Howdy
This month's devlog is pretty big!
We'll be starting off with a brief catch-up on what we've been talking about on other platforms, then following up with showcasing some new content and discussing the "game development" side of things. At the end, we have a Community Q&A, and a brand new section that may reappear in future devlogs down the line.
Without further ado, let's start!
Brief Catch-Up!
If you've glanced at our GameJolt page recently, our various other social media pages, or especially the top of this devlog, then you may have seen our brand new cover art made by one of our artists, SuperKirbylover!
(The art itself was based on an original sketch created by another artist, TRéZZY!)
We also made a celebratory post on Twitter to commemorate Pride Month, once again featuring some neat doodles by SuperKirbylover!
Finally, we made a series of tweets talking about our progress on the TS!UNDERSWAP soundtrack for Starlight Isles! They went as follows:
Quick update! We've been making a lot of progress with creating the soundtrack for Starlight Isles.
Currently, we have 21 tracks planned out--8 are complete, ~5 are nearing completion, and the others range from early concepts to not yet started.
There's definitely going to end up being more, but that's what we have all planned out thus far!
We've also been making some nice progress with different bits of Stardust Woods, though we're hoping to get more work done as the month continues.
We'll probably be doing a devlog this month, and would definitely have things to talk about--it'll just be difficult to determine what we *shouldn't* show off just yet!
Progress Updates
Last devlog, we briefly discussed our main areas of focus with Starlight Isles. In order to recap those points, and talk about what we've been continuing to do with them:
Script writing for Stardust Woods
While we prioritize the writing for Stardust Woods, we've started looking at which areas of the script required more per-route variations. Most scenes were written out for Pacifist / Neutral and Genocide, though we lacked certain variations for Genocide and Evacuation Neutral.
We decided to expand upon the areas of the script which needed more per-route variations, taking into account how certain characters would act depending on the situation.
This was especially needed in order to make sure characters weren't acting out-of-place (Papyrus randomly showing up somewhere in Genocide and explaining a puzzle to you, or Crossbones telling jokes during a serious confrontation.)
As a result, we've ended up writing out some new things which account for the player's actions at that point in the game! These range from subtle dialogue changes in existing scenes, to brand new scenes which are completely unique to certain routes (Papyrus offering you words of encouragement to change your mind about something, or Crossbones trying to dissuade you from doing something harmful.)
Overall, a lot of what we've been doing lately involves slowly chipping away at smaller parts of the script--which make a huge difference in the long run with how well-developed the area feels across multiple routes!
Dialogue, flavor text, and ACT/SPARE writing for Stardust Woods' enemies
Last month, we mentioned how we'd been working on Lesser Dog's battle script for Pacifist and Neutral. We already had the ACT progression figured out, and just needed to finish writing the needed flavor text and dialogue--we're happy to report that we've recently finished all of the writing, and it's ready for implementation in-game!
Implementing functioning puzzles and rooms in-game
Right now, we've mainly been focusing on further developing the existing rooms in-game before adding more. While this involves the aforementioned script writing, we've also been playtesting our puzzles and seeing what improvements we can make to them.
As of right now, we have 24 rooms in the code for Stardust Woods!
Creating assets for monster attacks
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to do much of this lately--however, we've still been trying to come up with some ideas in order to have something to base our eventual assets off of.
Soundtrack Updates
A little earlier, we talked about the progress we'd made with the soundtrack for Starlight Isles. Since then, we now have 11 tracks completed out of a currently planned 21 total, along with ~2 nearing completion, and 8 ranging from earlier concepts to not yet started.
New Music!
Speaking of soundtrack updates... we have some new music we'd like to release!
Let's hear about it from Ethosein, our team's music director:
Hey everyone! As mentioned previously, the music department has been hard at work creating new music for Starlight Isles.
We’d like to share with you one of the first songs you will hear in the area, the theme for Stardust Woods: “Stargaze.”
“Stargaze” is an original track composed by junnboi, ExtendoFun, and myself. We wanted to draw from some of Toby Fox’s work, mainly “Snowy” and “Moonsetter”, while also keeping elements of Grassinio’s “Deep Green.” Upon finishing the song, we went through several different ideas for the track’s name, ranging from “Midnight Stroll'' to “Bluegrass.” In the end, we settled on “Stargaze,” which was suggested by NetherHeartz.
I’m incredibly happy with how the song came out, and I’m excited to share more with all of you in upcoming devlogs!
( - Ethosein)
The Long Part: Problem-Solving Strategies
As we've worked on this project throughout the years, we've come to realize how much problem solving is vital to game development. Just about anything will involve a specific issue that needs acknowledging, and solving. These can range from big to small--sometimes you may just need to figure out how to give an area proper pacing, while other times you'll have to consider whether or not an idea you really liked is actually fitting for the scenario it's proposed for.
Many of these issues require taking into account the perspective of the player. Understanding how the player and the game interact with one another is necessary in order to identify issues and solve them--and requires a great deal of brainstorming, questions, playtesting, and feedback
Just recently, we realized that we needed somewhere that the player could acquire healing items in Stardust Woods. Sure, they're bound to come out of Ruined Home with at least something in their inventory--but what if they weren't prepared? They'd be stuck in an area with monster encounters, with limited items, and their only source of healing is the SAVE point--this is especially bad in the Genocide and Evacuation Neutral routes, which effectively serve as this fan-game's hard mode. You can't always rely on assumptions when designing a game, otherwise you may end up with players getting stuck on something.
So, we've identified a problem--how do we go about solving this?
Well, we actually had a similar problem back in Ruined Home! The puzzle gauntlet's monster encounters were, at one point, far more punishing than they should have been due to a lack of healing items. The City of Old's shops are inaccessible this early on, and the Monster Candy depended on player choice.
As a result, we came up with the idea for a little abandoned picnic basket, which you could nab low-tier healing items from! We put this around the midpoint area of the puzzle gauntlet--just before the Ruined Knights' battle--similar to how Undertale had the Spider Bakesale directly after Napstablook's battle, allowing the player to purchase healing items as needed.
And speaking of the Spider Bakesale--since the Spider Scouts are hanging around Stardust Woods, raising funds for spiders with spider-based pastries, it only seemed natural for them to have a bake sale stand! Not only can the player purchase healing items, but it completely fits with the area and its characters.
(Finalized art, bottom right, by TRéZZY)
We originally considered putting the bake sale stand by the area's third savepoint, but figured it'd be better to put it a little earlier. Fortunately, we had a large open area that the player could explore multiple routes in, and so we decided to put it there!
Problem solved!
Community Q&A
Recently, we hit 5,000 followers on Twitter! (as well as 35k GameJolt followers, and 12.5k YouTube subscribers, wow!)
To commemorate this, we announced a Community Q&A--where people submitted their own spoiler-free questions on Twitter, regarding the development of TS!UNDERSWAP, to be featured and answered in this devlog!
We weren't able to include every single question, but we picked out the ones we felt were the most interesting for us to answer. Here's what we've got:
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Q: Congrats on 5,000!
Now. Couple questions.
Did you expect the game's demo to be that much of a hit?
Is there any scrapped content you would consider re-implementing into the game? Or, say, release cut tracks?
Can you give your honest opinion about this picture my son drew?
A: We originally expected there'd be somewhat of a large following when the demo finally released, due to how anticipated it had been for years, and how ambitious the project itself was--despite that, though, some of us were concerned as to whether or not our hard work would end up being recognized. We were absolutely blown away by the responses we've gotten from everyone who's played the demo. The fact that many have told us we've given them the same feelings that playing UNDERTALE for the first time did amazed us, and we're touched that we've received such high praise. We can't thank everyone enough for enjoying our little fan-game, and supporting us as we keep working on it!
We're always planning on re-incorporating scrapped content in some capacity, since we generally don't like it when people's hard work goes to waste--if we can make something work in a natural way, even as a tiny little easter egg, we'll do it. For example: did you know that all of Sans's old designs (from this project) are canon, as his prototype superhero outfits? How about that!
... Your son's picture is terrifying.
(- Beethovenus)
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Q: Is there a reason why compared to Undertale TS!Underswap characters get serious with you very early on when you do a no-mercy run?
A: Multiple reasons, actually! For one, those who have already played Undertale and experienced its no-mercy run are already familiar with everything that happens--due to this, we've decided to introduce the serious bits a little earlier on (without messing with the pacing), and expand upon it throughout the game with brand new elements. It's also due to the characters themselves--here, you're encountering Asgore and a Sans who hadn't made any kind of promise, instead of Toriel and a Sans who made a promise.
(- Beethovenus and Chip Potato)
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Q: does it have a punch card? asking for a friend
A: No.
(- colinator27)
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Q: what enemy was the most fun to imagine original attacks before? whether it's an old enemy, a boss, or a new enemy.
A: I think personally the one I had more fun with was Loox considering how much stuff you can make his design do!
Stuff like making him roll into the battle box or get bitten by Vegetoid was pretty fun to do!
( - FifLeo)
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PixelToons_Jaafar (PixeltoonsJ):
Q: Serious Question: How do you start a game, without losing motivation or procrastinating? Not to mention leading a project.
A: That's honestly a tough question. A lot it boils down to how passionate you are about the project you're working on, but also making sure you pace yourself properly so you don't get burnt out. Working on a project, especially for extended periods of time, can be tough. It's all about finding that workflow that works best for you and others!
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: can i go on a date with mettacrit please
A: I don't know, can you?
( - Mettacrit)
Eventually! We've actually planned on having more hangouts/dates for different characters--particularly those who've been given a more major role in this fangame, than they had in Undertale. We've had some neat ideas for those, and especially for Mettacrit later on.
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: my friend razz wanted me to ask this! "how did you come up with designs, attacks, and personalities for mobs that did not appear in the original game? were any/all of them based on any characters or are any/all of them unique and original characters?"
A: Most of the time, we just kind of shoot ideas back and forth. A lot of them are goofs or tiny little things that turn into larger ideas, and I think that's what makes a lot of our own stuff stand out! We try not to overwhelm ourselves with details; we just do what happens naturally.
(- SuperKirbylover)
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Q: how do you all feel about the other aus based on ts
like ts swapswap and ts swapfell? also congrats on 5k yall deserve it :)
A: Wait, people do that? Why haven't I heard about this yet!? I think the fact people are able to do stuff with AU despite only the demo being out is really cool, even if I'm not a huge fan of many AUs in the first place.
( - SuperKirbylover)
It's really cool seeing the kinds of things people will create out of love for our own project! I usually prefer when people try and be more faithful to the characters and try out interesting things, though--especially since character portrayal is integral to TS!UNDERSWAP.
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: You’ve said in the past that you’ve wanted to make some changes to ruined home. What are some of these changes and how will they improve the experience?
A: We don't plan on making any major changes to Ruined Home, since for all intents and purposes, we consider the area to be done. The most we'll do are small cosmetic tweaks and other misc. polishing tweaks as deemed necessary, and some little easter eggs and additional content here and there. If we find there's anything we should do in order to improve the player's experience (tweaking encounter rates, etc.), then we may end up making those changes, too.
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: Congrats in 5k y'all deserve it!
As my question i would like to know how it feels to be the main inspiration for tons of underswap takes or just the main inspiration for AUs in general
A: Around the time we re-branded the project from Undertale: Underswap to TS!UNDERSWAP, along with a substantial reboot itself, we'd noticed that a lot of other people started making their own Underswap takes, too! While they did exist before, we saw that people started to become a lot more creative and original with their ideas--even their own original projects independent of Underswap--and it was honestly really cool to see. We don't feel like we're the "main" inspiration for AUs in general, though! There are many others which have been massive inspirations for ourselves and others--such as Storyshift and Inverted Fate, two examples of projects which pioneered the sprite comic format for Undertale AUs.
(- Beethovenus and NetherHeartz)
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Q: I have an idea for an undertale fangame, but from what I've heard from game developers' other projects it seems to be far too herculean a task for me.
Also, the very slow pace at which other fangames are developed make me doubt I'll even finish it, or keep my going that long. Do you have any reassuring advice/stats/tips?
A: Even if you don't finish it or get that far, I think trying to see what you can do for a fan game is a good experience. Development doesn't always have to be fast; Kirby's Return to Dreamland took roughly a decade for their development, after all. What's important is you care for what you're making and you are passionate about it.
(- SuperKirbylover)
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Q: Congratulations! You guys deserve it!
I only have one question.
IF you guys ever lose motivation with the project (that's a big if, you guys are freaking DETERMINED), might you continue it in the form of a sprite comic? Or will you cross(bones) that bridge when you get to it?
A: We’ve got everything planned out for the game itself, it’s really just a matter of working at it to connect ideas and such into a cohesive, interactive narrative. TS!Underswap, at least in my opinion, just wouldn’t work well as a sprite comic.
( - Chip Potato)
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Q: What in the world is spep?
A: Spep is the mascot for Team Switched! I originally created him as a Sans equivalent to Toby Fox's concept art of Papyrus--he was given the name "Spep" by LucasPucas, and gained an identity as our own original character which represents the team as a whole.
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: where did the concept of the ruined knights come from?
A: I originally designed them! At the time, we already planned on having Mettacrit's encounter in The City of Old (and probably the Greasers, too.) This meant that we didn't have a miniboss in the middle of the puzzle gauntlet, in order to break up the monotonous repeated puzzles and encounters. I had actually been inspired by the debug battle encounter music (de_bugging by colinator27) to come up with some bug-related enemies--which also fit with Ruined Home, its enemies, and its spring seasonal representation! After some rough concepts I made, refinements (thanks, TRéZZY), and a lot of goofing off, we came up with The Ruined Knights!
(- Beethovenus)
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Q: What characters do you have the most challenges with correctly portraying them?
A: Since right now we're mainly working on Starlight Isles, none of the characters really give me trouble aside from some original ones. I haven't quite figured them out yet, so I let everyone else write them. I haven't had to write him yet either, but I feel like Mettacrit would have me struggle a little.
( - SuperKirbylover)
That's an interesting question for me to answer. I already feel like my favorites thus far have been Asgore, Sans, and Papyrus--not only do they allow me to be both pretty goofy and serious, but I have a lot more experience with their writing styles. I also had a lot of fun writing Temmie for Ruined Home, and trying to make their talking style as accurate to Undertale's as possible. The characters I feel I've been much less confident with writing, though, are probably Mettacrit and Alphys--this could mainly be due to a lack of experience (compared to others).
( - Beethovenus)
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Q: What was your main inspiration for the Undyne design?
A: I'm pretty sure that when TRéZZY and I originally designed her, the goal was to give her the look of a scientist/roboticist, while keeping that distinct Undyne flair. Her high-tech gauntlet had a much more industrial-looking appearance, which we ended up switching out for something a little more tech-y looking. Her scarf was due to the colder weather of Boreal Bluffs, and to top everything off, we gave her an angler fish-looking welding mask.
( - Beethovenus)
All I can think of is that the old gauntlet she had was inspired by "The Infinity Gauntlet" from Avengers: Infinity War. It didn't fit but god it was funny to imagine Undyne with that much power. That and I wanted her to look as anime as possible. Cuz Undyne. She's basically living her weeb dream right now with all these robots and mechanics.
( - TRéZZY)
(Concept art by TRéZZY.)
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Q: hey, congrats!
1. what part has the team had the most fun working on so far?
2. are there any old concept sketches we can see?
A: 1) A huge part of what made developing the demo really fun was being able to create new characters out of existing concepts from Undertale. From a music standpoint, the Greasers were a ton of fun to compose music for and do sound design with. The Ruined Knights and their battle theme was another exciting part of the development in the demo, and already through the development of Demo 2.0, the team and I have had a ton of fun bringing to life entirely new characters. To bring it to a more concise answer, being able to put a bit of ourselves into the work we create is what is the most fun about working on the project.
( - Ethosein)
I like writing Papyrus and Crossbones being complete idiots. My favorite part so far is having this one little gag where Papyrus has a friend cube object next to him, and I think it's the funniest thing right now. Oh, and, making him run into a tree. That was funny, too.
( - SuperKirbylover)
As much as I had fun working on Ruined Home and experimenting with brand new things, I've especially enjoyed getting to work on Starlight Isles. Working on Ruined Home for years could be pretty draining at times, and finally getting into a brand new area--as well as the rest of the game itself--has really allowed our team to start coming up with even more original ideas, and establish our project's identity more than before. Working on Starlight Isles has been such a breath of fresh air for all of us, and we're making the most of it.
( - Beethovenus)
Revamping “Starlight Saviour” and “Skeletal Showdown” proved to be quite the fun assignment. I just can’t stress it enough. Being able to give my own spin and just generally go all out with instrumentation and everything felt pretty exciting! Besides, who doesn’t love that Genesis sound?
( - junnboi)
2) Sure! Here's some concept sketches that FifLeo did for Asgore.
( - Beethovenus)
Introducing: Community Spotlights!
To conclude this month's devlog, we've decided to try out something brand new--Community Spotlights! Since we'll generally do shout-outs for fellow creators at the end of our devlogs, we thought it would be neat to take that and expand upon it.
For our Community Spotlights, not only do we plan on giving shout-outs to fellow creators, but also highlighting TS!UNDERSWAP fanworks that we've found to be particularly neat! There's a lot of people who have shown our project love and support, so we'd like to extend that back to them, and help give smaller creators the attention they deserve.
However--there's only so much we'd be able to include without making our devlogs too long. If your fanwork(s) aren't showcased in one of our Community Spotlights, please don't feel left out! We generally always see people's works, and greatly appreciate it.
Depending on how well this goes, this may become a recurring section for each of our devlogs! Though, if we feel there isn't enough material to dedicate towards a Community Spotlight segment for a month, we may just skip it that time around.
Community Spotlight
To kick off our very first Community Spotlight...
Here's a piece of Asgore and Chara fanart by oddo (hey_im_oddo)!
This one's colors really reminded me of the one poster on the merch store for Undertale. The one where Toriel is in the Ruins doorway, holding pie, and Flowey is there... Chara also reminds me of the kickstarter art for Undertale. It brings back a lot of warm memories.
( - SuperKirbylover)
Some fanart by LennyClover! Here, Crossbones heroically points his ketchup blaster at Chara!
I just really like the paints, and Crossbones looks really good here. His idiot grin makes me smile. Idiot hero grin.
( - SuperKirbylover)
Fanart of Mettacrit by MITF (M4dumy), featuring a variety of different expressions!
I chose to include this piece because I really liked the variety in Mettacrit's expressions here, with how accurate to his character they were--yet presented in a really neat art style! His overall body language, the colors, and everything else accompanied those nicely.
( - Beethovenus)
I'm seeing double! These fanarts of Alphys and Asriel were both made by Zarth (Zarth_zh)!
I'd already been a fan of Zarth, who drew some TS!UNDERSWAP fanart in the past. Once we publicly revealed the designs for some post-demo characters, I had really hoped we'd see some fanart of them. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest when I saw Zarth's portrayals of these two--they did an absolutely fantastic job capturing their personalities via expressions and poses, their attention to detail, and their use of subtle shading. These were a pleasure to see!
( - Beethovenus)
We've already looked at a bunch of fanart, so why not some music?
First up, we have Our People's Sorrow by SmartCellist1, an unofficial "Track 71" replacement.
I remember listening to this track months ago, and being absolutely blown away by the amount of effort put into it. The way the motifs were transcribed and blended together, the instrumentation, and the very specific mood the song set--everything was phenomenal. (I also appreciated the use of "Together" by Robin Blend, an older experimental track which we currently plan on keeping as the motif for our "Memory" replacement.) I've listened to this song on more than one occasion while doing stuff!
( - Beethovenus)
Next, We Will Always Be Family by Metal, a cover of "Rise, Child" by Robin Blend.
When I listened to this track for the first time, I really felt the emotion it was conveying. The way the track at a slower pace, with the somber instrumentation, gave me a mix of feelings--sad, happy, and hopeful. This is another one I've listened to casually, too.
( - Beethovenus)
Double whammy! Here's The Continued History... and Everything Shall Be History... by MoonStriker--another "Track 71" replacement and a "Hopes and Dreams" replacement, respectively.
For "The Continued History," I was blown away in a similar way to SmartCellist's "Our People's Sorrow"--the motifs, instrumentation, and overall mood. One of the things I especially like about this song is the instrumentation, which harkens back to various tracks throughout the UNDERTALE and TS!UNDERSWAP soundtracks. The use of "Together" here was also appreciated.
For "Everything Shall Be History," I really enjoyed how the track had the same kind of feeling as "Hopes and Dreams" while using entirely different motifs and instrumentation, in order to set it apart and give it a brand new feel altogether. The motifs here were especially well-utilized in conjunction with the instruments, and I loved the more EarthBound-sounding bits. The "Once Upon A Time" segment is honestly my favorite part, and was a joy to listen to.
(Of course, I've also casually listened to both of these songs, too. I tend to do that a lot with TS!UNDERSWAP fan-tracks, haha.)
( - Beethovenus)
And that's it for now! We still have a bunch of things we'd like to tease--including new songs--but we're going to hold off for now, so we'll have more stuff to show in the future.
We hope you enjoyed everything we had to offer, including our Community Q&A and brand new Community Spotlight segment! (Those two took us a while, so we'll probably tone it down a little bit on future Spotlights.)
We're hoping to finally do a Developer Commentary Stream in the near future, but first we need to figure out which date/time will work best for our team members, and who would like to be there in the first place. We'll let you know once we have anything!
Stay tuned on those YouTube uploads of the soundtrack, too! We're (probably) going to finally get to those soon.
- Beethovenus and Team Switched
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