Hey it's been a while since I did a proper devlog, and with a bunch of new people having been joining at a steady rate I want to clear up what this game really is!

Angel's Lullaby (AL) is an Undertale Prequel, taking place during the Human/Monster War. The story focuses on an undead human who is caught in-between the conflict of each race, and as the player you decide who you'd wish to side with.

Sorry for the tangent, but I thought it might be fun to talk about my journey with AL's origins. Feel free to skip the next 5 paragraphs if you're uninterested!

Angel's Lullaby's Origins

Oddly, I am not a gamer. I've played Undertale more times than I can count, and played a few RPGs here and there but I went into Game Development as a way of telling stories. I'm an animator and comic artist first, and thus my journey to game dev has been fought with ignorance and development hell. While making Angel's Lullaby, I've been in and out of College and have been working on my own long-running askblog/comic on the side.

(And depression + quarantine, but uh, that's a given at this point for me lol)

(comic page from my undertale askblog/comic AskFallenRoyalty)

AL started out as an askblog's finale, (A different long-running blog that I've since given up for personal reasons.) then a total reboot of said askblog's story. After talking with a close friend, I realized that with a video game I could tell a new story separate from that falling-apart old story and create something truly special. So after wasting a year playing around with visual novel programs and a story that wouldn't work, I switched to RPG maker and started completely over. 6 months or so later, I made the first demo for AL.

(Art from the cancelled Visual Novel game)

(A screenshot from the RPG maker build)

That old demo was a total mess, I still didn't know jack about game development or spriting. (I did do some spriting/sprite edits as a child though) and I didn't understand the importance of play within games. The RPG maker build is barely playable and not enjoyable. RPG Maker didn't work for me or for the scope of this project, so it was time to get serious.

For the last year and a half I've been using TML's UNDERTALE engine in Gamemaker Studio 2. Since then, I've joined the UT fangame community and have come a long way in learning everything from: story, gameplay, and Undertale itself.

(From 2 years ago, concept art for the RPG maker build)

AL has been a project for 2 years now, and a lot of that time had been partly wasted in trying to jump into a medium I knew close to nothing about. I didn't know how serious I wanted to take it or what exactly I was trying to do in the first place. I could of saved a lot of development hell if I just stepped back, started from scratch, and knew what I wanted to do. I don't really regret it -I'm much of a better artist and writer now than I was before. I've grown a lot as a creator and that's what matters the most. :>

Angel's Lullaby's Progress in Development

Overall Story Planning: the full game has been planned for a year, but I've added more content to the middle that's only loosely planned. I feel the structure of the story is solid.

Chapter 1 specific development:

Story: 80%.

The full story rough drafted for over a year. (Currently it's on Rough Draft Version 3.5). The first half of the chapter I'm certain can be considered "close to final." (Subject to change by play testing or peer review)

The second half has been going through more changes, as characters arcs have been altered and enemy areas have been built upon.

This means a large chunk of the chapter is up in the air, and to avoid wasting asset creation I've put a lot of things on hold. This goes for coding as well, as I'm still unsure of which engine/program to use. That said, I've still done a lot of set up and coding in gamemaker regardless of this.

Overworld: 50%.

The Main characters are fully sprited, but NPCs are not. Battle encounters won't be random but rather enemies will be met on overworld. This means all enemies will need 4 direction sprites and battle-start sprites.

The main characters also need additional sprites for cutscenes and for additional special movement This is dependent on story, so I assume more will be planned as progress comes along.

Designs are finally finalized (having been changed a bit a month ago to be more deltarune-like). I'm always constantly messing with them but now I'm satisfied! It'd be fun to show how they've changed over time at some point.

Portraits: 90%.

Main characters have portraits, though they need some refinement. It's unlikely many NPCs will have portraits, so I'm pretty confident this is mostly done.

Tilesets: 70%.

I just added more to an area so tilesets just got pushed back. The main areas are sprited but there's a few select locations that need unique sprites. This will also be changed as the story is fixed up.

Battle: 10%.

Main characters are partly done. I got the Idle pose down for the main 3, so the other stuff will be additional things for like "attack state" or "death state" ect. Because of story and engine changes, I'm hesitant on making these in case there's a major change later on.

The areas for the enemies will have a cohesive themed sub-areas. Production for designing the fights/enemies has begun, but I'm still iffy on them. I expect they'll be changed heavily, which is why battle is marked so low on percentage.

Here are the amount of enemies planned (subject to change):

• 9-12 common enemies

• one mini boss

• 2 bosses (one for neutral/pacifist and one for no mercy)

• bonus content! (will be done last)

Overall progress: Chapter 1 is roughly 50% done.

As mentioned before, there's mainly story issues. The general tone, atmosphere, character/story arcs are planned. It's just refining and adding to the world that needs to be finished before the rest of the game can be worked on.

Once I get the story finalized, I'll write up a script and have my translators work with me to begin their translations. Then I'll make a bare-boned playable build, then refine both pacing/story and gameplay from there.

Worst case scenario I'm looking at another year of production. Idealistically, I'd say by the end of the year but I don't want to make that guaranteed.

Now that I'm vaccinated and my lease is almost up, I'll probably be moving and getting a job so I'll be more busy. I also co-direct SS!Swap and Spookytale. (While they're both at very different stages in development, I see them both becoming really awesome games! Check them out!)

That said, with my askblog ending soon, Angel's been taking most of my creative time and I'm dedicated to working on this. While I don't want to rush it as I want this to be the best version of itself it can be, I do want this to be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

Thank you so much for following and for your patience!

See you next month!