Hey, gang! It's me again, with the lots of words. Since the release of the tideover Ribbit 2.5 update back in December, the substantial 3.0 story update that I'm pretty sure was meant to come out like a year or two ago went on indefinite hiatus. January 2026 rolled by, and the hiatus was indeed felt. I spent pretty much the entire month doing nothing but playing video games, catching up on some certified classics, such as Chrono Trigger, Space Funeral, Sonic Unleashed, Tomb Raider (1996), oh, and Ghost Trick. Yes, I've never actually beaten it before, but still somehow felt it was appropriate to reference it in Ribbit like 5 years ago! I'm so brave and stuff. Anyway, I've played it now, it's a very loving tribute to pomeranians that might also maybe be a mystery puzzle game. It's great.

As January was winding to a close and I've had my fill of lazing about, Redd suddenly came up and told me we could try resuming 3.0 progress starting from February onward. Well, shit, and here I was readying pitches for other projects. Looks like the ride never ends!!

FEBRUARY 2026

The very first thing we established was that due to continuing real life hurdles, spritework progress might begin slow at first, but with time, should hopefully ramp up. This is also why I didn't immediately announce to the public that we were back. Riding on pure hope wasn't the most surefire vote of confidence, and there was a likely chance that we'd go back to the hiatus in mere weeks time. Nonetheless, we gave it a shot.

Given that I haven't yet begun the programming on 3.0's gameplay mechanics, I figured this was going to be my last chance to truly think their foundation through. I took the concepts to my friends, and received some very valuable feedback in exchange. Though I have to be vague for now regarding how I describe this, the mechanics originally leaned into a "victory lap/power fantasy" direction, which seemed to make sense to do for a 2nd run of the game... but I eventually started to feel like this would only make for a disappointing illusion of gameplay, and that's a similar sentiment I got from the feedback.

Ultimately, I ended up rewriting most of the gameplay plan with a core focus on "weight", "tension" and "release", aiming to take Ribbit's hints of survival horror influence and to expand them into a more fully realized series of risky choices with impactful consequences. The power fantasy is now closer to a loud, hostile power struggle, and the victory lap morphed into the possibility that the 2nd run may actually be the real game. It's pretty exciting! All that matters now is the execution, and that it may warrant all these fancy words.

But that's enough of that. How much spritework did we end up making across February? Allow me to show you the text document which I use to track exactly this.

Well, it's better than nothing, but from a brutally honest perspective, it's not good progress either. Only 10 frames... for Week 3, all we ended up doing was 2 very basic edits of existing poses, and then literally nothing for the rest of the month. Meanwhile, I put gameplay programming on hold, because I need to put this into perspective - I've spent the entirety of 2025 programming the cutscenes and received two animations for it. If I'm about to haul ass some more, I gotta know for sure that it won't be for nothing.

But, y'know, you can't be too harsh on it. After all, we did set the expectation that February was likely to start off pretty slow. As long as we can start picking things up next month, even if it means 20 frames instead of 10, then surely not all hope is lost yet!

MARCH 2026

Oh, fuck me. Fuuuuck meeeee, that's two weeks in a row, gaaghhhhh

Halfway through Week 3, I'm sitting on merely 6 frames amassed across the month, and quickly losing faith. The amount of days where there's pure silence and I can't do anything for Ribbit is starting to kill me inside. At such an inconsistent rate, we'll be stuck here for years. And I can't just take my attention away from Ribbit either, because say that new assets come in, I need to get right back into the proper mindset for it. This project has to either be in full-time development, or not at all, there's no sense in putting it through this perpetual drip fed state.

And let's be absolutely clear, these feelings of frustration are all directed at Redd's job, never them! Fact of the matter is, Redd sincerely believed they could get into a rhythm between this and their IRL job, before said job suddenly changed their shift and working hours to make Ribbit work pretty much untenable. Oh, well. We made the right choice not to announce our comeback, and I suppose that I should just tell Redd it's better if we try again someday else. However, just as I'm nearly at the point where I'm ready to have this conversation...

FmsDraws has logged on. [summoning salt music for some reason]

My history with Fms can be summarized on a single piece of paper just as much as it'll be summarized in this single paragraph. Back in December 2023, I, amongst many other contributors from the UT/DR community, ended up involved in Fms's Link's Awakening-inspired fangame, "Omega Timeline: Poppy's Story ~ A ChristmAUs Carol". Participants could submit AU characters as interactable NPC's, as well as write dialogue and make sprites for them. With the help of some of my sprite artist friends, I had the chance to submit two Ribbit characters (+ Slump the Skebump), and handle the writing on their interactions!

Aside from that though, me and Fms almost never talked... so it felt kind of funny to me that just as my project was on yet another dead end, suddenly shows up a fairly trusted name in the community. And they like my project. And from what I've seen of them in the past, they can draw sprites really well! And I mean, at this point, I'm feeling real fuckin' loose, like a fire building up inside of me that cannot entirely accept going back into the hiatus just as we made attempts to dig ourselves out of it. A fire that wants to finish this project at all costs.

And so that fire speaks through me, and makes what I at the time called "a type of desperate gambit". I ask Fms if they would be willing to help out with the art. I firmly set the goal as no more than a year of remaining development. We're doing this, and our goal isn't just to mess around, it's to get this over the finish line once and for all.

Fms says yes!

The very first sprites by FmsDraws (March 21st, 2026). These were made as tests on how to draw the character, and not for any actual scene involving YOU punching a disgusting trash can.

But, with Redd mostly occupied, Fms would be the only main sprite artist on the mod. And while Redd was crazy enough to handle something like that for 2.0, I decided it'd be a mistake to put all the pressure on one guy this time around. To meet the large demand of sprites required, I needed to build a proper team of people who can take the load off each other's backs. And so, I also gathered the other following team members...

Subna03 - When discussing with Fms other sprite artists they might know, Subna's name came up. He struck me as especially interesting due to his capability to work between multiple art styles outside of just Temmie/Toby-inspired spritework, including some 3D modeling on the side. As you might know, Ribbit loves to experiment with new ways to make a scene within the DR framework, and so it needs people who know how to keep their approach varied and dynamic. In that regard, Subna is a perfect pick.

Brush test by Subna (April 17th, 2026)

Guitar poses by Subna (March 25th, 2026). Unlike the trash can thing by Fms, these will actually be used.

ZilchArts - Zilch was recruited for similar reasons to Subna, with my belief that they're more than capable of matching the art style that Redd established for the project, as well as taking it in their own interesting direction. Unlike Fms and Subna though, Zilch is interesting in the sense that they were recruited as a total stranger. I knew Fms from a prior project, and Fms knows Subna, but after that, I tried contacting a few other people I knew and found that they were too busy. While two sprite artists might've been enough, I felt that three would've allowed for a rotationary shift system, where one artist gets picked to handle an ambitious task for one week, while the other two get at least 2 weeks of simple tasks and a decent amount of breaktime where they don't have to think about my mod.

So, keeping in mind my fire to get this project done no matter what, I had to break a rule I had established in the past, and put my trust in a wild card co-partner. This is when I posted that public call for sprite artists a month ago. Of course, it came with a couple rules in order to minimize silly bullshit, but I'm very happy to see Zilch come out of it. They have been wonderful to work with, and I look forward to having you see their efforts in their final form.

YOU prancing, concept animation by ZilchArts (March 22nd, 2026)

YOU prancing, final spritework by ZilchArts (March 26th, 2026). After feedback, more focus was placed on vertical movement via raising their knees and making them hop into the air more

Baqly - She's actually been involved with Ribbit since 2.5's release, but given that it was for a secret ending, you might've missed it quite easily... hence, I wanted to give her one more shoutout.

A shot from 2.5's "Look Up at the Sky" ending, by Baqly

Albeit Baqly's specialty is not in spritework, she is an incredibly talented artist in other fields, including that of large-scale, painterly art. Since 3.0's development began, I was interested in giving the update a more visual novel-like aesthetic, cutting into detailed shots for important moments. If Deltarune's typical overworld cutscenes can be considered theatre plays from the comfort of your seat, then I wanted these shots to get deeply personal and put you right on the stage, in the actor's eyes. To that end, the 2.5 ending is a teaser of this intent.

For 3.0, Baqly is planned to provide further shots like the one seen in the 2.5 ending, as well as concept art for more complicated environmental areas. Do your best! Do your best! Rah rah!

Iamanissue - I feel like I've known Issue practically my whole life, even though it's only been a couple years. They've been popping up all over the community, across TAS runs, fangame projects, as well as being active in the Undertale datamining/modding circle. Back during Ribbit 1.0's development, they were one of the playtesters for some of the mod's most important sequences, such as EveryName, but this time around, they're joining as a support programmer, ready to offer their profound expertise!

Having three sprite artists on-board is fantastic, but a 2nd programmer is especially gratifying for me, when I've had to do almost the whole coding process on my own for the last several years. Still, there's a specific intent I have with the gameplay mechanics that means I'll need to continue being in charge of a lot of the programming, but shocking as it may seem, I do have my limits, and it is at those points where I'm relieved to have someone on-board who has learned how to program from more than just looking at Deltarune Chapter 1's code.

Devilredd - Of course, it should go without saying that Redd remains on the project, but with their current busy schedule, moreso in a supervisory role, ensuring that the art style they've established back in 2.0 holds up amongst the new recruits. Redd also continues to contribute some sprites here and there when they have the time, and our current plan is that once we're nearing the end of development, Redd might have more time to dedicate to the project at that point, and help speed it along to its definitive end.

Whew...! So now, we have a full picture of the present team. Let's check back on how that progress tracker text document is going.

For only having one week left to make progress within the month, the fact that we not only exceeded February's 10 frames, but more than doubled it already says to me that we are on the right track.

APRIL 2026

While learning a little more about my team members, something I've noted with FmsDraws in particular is that they have a ridiculous output of random doodles and sketches they like to do when they're bored. Even as I tell him to take a break from Ribbit, I'm likely to wake up tomorrow with a new piece of Ribbit-related art waiting for me. I'd like to highlight some of my favorites.

Next up... well, we're currently in the middle of April, so this can't exactly be a full progress report until the month ends, but... let's check out that progress tracker anyway.

Now that's what I'm talking about.

At this point in time, my confidence in the project's eventual release has been brought back, and hence you're getting an update on it. I've also resumed gameplay programming, and am slowly making my way through implementing and refining the necessary mechanics, piece by piece, getting hit by the realization that the update is actually starting to feel a little fun. With just me and Redd, working on Ribbit felt like two guys fucking about, but now, with multiple team members to manage and dole out tasks to, I don't think I've ever felt more director-like than I am now... It's all a little exciting, a little exhausting, and I'm sure it'll feel amazing when we're staring at the final piece of work.

I believe that wraps up everything I've wanted to spill. For the record, I don't think I'll be making these progress updates a reoccurring thing. In fact, this might be the only one I'll make, either until we're nearing the end of development, or, something dire happens, which good fucking lord it better NOT. As you can see, I love to talk, but if I had to do something like this every month, I somehow doubt I'd be able to keep myself terse and to the point, and it'd just take away from the time I could be making the game. So from here on out, I'm ducking my head. Thank you for reading, and wish us luck.

Art by FmsDraws