WELCOME

SO, it's been a long time since our last formal talk on Gamejolt about our progress, right?

For those uninitiated, we haven't be silent the whole time! Reminder, we are often most comfortable with posting little snippets of information & content informally through our Discord Server, but now is a special occasion!

So, if you've done as you were told, you'd have seen the trailer featured in UnderEvent before coming here, so you'll have noticed the immense amount of changes to the gameplay style of the traditional Undertale format.

Undertale: The Otherground as we know it is fully embracing its horror genre nature and as a result becoming a stealth action horror RPG. Unlike what you're used to from the original game, we want you to genuinely feel threatened by the world you're exploring. Some characters, creatures, or whatever you won't be able to square up against at times if absolutely not at all. Thus, your safest and sometimes only option would be to stay quiet and hide.

We'll list off and talk about each new feature & change in their respective categories!

STORY

The story you all may be semi-familiar with is changing, but for the better! Initially, we believed the beginning of UTTO was rather weak, almost like a wannabe take on the original Undertale's opening. So, we did some rearranging of what story we already had and made something far more sinister & unique for you to begin your journeys as Louis in, that being the fact that we scrapped the Crash Site in favor of making Bulwark Bogs more of a Bulwark to begin with.

That's right, Louis now begins in an abandoned prison within the bogs. Though, something doesn't add up. The place is in shambles and falling apart as we speak, but who brought you to your cell, and why are there still prisoners here? Why won't they talk to you..?
It's clear now that you're not alone in these halls. Something is really, REALLY wrong. Looks like you can't escape all by yourself, either... What will you do with nobody to help?

Being cryptic aside, unfortunately the Crash Site had to be shafted as we felt it wasn't what we were looking for, though maybe it'll come back in a different form in the future? We'll see. This change caused a much-needed ripple effect that affected the rest of the story, as well, and further fleshed out the plot as it is, so we hope you'll enjoy this eerie change we made!

PROGRAMMING

Programming progress absolutely SKY-ROCKETED when the going got tough and time was running thin. Thanks to Purrsum for finishing the "Smooves" engine, the name we gave to the enhanced movement engine that we implemented for more interactive overworld gameplay.

Features in the Smooves Engine currently include:

• 8 directional sprite support

• Walking

• Running

• Leaping from ledges (4 directional)

• Crawling in crawlspaces (mostly automated, 4 directional)

• Climbing on climbable surfaces (only on South-facing walls, may add East-West support)

• Shimmying along tight ledges, which may also receive E-W support

• Sliding down slopes akin to Deltarune

• Probably most important of all: Crouching, allowing us to duck under projectiles, hide behind shorter objects, & quiet our footsteps

All of this you saw in the trailer, so what are your thoughts? We're trying our best to make a fluid experience, and we hope you enjoy the freedom Smooves will provide you in-game!

Last, but certainly not least, what's a horror experience without proper lighting? That's right- as seen in the trailer, smooth lighting comes to UTTO. So what do you have to combat this?
Louis and only Louis has been given a lighter to supply light to him & his friends when the dark gets overwhelming, as seen in the trailer. Thus, this means other overworld-based skills are planned to come to the other party members, as well. However, we want to hold onto that thought before we elaborate, just in case.

MUSIC & SOUND

Music wasn't very active this time around, surprisingly. However, we did unfortunately have to drop a song from the canon OST list due to changes that were made in the story.

As a bonus, though, we also added a bonus track that was once lost in development! Have a listen!

We also intend on including voice acting in the game, but don't jump the gun just yet! We are absolutely under no circumstances including dialogue voice acting, as it would ruin so many aspects about this game and turn so many people off. To specify, we're looking for voice actors to help characters create audible sounds when performing an action or reacting to something.
Quite literally, we're looking for people to grunt and yell into their microphones if that makes any sense. Take Little Nightmares as the best example of this!

Don't forget to stay tuned into the Soundcloud account, because we're also going to be releasing full trailer OST now that you've heard it in action!

We'll be seeing you!

ART & ANIMATION

A good few things has changed in the art & animation department. Of course, with new abilities comes new animations, which we'll show off here: not much else to say what hasn't already been said:

However, what I'm most excited to talk about is the change in UI. The battle UI in particular has received its cleanest facelift yet, shafting the concept of multiple special stat points in favor of fully embracing Deltarune's TP system, as seen below:

Here, you may also notice some tabs next to the characters' names, and that's because we want to add status effects into the game to give it that true RPG taste of "DAMN IT I'M POISONED AGAIN". Obviously, we don't mean to design based on rage, but rather challenge, so don't take it the wrong way.

Alongside that is the lack of LV. Peculiar, right? Does anyone remember the Morality Meter? That's gotten a facelift since the last time you saw it, too.

Since we shafted individual special stats, we replaced it with (& comfortably rearranged the stats menu altogether) with VIT, short for VITALITY. Our current idea for the stat is that it dictates your vulnerability, or lack thereof, to status effects. Thus, you'll be affected for fewer turns based on your VIT, and you might even have a chance at avoiding the effect totally.

Lastly, we have the friendship meter, which I'm not sure we revealed on Gamejolt yet. It's been common knowledge on Discord, though.

With the friendship meter, we have to be more strategic with our actions, as our friends will naturally judge us based on how we behave, much like we do toward each other in real life. This isn't exclusive to ACTing, either, as some other actions can increase or diminish preference in Louis from the other characters. Achieve a high enough friendship status with one of them, though, and they might just become your best friend- a requisite to achieve the merciful ending of the game!

Only one character can be your best friend, and once the decision has been made & the event that triggers this last pip on the meter is complete, it'll lock in place so you don't break the story. This provides variety in the merciful route & some replay value if you're interested!

SHOUTOUTS

Thanks so much to all of you for helping us hit 3k followers on Gamejolt (as of before the event, I really can't predict what will come afterward). I wanted to shout out @Purrsum for helping us so much by building the trailer for us.

I also wanted to thank the devs involved in helping me build assets for the game overall, especially to FutureGamer (Lasers), who single-handedly made the lighting engine that may change Undertale fangames, as we've given permission to a select few games to use said lighting engine considering their affiliation with our team. Be expecting to see the engine or hypothetical variants of it in Spookytale & Angel's Lullaby!

CONCLUSION & LINKS

So, how was that? First time in 7 months we got serious & posted a big devlog like this. I don't think we really covered every knitty gritty detail, so I would suggest checking in on our Gamejolt page from time to time, as I'll often subtly update & add content to the page without a word to see if anyone reacts (and so I don't have to sit down and make a big announcement about it lol).

If you want to support us, all you need to do is join our Discord Server & hang out if you want to! Your continued presence & excitement for what we do is what keeps us as a team moving, and we appreciate it so much that you bunch take genuine interest in what we have to show.

I'd also like to mention, back in 2020 Sunny, one of our main stars, got his own ask blog on Tumblr, and now that rush hour for UnderEvent is over, we can finally get back to more casual content distribution such as Sunny's blog & more.

Thank you all so much for following the development of Undertale: The Otherground, I'm more than excited to see you all next time we finally post another big announcement like this!

Until then, stay determined!