"You kill a lot of random monsters (sometimes
even humans) in every RPG and the consequences
for this are never addressed.
What if they were?"
This is the question that sparked the idea
for the indie game Undertale, an RPG made
by Toby Fox, who did all the writing, programming,
music and some of the art for the game.
The rest of the artwork is done by one of
his friends Temmie Chang and a few other artists
that are credited on the Kickstarter campaign
for Undertale.
Toby deliberately wanted to keep the team
as small as possible as he believes the bigger
a development team gets, the more diluted
the game becomes.
One of Undertale’s biggest influences goes
back to when Toby was only four years old,
which is when he started playing Earthbound
on the Super Nintendo and this early gaming
experience had a lasting impression on him.
“I was so young that it helped me learn
to read, and also transformed my brain forever.”
Seven years later, Toby discovered the Earthbound
fansite starmen.net and now he finally had
a place to talk and connect with other Earthbound
fans.
A few of his friends from the fansite now
run the Fangamer website, which sells Toby’s
Undertale merchandise.
In the year 2000, Toby and his three brothers
started playing around with the RPG Maker
2000 tool to make role playing games.
He said they barely finished any of them and
none of them were ever released on the internet.
When he was in high school, Toby created quite
a few Earthbound ROM hacks as well and the
most notable one is the Halloween hack that
he released in 2008 on the starmen website.
Besides keeping his love for Earthbound alive
during high school, Toby also started playing
the piano and trumpet, which in turn sparked
his love for composing music.
Fast forward to his time in college, where
Toby started putting together the building
blocks for his first real video game project.
He initially didn’t start with a concrete
idea for either the story or gameplay and
the first piece of inspiration actually came
from Wikipedia.
“One day, I randomly read about arrays,
and realised I could program a text system
using them.
So I decided to make a battle system using
that text system, which in turn gave me many
ideas for a game.
Then I decided to make a demo of that game
– to see if people liked it, and if it was
humanly possible to create.”
This combat system was also further inspired
by Shin Megami Tensei, where the player can
talk to demon enemies in order to recruit
them.
"It always interested me that you could talk
to monsters to avoid conflicts, but the conversations
were often kind of repetitive, and if you
screwed them up, fighting became your only
option.
I wanted to create a system that satisfied
my urge for talking to monsters."
Toby felt that it was important to make every
monster feel like an individual.
He further said that basically all monsters
in RPGs like Final Fantasy are the same, besides
the actual designs of the enemies.
“They attack you, you heal, you attack them,
they die.
There's no meaning to that.”
Toby’s experimental text-based combat system
was made in GameMaker 8 and the developer
would use an upgraded version of this engine
called GameMaker Studio, and later GameMaker
Studio 2, for the rest of Undertale’s development.
However, Toby also used GameMaker 8 to create
a demo for Undertale.
As for Undertale’s core concept, Toby wanted
to make an RPG but he wanted it to be different
from all the games he grew up with.
“I wanted to make an RPG game where you
could befriend all of the bosses; where not
killing everything, is actually a viable option.
If you think about it, most RPGs are endless
murder-fests… how many monsters do you kill?
And to what end?
Everything sort of naturally arose from that
concept.”
Now that he had settled on an engine and had
a core concept for the game, it was time to
start sketching characters and craft a story.
During this part of the development process,
his love for the Earthbound series definitely
had an influence on some of the characters
and the writing.
“I can definitely say that I wanted to make
something that had as much emotional power,
humour and wonder as the Mother games, while
not necessarily taking the same paths to achieve
it.
Also, the main character is a kid wearing
a striped shirt... that’s probably too obvious.”
Although Toby looked to the Mother series
as a main source of inspiration, Undertale
ended up becoming something very different
compared to most RPGs and that was no accident.
Toby wanted to challenge conventional RPG
mechanics and tropes and fully embrace the
video game medium.
He said he’s very tired of traditional JRPGs
and wanted to see one that’s not boring
to play.
One that has interesting characters and utilizes
the medium as a storytelling device as much
as possible, instead of having the story and
gameplay abstractions be completely separate.
An example of this is the character Toriel,
who serves as a sort of guide for the player
during the first moments of the game.
Make no mistake though, Toby deliberately
depicted Toriel as an overprotective mother
to poke fun at tutorial levels found in many
modern games.
However, Toby also gave Toriel a more important
role, since he feels that mother characters
in games have seen a decline.
“There really aren’t enough mother characters
in RPG games.
In Pokemon, MOTHER, MOTHER 2, there’s this
trope of having mothers be there only to say
goodbye to their ten-year-old kid as they
go out into the world.
They’re basically just symbols rather than
characters.
Even MOTHER 3’s mother character, Hinawa,
doesn’t really show up very much in the
scheme of things.
So here is Toriel, a mom that hopefully acts
like a mom.
She won’t let you explore a dangerous world
by yourself because she genuinely cares about
your well-being.”
As previously mentioned, most of the art was
done by Toby and Temmie Chang.
While Toby had final say over all the artwork,
Temmie is credited as the logo designer, cutscene
artist, overworld artist, animator, shop artist,
and tile artist.
Furthermore, she’s also responsible for
the conception of a couple of the characters:
Loox, Vegetoid, Papyrus, Lesser Dog, Greater
Dog, Undyne and Aaron.
Both developers have visual representation
of themselves in the game, with the Annoying
Dog representing Toby and the monster called
Temmie representing Temmie Chang.
All the art was done in Microsoft Paint and
GraphicsGale.
The retro pixel art made it easier for Toby
to contribute his own designs, but that’s
not the only reason pixel art was used.
“Even if I had a team of 100 artists, I
probably wouldn’t want it to look any different.
Visual gags usually benefit from funny, expressive
drawings.”
One of the creepier characters, Flowey, has
a voiceline in the game.
This voice clip actually comes from a McDonalds
commercial that was made in the sixties.
Ronald McDonald can be heard saying the line
to a group of children.
Obviously Toby adjusted the clip to make it
sound more disturbing.
When it came to the storyline and writing,
Toby once again drew inspiration from the
unsettling world of Earthbound, as well as
more silly things like internet culture and
funny shows like Mr. Bean.
The idea of being trapped in an underground
world was partially influenced by the game
Brandish.
The developer struggled with the parts of
writing that aren’t text but once he had
established a character’s voice and mood,
writing scenes became easier.
As stated earlier, Toby already made a combat
system of sorts before anything else, but
it would take up a lot more time to polish
and refine his unique take on turn based battles.
While expanding this battle system, Toby took
inspiration from the Mario & Luigi RPG games
and bullet hell shooters like Touhou Project.
It might seem strange at first to combine
a turn based combat system with real time
shooter elements, but Toby explained that
he wanted to do something different than he
was already familiar with.
He also said that bullets offer more variety
in movement than simple button presses.
Even though the combat is inspired by the
bullet hell genre, Toby didn’t want it to
become as difficult as those games so that
more people would be willing to play and enjoy
Undertale.
He managed to accomplish this by using fewer
and larger projectiles and he would keep iterating
on his bullet patterns until Toby thought
they were tough but fair.
Furthermore, he let some of his friends, who
did not have much or any experience with bullet
hell shooters, test out the combat and saw
that they were able to complete it without
too much effort.
All of this combined convinced Toby that the
game’s difficulty was just right.
During development, it was very important
to him to make a game that he would personally
enjoy playing and not necessarily create something
with mainstream appeal.
That’s why there’s no fetch quests or
backtracking present in Undertale for example,
since Toby personally dislikes those tropes
in video games.
A trope that Toby is a fan of is the silent
protagonist trope.
“The character doesn’t say very much because
then you can identify with them better.
Most of the game’s narration is in the second
person.
The more details and personality I add to
‘you’, then the harder it is to get absorbed
into the role.”
Players in Undertale have the choice to either
spare or kill the monsters they encounter
and this mechanic was established before Toby
wrote any of the story.
While the solo developer wanted to keep Undertale
fairly easy to complete, he did make a conscious
decision to make it harder to befriend enemies
and bosses than to slay them in battle.
“In games, I noticed that the ‘good path’
was sometimes the easiest one, but if you
do things without effort, then it doesn’t
feel meaningful.”
Being a musician, Toby didn’t have to think
twice about composing the soundtrack for Undertale
himself.
He even went so far as to give all the main
characters their own theme song.
Most of these theme songs were created specifically
for each character, except for the ones for
the brothers Sans and Papyrus.
Sans’ theme song Megalovania was composed
by Toby back in 2008 for the aforementioned
Halloween Earthbound ROM hack.
Papyrus’ theme song Bonetrousle was actually
composed for another game that Toby had worked
on but that game never saw a release.
The entire Undertale soundtrack was made in
FL Studio.
According to Toby, he was able to compose
most of the tracks without much iteration,
except for the game’s main theme, which
went through multiple iterations.
When working on the soundtrack, Toby said
that he tried to be inspired by all the music
he listens to but he was particularly inspired
by the music from SNES role-playing games.
Additionally, a webcomic called Homestuck,
which Toby had produced music for, also influenced
Undertale’s music.
The developer created the music before he
would start programming, as it would help
him decide how a scene should unfold.
The official soundtrack would be released
by video game music label Materia Collective
on the same day as the game’s release.
In June 2013 Toby launched a Kickstarter campaign
for Undertale in the hopes to receive some
funding to finish his vision for the unconventional
RPG.
The funding goal was set to a very reasonable
sum of $5,000 and by the end of the campaign,
Toby received more than ten times the amount
he had initially asked for.
In addition to promising an RPG where no one
has to get hurt, Toby also provided a demo
on the Kickstarter page that anyone could
download and try.
Several of the available Kickstarter tiers
provided a way for backers to create their
own characters and enemies that would be added
to the game.
Toby decided to buy three of these designs
and they became Glyde, Muffet, and So Sorry.
Some people on the internet had suggested
that Undertale was supposed to be a very short
indie game but Toby said otherwise.
“I was just unsure if it was humanly possible
to create it before making the demo.
The reason it was bigger than expected is
because my expectations of the areas, battles
and so on increased a lot after making the
demo.”
The Kickstarter page also provided an estimated
release date of summer 2014 but Toby had to
eventually delay the game to September 15th
2015, when it was released for Microsoft Windows
and MacOS.
When people got their hands on Undertale they
became fascinated with its characters and
the many secrets it holds, not to mention
the meta nature of the game, which added a
whole other level to the many discussions
people were having on the internet.
People desperately wanted to talk about this
strange new RPG and how their experience differentiated
from others.
Because of this, the game quickly achieved
a sort of cult status among gamers.
Add a lot of very positive reviews to the
mix and you have a recipe for a successful
indie game story.
Before the end of 2015, Undertale managed
to sell over 500,000 copies on Steam and not
long after, in February 2016, the game had
sold over one million copies.
After the initial release, Toby kept working
on the game and released an update in January
2016 which fixed several bugs and helped make
the game more playable for colorblind people,
by changing the appearance of blue attacks
to a darker hue.
During E3 2017, Sony had the honour of announcing
that Undertale would not only be receiving
a port on PS4 and PS Vita but also a Japanese
localization plus a retail version provided
by Fangamer.
They sold both a standard and collector’s
edition and are still available to buy today.
During a Nintendo Direct in March 2018, a
Nintendo Switch version was announced, although
no further details were given at the time.
Prior to its reveal, it was impossible for
developers to directly export games made in
GameMaker Studio to the Switch.
However, shortly after the Nintendo Direct,
it was revealed that a deal was struck between
Nintendo and software development company
YoYo Games that would make it possible to
export GameMaker Studio games directly to
the Nintendo Switch.
Undertale on the Switch was eventually released
on September 15th, 2018 in Japan and worldwide
on September 18th, 2018.
All the console ports were developed and published
by Japanese localizer 8-4.
Many critics praised the game for its innovative
mechanics and progressive thinking, while
also complementing its unique characters and
clever writing.
As a result, Undertale appeared on several
end of the year lists in 2015 and even came
out on top as Game of the year for PC from
news outlets and critics such as IGN, Zero
Punctuation and Jim Sterling.
TotalBiscuit even gave Undertale the number
one spot in his Top Ten Games of 2015 video.
The game was also nominated for a bunch of
awards and was able to snatch up a few, like
the Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game award
handed out by the South By Southwest Gaming
Awards Event in 2016.
The success and popularity of Undertale was
undeniable at this point, but Toby had mixed
feelings about all the attention his game
was receiving.
“Not only did I not expect this level of
popularity, but initially, I was afraid of
it.
I didn’t want UNDERTALE to become tiring
for people, or become spoiled before anyone
even got a chance to play it.
Early on (this was probably excessive) I even
tried to contact certain Let’s Players to
tell them not to make any content about it.
Like a thunderclap to a small dog, all of
this attention stressed me out.
At times, I wished I had a way to quell the
attention.
I felt a strange powerlessness.
(And guilt, for feeling stressed when the
success of the game SHOULD be something I’m
nothing but ecstatic about.)”
He further said that ultimately he’s very
thankful that the game became as popular as
it did since it helped him on a personal level
and put him in a position to help other people
as well.
Toby personally attributes Undertale’s success
to the many risks it took and how different
it is compared to more conventional RPGs.
“It takes influence from many strange sources,
the graphics look bad in places, the gameplay
is very simple.
Most of all, the game’s humour and surprise
is derived from the fact that it defies the
expected conventions of normal RPGs.
That’s the most interesting part to me,
that even without understanding of the genre’s
conventions, the game still resonates with
people – kids included.
That’s very cool.”
Luckily for Undertale fans, all the attention
hasn’t stopped Toby from continuing his
career as a game developer.
On October 31st, 2018 the first chapter of
Toby’s next project called Deltarune was
released for Windows and MacOS and was made
available for free.
It was ported to Nintendo Switch and PS4 as
well in 2019 and these versions were developed
and published by 8-4.
Gamers quickly noticed that Deltarune was
an anagram of Undertale.
However, according to Toby, Deltarune is not
a direct sequel to Undertale, nor does it
even take place in the same world.
“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.
To rephrase that, Deltarune's world is a different
one.
With different characters, that have lived
different lives.
A whole new story will happen…”
The first chapter is between 2 to 3 hours
long and serves more as a demo to gauge people’s
interest and see how Toby can take the project
further.
Despite its short length, the first chapter
of Deltarune took a few years to create.
Toby explained that this is in part because
of Deltarune’s more complicated graphics
and overworld, implementation of multiple
main characters and the fact that Toby had
to create the entire town correctly on the
first try so he could set up the rest of the
game properly.
Furthermore, there were a couple of factors
that were outside of his control.
After Undertale’s release, Toby had difficulty
concentrating on other tasks and he even started
to doubt himself and his capabilities as a
developer.
Toby further described it as a burnout.
Additionally, the developer even admitted
that it would be impossible to finish the
game between him and Temmie Chang since it’s
a much larger project than Undertale was.
Alternatively, he added that it might be possible
to complete Deltarune if he can assemble a
team.
Toby said that he’s going to try his best
to accomplish this but even with an entire
team, he’s still uncertain when Deltarune
will be released or if it will even ever see
the light of day.
However, according to his recent tweets, it
seems like Deltarune is making good progress.
Nevertheless, if Deltarune gets released,
it will be a fully complete game, with all
the chapters bundled together.
One interesting detail that Toby shared is
that Deltarune will only have one possible
ending, as opposed to the dozens of endings
that can be unlocked in Undertale.
Toby realizes that expectations for his next
project are really high and that he’s never
going to be able to make something like Undertale
again.
“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.”
Ultimately, Toby is just happy that Undertale
resonated with gamers and is being enjoyed
around the world.
He hopes that his game might inspire other
aspiring developers.
“I hope someday a kid who liked Undertale
grows up and makes an amazing game.
I would be happy to play that.”
