Howdy, folks!

The holiday season is upon us once again, and usually around this time I like to reflect on what we achieved in the past 12 months, and look forward to what the next year may bring.

But, as I'm sure I don't need to mention, things have not been all that great with the world this year (to say the least). With everything that's going on out there, staying connected with people is really important now more than ever, so I hope that you've all been finding ways to keep yourself in touch with others safely. Whether it'd be through video calls, group chats, discord servers, social media, and yes, even online Undertale fangames, it doesn't matter what you use. It's just important to remember that you're not alone in this, and to look after yourselves and your mental health.

I'm sure that you've already heard this kind of thing before though, sorry. I trust that you're all doing well. To lighten up the mood a bit, let's forget about 2020 for a while, and think about the fun in store for the future!

DFC v2.5.0 Status Update

DFC v2.5.0's development has been speeding up a bit recently. I spent the majority of this month working on university assignments, so I didn't get as much work done on the game as I would have liked, but things are starting to pick up again. Let me show you what's new!

First up, I'd like to showcase more about the new "Partner System". In v2.5.0, you will be able to unlock every vessel in the game as a partner that will follow you around in the overworld, and they can increase the rewards you get from battles based on your friendship level with them.

Please take a look at this video demonstrating the feature (some aspects are still a work-in-progress):

What did you think? Take a look at the description of the video if you'd like a bit more information on how partners work!

This video also showed off the new start menu for multiplayer. You may have noticed the menu now shows you the room you're about to spawn in (it's actually showing you the room live, you'll be able to see other players walking by!), and when you enter the game it does a neat soul transition.

You may also have noticed the new Snowdin assets. Here are some screenshots:

Yup, it's now snowing in Snowdin! You can toggle this in the new Settings menu by enabling "Simplify VFX" if you'd prefer:

Moving on, I'd like to point out that I've hired some assistant programmers for the game. Since it's becoming increasingly more obvious to me that I don't have the same amount of free time as I used to, I'll be relying on the assistants to ease the workload so I can focus on other parts of the game. I'm still the lead programmer, but the extra assistance will definitely speed things up!

At the moment we have Serns, Peribooty, and SnowTheFox on the programming team. Serns has been working on new attacks recently, so check out these new and improved attacks for Vulkin, Tsunderplane, and Rudinn:

This is all the new v2.5.0 additions I can show for now, but there's some really cool stuff still in the works that I can't wait for you to see!

Now, you may be wondering when you'll get to play the new update, since it's been about half a year since the last major update to the game.

When is the release of v2.5.0?

I'll just get the bad news out of the way: v2.5.0 is going to be delayed a bit.

There are a few reasons for this; I could bore you with the details like describing how my university work burned me out, or how the team needs a bit more time to make new assets, or that I want to polish things up more, the usual thing. But instead, I'll just tell you what my plan is now.

The last time I spoke about v2.5, my plan was to release each "story quest" one at a time until we reached v3.0.

If you didn't already know, Story Quests are the replacement for the "Master Quest" that's currently in the game. Instead of adding new areas that you'd have no reason to revisit after completing them, I decided to replace them with new content that takes place in the regular overworld. (Don't worry, the Master Quest worlds already in the game will still be accessible.)

The content of these "story quests" includes new NPCs, new cutscenes, new rooms, and a final challenge of some kind (a boss fight or a minigame, for example). The idea was that v2.5 would have the Ruins quest with all the new Ruins content, v2.6 would have the Snowdin quest, v2.7 would have the Waterfall quest, v2.8 would have the Hotland quest... you get the idea.

However, the issue I have with this release schedule is that it really stretches out development. I don't think I really considered how difficult it would be to work on both Story Mode and DFC at the same time. In truth, I would rather just get DFC completed ASAP.

So... that's what I'm going to do. If I have to delay v2.5, I might as well just finish the game. It's a bit of a leap to go from just one story quest to all of them, but it makes the most sense for the sake of the full project.

DFC v2.5.0 will be delayed up to March 2021 (hopefully it'll be sooner than this but we'll see), and it will include ALL of the main content planned for the game.

If you're disappointed about the delay, I hope that knowing you'll be getting the full game of DFC way sooner than expected makes up for it. With the plans I have in mind, it'll essentially be a full fangame in its own right, so I hope you look forward to it!

But, what does this mean? DFC being "complete"? Does that mean the game will end for good? What will happen to it?

The Future of DF Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer has been a big part of DF's identity since 2016. I've always had ambitions to "complete" DF Multiplayer, but I've never actually been this close to finishing it for real.

So the truth is, I'm not really sure what happens to it after it's done. I've had some ideas float around, since there will inevitably be a point where I'm too busy being an adult (ew) to pay attention to the game anymore, so it's something that I have to think about.

At the moment, the option that makes the most sense to me is that one day (in however many years), an "End of Service" would be announced for DFC. This would result in a new update being released for the game, but what it would do is remove the ability to just log in and play with everyone like normal. Instead, you'd have to create or join a "private session". You would type in a random number (called a "Session ID") and it would be like a private server all to yourself. You could invite your friends to join with the same session ID if you wanted to play together. But the huge public session with everyone in it would no longer be a thing, since the moderation team would most likely be disbanded by then (and if not, I'd disband it myself, I don't want the admins to feel like they have to stay forever lol).

I think this would be the best way to do it, since it means I wouldn't have to completely shut off the game, and you'd be able to keep your save file and continue playing if you wanted. It's not nice to think about, but with the completion of DFC approaching, we do have to consider these things.

This is not for a long time though, so there's no need to worry about it right now. DFC still has a long life ahead of it!

Now, for a bit of good news: DFC v2.5.0 won't be the last update. Even though it'd have all of the planned content for the game in it, I'll still probably release a few smaller updates here and there. I doubt I'll ever release an update as big as v2.5 or any of the previous ones again, but little things here and there just to give you guys some new content while Story Mode gets made sounds nice.

Speaking of Story Mode, you're probably wondering how it's doing, too. Let's talk about it!

Status of Story Mode

If development on DFC has slowed, then development on Story Mode is basically trudging along in molasses. I've gotten a little bit more of DeltaEngine done, but it's still not finished yet. This doesn't mean that there's nothing new to show you, though.

I've been working on the novella adaptation of Story Mode here and there, and this has been very helpful in allowing me to develop Harlow's characterization. I really want them to be an interesting character in their own right, not just a hollow vessel for the player to use. I hope that you'll grow a connection with them in the full game!

Speaking of Harlow, I've given you guys a sneak peek of their new look before, but I've never actually shown them in full. Well, that's gonna change today!

Here is Harlow's new reference sheet for DF STORY MODE:

You may have noticed something about Harlow's sprites...

That's right! Their feet now have an extra pixel!

Oh, wait, there are sprites for a "Dark World" version of Harlow here, too. What does that mean?

Well, while I've described DF STORY MODE to be like a "loose spinoff chapter" of Deltarune before, I've never actually confirmed whether or not the Dark World will be returning.

I am here to answer this question! The answer is YES... but also no.

I know, I know, a cliché answer...

I say "YES" because DF STORY MODE will in fact take place in a "Dark World", but I also say "no" because it is not exactly the same as the Dark World found in Deltarune. DF's Dark World will have a very different type of atmosphere, and a very different type of threat. I won't say much else about it, but I look forward to telling you more some day.

Now, you may also have seen the part on the reference sheet where it says "they won't be able to do this on their own". I'm also here to confirm that Harlow will be joined by party members in this game!

Who are these party members exactly? Well, I can't tell you much about them right now, but we'll have more to show you in a future devlog! I will say this, though: you've probably already met them.

For now, just know that we're going full-speed ahead on DFC v2.5.0 so that we can really sink our teeth into DF STORY MODE. I can't for you guys to see what we've got in store!

Conclusion

That's it for this devlog! It's surreal to see DONTFORGET as a whole continue to make progress; with the release of v2.5.0 in a few months, we'll have a fully completed fan-game under our belt, ready to get working on the next one! I hope that the delay hasn't disappointed you too much, and that knowing the full release of DFC isn't too far away helps to make the wait worth it!

In other news, DF CONNECTED has recently reached over 1,000,000 hours of total playtime. To put that into perspective, that means all of you guys combined have played roughly 41,666 days straight of DFC, or about 114 years. It's been less than a year since the game's initial release, so those are crazy numbers. Thank you all so much for playing!

Now, there's only thing left for me to say to you all in 2020:

Happy Holidays, and I hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

(Thanks to Szkraft for the header artwork, and Prima for the holiday artwork above!)

Okay, that's it from us. Thanks for reading everyone, and as always, stay determined!