Howdy!
While this year has been pretty hectic, and people are going back to school, we've still been hard at work on getting the demo completed. Today's devlog will cover a look at some new features, touch-ups to existing content, a general progress report, and our plans moving forward.
So... let's start!
GameJolt Trophies
In our last devlog, we had introduced the new GameJolt integration features, including a whole new system for in-game trophies! Upon the demo's release, there will be 15 different trophies of varying difficulty tiers (bronze, silver, gold) that can be unlocked through different means.
You can achieve in-game trophies by default--if you want them to display on your GameJolt account, you'll have to log in with it! This can be done from the extras menu, where a list of trophies can also be accessed.
New Music!
We've decided to give some core tracks some touch-ups, to be more in style with the rest of our soundtrack. These mainly consist of instrumental tweaks and general modifications--rather than "remakes" of the original tracks, they act as "extensions" of them!
First up, we have Fuzzy Friend! Besides some instrumental tweaks and some motifs that reference the real Temmie Chang's Escaped Chasm game, not too much is new!
Second, we have Small Talk! We've changed the tone of the song to be a bit more fitting for the situation in which it plays--a nice little walk with Asgore down a hallway.
Third, we have We're Not Feeling Blue! Previously unreleased, this now-finished theme plays while you journey throughout The City of Old.
As we're still in development stages, it's without a doubt that many assets are subject to change. Moving along, some other post-demo (Starlight Isles) tracks we've released will be given tweaks for consistency--please don't be surprised if you hear something slightly different than what you remember! We want to make sure we stay true to each of the originals.
Mettacrit Sprite Updates
We've decided to give Mettacrit's sprites some long-overdue updates for consistency!
In addition to that, we've given his expression set (dialogue portraits and battle sprite) a bit more variation, as some faces seemed a bit too similar.
Uh... this?
What does this mean? Who knows!
...Well, you don't, but we do! The possibilities are infinite...
General Progress
About a month ago, we announced in our Discord that the demo was around 75% coded. We're happy to report that now, the demo is approximately 85-87% coded, with most major content added into the game.
The City of Old: Most NPCs are added in-game. We're currently working on finalizing details for sidequests (NPC dialogue, journal information, quests themselves) that will take place.
The Greasers: Some attacks have been added, with more to come. The Greasers make use of the combo attacks feature we've shown off before, where they'll directly interact with one another for various attacks.
Asgore's House: All major writing for inside Asgore's house, leading up to his fight, and the fight itself (and variants thereof for each route) has been completed. We have the basic groundwork for Asgore's fight implemented (sprite animation, dialogue tree, SPARE methods, some attacks) and are still working on adding the rest.
Post-Asgore's House: Focusing on revising older dialogue for consistency's sake.
Moving Forward
Currently, we're mainly focusing on getting the rest of the game's major content finished and implemented in-game, alongside more minor content. Once that's out of the way, we'll be moving on to a beta testing / polishing phase, where we:
Open up private beta testing to members of our Discord server with Trusted and Spoiler access (don't ask for either of these, you won't get it!)
Focus on balancing the game (enemy attacks, item stats, etc.)
Do final touch-ups to the game's assets (art, music, writing) as necessary
Take beta tester feedback into consideration to make last minute changes to any areas of the demo
Ensure that everyone on the team and beta testers are satisfied with the demo, and all features (major and minor) are completely implemented in-game
Create promotional material (images, trailer video, other stuff)
And after that... we'll be good to release!
Due to past experiences, we don't want to make any concrete deadlines--but as we come closer and closer to the polish phase, we're very hopeful of a release sooner than later.
While we've finished covering all of the game-related content for this devlog, there are a few additional things we'd like to discuss.
GameJolt Community
First of all, some of you may have noticed we created a new GameJolt Community page! While it's mostly still a work-in-progress, we wanted to reach out more to our GameJolt audience, and have a place for various activities related to TS!Underswap, including:
Posting announcements, official content, and a changelog for updates
Holding discussion
Asking questions
Sharing fanworks (and for when the demo comes out) gameplay videos, guides, and community-created localization patches
Posting bug reports
Sharing memes (only related to TS!Underswap!)
While we're generally more active on our Discord server, and have more of a presence there, we'll make sure to keep updated with whatever people decide to share! Just make sure to keep everything relevant to TS!Underswap, and follow the rules!
Underswap: Broken Promise
Secondly, one of our team members, FifLeo, has recently helped with creating the fangame Underswap: Broken Promise! While I won't spoil the game itself for you, a fun fact is that it references concepts from an old iteration of our fangame, back when it was just Underswap!
Go and check out its GameJolt page for a download!
Inverted Fate: Soul-Splitting Fury
(Artwork by Philiplol and Pearl)
Next up: another entry in the series of philiplol's playable battle adaptations from the Inverted Fate comic has arrived--Soul-Splitting Fury, the Mad Mew Mew fight!
Again, without spoiling too much: this battle features brand new SOUL modes and additional content written by AU's creator, Dorked! Go and check it out at the link below.
(https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/414258083/)
Remembering Offtopic
Finally, I have something much less lighthearted to report.
On August 21st, 2020, a member of the Undertale community named Offtopic passed away in his sleep from his fight with cancer. You might have known him for his original music and mashups that he created.
While some of us knew him more than others did, he had the reputation of an incredibly funny, kind, and talented person who just wanted to bring people joy.
In order to pay respects to him, we will be honoring him in the demo's credits. Below, I have also posted links to each of his accounts, so we can remember him and the content he made over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/ontopicvevo
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1dGntcR0VLQULrtPvmrexw
https://soundcloud.com/almostofftopic
UNDERTALE's 5th Anniversary
On September 15th, 2015, Toby Fox's UNDERTALE was released to the world.
This critically-acclaimed game has had a profound impact on the lives of so many people, including members of our team. It's introduced us to a vast community of passionate, talented people where we've built many long-lasting relationships. By creating fan content for UNDERTALE (and eventually DELTARUNE), it's allowed many of us to discover brand new passions, and to hone our skills with art, music, writing, and coding work. We were inspired to create this fan game as a way to show our appreciation for the world that Toby Fox created, and to come up with brand new stories for its characters.
We are forever grateful that UNDERTALE became a part of our lives, and so from the bottom of our hearts:
36 comments