Holy freaking carp, can you believe it??! The first ever version of DELTATRAVELER released a whopping TWO YEARS ago!

November 12, 2021 is when v1.00 graced this fandom, and oh my goodness am I surprised anyone cared. And yet somehow it became the top Undertale fangame on this entire site for months (still ongoing as I write this).

I never actually posted anything on the games 1 year anniversary, so maybe I should talk about how this game started and how it's going, and then maybe a few other fun things, like when v3.0.0 is coming out!!!

In the beginning, there was KRIS WHERE THE HELL ARE WE. The release of Deltarune Chapter 2 graces us all unexpectedly, while me and Scoot are preparing the release of UNOTALE v1.01. After this release, I noticed a trend on Twitter (i will never call it X) where people were putting Kris and Susie in random places, with Susie doing that funny pose from the end of Chapter 2.

I was trying to think of a way I could create something to contribute to this meme, and the idea I came up with is a fangame where Kris and Susie (and very quickly added noelle to the fray) end up in Undertale and hop between different worlds.

I super quickly got to work on the project, using the code I had done for UNDERTALE: Skeletal Vengeance as a base to work off of.

If you're curious, this is the exact same framework that I made for ATONEMENT, which I called MERCYENGINE. There are a lot of ancient components of the framework dating back to late 2018 that are still used in the current version of Deltatraveler to this day.

Before I had a name thought of, the project was literally just called "Kris and Susie in UNDERTALE," which is still what the GitHub repository is called.

DID YOU KNOW: The original name of the game was going to be called "Delta Travelers" before it got renamed to DELTATRAVELER to fit in better with the naming scheme of UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE. However, it's still the app identifier on Android (and MacOS whenever I get around to making that port).

So around a week of work later, I have a Kris and Susie fully integrated into this 3 year old Undertale framework (with Noelle semi-functional), and half of the first cutscene programmed in. So I decide to post a little preview onto Twitter.

To say that people were impressed is an understatement.

Back then, my Twitter account only had like 600-700 followers, and I reached 1k on that same day.

Needless to say, I was excited to see what people thought about the whole Section when I finished up.

Which umm... released about a month later...

Oh, and I worked on the game at my day job. Still do it to this day, by the way. That'll likely change when I get a full-time job with my degree, though.

Section Ideas

From the very beginning, I wanted to incorporate Undertale Ruins. However, the initial ideas of worlds to visit is a bit interesting.

But by the beginning of the 3rd week, I already knew what I wanted to do.

Obviously, some things have changed. Like now, the Toontown section is planned to be in a Toontown gameplay style, but this is still pretty spot on. It even has the Section 5-6 intermission in it. :3

Though at some point, I considered possibly replacing one of the sections with UNDERTALE Yellow, but I realized it wouldn't make sense thematically to involve Clover, so I decided against it.

In my opinion, all of the section topics are perfect. I think the only one that isn't as necessary is probably Toontown, but I think it's interesting to have a part of the game that is 3D. If I were to have to replace one of the sections with something else, count on it being worse than the original idea.

I mean, how couldn't you love Toontown In Real

2 years later, what do I have to show for my work? Well some pretty impressive recognition for one. It's honestly really shocking going on social media, checking a random persons profile, and seeing that they follow me.

But more importantly, we have a (kinda) episodic fangame that is around 35% completely done. Three parts of the game are done, plus an extra mode, plus a minigame. It's probably the biggest thing I've ever made, both in scope and popularity. And I hope to keep it going until it's done. I have some pretty big plans for the rest of the game, and I really hope that me and the rest of the team are able to somehow pull it off.

Now unfortunately, a lot of peoples favorite moments are from Section 3, so I'm gonna have to censor some of them. All of the censored parts will have four pound signs, so don't try to piece together what certain content will be from those. If you're lucky, I'll remember to uncensor the spoilers after release :)

• Sarah Ryno: It's gotta be all of the weird and interesting shit I've been doing to spice things up. One of my favorites at the moment is the #### at the end of the #### segment. It's probably because it's fresh on my mind, but everyone on the team thought it was weird and a potential bug when they experienced it the first time. Also, "Ice_Caps" is intentional, god damn it.

• TheFamiliarScoot: I'm bad at picking favorites, but if I had to, it'd be the #### fight! It made my heart race - but in, like, a good way. You REALLY have to pay attention to when [their] #### comes back, otherwise you'll miss out on an attack you spent a decent amount of your TP for... [Their] attacks are also great at challenging your platforming skills - with the #### mechanic, there's a few cool skips you can perform... I'll leave it up to the community to discover them >:3

• Sonnakai: The Flowey fight in Section 1. First of all, love that music. Shit's an absolute jam. Second of all, it's then and there that Deltatraveler immediately sets itself apart from Undertale and becomes its own unique thing, taking on an enemy never properly fleshed out in their base form in the original Undertale. It's especially cool how out of nowhere it comes, just immediately getting pummeled by this fucking flower after Deltatraveler had been pretty by the books in its approach up to that point, Kris in business casual not withstanding. It's a very fun fight, and one that I think set the groundwork for Deltatraveler moving forward; Taking something that already exists, and putting a fresh spin on it, like any good fangame should. also noelle vine boom, thats an epic moment right there

• LumaHoneyy: Honestly, my favorite segment of section 3 is really the segment where #### as a character changes pretty significantly. It's kinda hard to talk about this segment 'cause it's heavy spoilers for section 3, but the emotions that follow this segment are so real and honestly something else. Conveniently enough, I DID at least help with a good portion of the sprites surrounding that scene, but... y'know!! XP I'm excited for this section to release mostly to see everyone's opinions on it, ehehe... I feel as if people won't like this section as much as 2, due to it's nature of it being related to one of Sarah's other projects, but this point in the story is significant enough that it really can't be gone without. :3

• Sophie: I'd have to say my favorite part was the part where we were developing the section minigame and when we were playtesting it, some of the devs were absolutely screwed over by the game. Oh, someone already mentioned that one? Well shi

• gabbo: is it too corny to say that my favorite part about the game was being able to work with so many cool people and make some baller friends in the process?

• Cubic: Hmmm. it's hard to pick just one good moment. There's a lot I love about this game, after all! But if I had to pick one... I'd still pick two or three anyway.
  First off is when you see the #### cutscene during Section 3, which really gives you a great glimpse into something that hasn't been elaborated on much as of yet. I'd argue it's a pretty fundamental part of the game going forward! ...and I may or may not have helped write the dialogue for it, but I'm not biased! I swear!!
  Then, of course, there's the Intermission! All of it's a really fun moment, but the minigame is undoubtedly the highlight of the whole thing. It's tense, fast-paced, and a whole lot of fun, along with bringing something completely unexpected to the table!
  And finally, what might be the last thing I expected to see when I joined this dev team: The sequence where you encounter ####... and face the consequences. I can't elaborate past that, but trust me: You'll know it when you see it.
  But honestly, even despite the source material being about a not-so-fun world... I think this whole section is a blast! All I can really say is that I'm a fan of the direction Deltatraveler is going, and hope that all of you are too! I'm just glad I can help bring this game to life.

• Autumn: Hiiii~! So my favorite moment game-wise so far definitely has to be the Section 3 boss! Sarah and the rest of the team definitely put their all into it, and I made some contributions to it myself that you can find if you choose to seek them out. = )
  In general though, I love talking with the team a lot. It's nice getting to be part of such a relaxed development team with common interests. I'm really excited to see this all to the end!

• Beethovenus: Honestly, that's a tough question. I personally have a lot of favorite moments so far -- one of them would have to be how Toriel was handled throughout Section 1's Hard Mode, which utilizes scrapped concepts I had for the normal Ruins that Sarah felt wouldn't be fitting. When it comes to Section 3, I love how #### has an entire boss fight dedicated to [them]. It's ####, complete with #### -- and that's not even to mention how it ####, the ####, and especially the ####. I'm particularly happy with the name I came up with for it: "CHEETO THUNDER..."

When the freaking bloody hell is Section 3 releasing?!?!?!

December 2023

I'd love to release it earlier, but I get the odd feeling that the fandom is about to have a field day with another anticipated release soon. Though don't take my word on it.

Just... don't.

Also, this is probably the biggest update the game has seen yet. I've said that the Cubic Lifeline Demo is around 25% of the sections full length, but there's also an intermission in Snowdin Town with stuff to do and a full minigame to play. I'm really hoping that the new content in the update is enough for it to feel worth it.

But because of how big the update is, it's going to see a lengthier testing cycle. The v1.00 and v2.00 release candidate testing lasted for like a week each. However, v3.0.0 has yet to enter release candidate testing despite being playable from beginning to end. Mostly because there are assets still missing (people are busy), but also there's a lot more stuff to test compared to the first two major updates.

Also, v2.00 released with a bunch of issues and got like 4 patches in the span on 2 days. So let's like... not have that happen again.

Also also, things are starting to ramp up a bit for me in school, and I need to start preparing a resume and stuff, and prepping for graduation and finals in a month. Fun stuff! So I'll likely just take it slow from now until release.

After v3.0.0

Okay, so we aren't going to be working on Section 4 immediately. The idea is that I first need to land a full-time job. Then we make a v3.1.0.

Why make a v3.1.0 before v4.0.0?

There are a bunch of engine upgrades and mechanic reworks we want to make before working on the next section. The idea is to future proof the game as the years continue to move on at a scary rate. Plus, we had a really good idea for a new extra mode that we unfortunately can't fit into v3.0.0. I can, however, put in a little cryptic teaser that tells you absolutely nothing about it.

No, it's not a hard mode continuation. I'd only even consider making a new hard mode after Section 8 releases.

After v3.1.0 would be when we start on v4.0.0.

I think that's everything we have to say. This should, unless something unexpected comes up, be the last devlog before the release of v3.0.0. I'm looking forward to seeing y'all play it when it comes out!

- Sarah