Dusttrust has been cancelled. A lot of people have heard the news, me included. Let's talk about it.

For those not in the know (as far as I've heard), Dusttrust got cancelled due to Dilly not wanting to work on it or be involved in the UTC anymore and wanting to focus on her mental health. In my opinion, I can totally understand that and I respect her decision completely. It's also not coming back this time, apparently, which makes total sense knowing how much this has happened before. Whatever Dilly wants to do, I won't stop her.

More than any other fangame being cancelled, Dusttrust is probably the one that's hit the hardest for me, oddly enough. Dusttrust is genuinely one of my favourite AUs and fangames. As overexposed as the idea has become, it just has a charm to it. In particular, I think Pre-Leak's 3rd phase where Sans puts on a fucking rock concert to kill you goes hard as fuck and is both hilarious as it is insane. It's basically Sans' power fantasy, and I love that as stupid as the idea is.

Dusttrust was also the start of the community's weird obsession with Dusttale fangames, and while those games certainly have a negative reputation in some circles, I could really care less about that. People wanna make Dusttale stuff? Go ahead, cook something up.

A lot of people have been saying that "the community's healing!!111!!!!11" in response to this recent news. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's not. A friend said this himself, but Dusttrust getting cancelled is not going to stop Dusttale fangames from being made, quite the opposite.

Pre-Leak getting cancelled and the resulting ownership insanity that followed is primarily the reason Dusttrust got so many remakes and takes on the base idea, and it's probably also why Dusttale fangames of all kinds got as popular as they did over the last few years. The current Dusttrust getting cancelled is just going to encourage some people to make remakes of the AU or takes on it.

The community isn't "healing". Even then, I just don't understand why people are getting excited over this thing being cancelled. Even if I understand people getting tired of it, I just don't get why you'd celebrate it.

Dusttrust inspired me to make fangames, as stupid as it sounds. I wanted to make something. I wanted to give my ideas a go and make a fangame. Nothing ever turned out, but I literally became a writer because of a Dusttrust take, and after doing more Dusttale or No Mercy inspired ideas, I decided to try something different and make takes on non-Dusttale AUs, because the idea just excited me.

The Undertale community was never the same after Dusttrust came along. I don't think it'll ever be the same as it was pre-2019 again. The impact Dusttrust left on us could be for the better or the worse, but regardless of it all, it just won't feel the same with it gone to me.

IN MEMORIAM /// Dustswap: Dusttrust /// 2018 - 2025

You came and left your mark, vandalized our hearts, but we'll still miss you.