[Cancelled] Undertale: The Otherground

The following project is canceled, but the description pre-cancellation will be preserved below as it was when it was active. Thank you for following the development of Undertale: The Otherground.

This game is directed by user cubicSimulation from 2022 onward, originally created in 2017 by poody_blue and rebooted in 2019 with the help of Ethan Harper- both of whom have stepped down and currently remain creative directors.

Important note: this Gamejolt page is currently run primarily by Cubic.

If you're interested, why not check us out on some other platform(s)?
Official Othertales Discord | Official Soundcloud Playlist | "Ask Sunny" Tumblr Blog | Fan-made Wiki Page

Undertale: The Otherground is a fangame set in the original Undertale universe (Canon-Compliment, or In-Universe), with no changes taking place. Instead, we see a new part of Undertale's world away from Mt. Ebott with a dark fantasy twist. The goal of this game is to improve and build off of the original Undertale™, demonstrating to its fanbase what more they can do with this world besides rewriting it over and over, thus attempting to create what we call the "Othertale Sub-Genre" of Undertale™ fangames.

In this new part of Undertale's world, take control of the new protagonist Louis (pronounced "Louie", as he is European) as he searches to learn the fate or whereabouts of someone he held dear. Alongside this, cave-dweller twin humans "Sunny" and Renée will be joining Louis on this journey. Renée has a magenta soul called Leadership, which means that there are not just 7 soul types anymore, but instead, there are about 14, as to how could the vast diversity of simply being human be described solely in 7 colors? Lastly, Hui will join you, as well! She'll teach Louis all the tricks she knows for getting around and help him travel with her technological genius and gadgets. She even says she once lived on the surface as Louis did! Hui has a brown soul called Innovation.

Travel Mongale Island, an entirely new Underground located at the depths of the Eimmet Sea, as you meet entirely new monsters (and even some humans!) in entirely new places. Experience an entirely new story, with some nods to the original Undertale™ story! This will probably be one of the more ambitious Undertale™ games out there, and we hope you'll look forward to it in the future.

• Director(s)

  • @cubicSimulation

• Original Founders & Creative Directors

  • @poody_blue / MyHiddenThomas

  • Ethan Harper / @Game8Me3

• Composer(s)

  • @TheRadGuyRM

  • @LexiTheTT

  • Ethan Harper / @Game8Me3

• Spriter(s)

  • @cubicSimulation

  • @Radiaction

  • @JamesCook

  • @Starlightshore

  • @LeopardBunnyDev

  • Shifted/@theteaminbetween

  • @poody_blue / MyHiddenThomas (past work)

  • Ethan Harper / @Game8Me3 (past work)

• Programmer(s)

  • Lasers/@FutureGamer25

  • Lucky/@Whave

• Writer(s)

  • @cubicSimulation

  • @TheEccentric1851

  • Mart/@Iwilldieformartlet

  • Shifted/@theteaminbetween

  • @poody_blue / MyHiddenThomas

  • Ethan Harper / @Game8Me3

• Official Artists

  • @cubicSimulation

  • Luxie/@Exactlyyyyyyyy

  • @Starlightshore

  • @poody_blue / MyHiddenThomas (past work)

  • Ethan Harper / @Game8Me3

Any assets from Undertale™ (and now Deltarune™), as well as the games themselves, are by Toby Fox & Co.

Game Engine & all of its features are created and used by the dev team. You might be able to catch some parts used in other projects (eg. the lighting engine)!

The GameJolt banner was created by Cactusfries on Instagram & Discord. :^)

Helpful Contributors will be documented and display in-game via the credits screen.

Some Mechanical & Artistic Inspiration Drawn From: TheMasterSword's Undertale Yellow, jevilhumor's SPOOKYTALE, Scottcok's Deltafuri, Undertale: Bits & Pieces, Omocat's OMORI, Nintendo's Earthbound series, & probably most of all: Tarsier Studios' Little Nightmares & Playdead's INSIDE.

gamejolt we want our markdown tables back 😡

ALL ARE OUTDATED. WILL (maybe) BE FIXED LATER.

• A slightly longer adventure, chock full with a new "monster cache" to explore that isn't Mt. Ebott, bursting at the seams with new characters & a new story. The place does not only contain new settings to explore, but they're also accompanied by more civilized establishments such as towns, to make the place more lively. There also may be more distinct endings!

• Move like never before with fluidity & freedom as you're capable of moving diagonally, running, & leaping from ledges like most Zelda / Pokémon games! This also includes crawling in dedicated crawlspaces, shimmying along narrow ledges against walls, climbing up ladders & vines, and finally- my favorite- crouching to stay quiet & hidden in stealth scenarios.

  We at the dev team dubbed this part of the game the "Smooves" engine, short for "Smooth Movement"!

• Lighting like never seen before in an Undertale game (as of yet, as we've lent the engine to some other projects), to further emphasize and embrace the horror elements this game carries. To counter the darkness, Louis will be given a lighter to illuminate the path for him & his friends.

• Short on CROWNS? Ask around town and see if there are any jobs you can do! There are other quality of life features that make the game a smoother & more enjoyable experience, such as Vessel's Vision, a feature that allows Louis to spot items/objects containing items with a red, pulsing aura the closer he gets.

• An honest critique of Undertale's morality system. Neutrality is the most realistic and understandable route, so players aren't condemned for defending themselves. Pacifism by definition isn't a real option, either. You should expect to be forced to raise your fists in certain moments, but killing is still optional to determine your ending. This also includes the addition of a new leveling/ranking system that rewards the player for playing the game the way they want to, numerically benefitting them on both sides of the moral spectrum. Have a look!

• An entire spectrum of soul types. As more of humanity is explored in this game, you get to see more souls being represented! Brown souls are the most common, and represent all of humanity, while the rest are more specialized, yet not rare. There may even be some monsters infused with a fallen human's souls!
  You can use this soul chart for your own project(s), though we'd appreciate it if you're kind and send credit our way in return (legacy soul graphics available in the game settings too)!

• Some areas will be accompanied by a bonus sub-area, dubbed a "twilight zone" by the islanders, you must find your way into to achieve 100% (in our case, the merciful ending). We currently plan on 3/6 areas having a sub-area attached. Beware the oppressive darkness within a twilight zone, there's no telling what could be lurking... Why go to a place like this? Only Louis seems willing to go...

• Upon our final release, we do have ideas and concepts to add to the game as extra game modes, like a hard mode, a customizable battle sim to revisit previously encountered / downloaded(?) bosses as copies within the void, or maybe even reaching as high as a void-based Chao garden kind of idea! All of these are just ideas for us to come back to when better fleshed out, not guaranteed features.

  Hard mode, in particular, takes the protagonist and "transfers" him with his counterpart, changing Mongale's history. During the transfer, they adopt traits from one another and become new people, while the world we once explored remains physically the same, changed by the events caused by Louis in the past, leaving us to play as his counterpart in the new present (note the "counterpart" goes namely & visually anonymous against spoilers).

Buy the original Undertale by Toby Fox right here! Don't worry, it has both the singular download, and the Steam download- all on one page!

Here it is: http://undertale.com/

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This block also includes other projects our devs direct, or are a part of. Why don't you check them out? They'll be marked with a ❤️ if they're Undertale-related or a 👾 if they're original!

❤️ Angel's Lullaby by @Starlightshore

❤️ Deltarune: the Rouged Thorn by @poody_blue

❤️ Undermoon by @Artem-Nesterov

❤️ TE!Undertale Green by @TheEccentric1851

❤️ Undertale: Kindred Spirits by @PurrSum

👾 Ji Kizu by @PurrSum

👾 little man by @poody_blue

👾 Together Alone by @Raymes & @TogetherAloneTeam

👾 Twilight City by @JamesCook

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And finally, shout-outs to other fan games or other kinds of content like comics that tell brand new stories, just like UTTO! We created this game to encourage and help foster more creativity in the community, so if you have a brand new story to tell, inspired by us or not, shoot me a message and your work should appear down here to help boost your notoriety!

(Disclaimer: Team Otherground is not at all directly associated with these games, and whatever conflicts may occur we are not liable for unless we are directly involved.)

Officially Partnered Othertales:

🌌 DEFECTIVE: A Void Story, by @midnight-shifted

🌵 Undertale: Tomb of Sands, by @Iwilldieformartlet

🎮 PROTOCOL, by @cubicSimulation

🤲 Undertale: Binds of Fate, by @TimComporation

🌊 SAVE OUR SOULS: An Undertale Story, by @LeopardBunnyDev

🌓 Undertale: Within Our Souls, by @Sampson373

🔱 Undertale: Triangle of Tales by @Jopes

💔 Deltarune: Broken Destiny by @CrystalZeroChaos

🖤 Deltarune: Internal Demons by @DirectalArrow

Q) When will this release? Can I help?

A) Just like every single game on Gamejolt, we don't know. We'll try our best to finish as efficiently as we can, but keep in mind most of us are kids and don't have all the time in the world. Prime example: school or work.

We may open a space for newcomers, but it's not a guarantee. We're already content with the team we have, and we don't want to get too big and not know what to do with everyone.

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Q) When does this take place?

A) The year is 21XX, meaning that UTTO can effectively take place at any possible point in Undertale's timeline, but because it takes place in a completely different location on the globe, Undertale's events are not relevant to UTTO.

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Q) What's the tone of this game?

A) Honestly, this game and the story we've created for it is rather dark, bleak, & even a little scary. It's been compared to being the Majora's Mask of Undertale, being a story with similar positive beats to others of its kind but with an aura of hostility, trauma, & dread surrounding it. To a point, we've essentially created a horror RPG out of Undertale, mechanically and narratively.

Earthbound and its little sibling Undertale (and various other inspired titles) both take on a whimsical feel with terror sprinkled in, whilst UTTO aims to subvert that popular trope by presenting a horrible atmosphere with the light of what it means to be young shining through. Children have immense power when it comes to story writing, and we hope to utilize that well.

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Q) What software is being used, and when did this game begin development?

A) Game Maker Studio 2. As for the start of development, we began on May 11th, 2017, survived development hell, rebooted the game and went back to the pre-planning phase in 2019, and have currently been able to resume development as of 2020.

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Q) Who's the creator of this game & concept? Who manages the Gamejolt page?

A) Both Ethan Harper and poody_blue are equally responsible for the initial creation of this concept and world. They have put all of their characters, ideas, settings, and more into the project. While Poody originally ran the team, Ethan had equal power, making decisions with the the same weight as Poody. There was no individual creator for UTTO, rather, it was the creation of Ethan and Poody.

As for who manages the Gamejolt page, initially, it was ran by Poody with assistance from Ethan, but currently, it is primarily run by cubicSimulation with occasional assistance from Shifted.

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Q) What was Demolitale, and what is the "Othertale Sub-Genre"?

A) Demolitale was originally an AU where Frisk didn't exist, and so it was basically another Undertale [Color] game where another human (Renée), fell in their place sometime later. The project kept bloating until it was unmanageable, and an absolute mess. Louis took the role of protagonist this time around because his soul was and still is red in both the Demolitale series & Undertale: The Otherground.

As for the Othertale Sub-Genre, it's a style of fangame UTTO started in hopes of changing up the fangame dynamic, pushing an idea that not many people have begun trying until UTTO's appearance. The gist is that the story isn't an AU and resides in a universe Toby established- be it Undertale, Deltarune, or even the Void. Next, a new protagonist is in order, as Frisk's story has been told so many times that it's become a little redundant. It doesn't matter if they're a vessel like Frisk or Louis (in other words, a red soul), but it's recommended to avoid jumping through hoops to land the lore. After, a brand new setting with brand new characters is to be created, giving us a fresh but familiar Undertale experience and expanding your chosen world beyond just Mt. Ebott, Hometown- wherever. Lastly, all you have to do is write a new story to unfold in this new part of the world you've created.

Have fun!

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Q) When you're done with Otherground & its setting Mongale, can I make a fan game about it? I found an interesting place for a new plot to sprout!

A) Of course, you can make a fangame of our fan game! However, you must be sure to label it as unofficial, as we don't want any confusion amongst the fanbase about what is real and what is not. Aside from that, the mere existence of this game is to encourage a new kind of creativity in the Undertale fandom in hopes people make their own "othergrounds", but we won't mind you riding off of this one!

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Q) Do you accept fan art, and if so, what about their eye colors? Weren't they soul-based for a long time? Which colors should I use?

A) The original idea was "eyes are the windows to the soul", which was an old saying people irl used to say. However, this was debunked in Undertale, as Chara's eyes are canonically brown, and Frisk's were also depicted as brown in promotional art. However, based on Chara's sprite after a post-genocide pacifist ending, it's at least canon for eyes to change to unnatural colors, so that was preserved in our genocide sprites.

Use whatever colors you want for your fan art. We love that you care for our content so much that you'd draw for it, and we're forever grateful. :)

The only instance fanart would not be condoned / permitted is nsfw. If I see anyone draw any of these children with visible genitalia and / or performing any sexual activity I'm reporting it to whatever platform the content is found on, no negotiation or excuses. Most nobody will be impressed.

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Q) Some of the human characters are weirdly colored... Why's that?

A) Remember how Frisk was emoji-yellow? Some characters have been given that treatment, but through other colors that aren't just yellow, that specific detail being inspired by SPOOKYTALE's protagonist being purple during early stages of development. Of course, while Frisk proves that unusual skintones are possible, Chara proves that humans can also be of natural hues like you and me.

While Frisk's people may not look natural to us, they will fit in and be treated just like all the other humans. Remember, context was at least one of the only reasons (if not the main reason) we were able to quickly distinguish Frisk was human, and just slapping yellow onto people or trying to blend colors in with natural tones feels dehumanizing & stripping away any identity they may have- like they need to look like us, or they're not human, which isn't fair. Frisk was a singular person, these are many.

This is how we are handling racial ambiguity.

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Q) Hey, why is your character's soul color the same as mine!?

A) Sorry, but there are only so many colors. If there's a similarity in the name or color of a character's soul, it's merely a coincidence. Considering this is only a fan game, we will not change the traits/colors of the new souls. Alongside that, if you believe that characters with Renée's soul match Betty's (from Camila Cuevas' "Glitchtale") soul, you're mistaken. Renée's soul is intended to be magenta, whilst Betty's is the shade of baby pink. Also, Renée & various other magenta souls aren’t in any way related to her. This was unironically a problem at one point.

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Q) So what are the new souls?

A) Leadership (Magenta), and Innovation (Brown). However, the main star will be the red soul, seeing that Deltarune proves that it's our main ticket into the world. Other than that, the rest of the new souls' names are yours to decide. With that said, we would appreciate that, if your trait name and soul system was taken from this source, you would please place credit where it is due. Colors do not matter though unless they were hand-picked from the souls in this game.

There used to be pastel human souls, but they were retconned for various reasons, such as merely being washed-out versions of the other souls, redundant meanings, etc. We removed them entirely to allow the other souls to be more interesting and valuable.

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Q) What's the max LV for UTTO? Is it the same as Undertale?

A) Considering the adventure is a little longer, as well as a few other things here and there... We've considered higher max LV counts like 25 or even 30, though we decided to keep it capped at 20 for canonical reasons.

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Q) Why does this game look so much like Bits n' Pieces? Even the protags have similar styles. Are you a thief?

A) Absolutely not. The reason BnP looks so similar is because it's in the same family as UTTO, that being devs from our team and theirs work on each others projects. poody_blue, for instance, was responsible for the original base sprites and walking animations used for Frisk & Chara in BnP (as he was responsible for the designs of humans in UTTO), but every other animation done was by someone else, which is why they look similar but often move differently.

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Q) What is the Community Hivemind AU? What's it about?

A) The Community Hivemind AU is a cinematic-tier event that we're hoping will see the light of day one day when many modern Undertale projects begin to release and truly shine. With the community closer than ever before, Poody has thought of something special we could all do together similar to Underverse, featuring all of our projects in one series, in whatever form of media we decide on.

In HIVEMIND, we the player are sent in to control, guide, & protect our 6-7 year-old protagonist Chance, a vessel having failed to evacuate as their world is torn apart by the Hivemind, an entity with the same energy & frequencies as a player, that's taken an entire world's worth of vessel humans under its control, wreaking havoc on every world its influence spills out into. Only vessels are susceptible to the Hivemind's influence, so the story allows for lesser characters (monsters & standard humans) to step in and protect the red souls, much like the red souls had to do in many other cinematic takes on the Undertale multiverse. With the rise of so many brand new stories in the Undertale world, we should be treated with the appearance of many characters other than the standard UT cast or just Sans.

Will little Chance survive the apocalypse with the help of friends they make and help along the way, or will they fall victim to the Hivemind's influence like so many other vessels before them? That's for you and me to decide when the time is right.

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Q) You're just gonna stamp your name on this idea and abandon it, aren't you?

A) Actually, no. Despite this occurring on multiple occasions with other Undertale fan games (which populate and crowd most of Gamejolt), we're going to try our best to finish this project! If anything were to somehow ever happen that stops us, we'll release what we have done then.

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Q) Can you help me with my math homework?

A) Nope.

Hey, you made it! Thanks a bunch for reading all the way through! We really appreciate it! See you in the Discord Server / Next devlog!

* Wherever you're going from here, it's clear that you and I have a long journey ahead.

* Are you ready? Let's get started.

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