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TS!UNDERSWAP [Undertale Fangame]

Team Switched @teamswitched

2 months ago

Progress Report - September 2024

Hey there!

Can you believe we're already nearing 2025? This year has gone by so fast!

It's definitely been a while since our last progress report -- we've been hoping to get one of these out sooner than later, though many of us have been focused on personal responsibilities.

Today's progress report comes alongside the release of Demo v2.0.7, which is primarily focused on additions, changes, and fixes for localization tools. Check it out!

Brief Catch-Up!

In our April 2024 Dev Update, we discussed how one of our main priorities was outlining the rest of the game (fleshing out less-developed plans, structuring areas in a room-by-room format, and understanding what we aim to accomplish.)

We mentioned how Crystal Springs has three sub-areas (Mines, Springs, and a third route-dependent small area.) In addition to this, we reported on the following:

Achieved barebones implementation of most planned Crystal Mines rooms.
Fleshing out in-game mechanics for Crystal Mines.
Crystal Mines mostly outlined for all routes with a room-by-room structure.
Crystal Springs mostly outlined for all routes (excluding some Evacuation-specific details), with a more rough room-by-room structure.

We showcased concept art of Boreal Bluffs, lightly touched on each of its sub-areas (Lab Complex, Bluffs, District, NEXUS), and reported that this area was roughly outlined -- with all major areas and most major events defined. The City of New, endgame events, and multiple game endings had also been fleshed out more.

We then discussed our then-upcoming Demo v2.0.6 update, which alongside various small fixes and updates to our localization system, brought the following two major changes:

Introducing: Mettalot! He was renamed to something silly, yet fitting!
Introducing: Ser Scratch! We effectively just simplified the previous name, alongside showcasing their brand new design and in-progress sprites!

For more details on each of these -- including various bits of concept art, and a lengthy Community Spotlight at the end -- go and check that devlog!

Progress Updates

Much like before, our major focuses have been making improvements to our workflow, and further refining our plans for the whole game -- whether that's gameplay mechanics and pacing, story outline and structure, or keeping our scope in check.

In that regard, we've made the following progress:

Work has been done to overhaul and consolidate the game's outline -- including a per-area rundown which describes what we aim to accomplish with each section.
Routes and endings have been much more fleshed out, particularly in regards to refining and consolidating our existing plans for the Compassion and Neutral routes (i.e. the various Neutral endings we plan to have, and the conditions thereof.)
Per-area bosses have been plotted out more, with Evacuation Neutral still needing the most development in this regard (whereas Ruthless is more solid.)
Backstories for Alphys and Undyne have been significantly more developed than previously, building upon our existing plans with new supporting details and fleshing things out.
Other character backstories have been under review for potential improvements, including that of Ser Scratch.
Identifying potential improvements to existing content that could be made in the long-term (for better consistency with overarching material and quality bar.)

While we've all been pretty busy, we've been able to make the following progress:

Writing -- Most of our focus in this regard has been the aforementioned outlining and structuring work. Since a lot of writing for Crystal Springs is dependent on its gameplay mechanics, we're a bit roadblocked in this regard until we flesh things out more.
Art -- Most "active" work has been on remaking certain assets we'll discuss below.
Music -- Out of the currently 42 tracks planned for Crystal Springs, we have: 10 completed, 18 in-progress, and 14 anticipated. We also have 15 tracks in-progress for Boreal Bluffs, and 2 remake tracks in-progress for Starlight Isles.
Programming -- Most work here has been focused on refining gameplay mechanics for the Crystal Mines, and a set of introductory puzzles which introduces them.

The Showcase Section

Here's just a brief section where we'll cover the following:

Tick Tick Boom: assorted Sgt Splosion concept art!
Gilded Goons: updates on the new Boogiemen battle sprites, "Let's Boogie!" v3, and "Kountdown" v3!
Benevolent Interrogation: a new Crystal Mines track!

Tick Tick Boom

Sgt Splosion (formerly "Sir Splosion") was designed by team artist Treppy quite some time ago! Here's some artwork of him dating back to 2019 -- he's since been given a larger role as one of the main antagonists featured in the Crystal Mines!

Here's some recent sketches for Sgt Splosion by Devilredd! These don't represent scenes in-game, they're just to get a feel for the character and his expressions.

Hey, this one isn't Sgt Splosion... well, I guess he's there! As a color reference. Here is a certain Royal Navy ship some may recognize from specific routes in Demo v2.0 -- this was designed by Fifleo, and colored by EllisBros based on Sgt Splosion's color palette. Neat!

Gilded Goons

As previously mentioned in our Demo v2.0.6 Changelog (check for context), there's some assets we're in the process of redoing / re-styling! While subject to change, these include:

Harry and Larry's dialogue portraits (complete!)
Harry and Larry's default battle poses (complete, excluding Larry's facial expressions!)
Any battle sprites dependent on the originals' poses as needed (to-do.)
"Let's Boogie!" v3 (re-composed by Devilredd, needs to be finalized.)
"Kountdown" v3 (re-composed by Devilredd, needs to be finalized.)

(Current iterations of the Boogiemen's new default battle sprites! Subject to change.)

We're really looking forward to finishing up everything we've been doing here! Though, as previously stated, we can't promise when these changes will fully roll out -- due to the number of assets we're remaking, how they'll be implemented / animated, and the logistics of determining which assets we'd also need to make changes to (i.e. battle sprites that don't require changing on their own, but will need updating for consistency with the new default battle poses.)

As you can see here, these two idiots have a LOT of battle sprites. We've had to go through and evaluate which we'll have to make from-the-ground-up remakes of, and which we can simply overhaul to eliminate the previous style / reliance on the old battle sprites' style.

Because we're updating our version of GameMaker for Demo v3.0, retroactively applying them to a Demo v2.0 update would require individually implementing everything across both branches -- otherwise, if we just released a new v2.0 patch using the updated GameMaker version, we'd have to test the entire game to make sure nothing breaks amidst the various engine changes.

Because of this, we're expecting any sprite changes to be for v3.0 only -- but if it's simple enough for us to implement all of these new sprites (w/ their animations, etc.), then we can backport it into the v2.0 branch.

Rest assured, we'll make sure to keep everyone updated with what's going on in this regard! Thank you once again for your understanding and patience while we take our time on this.

Benevolent Interrogation

Since it's been such a while, we're sharing one of the new Crystal Mines tracks!

"Benevolent Interrogation" by DashingToadie plays in a new cutscene with Admiral Alphys! We don't want to spoil anything just yet, though, so we'll keep the details sparse on this one.

This one was originally showcased during Cibles's 2024 Undertale Fangame Marathon for charity, as part of her TS!UNDERSWAP developer commentary -- specifically for the Ruthless route, but unfortunately its VOD got corrupted. You can still check out the Compassion route commentary stream, though!

(As a note, we'll eventually get back to uploading the soundtrack to YouTube! The reason this has taken so long is because I (Beethovenus) was previously making the videos in Adobe Premiere Pro, but ended up canceling my subscription. We'll see how we get back to this!)

FAQ | SUPPORT | LOCALIZATION | v2.0 CHANGELOG

That's all for now! We're hoping to get back into the swing of things more in regards to in-game development, though that'll depend on our general availability with everything in our lives.

As a quick reminder: our official translations Spanish (Español), Brazilian Portuguese (Português Brasileiro), and Dutch (Nederlands) are still in-progress. Ideally, these will be released whenever they're ready. (These are done by hobbyist translators, so please be patient!)

While getting this out took us a bit longer than we'd expected, in the meantime we've generally been a bit more communicative in our Discord server -- including a new Community Spotlight channel we've made there for easily shouting out fanworks! Feel free to join if you want!

Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you guys next time!

- Beethovenus and Team Switched