Howdy and yes we are back after such a long period of silence. It was, what, 9 months ago we last uploaded a devlog!? ....We are truly sorry for the long wait. We've kept you all in the dark basically since last year, but for good reason, as we will get into along with many things in this months devlog. With the months spent away from you all, to the release of Deltarune Chapter 2, we have a lot of things packed into this devlog.

So...without making you all spend anymore time waiting, let's dive into explaining ourselves, ha!

So, what was going on?

So to start to explain why we went on our public hiatus we need to go back to the beginning of this year. We had just finished 2020, a year that will be remembered by all for many, many years to come. It was an exhausting time for many. A time of fears, and the deaths of hopes and dreams...

It had also left me, the Eccentric, the project leader, very drained. At first it was unintentional, but going into January I soon realised that I had cut myself off from all my online connections and indeed the project to recuperate.

...That was 5 months long. Not great, but it was time worth spending as coming out of it I had soon realised the state of the project I have been working on for over 2 years now. Things were messy, and had stayed messy, for a long time, and things were going slower than a snail or any other mollusc can travel at. While I had roughly decided by the beginning of the year, I had fully decided that when I did officially return to the project at the end of May, that I would make sure to announce a true internal reboot of the project.

The story, characters, areas, everything (which was not as much of substance then we'd like) was scrapped, or put aside in case we were to put it back in later on. While Jade is still Jade, and most of the things revealed to the public have indeed carried over, we removed all we had and slowly began to pull some things together. And we have been, at least a fair amount, and now I have to say what is currently in mind for the story, which is really only very little as of now I'm afraid, is more solid than anything we had before. We'll continue to work on the story of course, a lot in fact, as we have so, so much to create.

Another thing was the team. Even before the 5 month hiatus, many of the team had moved on from the slow project and by the time I had returned, many had decided to leave. To them I wish the best of luck in all they do, and that they succeed in their endeavours endlessly. A lot of them were great and talented people.

However, many did stay, and many of which from the very first iteration of the team. To them, I give a great thanks for their loyalty and determination in making this project.

But with a more than halved team, we needed new team members, and new members we found indeed (see below)

Other news in regards to the internal reboot was the scrapping and complete remake of the entire game engine. (On that topic, see below as well.)

We also moved the development of the project off of the original server, now the community server, and into a separate dev one. This allowed for better organisation space and order than our previous arrangement of channels in the old server.

New Team Members

Starting in June and continuing to July, we went on a massive team recruiting spree (which is still continuing today, if a little slower). We went about finding and have people find us to join the team and fill roles we desperately needed after the exodus. Here they all are:

• CooperBlack - Spriter

• Destroyer120 - Spriter

• Snowy - Composer

• Igorsantusa - Spriter

• Taffy - Artist and Concept Artist

• jahdizzle - Spriter

• Keener - Writer and Concept Artist

• Carpengizmat - Writer, Artist and Spriter

• XydenKonos - Head Programmer (more on them below)

• And, while not still on the team, Kales (Andrew) as a Writer.

So you can see, a lot of people! All of them are very talented and while some are more busy than others at time to help with the project, I am proud that they are in Team Eccentric.

GameJolt Changes

So, even if you didn't hear very much from us directly, some of you might have noticed changes going on with the GameJolt page itself. As you can now see, the game's description has been updated and expanded. While it is destined to change frequently and be updated in future, you may have noticed a re-written fake QnA section, updated Team Members list (and Previous Team Members), as well as links to projects owned and worked on by members and friends of the team.

You may also notice the pre-demo abomination we released a good while back has been moved off the main page entirely. That...thing is now over on the 'Team Eccentric's Emporium' page.

Over there is where you will find any side project releases related to the project before and during development to be, so check it out in future so if we release any mini-games (or more abominations) you can give them a shot.

Another thing you will see has changed is the artwork and thumbnail displayed on the page. You can now see 3 examples of the before and after thumbnail/title cards for the project we have for the project's thumbnail. All of them, even the current one (made by Gyrfalcon) are temporary placeholders for a proper title card for the project in future. For now though, we'll be using the latest one.

Oh Hey! It's our Birthday!

Now for the fun stuff! So, it isn't known to many, but the anniversary of the project's GameJolt page being created is today, the 22nd of September! It is purely coincidental it's the same day as Autumn starts and exactly a week after Undertale's Anniversary (Happy Late 6th Anniversary Undertale!).

Nonetheless, now's the time to show off some artwork made by our artist, Dekle, to commemorate our 2nd GameJolt Anniversary (and Undertale's Anniversary last week):

A lovely drawing of our Jade, sitting and cleaning their frying pan, getting ready for their adventures to come.

Our New Game Engine (Rewrite)

So, the Game Engine. Since the reboot, and the inactivity of our last programmer, the last engine sort of fell into obscurity. However, with the recruitment of our new Head Programmer, XydenKonos, they have singlehandedly crafted the beginnings of a marvellous engine for the project.

And now...for you all, he is a demonstration of what the engine has to offer so far!

(Note: the characters, events and area of this clip are not canon or official to the project. They are here for the purpose of testing out the engine and for presenting its features).

Well that has some exciting features and things you must be thinking "ooh, ahh, wait, what?" to already. Here is a little bit more about what the engine has so far:

The engine has an overworld menu already implemented. As you can see, we have a statistics, (cook? that's not meant to be there...) and inventory options already in place.

You might notice that the inventory looks quite different to the one in Undertale. That's because we have increased the number of item slots Jade will have in the game. Our in-game justification for this is Jade will be able to store some items in a pocket in their apron, but our justification to you guys is there will be a lot more focus on items in the game, and so it makes sense for there to be more space to put them.

You will also have noticed the Inventory is split up into 3 sections: the main Inventory, (wait, ingredients!? That's not meant to be there either....) and Key Items. You will be able to quickly get to each item and type of item you'll need in your adventures, and will be able to see all of them (no more hidden key items).

The Battle Engine was recently completed (except for things to be decided later regarding a particular battle button). You can ACT, heal, dodge attacks, spare and (sometimes fail) to flee a fight. It's all here.

Discovering items and adding them to your inventory, as well as random encounters, are also implemented.

You will have seen also in the video that you can talk to NPCs. You might also have noticed we have implemented various affects to dialogue and text in the game. We can make text move and act in all sorts of ways, which will come in handy for the future events of the project.

Additional Key Features of the engine so far:

• A camera which follows the player accurately and remarkably smoothly.

• Room transitions.

• Jade is able to walk and run.

• Game Over (as seen right at the beginning of the video)

Once again thank you to Xyden and their hard work on making the engine, and still making the engine, as there is still more to go and by the time us writers will have figured out the story and script of the start of the game, we will be able to make the game great through this wonderous engine.

Oh, and one more feature you might want to know, [REDACTED]. Cool, right?

Deltarune Chapter 2, and how it will affect TE! UTG (Spoilers)

The following section will contain major and minor spoilers for Deltarune Chapter 2. We will have it covered for the sake of concealing the spoilers from those who have yet to play the latest instalment in Toby Fox's wonderful franchise. We highly recommend you play the Chapter already (it truly is worth it).

For those able to play on PC, you can download the Chapter from the links on the official Deltarune Website: https://deltarune.com/

Now for the spoilers, and how they relate to this project...

So, Chapter 2 basically offered a bouffant of new mechanics, characters and elements to the Deltarune world. From training dojos, to more party mechanics, to advanced puzzles, tons of new lore (and wonderful jokes) and not to mention characters or story.

Now it is important to note, and this chapter makes it more clear than ever, that the worlds of Deltarune and Undertale are truly different, and the people and rules within them are not the same by any means. However, we can draw from Deltarune, as you may have seen other fangames have, to add to their own projects.

Let's start with lore. Chapter 2 talks more about Darkeners, the presence of multiple Dark Worlds, etc. But those don't apply to us here. What does is the events of Hometown, and what characters are unveiled there. What lore is added to characters seen in Undertale, or what information we do get about monsters will be considered and thought over by use when adding to Undertale's world.

Characters and areas as well, we now know about Queen, Spamton, Sweet Cap'n Cakes and so many more. Thanks to us knowing about the new enemies and characters of Chapter 2, when we move forward and make our new characters for the project, we will be able to stop any coincidental overlaps, copied names and keep away from copying the same inspiration for one monster to another. (Basically, no unfortunate incidents like Undertale Yellow had with it and Deltarune's Clover having the same name.) At least we will be up to date to at least Chapter 2 in this regard before Toby Fox releases the next 3 chapters in future.

We will also be steering away from (though it was unlikely to begin with) any Cybernetic fields, cities and mansions as new areas and subareas to the Underground.

However the main thing is discussing the new mechanics, and how and if they would affect TE! UTG.

We can already announce that yes, overworld dodging will be implemented into the game (though hasn't at this time), as in truth Undertale already had a version of it. And, as stating back in the Engine section, there is already a running mechanic to ensure Jade can travel faster.

However, Chapter 2, and some other mechanics from Chapter 1, are going to be on the mind of the team for a while going forward, and we will measure up what could or could not be used in an Undertale setting.

Now we doubt, as of now, that we'll have a party system, or an advanced stats screen, but mechanics like puzzles in battle, the merging and fixing of items, multiple equip system, defend mechanic and even the recruitment/bestiary and save point storage systems will be coming under review from the team for if we will consider using them or not.

Do voice in the comments any suggestions you would like to make for a particular mechanic from DR you would think would work well in an Undertale fangame, and also any references to the most recent chapter you think we should include (though be mindful of spoilers.

This has been a bit of a waffle to be honest, but expect some more talk about Deltarune and how it will affect this project in future.

Oh, and one important, super spoilers related topic regarding mechanics. There is a theory that in each chapter of Deltarune, the secret boss will use one of 7 soul modes for their battle.

• Jevil uses the red soul, as normal.

• Spamton Neo uses the yellow soul mode from Undertale (if an evolved form).

It is therefore possible that we will see new evolved versions (as was the case of the yellow soul mode), or even new soul modes for colours like Cyan and Orange in future Deltarune chapters. If so, any inclusion of new soul modes in our game will be thought over with care, and will greatly affect if we have included our own versions of what a new soul mode would look like. As of now, this does not affect us, but in future it might very well do if this theory turns out to be true.

Team Member of the Month(s)

Even if it has been 9 months since our last devlog, and a good while since we gave someone the title of 'Team Member of the Month', it is part of our devlog tradition to have one. And so for this month, who else could we give the title to but Xyden! For their fantastic and long, hard work on our game engine! You are truly worthy of being our first 'Team Member of the Month' for 3/4 of a year.

Conclusion

So this has been our longest devlog to date, and appropriately to as it is only fair after such a long break from telling you about what's been going on.

What we will say is you can expect more updates from us soon. We plan on making smaller devlogs inbetween our larger monthly ones to better update you on small goings on in the project, as well as any art and music we want to show off before a bigger devlog.

While most will be reading this on the days after the 22nd of September, as it is rather late at the time of me writing this devlog, we hope to see you again soon with some more updates. But for now, remember to keep showing Kindness and stay Determined!