Howdy there, folks! It's been a hot minute since I've really given an update on good ol' GB Violet. I have a lot I want to say about a variety of things, so I'll be saying all of that too. However, to get the most pressing matters out of the way first:

When is GB Violet coming out?

There was once a time long ago that I thought I could get the game done by the end of July (which was an extremely foolish assumption from the get go.) Then, I thought Halloween. November afterwards, and Christmas after that. Through every missed deadline, there has been progress, and lots of it, but that doesn't change the fact that it still isn't out.

For the good news, I planned to originally make this post when I got done with making the final boss fight. Instead, I'm writing it a bit earlier than that, simply because I felt like it. Before you ask, no, I haven't spent all of this time working on the game, admittedly I've spent less than I think I should've, but as a whole I'm overall happy with how my work this past month or so has turned out. I still stand by the idea that, should things have happened a little differently, GB Violet could've come out by Christmas, but I think the game would've been worse off, so I'm fine with how things turned out.

As for what's left? Currently, I'm working on the final boss fight, which should be done in about a day or so. After that comes many smaller bits and bobs which I've been saving for the end of development, but among them stands one big hurdle: the ending segments. I'm not going to describe exactly what they are, but given how many times I've pointed them out, you can probably guess what they might entail if they might require the largest portion of the work left to do.

Anyways, once I've finished the final boss fight, I'll probably start working on the trailer, and that'll be where you learn the release date from. I've already planned out the trailer, so it'll mostly require grabbing various gameplay clips as well as a few extra assets made specifically for it. I'm not going to try and give an exact date for when things will be ready, but I'm hopeful that it'll mainly be finishing touches within a week or two.

As a bit of an aside, applications to join the UTV Team are open! If you'd be interested in working on Undertale Violet itself, fill it out HERE! Especially if you're good with sprite art (especially especially with environments/tilesets) we'd love to have you on the team, but if you fill out an application it'll get looked at regardless!

So, there ya go. If that's all you were here for, then thank you for reading, and stay Perseverance, or something like that. However, if you consider yourself an Undertale Violet Truck Freak and want to stick around for the ensuing yap session, then let's continue.

How Goes The Literal Main Project This Whole Thing Is About?

It's probably been pretty clear that I've at times outright avoided talking about how Undertale Violet itself is doing. So... what's the deal? Are things not moving? The answer to that is no, in fact, things are moving much better than they have in a while. The downside to that is saying that I think the game has moved more in the past 2-3 months than in the year before that, and my reluctance to show anything is because there's not incredible amount to actually show off. A large majority of the work done has been either under the hood coding things or writing things, and while I could share those things, I'd rather wait to show off anything coding-wise until I feel like there's enough worth showing off, and I'm absolutely not sharing just about any writing progress because, of course, spoilers.

But, again, despite all of that, the game is genuinely in a better place than it's been in a while. A few months back it almost felt doomed, as it was just me and one other person who was capable of doing any coding, and we were struggling with manpower in other aspects too. Thankfully since then, we've been able to recruit a few coders and musicians that have greatly improved the project's prospects. Of course, things could still be better (see above where I ask you to apply if you can do sprite art pretty pretty please,) but even if I'm somewhat frustrated with the speed things are moving at, I can say things are absolutely moving, which I know isn't universal in the prequel fangame space, and I'm grateful things are where they're at now.

What's Next For GB Violet?

This is a bit of a multi-layered question. Obviously, there's still work to be done before it can release. Once the game's out, my immediate plans are to patch any bugs that pop up as well as to make a few tweaks here or there for balance reasons.

Aside from that, I may at some point come back to the game to give it some form of major update. If time permits in the future, there are parts of the game that I'd like to overhaul that I don't think I can give that amount of attention to at the moment. I've also got a few vague ideas for some amount of extra content, but I'm not going to dwell too much on what that'd be for the time being. Ideally, once GB Violet releases and any immediate problems are addressed, my focus will squarely be on Undertale Violet for a good while. Once that game gets closer to some kind of demo release, I might make that potential update to GB Violet as a way to drum up hype for the game. And then we get to a question I've been asking myself a tad more lately: GB Violet 2? Believe it or not, I've already been asked about it more than once, so I kinda wanna talk about it.

GB Violet didn't start as an idea for a game of any sorts. I'm not going to dive too deep into some of the specifics, but before it was a game, it was a handful of sprites I created as a way to visualize a concept regarding a certain segment I'd devised of an overall larger idea for the story of Undertale Violet. A character sprite led to a few tiles, then a few more, and within a few days of creating that first sprite, I began writing a document meant to encompass what GB Violet would be. Even after booting up Godot and beginning my work on the game, it took several weeks before I actually believed it'd become something. Up until that point, it'd mainly been a prototype I was working on in order to familiarize myself better with certain aspects of game development, in this case coding and sprite art (very simple sprite art, but sprite art nonetheless.)

Even still, those have been the main purpose behind GB Violet. The only person I've really been making the game for is myself, and I've been doing it because I've enjoyed doing it and learning how to do it. I do want people to enjoy the game, but I'd be lying if I said I genuinely felt very worried about how people are going to view it once it's out. Obviously, I want people to like it, and I hope it leaves a positive impact on people, but that's not really been the main concern of mine throughout development.

With all of that being said: maybe. As GB Violet's progressed, I've had ideas that wouldn't work for it, and different aspects of game development that I'd like to get better at (or learn in the first place) that I simply haven't had the time to, namely music. None of the music in GB Violet has been made by myself, and only a handful of very simple sound effects can be credited to me. If anything, I'd love to learn more about music if only to better describe to the actual musicians on the team what I have in mind. Alongside that, nostalgia's a big driver of "retro-feeling" games, and while I'm absolutely a Pokemon fan (and I've pretty blatantly taken inspiration from it for GB Violet,) I never had a Game Boy growing up, and I think most people following GB Violet can say the same.

So, although I can't say for sure if a successor to GB Violet will ever happen, I do have a solid reason to work on another project on the side, and I have a vague idea of the game I'd want to make if tasked with making a successor to GB Violet. I'd leave it at that, but admittedly I wanna talk about that idea a little bit.

For the time being, I'll refer to this potential successor as Violet 2. First and foremost, GB Violet has an at times complicated connection to Undertale Violet itself. I think this works well for the game, but Violet 2 would most likely have a clearer disconnect. Not to say that nothing that happens in Violet 2 would be important, just that it's less blatantly pegged to Undertale Violet in the ways that GB Violet is. Something that Violet 2 and UTV would share in that GB Violet doesn't to nearly as much of an extent is experimentation. UTV, as currently planned, is at times very experimental, at times stretching beyond what some would see as reasonable, in order to best convey some of its themes. I will get absolutely no deeper into that (again, major spoilers,) but know that Violet 2 would likely lean closer to that than it would to GB Violet.

One thing I know for certain is that Violet 2, if it happens, will in some way be a 3D game. The first console I ever had as a kid was a DS Lite, and that first and foremost would be Violet 2's biggest inspiration. It's hard to entirely pinpoint my idea for how the game would look, but part of me wants to say a mix between SM64DS and NSMB. Perhaps that gives you a clearer vision, perhaps it doesn't, but I do have something in mind (I'd draw a piece of concept art if I had the time to do so.)

The last element I want to touch on is that Violet 2 would be absolutely, unambiguously, a horror game. Once you get your hands on GB Violet, some sections may (indirectly) scream at you "THE GUY WHO MADE THIS REALLY WANTS TO MAKE A HORROR GAME," and well yeah, I do. In case you're worried, the "horror" aspects of GB Violet aren't that deep (at most there's a few creepy moments, but no jumpscares or anything of the sort and overall some of those moments are probably better described as ominous,) and while they'll likely go further, those kinds of moments in Undertale Violet probably won't go nearly as far as I'd like to in Violet 2. I've been a fan of Five Nights at Freddy's since that franchise was born, and that sucked me into all sorts of fascinations with creepy and spooky stuff on the internet. Admittedly, I'm a tad disappointed that not many people have tried to truly do horror with Undertale, because I think many aspects of it would work extremely well on the spookier side of things (many people somewhat obsess over some of these aspects, especially with things like the Weird Route and the relationship between Kris and the Soul in Deltarune, but I've seen a shockingly small amount of attempts to directly throw the player themself into the horror of these or of something similar.) That's not to say there aren't any horror-based Undertale projects, Undertale: Rebirth in particular is something I'm excited for, just that I think as a whole there's a lot that goes underutilized, and if Violet 2 goes from a concept to a genuine project, I want to do as best I can to take advantage of that.

Ok That's It For Real This Time

If you took the time to read through all of this, thank you so very much. Despite ups and downs, I've truly enjoyed working on GB Violet (and Undertale Violet as a whole,) and I can't wait to see what everybody thinks about it. If Violet 2 eventually becomes a real project, I'm not entirely sure when that'd be, but if people really like GB Violet and want more, I may try working on it a bit sooner than the time period I've currently got in mind to play around with this all a bit more. Ultimately, whether or not Violet 2 happens, I've enjoyed brainstorming it. As for Undertale Violet itself, I promise to have more to show hopefully soon, but be it in a month or several, there will be something to show. Again, if you'd like to help make Undertale Violet, applications are always open to anyone interested, and I tend to look at them pretty frequently.

I hope you all continue to Persevere through the tough and frightful times we may currently live in, and wish for good tidings to come your way. Until we meet again! (HOPEFULLY SOON)