Toby Fox says the "smart" way to make games is reusing what you can, but the way he makes Deltarune is "stupid": "Everything in the game is simply a container for a never-before-seen gimmick"

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"The method that I have chosen is not very efficient for development"

Deltarune screenshot of the purple cat shopkeeper Seam, who has a button over one of their eyes.
(Image credit: Toby Fox)

If Toby Fox thinks his way of making games is pretty inefficient, that probably shouldn't be a big surprise given how many years it's taken to get a little over half of Deltarune into players' hands. Fox jokes that his way of making games is "stupid," but he equally knows that it's also what's given them a unique charm to attract massive fanbases going back to Undertale.

Approached for an interview by Game Informer (paid article link), Fox was apparently hesitant in part because of that self-described "stupid" way of making games. Once he actually agreed to the interview, though, he quickly softened that stance. "I don’t actually think [the way I make games is] stupid, at least in a totally bad way. Clearly many people are pleased with the result," Fox says.

But that ain't how Fox's games work. "In Deltarune, we can’t rely on just tweaking numbers. Everything in the game is simply a container for a never-before-seen gimmick," he continues.

"Every enemy has new bullet patterns, new [actions], every area has new puzzles, etc. I don’t necessarily think this is a good or bad thing, after all Final Fantasies are some of my favorite RPGs... but the method that I have chosen is not very efficient for development."

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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