Here are my thoughts on Ch 1 of Deltarune. This should answer some questions.

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It's October 4th. The DEMO (first chapter) of my game is supposed to come out on Halloween.

Actually it was done a little while ago but I'm waiting for the translation to be finished.

I feel like I should address what I think people will think before the game comes out.

Of course, if I'm all wrong about this, then I just wasted my time, but...



QUESTIONS I PREDICT PEOPLE HAVE

1. "Is this a sequel? What's going on?? I'm scared..."

Please don't worry too much about that.
Actually, I'm worried if people worry too much about "what it is," they might not be able to properly enjoy it... (laugh)

I will say that basically, what you're seeing here is not the world of UNDERTALE.
UNDERTALE's world and ending are the same as however you left them.
If everyone was happy in your ending, the people in the UNDERTALE world will still be happy.
So, please don't worry about those characters, and that world. It will remain untouched.

To rephrase that, DELTARUNE's world is a different one.
With different characters, that have lived different lives.
A whole new story will happen...

I don't know what you call this kind of game.

It's just a game you can play after you complete UNDERTALE, if you want to.

That's all.


2. "I have questions I want to ask about the story..."

There's a lot of questions I'd like to answer, too.

That's why I have to make the game.

Please wait until then.


3. "When will the next chapter come out?"

This is a difficult question.

When I made the demo of UNDERTALE, I made it to prove to myself that it was possible to make a whole game alone (with some help with the art).

Because I was able to make it in a few months, I felt that I had proved that it was possible.

However, making the demo of DELTARUNE...

took a few years.

So, given the length of the rest of the game, and how long I'd be willing to spend on a project (7 years maximum) I think the answer is that it's actually impossible to make this game.

Lots of things make this game harder to make than the last time.

- The graphics are much more complicated and don't play to my strengths (black and white battle graphics were easy...)
- The battle system is much more complicated due to multiple characters (I'll write about this later)
- The overworld and other sections are more complicated due to multiple characters
- Having multiple main characters is much harder to write especially introducing everyone properly in chapter 1
- The entire town had to be created correctly on the first try to set up properly for the rest of the game

And further things outside of those:
- Trouble starting tasks/concentrating and general difficulty paying attention
- Travelling / other responsibilities like translation/ports
- Self-doubt / burnout regarding the creation of the game

Essentially it's not possible to make this game as one person (and Temmie).

However, it MIGHT be possible to create the game if I'm able to make a team.

So I'm going to try making a team. Because I really want to make this. But I may not be able to succeed because I have no experience successfully directing a team and I have no idea who I'm going to work with.

Since I haven't started assembling the team yet I have absolutely no estimation of its completion. It could take up to 999 years depending on the efficiency level.

By the way, I currently plan to release all of the chapters at once after we complete them. I'm not sure how long that will take.

You'll buy all of the chapters at once as one purchase. That'll be the only option. I'm not doing pre-orders because I don't like those. It just seems like the best way not to burn anybody.

Price is unknown. It depends on how long the game is, and how much it costs to make...

I don't know anything about what consoles, etc. it'll come out for because by the time it comes out we might be on Playstation 14 or something.

So... in short, I have no idea.


4. "Is this the game's final design? Will you change anything?"

It's possible I could change things. This is basically a demo. I might even change this first chapter before release depending on how development goes.

This is really an excuse to talk about the parts I think had issues.

THE BATTLE SYSTEM:

I think the battle system could be explained better.

I had a super duper long explanation of things here but really it boils down to:
1. UT's system is incompatible with multiple party members but I wanted to do it anyway because it's cool
2. I'd like to make it so for pacifist players, characters won't have to "defend" so much

Oh. The people who tested the game thought that the TP system and animations were cool so it's not all bad.
By the way, did you notice that getting close to bullets makes enemy attacks end faster? It doesn't work for every attack, but...


EVERYTHING ELSE:

I thought everything else was OK. Actually some parts were kind of lazy, like finding the key pieces, but oh well.

The UI had some things that could be changed too.

When making a game, there's so much to do you have to draw the line somewhere. That's why I need other people to help me (laugh)

Oh, and I have no plans to add more content to the first chapter.



5. "Will there be multiple endings?"

No. No matter what you do the ending will be the same.

(Honestly most games are like that, but for some reason it feels really oppressive to say here...)

I think that's part of the reason why the ACT / FIGHT system feels so vestigial in this one.

Oh... I'm just talking about the battle system again...



6. "I found some kind of bug, will you fix it?"

Hopefully an e-mail for that exists on the website by now.

Or, it would be better if you could tweet it with #deltarunebug .

That would really help us and make our lives easier because tweets are easier to ignore than e-mails


7. "Can I be on the team?"

I'll ask you first!!! (Total silence)


8. "What's the progress on the rest of the game so far?"

0%!!! Nothing!!! I've done nothing!!!

I mean, I've done some songs and written the whole story, but...

Since no programming or final art has been done, it's best to just think of it at 0%.


9. "Will you do a Kickstarter?"

I still haven't finished that damn Alarm Clock, are you kidding me?

There's no way I'm doing a Kickstarter this time.



10. "The game doesn't work" / "I don't like the game" / "Will there be a version for (platform)?"

Because it's a free download I'm surrounded by a forcefield that destroys all complaints and platform requests.

There might be more platforms for the DEMO but I don't want to make any promises.

(At the very least it'd be nice to do something for the people who bought the game on console.)

By the way at the time of writing I haven't even rendered a Mac version whatsoever at all.

I hope I can release it... (laugh)



11. "Can I buy the soundtrack for Chapter 1?"

Yes! You can buy it at [ http://tobyfox.bandcamp.com ] And other forms of distribution will be in the works too.

I'm writing this in the past so I don't know what I just said.



12. "Any closing remarks?" (No one asks this, but...)

Thanks for playing my game. I hope you liked it.

For the past 3 years I've been waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep because I've been thinking about the scenes that happen in the game.

Even though so many details are still hazy,

I really want to show you the things I've been thinking about.

That's really my only reason for making this game.

If I don't show you what I'm thinking, I'll lose my mind.

(It was actually a totally selfish motivation...)


By the way, I was really worried at first about making this.

The expectations for my next work would be really high, so high that I knew that no matter what I did, I felt like people would be underwhelmed.

If you played "UNDERTALE," I don't think I can make anything that makes you feel "that way" again.

However, it's possible I can make something else.

It's just something simple but maybe you'll like it.

See you in ?? years... OK?

Don't forget.

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