(Thumbnail art by __b and Kekuus)

Hey all! Been a hot minute, huh? It's time for the fabled Devlog 4, here just in time for Christmas. Consider it our special gift to you. Before I continue though, you might be reading this after our recent premiere in Underevent 2023! I'd like to suggest to everyone who hasn't caught up yet to go watch Underevent 2023, as everyone has done an incredible job this year with the project (looking at you Octo) and we really feel like its worth the time. If you don't have time on your side however, the standalone trailer will be uploaded separately once we're given the green to go. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the whole Icebox team for their recent work towards the project, we wouldn't be here without you all.

Lastly, don't forget to join the public Discord to get more smaller, frequent updates:

https://discord.com/invite/T5vM4PJ5aC

Now with that all said and done, lets get into the stuff you've been waiting for.

EDIT: The Underevent 2023 trailer is up on our official channel!

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CHERRYSIDE AND DESOLATE FALLS REPRISALS

Starting off a bit small here. Cherryside and Desolate Falls overworld assets have been (mostly) completely remade! A few sprites are sill WIP, but the current demo areas have been redrawn to have a better artstyle.

(Also, some objects have water reflections, and foliage has slight wind physics. Probably trading some performance for visuals here but it ain't that bad i guess lol)

The demo areas are also going to be expanded a bit more, but don't expect the expansions to be on the same level as Undertale's areas. Cherryside will have a new room, which is the outer edges of Cherryside Town. This room will be placed behind where you began the demo, and will be where you load into in the future. Desolate Falls is a little bigger, and has echo flowers planted around the area that provide some extra story (its pretty much hinting at pre-game events), and the ending to the Sans/Flowey battle will have a new change, where you will transition back to the overworld for a cutscene instead of being faced with a crude story panel sequence. Papyrus will give you something... important at the end, and you will be unable to leave until you find a use for it. Both areas have also had their tracks updated, you can check them out below:

PAPYRUS OVERHAUL

The battle that was a thorn in everyone's side is getting some new updates to (hopefully) give you a better experience in regards to difficulty. The first change is one that applies to every battle, called Heartbeat. Essentially, if you die for the first time in a battle, you will be given a chance to revive yourself once per battle via a small minigame thats slightly rhythm based. If you wanna have another chance, you gotta match up to heartbeats for a certain amount of time. In order to activate it, you have to use the (new) 'Prayer' option in the MERCY menu.

The next change to the fight is pretty simple. Exclusive to Papyrus, if you hit 1HP for the first time, he will stop his attack and restore you to full health before it continues. This does not apply to the final attack of the battle (after the break segment of the battle).

SANS/FLOWEY BATTLE TWEAKS

Nothing much on this battle, just some smaller rebalances that have been due for a while.

Okay, we're done with the existing battles and such. Time to move on to the new stuff.

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NEW AREA - AZURE ALCAZAR

Bet you wern't expecting that, huh? Azure Alcazar is a deeper area within Waterfall that contains ancient ruins predating that of the...well, the RUINS. Just like Cherryside Town, it acts as a smaller refuge for any surviving Monsters that lived in Waterfall. In fact, we have the theme for the area ready to go already! Give it a listen:

FLOWEY's BATTLE

The existence of this encounter is already known, since we posted the theme for our anniversary a bit ago, but what you haven't seen yet is footage. Have at it:

This battle is one of the shorter ones in the game, but just because its short doesn't mean it lacks its own quirks. Oh right, and this battle is pretty much completed.

UNDYNE's BATTLE

This one takes place shortly after Flowey's battle - but instead of it being from Chione's point of view, it's seen from Sans's... for story reasons. He's after a pair of weapons Undyne has that are important to his goals.

You have his teleportation built into a mechanic in this battle. Only makes sense. As for progress, most of the assets for this battle are complete. Not a lot are needed currently.

NEW AREA - VERGLAS WALKWAY [HOTLAND]

The events of Azure Alcazar don't have the best ending imaginable, and what ends up happening there forces the new main group of characters to chase after Sans - who flees for Hotland, now known as Verglas Walkway. While there isn't much done for this area right now, it basically acts as an 'upgraded' version of Undertale's Hotland, altered and modernized in order to resist the weather changes.

It also has trains. The segment shown in the trailer is just a part of the full thing.

SANS's BATTLE

The set piece for this battle is one of my favourites. You fight Sans alongside Papyrus and Undyne on a speeding, heavy-armoured train with the goal of taking back the aformentioned weaponry...except the train is headed straight for the CORE with no signs of slowing down.

Seeing as this was shown in the recent Underevent trailer, we figured we'd might as well release the battle theme as well. Progress on this battle is further than most, but still needs a lot of work (for example, blasters are placeholders for new attacks we haven't gotten to yet).

CORE

We don't really feel ready to show most of this stuff yet, but I'll give you a summary; the train from the previous battle does crash, but is able to be slowed down enough to not cause a catastrophic event. Chanting can be heard from the top, and so your next goal is climbing the CORE to deal with the source.

RIVER PERSON's BATTLE

It was going to happen at some point. There is still a LOT we plan to do with this fight, given the role the River Person holds in this AU - but it's supposed to be one of the battles with the most variation in the game, attack and mechanic wise.

No full track this time, as it isn't finished. We do have a teaser ready, however:

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Before we go, there's something else we'd like to talk about. Something new.

ARCHONS

You're probably wondering what the hell these things are. The short answer? Pseudo-secret boss battles that use an entirely new battle system made from the ground up. That's all you're getting for now. Well, aside from these:

ARCHIVED MEMORIES

Almost forgot! We now have a new Soundcloud account called the Archive! This is the place where we're gonna begin posting cut content and early versions of our tracks. Once this devlog is up, there will be two tracks waiting for you there, so don't forget to check those out too.

LOGO UPDATES

Oh, yeah, both the logo and some page assets have been remade. Gotta love an overhaul every now and then.

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

That's it for this devlog! You're all pretty much up to date now. While we're still a long ways away from a full release, we're glad everyone has chosen to see this project to the end. I'd like to once again thank the guys and gals at Underevent for giving us this opportunity to show what we're made of, and an additional thanks to everyone in Team Icebox for all they've done this year to make this possible. With that being said, I think its time for a little hot chocolate and a good nights sleep. Its Xmas soon, after all! Have a happy Xmas and we'll hopefully see you all in 2024!!

-- Team Icebox

...did we miss anything?