Howdy, everyone!

Welcome to the August 2024 Progress Report! July and August were incredibly productive months for the game, so we've got a lot to share with you in this post!

Before we begin, I would like to thank you all for your patience since our last progress report. Although we would have liked to release a report in July, last month was largely dedicated to internal design and planning work, so there wasn't too much that we could show publicly. Instead, we opted to wait until there was more content implemented in the game ready to show off.

As a result of this work, we're happy to say that we now have a solid development roadmap towards v3.0.0 and beyond! Once v2.8.0 is released, we will officially resume production on DF's singleplayer Story Mode! We're very excited to get back to work on it!

In future progress reports following 2.8's release, we'll start talking more about Story Mode, and showing off its development progress when we can! But for now, let's get back to talking about DF CONNECTED!

Back in the April 2024 Progress Report, we revealed the new party member system coming in 2.8, which is one of the biggest features that we've ever added to the game! It'll be hard to top that lol, but we've still got some cool things to show this time around!

So without further ado, let's kick off this progress report with a status update on v2.8.0's development!

Status Update on DF CONNECTED v2.8.0

Over the past two months, the development of 2.8 has been progressing at a steady pace! The update has gotten much closer to completion since our previous report, with many of the largest additions getting wrapped up!

There are some exciting reveals to share in the rest of this progress report, but for this section, I'd like to share some updates on what else we've been cooking!

Progress on Cyber World

I am excited to announce that all of Cyber World's rooms have now been completed! Cyber Field, Cyber City, and Queen's Mansion are now fully explorable!

With these sub-areas combined, Cyber World has become the largest area in the game by far, with a total of 51 rooms! For comparison, Card Kingdom is 26 rooms long!

With Cyber World, I wanted to set a new standard for DFC's areas going forward. For example, one thing that I really want to address in v2.8.0 is DFC's noticeable lack of puzzles! With the game's Main Questline on its way, now seems like a good opportunity to start implementing puzzles all across the overworld!

My plan is that there will be some puzzles along the main path that players are required to complete, but other puzzles will be found on optional branching paths, with valuable rewards for completing them! This way, there are still some guaranteed puzzles on your journey, but the rest of them are optional for players who'd prefer to skip them!

So, here's an example of a puzzle in Cyber Field! This puzzle is based on the original keyboard puzzle from Deltarune, but you now use arrow keys to navigate an outgoing e-mail through a maze of garbage data!

Then in Cyber City, you can find these signal puzzles! They're similar in concept to the mouse puzzles, except you need to use the blocks to navigate a signal from the "main terminal" towards multiple targets!

Besides puzzles, there are also more overworld dodging segments! These just help to add a bit more excitement to exploring, y'know?

Anyway, I do want to clarify that although all of Cyber World's rooms have been finished, there's still a bit of work left to do for the area. Mainly, I still need to finish adding one of its biggest side quests!

In this particular side quest, you'll recruit Spamton as a member of your party in order to stop a strange virus from spreading across the city!

I'm really excited to explore the possibilities that the new party system adds, like having characters join your party at set points in the game to play a major role in quests! I think there's a lot of potential for fun stories and character interactions, especially with a roster of nearly 70 party members to choose from!

With that said, I hope you'll look forward to exploring Cyber World and trying out these quests!

Introducing Overhead Local Chat

Next up, I'd like to show you a new feature that I've been working on! It's still a work-in-progress currently, so I'd really like to hear your feedback on it!

For the new community server system coming in 2.8, it was necessary to rewrite the local chat system from scratch, as the current local chat system was created specifically with GMServer functions in mind, and therefore wouldn't work with the new system.

Since I had the opportunity to remake local chat, I decided to experiment with adding overhead local chat, a feature that has been requested over the years!

With this new system, local chat messages will now appear above the head of the player who wrote it, rather than appearing as a disembodied textbox at the top of the screen! Their character icon will still appear to the left of the message as well, so messages can still be expressive!

This way, it's a lot clearer exactly who wrote a message, and it also allows for multiple conversations to happen at different points in a room, without interrupting each other!

Another benefit of overhead local chat is that messages can now stack! If a player writes another message while their previous message is still being displayed, it will simply move up to make space for the new message, rather than immediately disappearing!

With that said, overhead chat does introduce a potential issue where you may miss a player's message if they're out of your view. Thankfully, that's why the local chat history will still be easily accessible from the local chat menu, so even if someone isn't directly in your vision, you can still just open the local chat menu to see what they said!

And for those of you who still prefer the current local chat, don't worry, it will remain as an option for you in the Settings menu of your CELL! It's not going anywhere!

Anyway, let me know what your thoughts are on overhead local chat! If you have any suggestions to make this system the best it can be, I would love to hear them!

Release Plans for v2.8.0

To cap off this status update, I'd like to address our release plans for v2.8.0.

Needless to say, the wait for v2.8.0 has been far longer than I had expected it to be. I apologize for the long wait, and I really do appreciate your patience for this update.

Although I still can't announce a release date for 2.8 in this progress report, I would like to confirm that our current plan is to announce a concrete release date for 2.8 in the next progress report.

The next progress report is expected to be our last post before v2.8.0's release. In that post, we'll cover the last few reveals we want to make before the release, and then announce an official release date.

Thank you all again for your patience, and I hope you'll look forward to the next progress report!

In the meantime, let's get started with the reveals for this month's report!

NEW ENEMY: Swatchling!

In v2.8.0, another new enemy is being added to the Cyber World: Swatchling! These enemies will appear exclusively in Queen's Mansion, ready to serve you at a moment's notice!

Swatchling has two of the most unique attacks in the game, as they change based on what colors the Swatchlings are!

For example, if there's a red/orange Swatchling present, then bird bullets will spawn for that attack! Or, if there's a blue Swatchling present, then a mini Swatchling will appear and spawn a ring of bullets! Each color has an effect on what bullets the attack will spawn!

To demonstrate, here's one of their new attacks:

With Swatchling in the game, there are now a total of five new enemies to encounter in the Cyber World!

I hope you'll enjoy encountering them all!

NEW ENEMY: Moldbygg!

A new enemy is being added in Waterfall!

In v2.8.0, there's now a chance that you'll encounter an unusual Moldsmal. Unlike other Moldsmals, it doesn't appear to be bouncing...

Let's try using an ACT on it, and see what happens!

Woah, it turned into a Moldbygg!

With their inclusion, there are now four enemies you can encounter in Waterfall!

Originally, I wasn't planning on adding any more enemies from base Undertale, but while I was working on the enemy rebalancing for 2.8, I thought it would be nice to take this opportunity to add another enemy in Waterfall. Plus, Moldbygg has been requested by players in the past, so I figured why not!

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your surprise encounters with Moldbygg in v2.8.0!

NEW VESSEL: The Batter from OFF!

For the second-to-last new vessel reveal before the release of v2.8.0, we're happy to announce that the Batter from OFF will be joining the game as a playable character!

For v2.8.0, we've tried to add as many highly-requested characters as possible, and the Batter was an obvious pick!

In case you aren't familiar with the Batter, they're the protagonist of the game "OFF", a surreal adventure RPG released in 2008 by Mortis Ghost. OFF served as a major inspiration for Undertale during its development, so I'd say DFC is long overdue for some OFF representation!

For PvP battles against Batter, a new remix of "Pepper Steak" will play, arranged by 3DSquare! Give it a listen here:

We hope you'll look forward to playing as the Batter!

NEW AREA: Hometown from DELTARUNE!

After we announced that Cyber World would be coming to DF CONNECTED, you guys have asked us how this new Dark World would be accessed. Would it connect directly to the end of Card Kingdom, or would there be another weird shortcut like the Card Kingdom had...?

Well, the answer is neither! Instead, a new area is being added to the game to connect the two Dark Worlds together naturally: Hometown from DELTARUNE!

You'll be able to explore the entirety of Hometown, complete with new music, new character interactions, new side quests, and of course, entrances to the Dark Worlds!

When you approach the entrance to a Dark World, its door will automatically open when you get close enough, allowing you to enter it. The door to the Computer Lab will take you to the Cyber World, while the supply closet door in the school will take you to Castle Town and the Card Kingdom!

When you first enter the supply closet, it'll take you to Card Kingdom first, but once you've reached Castle Town, the supply closet will automatically take you there in subsequent visits. Castle Town will always remain connected to the Card Kingdom, allowing you to access it easily!

Now, you might be wondering how you'll be able to get to Hometown. Well, the "Closet Key" that was required to access Card Kingdom previously has been removed! Instead, you can now obtain the Silver Key. This key will allow you to unlock the door at the back of Sans' house...

In here, you'll find a strange machine. At first, it'll be broken, and you won't be able to use it. However, if you complete a new side quest deep in the True Lab, you'll be able to obtain a replacement part for the machine.

By returning to the machine with the new part, you can restore the machine to working order, allowing you to use it...

...and it'll take you to the world of DELTARUNE!

Now, as I mentioned above, Hometown also features some new music tracks to listen to! First, take a listen to the main theme of the area, "Hometown Reprise", arranged by 3DSquare!

There's a new track for the School as well! Take a listen to "After School", arranged by 398utubzyt!

Well, that's all I can share about Hometown for now! I hope you'll look forward to exploring it in the near future!

...Or, actually, maybe you won't have to wait for it!

Because...

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.10

Surprise! A new patch for 2.7 has just released!

I know the version number is a bit odd, but I felt that calling it "2.7.9d" wouldn't do it justice - and that's because Hometown has just been added into the game as a new area! You can go explore it right now!!

With that said, Hometown's new side quests are still being worked on, and the machine doesn't require a replacement part to use it yet. These new quests will be added in v2.8.0, but in the meantime, you can still freely explore the town! You can hang out at the Diner, chat with some NPCs, obtain a new item, and access the Dark Worlds!

Of course, there are also other useful additions, improvements, and bug fixes that have been added in this patch!

Most notably, it is now possible to reconnect to the server after losing connection! In the event that you lose connection to the server while playing online, there is now an option to log back in once connection is restored, and you can continue right where you left off!

Now then, let's check out the full changelog for v2.7.10 to see what's new:

• Added a new area: HOMETOWN from Deltarune! To access the upcoming Cyber World, Hometown has been added as a new area that connects the two Dark Worlds together! Cyber World will be added in v2.8.0, but in the meantime, you can freely explore Hometown!

• Added the option to RECONNECT TO THE SERVER after being disconnected. If connection is lost, there is now an option to try logging back into the game once connection is restored, letting you continue right where you left off.

• Added a redesigned WARP MENU. This warp menu provides more space for new warps to be added, which will be very useful for all of the new warps in v2.8.0! It now also lets you cancel out of the warp menu and continue from where you were.

• Added overworld corruption battles for Kris, Susie, and Ralsei.

• Added new poses for the Earthbound crew: Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo.

• Added a new consumable item, "Hot Chocolate", which can be purchased at the Diner in Hometown.

• Added a new save point in the CORE, as a convenient way to return to it before its Gold Shrine has been unlocked.

• Added a new command, "/localclear", which clears the local chat history.

• When running, your speed will now gradually increase at first, and then boost to its top speed after some time, similarly to how running in DELTARUNE works.

• Overworld dodging sections now show a red outline around the player, making it more consistent with DELTARUNE.

• The bullet board now takes less time to move to its next position during battles.

• Replaced the "Closet Key" item with the new "Silver Key". In order to access the new Hometown area (and by extension, the Dark Worlds), you'll need to use the Silver Key to unlock the new method of getting to the world of DELTARUNE.

• Tweaked the appearance of the overworld corruptions.

• Gold Grind Rooms have now been renamed to "Gold Shrines".

• The "puzzle piece" collectibles will no longer appear in Offline Mode by default. Instead, the save file must first reach the criteria for the ending before the puzzle pieces will appear.

• Updated the default sprites for Frisk and Chara.

• Updated Chara's description in the vessel menu.

• If an invalid sprite is used for a character icon in local chat, it will now default to Harlow.

• Asgore's corruption battle has now been moved to the pre-Barrier room, rather than in the Throne room.

• Fixed a bug where the attack reticle spawning on the left side of the target would have its center point be offset, which made it harder to land perfect hits.

• Fixed a bug where the rocks in the Ruins could be pushed outside of their puzzle boundaries.

• Fixed an oversight where the red gacha machine in MTT Hotel would not provide refunds for maxed-out pogs.

• Fixed an oversight where the vending machines still claimed to require 2000 spares to unlock rather than 750 spares.

• Fixed an oversight where the "Quench Your Thirst" trial quest still claimed to require 2000 spares rather than 750 spares.

• Fixed an oversight where the error message when trying to use a guild in Offline Mode was outdated.

• Fixed an oversight where Grillby's genocide route dialogue would not be reverted when the Dark Heart was activated.

• Fixed an oversight where the EN upgrade menu could still appear in certain cases.

• Other minor fixes and improvements.

This patch is available for download right now! I hope you'll enjoy playing it while you wait for v2.8.0!

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.10b

Hey again, everyone! Future RickyG here, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who logged on for v2.7.10's launch!

It was one of the biggest launches that we've had in a while, and I really appreciate everyone who stopped by and said hello! It was a lot of fun to hang out with you guys in Hometown!

With that said, although I'm glad that you guys have been enjoying the new area, there were unfortunately some issues with the game that needed to be addressed. Most notably, there was a big issue with hitboxes in the battle system, with many attacks having completely incorrect hitboxes. This hitbox issue also caused the bullet board transition to break, where it would sometimes get stuck and start shaking after an attack had ended.

In the end, we discovered that the reason this happened was surprisingly due to the method that we use to compile the game. We've used this method for years with no issues, so it's very odd that this problem appeared out of the blue. However, we discovered that hitboxes were completely fine until the game was compiled, which explains why these problems didn't happen for us during testing.

As a result of this, we have now switched over to a new compiler for the game, the YoYoCompiler. This new patch for the game, v2.7.10b, now uses YYC, and this should fix all of the hitbox issues that were reported by you guys. This patch also includes some other improvements and fixes as well, to ensure that you guys can have the best experience possible!

The mobile port of the game has already used YYC for some time, but the PC version has not. As such, this release is a bit experimental, so do let us know if any strange issues pop up. We might need to tinker with the game some more to ensure it works as intended with YYC.

Anyway, here's the changelog for v2.7.10b, which is available to download now:

• Added a warp for the PvP Room to the "??????" page in the Warp Menu.

• Added a smiling icon for Frisk's default design in local chat.

• Added the new Hometown music tracks, "Hometown Reprise" and "After School", to the Sound Test menu.

• As of this version, DFC has now switched to using the YoYoCompiler. This change is still experimental, so let us know if there are any issues.

• The "Register" option on the main menu now redirects you to GameMakerServer's website, where you can register for a GMServer account to play online.

• There is now a "Connecting to server..." message after submitting your username and password when logging in.

• The options for the front page of the vessel menu can now loop back around while you're selecting them.

• Fixed a bug where it was possible for the bullet board to get stuck in the new transition animation, and start shaking.

• Fixed a bug where hitboxes for certain attacks were incorrectly sized.

• Fixed a bug where slopes weren't working correctly in the overworld.

• Fixed an oversight with the sink flavor text in Kris' house, where the spacing for one of the lines was incorrect.

• Fixed an oversight with the Gold Shrines, where their signs still referred to them as Gold Grind Rooms.

• Fixed an oversight where the default green and maroon colors would appear white in local chat.

• Fixed an oversight where the door for the Lost World's Gold Shrine appeared in the incorrect position.

• Fixed an oversight where the old warp menu was still accessible by exiting the Free-For-All minigame.

• Fixed an oversight where warping to the Last Corridor would not change the border to the New Home border.

• Fixed an oversight where the warp door for Card Kingdom in the starting area unlocked as soon as you got the Silver Key.

• The DF Map Editor and custom maps have temporarily been removed, due to them not working correctly with YYC. They will be added back in v2.8.0!

Changelog for DF CONNECTED v2.7.10c

A non-mandatory patch for DF CONNECTED has released! There were just a few reported issues caused by the transition to YYC for the Windows version, which this patch addresses.

If you're playing on mobile, or if you didn't have any issues with 2.7.10b, then there's no need to update!

Anyway, here's the changelog:

• Temporarily removed one of Astigmatism's attacks that became bugged in the transition to YYC.

• Temporarily removed the warning sfx from one of Whimsalot's attacks which became bugged in the transition to YYC.

• Adjusted slope collision code to hopefully fix rare cases of getting stuck on them.

Recap and Conclusion

Well, that's all the news we have for now! I hope you're looking forward to all of the new additions in v2.8.0, and that you'll enjoy v2.7.10 in the meantime!

Before we wrap up, let's recap what we've covered in this post:

• Cyber World is now fully explorable, with a total of 51 rooms to discover!

• New puzzles will be added throughout the overworld!

• A new local chat system with overhead messages is being worked on!

• The release date for v2.8.0 is planned to be announced in the next progress report!

• Swatchling has been added as a new enemy! They can be encountered in Queen's Mansion!

• Moldbygg has been added as a new enemy! They can be encountered in Waterfall!

• The Batter from OFF is being added as a new vessel!

• Hometown from DELTARUNE is being added as a new area in the game! This area will connect the two Dark Worlds together more naturally!

• DF CONNECTED v2.7.10c is available now, and features Hometown as a fully explorable area!

And there we are, that's it for this progress report!

(Note: I had to repost this progress report, as I had mistakenly posted it to my profile rather than to DONTFORGET's GameJolt page... oops!!)

Thank you all so much for reading, and as always, stay determined!