the story..."

There's a lot of questions I'd like to answer, too.

That's why I have to make the game.

Please wait until then.


3. "When will the next chapter come out?"

This is a difficult question.

When I made the demo of UNDERTALE, I made it to prove to myself that it was possible to make a whole game alone (with some help with the art).

Because I was able to make it in a few months, I felt that I had proved that it was possible.

However, making the demo of DELTARUNE...

took a few years.

So, given the length of the rest of the game, and how long I'd be willing to spend on a project (7 years maximum) I think the answer is that it's actually impossible to make this game.

Lots of things make this game harder to make than the last time.

- The graphics are much more complicated and don't play to my strengths (black and white battle graphics were easy...)
- The battle system is much more complicated due to multiple characters (I'll write about this later)
- The overworld and other sections are more complicated due to multiple characters
- Having multiple main characters is much harder to write especially introducing everyone properly in chapter 1
- The entire town had to be created correctly on the first try to set up properly for the rest of the game

And further things outside of those:
- Trouble starting tasks/concentrating and general difficulty paying attention
- Travelling / other responsibilities like translation/ports
- Self-doubt / burnout regarding the creation of the game

Essentially it's not possible to make this game as one person (and Temmie).

However, it MIGHT be possible to create the game if I'm able to make a team.

So I'm going to try making a team. Because I really want to make this. But I may not be able to succeed because I have no experience successfully directing a team and I have no idea who I'm going to work with.

Since I haven't started assembling the team yet I have absolutely no estimation of its completion. It could take up to 999 years depending on the efficiency level.

By the way, I currently plan to release all of the chapters at once after we complete them. I'm not sure how long that will take.

You'll buy all of the chapters at once as one purchase. That'll be the only option. I'm not doing pre-orders because I don't like those. It just seems like the best way not to burn anybody.

Price is unknown. It depends on how long the game is, and how much it costs to make...

I don't know anything about what consoles, etc. it'll come out for because by the time it comes out we might be on Playstation 14 or something.

So... in short, I have no idea.


4. "Is this the game's final design? Will you change anything?"

It's possible I could change things. This is basically a demo. I might even change this first chapter before release depending on how development goes.

This is really an excuse to talk about the parts I think had issues.

THE BATTLE SYSTEM:

I think the battle system could be explained better.

I had a super duper long explanation of things here but really it boils down to:
1. UT's system is incompatible with multiple party members but I wanted to do it anyway because it's cool
2. I'd like to make it so for pacifist players, characters won't have to "defend" so much

Oh. The people who tested the game thought that the TP system and animations were cool so it's not all bad.
By the way, did you notice that getting close to bullets makes enemy attacks end faster? It doesn't work for every attack, but...


EVERYTHING ELSE:

I thought everything else was OK. Actually some parts were kind of lazy, like finding the key pieces, but oh well.

The UI had some things that could be changed too.

When making a game, there's so much to do you have to draw the line somewhere. That's why I need other people to help me (laugh)

Oh, and I have no plans to add more content to the first chapter.



5. "Will there be multiple endings?"

No. No matter what you do the ending will be the same.

(Honestly most games are like that, but for some reason it feels really oppressive to say here...)

I think that's part of the reason why the ACT / FIGHT system feels so vestigial in this one.

Oh... I'm just talking about the battle system again...



6. "I found some kind of bug, will you fix it?"

Hopefully an e-mail for that exists on the website by now.

Or, it would be better if you could tweet it with #deltarunebug .

That would really help us and make our lives easier because tweets are easier to ignore than e-mails


7. "Can I be on the team?"

I'll ask you first!!! (Total silence)


8. "What's the progress on the rest of the game so far?"

0%!!! Nothing!!! I've done nothing!!!

I mean, I've done some songs and written the whole story, but...

Since no programming or final art has been done, it's best to just think of it at 0%.


9. "Will you do a Kickstarter?"

I still haven't finished that damn Alarm Clock, are you kidding me?

There's no way I'm doing a Kickstarter this time.



10. "The game doesn't work" / "I don't like the game" / "Will there be a version for (platform)?"

Because it's a free download I'm surrounded by a forcefield that destroys all complaints and platform requests.

There might be more platforms for the DEMO but I don't want to make any promises.

(At the very least it'd be nice to do something for the people who bought the game on console.)

By the way at the time of writing I haven't even rendered a Mac version whatsoever at all.

I hope I can release it... (laugh)



11. "Can I buy the soundtrack for Chapter 1?"

Yes! You can buy it at [ http://tobyfox.bandcamp.com ] And other forms of distribution will be in the works too.

I'm writing this in the past so I don't know what I just said.



12. "Any closing remarks?" (No one asks this, but...)

Thanks for playing my game. I hope you liked it.

For the past 3 years I've been waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep because I've been thinking about the scenes that happen in the game.

Even though so many details are still hazy,

I really want to show you the things I've been thinking about.

That's really my only reason for making this game.

If I don't show you what I'm thinking, I'll lose my mind.

(It was actually a totally selfish motivation...)


By the way, I was really worried at first about making this.

The expectations for my next work would be really high, so high that I knew that no matter what I did, I felt like people would be underwhelmed.

If you played "UNDERTALE," I don't think I can make anything that makes you feel "that way" again.

However, it's possible I can make something else.

It's just something simple but maybe you'll like it.

See you in ?? years... OK?

Don't forget.

 

[lightbane]

Something like Gaster actually force closes the game.

Gotta try this one for fun. Also, the fantards' autism will intensify for sure.

(The beginning of Cave Story and the ending of Earthbound being the most obvious)

I agree with the Earthbound-style ending, but frankly I don't remember much of Cave Story, it was rather forgettable IMO.
Even then one of the difference between inspiration and copy-pasting is how good the end product is.

Swipes a lot of stuff from MegaTen too.

You mean the "talking with random encounters to convince them to leave" stuff? Yeah, taken from that too, a shame that not too many games do that and instead spam trash mobs.

Dogman doles out important info.

Well, it seems the above points are moot, as the sequel will take a while to be done.

 

[Ivan]

tracking down the 3 keys. is the final key also before the castle or after?

 

[mogwaimon]

tracking down the 3 keys. is the final key also before the castle or after?

Spoiler

One key can only be obtained after you enter the castle and interact with a certain door, a second key requires knowledge of the castle to open the way to the chest, and the final key is hidden in such a way that it can be obtained before you even know there are keys to find. Hint, it's in the forest area. If you want the exact location just say so

 

[Siveon]

tracking down the 3 keys. is the final key also before the castle or after?

Location-wise? You can find it before, but you wouldn't know how to get there unless you complete the castle.

 

[Ivan]

OHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHH


that answers it :D

 

[lightbane]

So, the pacifist route DOES change some things, namely the outcome of the final boss' battle, but the ending is still the same (speaking of: I read that you can actually move the soul around once The First Child performs the "emergency extraction operation"). Like Undertale, there are tons of stupid details for those observant. Example:



Here's the soundtrack for those interested: https://tobyfox.bandcamp.com/

The game seems to use Alice in Wonderland imagery, complete with the card theme and everything, perhaps in the full game you'll be traveling back and forth between worlds. Speaking of the full game: https://twitter.com/devolverdigital/status/1058334705081176064?s=09

Devolver Digital is willing to give a hand to Toby, so the final game won't take as long as Grimoire to be made, hopefully.

I suppose that with the stronger emphasis to pacifism, going into a killer route will be harder but more satisfying. In fact, I would watch out with Raisel: People-pleasers invariably end up repressing a lot of negative emotions due ignoring their own wishes in favor of the others' all the time, we'll see if Toothpaste Boy (?) ends up snapping at some point.

The secret boss is absolutely not worth the effort though, considering this is a demo. At least it helps you see how easy the "proper" final boss battle is in comparison.

 

[HansDampf]

This is like Undertale turned into a more standard JRPG affair. Solid and polished, but also underwhelming.

 

[lightbane]

Yeah, reminds me of the change from Earthbound to Mother 3.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

For obvious reasons this should attract my immediate attention, except the 'episodic' thing kinda puts me off.

I'm gonna wait and see where this goes.

 

[Siveon]

For obvious reasons this should attract my immediate attention, except the 'episodic' thing kinda puts me off.

I'm gonna wait and see where this goes.

It's not episodic, at least not really. Toby has stated that he wants to release the thing in full, in one go, so it seems to only be a thematic thing.

 

[Tweed]

Toby thinks he's clever, releasing a game where your choices don't matter, too bad Bioware beat him to the punch by eight years.

 

[Alex]

I read that as Underrail

 

[Falksi]

Bastard, thought it read "Underrail"

 

[Tweed]

Underrail is a great game and all, but clearly doesn't hold a candle to Toby's magnum opus. I mean Deltarune wasn't even out for 24 hours before people started drawing porn, how much porn has Underrail gotten in the past 3 years?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It's not episodic, at least not really. Toby has stated that he wants to release the thing in full, in one go, so it seems to only be a thematic thing.

In other words he's releasing it in little pieces until he's finished making it, which is what "episodic" means.

 

[Siveon]

It's not episodic, at least not really. Toby has stated that he wants to release the thing in full, in one go, so it seems to only be a thematic thing.

In other words he's releasing it in little pieces until he's finished making it, which is what "episodic" means.

By the way, I currently plan to release all of the chapters at once after we complete them. I'm not sure how long that will take.

Are you joking

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Yeah this seems more like a demo to keep hype going than a true episodic thing. Interested to see how this all turns out.

 

[Background Character]

You can't kill anyone in this game, it stinks

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

https://undertale.com/deltarune-update-092020/

DELTARUNE
Status Update
Sept 2020
INTRODUCTION
Hi everyone.

If you're reading this, you must have been sticking around for about five years.*

I want to express my gratitude for everyone that has supported and encouraged me over this time.

Thank you.

I've said it many many times before, but I didn't expect the simple game I made to receive so much attention. Because of that, many interesting things have happened, and now I can even spend my time making another game.

It seems both of us received a lot of happiness from this occurrence.

If it's okay, I would like to keep striving to do things that make both of us happy.

Let me know what you think about that.

* Since the UNDERTALE demo released in 2013, the game has really existed for 7 years. It's already been more than 25% of my life...

Spoiler

DELTARUNE
I will make another.

I am making a game called "DELTARUNE." It is the second game in the UNDERTALE series.

The game will be released in many "Chapters," the first of which I released two years ago on Halloween. Since that time, I've been working hard to figure out the rest of the game.

However, it's a game that's much harder to make than UNDERTALE.

• Graphics are more complicated and several times more involved
• Systems are more complicated
• Exposes the weak points of my creative and artistic ability
• Plot is much harder to tie together (more characters, more important locations)
• Significantly more content than UT in 1 playthrough (especially cutscenes)
• I have only made one game ever

Unlike UNDERTALE, this is the type of game that would normally have many designers working on each aspect of the game.

A story writer, a composer, an audio director, a map designer, a battle designer, a minigame designer, and an overall director. Instead, all of those roles end up handled by me.

The good news is that a few months ago, I completed a significant milestone regarding the game's design. I completed readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all the cutscenes, examples of the music, etc.

Although certain details are still hazy, the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.

In summary, I largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing. However, that's not the whole story.

We had actually attempted to develop the game since the time too. Development started around March 2019 and a 99% work was spent on investigating engines alternate to GameMaker, which I used for Chapter 1.

Without getting into the details, I decided a few months ago to go back to GameMaker after all. It still felt like the best fit for the project. So using Chapter 1 as a base, we've started creating Chapter 2 since May 2020.

A lot of progress has been made since that time. I believe we can complete this chapter, content-wise, before the end of the year (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting).

I feel very confident. And the strange thing is, even though we ended up using the original engine, I don't regret the lost time, either. Not only was I still busy designing the game, but during that long period, I was able to think of many ideas that make the game's story and characters better.

I'm glad that I'm making the DELTARUNE that I have now and that we are making healthy progress.

DELTARUNE STATUS ESTIMATE
Since there's a lot to read, I'll try to put the status of the game in numbered estimates

CHAPTER 2 (04.15.20 - 08.13.20)
Phase 1: Design
Main Design 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)
Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren't programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing
Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what's there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done...? We'll see what happens. It'll be a lesson for everybody.)

PROGRESS CHAPTERS 3+
Phase 1: Design
Story and General Game Progression (First-pass) 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (First-pass, lacking cutscene instructions) 95%

Map Design (textual) 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn) 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don't do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual) 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets/visual) 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (Concept) 95%

Music (Completed) 50%

Visual Design:

BG concept (First-pass) 75%

Important Character, Bosses (First-pass) 100%

Phase 2
Sprite Art 20%?

Other Content Creation 0%

Phase 3
Release Readiness 0%

(These numbers can be somewhat deceptive though. My true design style is to reach the moment where we have to make something, then suddenly think of something different at the last minute. This is always how it's been with me and my work. It feels like no matter how much I plan, everything comes down to what I think of at the last second…)

TEAM AND DISABILITY
You may have noticed from my phrasing, but yes, there is a team helping me create the game. Other than me, there are about three active team members working day-to-day, with a few other people pitching in from time to time.

Their roles of the main members are overall content implementation and organization, bullet pattern implementation (part-time), and art (Temmie). Other than designing, I still have the role of system programmer.

I'm extremely grateful to have a team helping me carry out my design especially because of my disabilities, which have also made development more difficult.

Although I have long suffered from wrist and hand pain, about five months ago my wrist was the worst it's ever been. I could not play the piano, use the mouse, and barely could use the keyboard. I navigated everything through voice to text.

Through weightlifting, exercise, and various equipment I have been able to somewhat increase the stamina of my wrist to an extent. Various solutions have included trackball mice for each hand, using voice to text whenever possible, using a foot pedal to click the mouse, etc.

Now I can use the mouse and keyboard for a certain amount each day provided I take frequent breaks. I wish I could work without stopping. Once the world situation improves I would really like to take physical therapy again and/or investigate surgery to repair my wrist.

FUTURE PLANS
Once we finish Chapter 2, I would like to use it as the base to create future chapters from. After gaining experience from this chapter, I think making future chapters will be easier.

Part of me wonders if we could make the game faster if we increased the size of the team and did something insane like create multiple chapters in parallel. However, another part of me understands that, adding more people doesn't guarantee that the game will be created faster if it's not done properly. I'm already just barely avoiding becoming a bottleneck on development even with a team of this size, due to my physical limitations.

To that end, I am interested in making a list of people that could potentially help me make the game. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to ask anyone to help, but I think if I could find just 1 person that works well with me, it's worth asking.

Chapter 2 is proceeding at a good pace, so if we do take anyone on, it will probably only be for Chapter 3 onward. So please understand that anything you send in may not have an immediate result.

PEOPLE I AM LOOKING FOR
Feel free to send in your portfolio if you have the following qualifications:

• Worked in the game industry before
• Worked under NDA before
• Have professional references
• A degree of creativity while also being okay with just following directions
• Fluent in English

PEOPLE I MIGHT ACTUALLY USE
MUSIC TRANSCRIPTION / BASIC ARRANGEMENT (PART-TIME): I usually start making songs by playing the piano and singing. An important step after this is to take this basic outline and transcribe it into melodies and chords. Though there are not too many remaining songs to transcribe, it would still help my wrist to have someone else start this process for me. Although I know many musicians, I'm sheepish to ask for help to them, because the main role is actually just to help me compose my own music...

Helpful qualities:

• good at transcription
• can stand listening to me sing
• optional: can use an old version of Fruity Loops

BULLET PATTERN PROGRAMMING (PART TIME): I'm looking for someone to help me program bullet patterns into the game. These people will work from text and visual designs to create fun battles that match the feeling of the game. I already have one person helping with this, but I think a second person would help a lot. You have to be able to use Gamemaker Studio 2 to manipulate objects on the screen / okay with using pre-existing scripts to accomplish this.

Helpful qualities:

• sense of fun and understanding of player perspective and gameplay balance. This aspect is 400000000000000000x more important than programming ability
• reliable
• Able to make patterns based off of visual/text instructions
• fine working with a poorly made battle system
• able to sprite bullets
• good visual/timing sense

MINIGAME PROGRAMMING (PART TIME): There are a few minigames and small interactive events in the game, which appear in and outside of battles. These could take any kind of form... who knows what I'm thinking! Have you made a game before?

Helpful qualities:

• same sense of humor as me
• some level of spriting ability is useful
• you have to have made a game that is fun
• ability to work together with me

UNLIKELY TO HIRE BUT SEND ME YOUR INFORMATION JUST IN CASE
CUTSCENE PROGRAMMING (PART TIME): Besides the battles, the largest amount of content in the game is definitely the cut scenes. You will have to understand Gamemaker Studio 2, but the majority of the work is simply using a scripting system that I created to make characters move around the screen. The most important quality you can have here is not programming ability but the ability to efficiently use the system in order to create scenes with a good sense of humor, timing, and emotion.

I'd strongly prefer to hire someone I know to do this because it involves the story. So I most likely won't hire anyone else.

Helpful qualities:

• can take text instructions and impart a proper sense of timing, humor, and weight to them
• fine working with a custom scripting system (or smart enough to make something better that makes the game easier to make)

ART (PART TIME): Sprite art – Temmie has already drawn a massive amount of art for the game, and continues to do so. And I actually already have a few other artists that have helped me that I'm more than happy to keep working with if things become more overwhelming. So currently I actually don't need any more artists.

However, personally, I'd really like to build up a portfolio of available pixel artists and even concept artists. It's not as if this is the only game I will make during my life. Anyone chosen for this game needs to be able to match the style of the game, but I'm interested in seeing people with different styles as well. Knowing that I have different options can open my mind up to different creative pathways.

Helpful qualities:

• can take bad looking sketches and turn them into art that looks good (magic)
• don't mind if your work gets completely drawn over or thrown out
• anyone that can draw cute or cool poses is good
• interested in seeing people that have an art style outside of the scope of the game

WRIST (FULL TIME): someone needs to transform into a new wrist for me

Helpful qualities:

• flexible
• doesn't hurt
• musical sense

That's everyone I'm looking for. The only other kind of person I might hire would be a single JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES type that can do any sort of things such as cutscenes, bullets, or even system programming, with a good degree of visual flair. (But if you can do those sorts of things, aren't you busy making your own game already!?)

Anyway, I'll show you the e-mail now. Just make sure you read these rules first:

• Don't send in e-mails about anything else!
• Don't send to other team members, Fangamer, etc. about helping out!

Got it? Then please send your information to this e-mail address:

deltarunejobs
at
fangamer.com
Since Fangamer will be sorting through the e-mails for me, we'll stop taking e-mails at the end of September so they don't get overwhelmed. Ultimately, I'm only looking for one or two people, and to make a list of the rest of the potentially helpful people in the world.

CONCLUSION
That's all! Happy five years!!