The developer of Undertale has released a ‘Status Update’ documenting progress on the game’s sequel, Deltarune. In a recent blog post, Toby Fox discussed the progress that they’ve made since the first chapter of the game was revealed in October 2018.
Fox says that since the release of Chapter 1, they’ve been “working hard to figure out the rest of the game,” but that “it’s a game that’s much harder to make than Undertale.” More content, better graphics, and more complex systems mean that Fox’s development expertise is stretched pretty thin. Whereas a game like this might normally have a staff of half a dozen or so, Fox is currently doing everything themselves.
Fortunately, Fox says they “completed a significant milestone” a couple of months ago, meaning that “the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.” Overall, however, there’s still a lot of work to do, and while big chunks of development are complete, “the truth is that what’s there is quite rough [and] polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done.”
To ensure that we don’t have to wait another two years for our next Undertale-related hit, however, Fox says that they’re considering bringing in more developers. There’s no guarantee that they’ll ask for help, but they do say that “part of me wonders if we could make the game faster if we increased the size of the team.”
Either way, Fox thinks that once Deltarune’s second chapter is finished, the rest of the development process will speed up significantly, which is good news for Undertale fans, and a nice way to mark the game’s fifth anniversary.
