It's been quite a few months since we've last talked, hasn't it dear soon-to-be customer?

Don't worry, that hasn't been because we've just been sitting on our laurels. On the contrary! These past few months have been wildly eventful. We're very excited to share some of the stuff we've been working on with you today!

Let's begin by welcoming you, dear customer, to the social hub of Hotland:

THE CORE SQUARE!

Originally built to house the engineers that constructed the CORE, over the years this lively town square has become a congregation of all sorts of different monsters. As New Home began to steadily overcrowd, the King approved of expansions to the CORE Square to attract a new generation of monsters to move in. Because of this, it's become a new frontier for enterprising monsters looking to start their lives anew. Which makes it the perfect place for Luna (and eventually Sunny) to live.

The square is full of many small and niche businesses like...

Snik & Snak's

Owned by a pair of conjoined twins aptly named Snik and Snak, this store prides itself on selling only the healthiest ingredients. Snak firmly believes that every monster deserves to have access to a healthy diet and is happy to sell you the store's finest ingredients to use during your days cooking at The Eclipse.

Coffee-In

Every modern town center needs a place to refuel on coffee, and this coffee shop/inn hybrid claims to serve "coffee strong enough to raise the dead!" That seems to be hyperbolic, but its regulars do say that the coffee is to die for, making it the CORE Square's most lively meeting place for coffee enjoyers. Well... As lively as a dark coffin with bats abound can be anyway.

The Hive

One of the Underground's most gourmet restaurants, rated 4 stars by the Royal Underground Association of Eaters. This restaurant is famous all across the Underground, and has even served the King himself in the past! However, it appears to be closed at the moment because of a honeymoon.

And more! There's so much to see in the CORE Square, we hope you appreciate all the sights when you visit it for yourself.

But that's enough tourism, we've got other things we need to update you on!

The team is happy to welcome a whopping 3 new members since the last update!

Nerd Fry! (Sprite Artist)

Radiaction! (Sprite Artist)

MatMan! (Composer and VA)

These new members have already done so much for the project in their short time with us, and we're beyond happy to have them with us.

Bonus fun fact: MatMan was the voice actor for Mawzz in the trailer!

Wait... that's right! The trailer!

You've probably seen it by now, but UTCWK's reveal trailer has been completed! You can watch it here:

We had a different plan for the trailer at first, featuring a full animation and everything, but after a short (6 hour) conversation with @Starlightshore of Nightfell fame, we decided to lower the scope for our first trailer and save the really big hitter up our sleeve for the future, when we have more stuff ready to show off.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this smaller scope, more comedic trailer.

But, I'm sure at least one of you is thinking: "Wait a minute! The songs in the trailer are new!"

And you'd be correct! Which brings us right along to the:

MUSIC SECTION

NEW TRACKS

CORE Square

We are extraordinarily happy to reveal CORE Square's theme. Our composers unanimously agree that it is Mose's best composed song for the project (so far) and I hope you agree. This was a song that went through a lot of changes and variations that entirely altered its tone and pace. But in the end, I really love how it turned out. I don't think there would be a better song to fit this all important area!

Snik & Snak's

A simple shoppy tune for this shoppy shop. Isn't this just the perfect song to buy some Electric Carrots, Chilly Chili, and other healthy ingredients to?

Listen, Chum!

This one's been in the oven for a while! For all those who thought that Let's do some Fin-ance was Mawzz's main character theme, I'm incredibly proud to announce that you are dead wrong. Let's do some Fin-ance is good and all, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't quite capture the energy of Mawzz outside his office, ya know? A song like this though? With energy, and backing laughter and a real feeling of ruthless passion??? Now that, my friend, is YA BOY MAWZZ, CHUM!

UPDATED TRACKS

Let's do Some Fin-ance

On that topic, Let's do some Fin-ance has been updated, as well. The detuned piano agenda won, what else can I say?

First Contact

Oh, this one is a pretty big change. And one to a pretty important track, too! At first, it might sound identical (because it is), but then you notice the new section that starts about halfway through and you can really see how much new life this track has. I can't wait for you all to see this theme evolve alongside the character it is attatched to.

But enough about music. Let's talk

GAMEPLAY

As the sun sets and the day turns to night, the future of the eclipse shines bright, and the end is beginning to appear in sight.

That's right! We've been making solid progress on the game, and like day 0 turning to night 0, we are getting closer and closer to our goal! Day 1 is in sight!

To talk in depth about just how close we are to getting this game onto your plates, here's moist with a progress report on the recipe system!

The recipe system is coming along nicely! So far, we're cooking up a helpful file with a side of instantiation for any recipe you might find to be a regular order across your time as the eclipse's finest cook in all* of the underground, that way the game is as light on your computational device's volatile memory as it possibly can be!

Now with 50% less silverfish!

- moist

In other words, cooking is really, really close to being in a fully implemented state and ready to be thoroughly tested.

And don't take it just from me, let our head coder, Snosisnob back me up here:

Implementation of our recipe system is nearing completion and will be beginning testing shortly. Full workdays are nearly complete!

-Snosisnob

In terms of the rest of the game, we've also made a lot of progress on maps and cutscenes. The CORE Square is mostly complete by now, alongside most maps that are to be used for the demo, and almost all the cutscenes for the start of the game are done. Still, there's a lot left to work on, and there's always something to tweak and fix, so don't hold your breath.

Looking out to the future, we've got deltarune on the horizon, which will no doubt entirely halt progress for at least a week if not more. We've also got final exam season coming up, which will similarly slow us down

After that, though... We have summer vacation, which means practically unlimited time to focus on this project, and I can guarantee you me and the rest of the team will be doing so.

But until then...

Kind Regards,

The Eclipse.