- Overall progress report

Since the last Devlog, Final Run got a whole rework of the sprites, including battle sprites, overworld and new maps, all thanks in no small part to our former spriters – cereal, and Dendy.

Thanks you guys for being a part of this game for so long, we can’t thank you enough!
Apart from the progress on sprites, we’ve also done some reworking for the Ost, and updated it all completely! We have just but 2 tracks to finish the full OST of the first chapter! I’m sure you guys are excited to hear the new tracks, and we’re happy to inform you that we’re planning to air 3 of the themes on our official page today! So get ready for some epic music moments:)

Coding wise, there’s still a TON of work.

We’ve completed some of the main puzzles for the first area in the game, and completed the introduction fully. We’re now working on the intro and the new battle system which includes 2 new fighting options, more on that later. To be honest, our focus was to get the assets for the first chapter done as soon as possible, and then focus on the sprites. We’ve practically achieved that for the first area, since we only have about 2 other overworld rooms to finish, and 1 sprite to make for the secret boss fight. So we’re going slow and steady on that one.

If we have to estimate the current progress percentage, we’ll go for around 40%, considering the music is done, coding is progressing and sprites for the first chapter are completed.

Now, let’s dive in!

- Writing

Writing has been a bit slow for the time being. We still don’t have complete plans for the next chapters, although a basic idea for the plot line has been made. We have a lot of work going onward with developing the character you all know and love, that will appear in the first chapter, such as toriel, papyrus, sans and Flowey. Also, there’ll be an introduction to a completed new monster with an original origin story, which you’ll encounter in the first hour of the game, and will have to battle to get to toriel eventually, so that too, will take some time. We have the story origin straightened out, but full dialogue lines are still in the works.

- Music

As we’ve mentioned before, about 90% of the OST of chapter 1 is completed. We’re very proud of our musicians, and they’ve done an outstanding job. Big shoutout to the following members: Benlab, hant147, PriTux and FadeAway. Thanks guys!

We went through the trouble of remaking toriel’s battle theme: “Ashes to Ashes”, since we’ve received some criticism about the theme not fitting the character well enough, so we hope you’ll find it fitting now! You can find the theme on our official Soundcloud page right now, made by hant147, along with the follow-up theme, ending Toriel's battle: "Going down in flames and tears":

Also, the original themes for the new monster are also completed, but we’ll hold those off because we don’t want to reveal too much about the character. We will, however, there IS one character that is now confirmed to appear as a boss fight in Final Run, and it is: Grillby’s! You can listen to his funky jazz theme also, on our official souncloud, made by FadeAway (originally by PriTux):

Let’s see, who’s left? Ah yes, of course. We won’t leave you behind, sans and papyrus (both themes are made by FadeAway) :

- Sprites

We’ve stated that most of the first area’s rooms are fully completed. However, recently some of the spriters left the team, and we were left with no overworld spriters to fill in the void. So, that’s where you guys come in! If you have some experience working with tile sets and wanna help us with the project, you’re welcome to apply in the official discord server, linked down below. We’ll look into your application carefully and who knows, maybe you’ll appear on the next Devlog!

Also, battle spriters are welcome to try their luck as well, we’re running short on spriters so we’ll gladly look into your applications too guys. Thanks:)

But yeah, progress is also going slow and steady here, we’re right now on hold with the overworld, but going strong on the panels for the intro, as you can see here (made by Momo)!

That’s about it for spriting. And last but not least:

- Coding

… two new options??? What the hell is EXECUTE?

Well, Final Run is not a genocide game anymore, so we figured it’ll be easier to let you guys choose your path. No more neutral routes though, this IS the final run after all. So we took it upon ourselves to save you the trouble, and after you determine your path in the first few rooms, you’ll be given a choice- either stick to your genocidal desires and destroy the monster race with your newly found abilities from the EXECUTE button, or maybe you’ve decided to be a kind-hearted soul and simply DISARM your opponents rather than hurt them physically? Who knows what the future holds.

We’ll keep you in the fog about this for now, but you’ll see what we mean once you play the game.

So yeah, we’re working on new options to excite you with refreshing battle experience on the basic system of Undertale you all know and love. Hopefully, this will be worth the wait (made by Uralisimus!)

Apart from that, we’ve done some updates to the menu UI, nothing too fancy, just sprites update and some better optimization.

Also, some traps and puzzles for the first area have been made, including… ROCKS! MOVING ROCKS! (totally didn’t take pepsicat a week to figure that out GOINKS, but hey, he tried his best!)

Also, we’ve completed updated and reworked the game over screen, hopefully it looks more aesthetic and works better for you!

And, also, we saved the best for last… Toriel’s battle and attacks are fully completed! We won’t reveal too much about that, but I’ll let 2 sneak picks slide here…

And with that, we’ve reached the end, once again.

Thank you for sticking with us, we know it’s frustrating to hear news only so often, but please do note that this has been one of the busiest years for the team, and pepsicat - the director, has been facing some problems within the community. He hopes that his issues with the Undertale community will stay out of the way of a brighter future for the fangame, since these two subjects have absolutely 0 things in common, apart from the fact that he’s directing the project, and doing this completely for free, spending countless hours for you, guys.

We thank you for your time reading this Devlog, and we hope to see you soon on the next one! (probably won’t take us 5 months this time lol). Oh, and here are the social media links in case you wanna follow us for extra news! (… links) Bye for now!

Our social medias:

Discord: discord.gg/x4xVcY35YZ
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/undertale-the-final-run
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@undertalethefinalrun969