Game
[Cancelled] SOULs of the Underground

3 years ago

A Devlog


Hey, everyone. Long time no see,.

I'll cut the semantics. Let's get to what you're here for, huh?


The Absolute State of SOULs of the Underground

This game is on its last legs.

Y'know that thing that happens to most Undertale games after a year or so where they just kinda stop posting updates and you wonder whatever happened to them?

We've been there for a while.
I can tell you firsthanded, it's just... motivation. We've been doing this for a while, and most people have stopped caring. It's just an Undertale game, after all. The community's been in a zombielike purgatory for years now, and as Undertale games come, this is about as cut-and-dry as you can get. All in all, it's easy to lose interest at the twelve-month mark.

I can say for me at least, I've been doing other stuff. I'm not tacky enough to link to it, you can find it yourself if you care, but it's taking up most of my time recently. This game's on the backburner for me and most of the team these days, excepting the commendable devotion of @BobertTheGuy - a man so determined to see this game come to fruition he has remained interested in it longer than its creator. He's great.

So. Anyways.

The plan?

Well, let's go over it.


First Things First

I guess for those who are new, I'll explain what this game is.

SOULs of the Underground is an Undertale fangame centering on an alternate "genocide" timeline in which things go awry, leading to a certain someone returning from the grave and things just cascading from there.

Hijinks ensue, of course. Why wouldn't they.

You battle every major character in the game, with all new music, attacks, mechanics, and stories that further explore the world of Undertale. We're trying to stay close to Undertale in terms of art direction and tone, and make something that feels like a real spiritual successor to the secret ending of Undertale, if it were a boss rush with no puzzles and minimal nuance.

You probably could have guessed all that by glancing at the header art, honestly.

Anyways.

To REALLY start.


The Good News

*Ahem*

Hell yeah.

The soundtrack is getting done. We're just releasing stuff chronologically as we get it finalized, and we're almost to the end. Three more chapters, about seven more songs, and the SOULs of the Underground OST will be finished.

That's pretty cool.

Thanks to @Arred and @Shoe3880 for making these songs, and a special thanks to @Stretch_Guy for the custom sprites in the thumbnails. I'd dare suggest they look and sound pretty good.


Development Update

We are almost there.

Thanks to the tireless work of @BobertTheGuy and a whole lot of troubleshooting, we are almost done with the Chapter 1 demo.

For those unfamiliar, that is the inciting incidents of SotU and a battle against Chara, the first human.

Here are some peeks, previously posted on the Discord Server:

attack1.gif
attack2.gif
attack3.gif

And, of course, the call to action.

We're almost done, and as such, we need playtesters. There's no especial incentive to try it, other than that you get to tear a partially-finished game apart for glitches and flaws and you look like a helpful friend instead of some asshole on the internet with nothing better to do.

Also, you can be in the credits.

Again, the Discord Server. Ask there in #apply.

image.png

Help us, Undertale Community. You're our only hope.


Other Stuff

I won't lie, this game is rubbing cancellation.

Nobody on the team responds to anything, nigh everyone including me has lost motivation to do anything more than once a month or so, and our main programmer is off to college. I still love this game, but... it might be best to stop.

SOULs of the Underground will most likely not receive a Chapter 2.

It could happen, of course. If we regain motivation, we might put the team back together, start taking the project more seriously, and make something really special. I won't pretend this game is anything revolutionary, but we have ways of making it great if we so wish.

Probably not, though.

I'm not going to formally cancel this, but know that current plans include getting out the first level and finishing the soundtrack. Anything past that is completely up in the air.


That about rounds things off. Thanks for sticking with us this long, everyone. And for those just now seeing this little project - we hope you enjoy whatever we get done.

That's all.

Stay frosty, everyone.

SOULs of the Underground Co-Owner MetaTheJolly, signing off.



17 comments

Loading...

Next up

This has been a failed experiment in animation shortcuts

I cannot explain it but this is how it works

Four years of SOULs of the Underground, probably

Around this day four years ago, my mother made this picture in Photoshop after a supremely awkward exchange in order to demonstrate how to use the program

Call it SotU concept art, I guess

Happy birthday

Sprite Commission!

I made this song for the lategame of my AU "Bleak" but it fell apart after the drop and I just decided to scrap it

That is all for now

am i cooked (also sans sprite update)

Gone or never-ending reality.

Rise, my glorious creation

Our 2024 Advent Calendar has opened! Day 9: @souptaels is a great Creator who makes pixel art and Undertale fan games! Accept the quest and give them a follow to get Coins and a seasonal sticker!

Beezlebub

(with #GamejoltColors24 alt that prompted me to start this lol)