"Hey how ya doin, it's purrsum, the infamous director of the undertale fangame." - the "he/him/his-hisses and runs away".

For the last couple of years the progress has been virtually nonexistent, all due to me losing my only way to work on the game (laptop gone) as well as due to my temporary shift in focus due to tons and tons of stress (been working on other projects, which I don't work on anymore so that's good for this game).

Now I've finally regained my ability to work on the game freely and I'm ready to deliver news 👍

Let's dive into the several interesting things that I've been able to cook up like 2 weeks since getting a new laptop!

The battle system has received a lot of work, and now the result is finally available as a short showcase, a demonstration, of an entirely unique battle encounter in the Sewers:

The battle structure has been our main point of concern for the game's design since this game takes pride in a silent narrative (silent protagonists), which is why we want to pour as much character and meaning into the characters' actions as they traverse the vast underground to make up for funny dialogue interactions.

This might seem like just a slew of changes, but they ultimately flip the script on some encounters, making them more replayable. Here's what we came up with:

• FIGHTING

  • In order to attack enemies, Batty has to step in and take the lead, Mel is only able to attack monsters once Batty chooses to do so.

  • 

  • The girls have to focus their aim in unison to achieve higher damage.
    And if you're wondering what happens in GENOCIDE, when Batty goes down, and Mel cannot choose to FIGHT, see...

• ACTING

  • Batty and Mel always have unique actions to take during combat, but both of them have the opportunity to play out a scenario with the opposing monsters in order to achieve MERCY.

  • For Batty, you can always count on CHECK-ing the enemies for statistics.

  • For Mel, you can try to COOPERATE with your teammate, even if she's down.

    • This means, that in certain seemingly "impossible" situations, Mel will essentially find a solution on the go, depending on your playstyle (pacifist, genocide)

    • This doesn't mean she wants to do it, fully.
      But she'll do it, why shouldn't she?

...

And that's it for the battle showcase! This was just one of the bunch of monsters we were able to come up with for the DEMO, but we already feel super confident in order ability to create some fun fights to play, especially with this new design in mind!

And now that we're done with the battles...

Hey uhhhhhhmmm hello do you, by any chance, remember the 2021 overworld mechanics devlog?

Okay, this might sound shocking, I know, but hear me out...

FORGET.

The years have passed and we realized how much the older mechanics felt like... plain cosmetics for basic actions or just boring things to design around.

So we decided to give our protagonists more personality by assigning them very specific actions based on physical characteristics!

INTRODUCING:

• Mel's ability to ride Batty's shoulders, or Batty's ability to give Mel a piggyback ride (the chicken, or the egg...)

• • This action allows Batty to launch Mel onto conveniently placed swings, letting Mel cross a gap and work things out from the other side

  • This way, Mel is also able to reach higher elevation

• To ride off of Batty's strength, there is another thing she can do...

• 

• Circuit box domination! I mean, she can still break things like those wooden fences from the previous "overworld mechanics" devlog, just a little more diverse and not as obscure as a "dash" ability

  • I mean not circuit box domination, she is the unstoppable force basically.

  • In essence, really.

...

Mel has a smaller range of things she can do, but that doesn't mean she's useless, maybe she just needs to find the right vent to vent in, or the right sized object to carry with herself, she'll learn some things eventually.

That must be it for the overworld mechanics! They're quite "abstract" in their design, but that's probably the way we want to take the puzzle design in. The first area of the game should be able to teach the basics of interaction between the girls before throwing you onto the real adventure.

...

Oh, and one last thing for the overworld mechanics:

...

COVER ARTWORK

AA

I mean, placeholder text

Been like, 3 years, no? Finally UTKS has a cover artwork, now you can look at the game page just for fun and not just waiting for a devlog to drop all of a sudden!

Just kidding, but in all seriousness this is personally such a feat for me as an artist, (purrsum btw), to be able to draw a nice-looking cover artwork for once.

Hopefully you like it, it's not perfect, but it's pretty sweet and better than nothing!

There's a couple of details ready to tease you for the full game, but I won't be telling you where they're hidden.

The game has almost hit 5000 followers, yes it sounds like a milestone this devlog could fulfill, but I don't want to have anyone waiting for anything anymore, so here you have it!

For 5000 followers we'll probably just say a big thank you and overhaul the game page (media tab, some of the screenshots and artworks) and release some new actual soundtracks and not midis

...

Also if it wasn't already obvious, most of the discord server milestone goals are already in this devlog (except for the game over theme, that one needs some tweaking before it may leave the discord server and out to the public ear)

Anyways, thank you for reading the devlog! Here's to seeing you NOT 3 YEARS LATER!

Have a good day and stay patient for more updates, this game isn't going anywhere.