Undertale facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Undertale
Developer(s)	Toby Fox
Publisher(s)	Toby Fox 8-4
Designer(s)	Toby Fox
Artist(s)	Temmie Chang
Composer(s)	Toby Fox
Engine	GameMaker Studio
Platform(s)	OS X Windows Linux PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Nintendo Switch Xbox One
Release date(s)	September 15, 2015 OS X, Windows September 15, 2015 Linux July 17, 2016 PS4, PS Vita August 15, 2017 Nintendo Switch September 18, 2018 Xbox One March 16, 2021
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magical barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface, although some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Outside of artwork and character designs by Temmie Chang and other guest designers, Fox developed the entirety of the game by himself, including the script and music. The game took inspiration from several sources, including the Brandish, Mario & Luigi, and Mother role-playing game series, bullet hell shooter series Touhou Project, role-playing game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, and British comedy show Mr. Bean. Undertale was originally meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014, but experienced delays.

The game was released for Windows and OS X in September 2015. It was also ported to Linux in July 2016, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in August 2017, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and Xbox One in March 2021. The game was acclaimed for its thematic material, intuitive combat system, musical score, originality, story, dialogue, and characters. The game has sold at least five million copies and was nominated for multiple accolades and awards. Several gaming publications and conventions listed Undertale as game of the year, and others have since listed it as one of the greatest video games ever made. Two chapters of a related game, Deltarune, were released in 2018 and 2021.

Development

Undertale was developed by Toby Fox across 32 months. Development was financed through a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter. The campaign was launched on June 25, 2013, with a goal of US$5,000; it ended on July 25, 2013, with US$51,124 raised by 2,398 people. Fox had little experience with game development; he and his three brothers often used RPG Maker 2000 to make role-playing games, though few were ever completed. Fox also worked on several EarthBound ROM hacks while in high school. Before the release of Undertale, he was best known for composing music for the webcomic Homestuck, starting in 2010. Undertale was the first full game that he wrote.

According to Fox, he was casually reading Wikipedia in December 2012 when he found its article for array data structures, something Fox didn't have knowledge of. After reading the page, he thought about how he could use it to create a text system for an RPG. After completing it, he came up with the idea of creating a battle system. This system, which was created using the game creation system GameMaker: Studio, informed how Fox wrote the story, as both are intertwined. He wanted to develop a role-playing game that was different from the traditional design, which he often found "boring to play". He set out to develop a game with "interesting characters", and that "utilizes the medium as a storytelling device ... instead of having the story and gameplay abstractions be completely separate".

Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides some of the art; he decided to work independently to avoid relying on others. Temmie Chang worked as the main artist for the game, providing most of the sprites and concept art. Fox has said that the game's art style would likely remain the same if he had access to a larger team of artists. He found that "there's a psychological thread that says audiences become more attached to characters drawn simply rather than in detail", particularly benefiting from the use of visual gags within the art. Retrospectively, Fox described Undertale as "a huge katamari of things that [he likes] that [he] combined arbitrarily," adding that part of the story "was almost written improvisationally at the last minute".

Game design

The defensive segment within the battle system was inspired by the Mario & Luigi series, as well as bullet hell shooters such as the Touhou Project series. When working on the battle system, Fox set out to create a mechanic that he would personally enjoy. He wanted Undertale to have a battle system equally engaging as Super Mario RPG (1996) and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003). Fox did not want grinding to be necessary at any point in the game, instead leaving it optional to players. He also did not wish to introduce fetch quests, as they involve backtracking, which he dislikes. In terms of the game's difficulty, Fox ensured that it was easy and enjoyable. He asked some friends who are inexperienced with bullet hell shooters to test the game, and found that they were able to complete it. He felt that the game's difficulty is optimal, particularly considering the complications involved in adding another difficulty setting.

The game's dialogue system was inspired by Shin Megami Tensei (1992), particularly the gameplay mechanic whereby players can talk to monsters to avoid conflict.

Writing

According to Fox, the "idea of being trapped in an underground world" was inspired by the video game Brandish. Fox was partly influenced by the silliness of internet culture, as well as comedy shows like Mr. Bean. He was also inspired by the unsettling atmosphere of EarthBound. Fox's desire to "subvert concepts that go unquestioned in many games" further influenced Undertale's development. Fox found that the writing became easier after establishing a character's voice and mood. He also felt that creating the world was a natural process, as it expressed the stories of those within it. Fox felt the importance to make the game's monsters "feel like an individual". He cited the Final Fantasy series as the opposite; "all monsters in RPGs like Final Fantasy are the same ... there's no meaning to that".

The character of Toriel, who is one of the first to appear in the game, was created as a parody of tutorial characters. Fox strongly disliked the use of the companion character Fi in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, in which the answers to puzzles were often revealed early. Fox also felt that role-playing video games generally lack strong mother characters; in the Pokémon series, as well as Mother and EarthBound, Fox felt that the mothers are used as "symbols rather than characters". In response, Fox intended for Toriel's character to be "a mom that hopefully acts like a mom", and "genuinely cares" about players' actions. Initially, Toriel had to be killed in order to progress the game, but Fox changed it before the release of Undertale's demo.

Papyrus and Sans are named after the typefaces Papyrus and Comic Sans, and their in-game dialogue is displayed accordingly in their respective eponymous fonts. Both characters are listed in the game's credits as being inspired by J.N. Wiedle, author of Helvetica, a webcomic series about a skeleton named after the font of the same name. Papyrus in particular was conceived as a sketch in Fox's notebook; he was originally a mean spirited character named "Times New Roman" who wears a fedora.

Music

The game's soundtrack was entirely composed by Fox with FL Studio. A self-taught musician, he composed most of the tracks with little iteration; the game's main theme, "Undertale", was the only song to undergo multiple iterations in development. The soundtrack was inspired by music from Super NES role-playing games, such as EarthBound, bullet hell series Touhou Project, and the webcomic Homestuck, for which Fox provided some of the music. Fox also stated that he tries to be inspired by all music he listens to, particularly those in video games. According to Fox, over 90% of the songs were composed specifically for the game. "Megalovania", the song used during the boss battle with Sans, had previously been used within Homestuck and in one of Fox's EarthBound ROM hacks. For each section of the game, Fox composed the music prior to programming, as it helped "decide how the scene should go". He initially tried using a music tracker to compose the soundtrack, but found it difficult to use. He ultimately decided to play segments of the music separately, and connect them on a track. To celebrate the first anniversary of the game, Fox released five unused musical works on his blog in 2016. Four of the game's songs were released as official downloadable content for the Steam version of Taito's Groove Coaster.

Undertale's soundtrack has been well received by critics as part of the success of the game, in particular for its use of various leitmotifs for the various characters used throughout various tracks. In particular, "Hopes and Dreams", the boss theme when fighting Asriel in the Pacifist run, brings back most of the main character themes, and is "a perfect way to cap off your journey", according to USgamer's Nadia Oxford. Oxford notes this track in particular demonstrates Fox's ability at "turning old songs into completely new experiences", used throughout the game's soundtrack. Tyler Hicks of GameSpot compared the music to "bit-based melodies".

The Undertale soundtrack has frequently been covered by various styles and groups. As part of the fifth anniversary of the game, Fox streamed footage with permission of a 2019 concert of the Undertale songs performed by Music Engine, an orchestra group in Japan, with support of Fangamer and 8-4.

Release

Undertale's first demo was released on May 23, 2013, which at the time was said to account for about 25 percent of the full game. It had an initial release timeframe of Summer 2014. The game was released on September 15, 2015, for OS X and Windows, and on July 17, 2016, for Linux. Fox expressed interest in releasing Undertale on other platforms, but was initially unable to port it to Nintendo platforms without reprogramming the game due to the engine's lack of support for these platforms. A patch was released in January 2016, fixing bugs and altering the appearance of blue attacks to help colorblind players see them better. Sony Interactive Entertainment announced during E3 2017 that Undertale would get a release for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, and a retail version published by Fangamer. These versions were released on August 15, 2017.

A Nintendo Switch version was revealed during a March 2018 Nintendo Direct, though no release date was given at the time; Undertale's release on Switch highlighted a deal made between Nintendo and YoYo Games to allow users of GameMaker Studio 2 to directly export their games to the Switch. The Switch version was released on September 15, 2018, in Japan, and on September 18, 2018, worldwide. The Xbox One version was released on March 16, 2021. As with the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions, the Xbox One version features unique content specific to that platform. All the console ports were developed and published by Japanese localizer 8-4 in all regions.

Fandom

Cosplayers portraying (from left to right) Sans, Undyne, Papyrus, Toriel, Grillby, and Napstablook at Tsunacon in Rotterdam

Undertale quickly developed a cult following. About a year after release, Fox commented that he was surprised by how popular the game had become and though appreciative of the attention, he found it stressful. Fox said: "It wouldn't surprise me if I never made a game as successful again. That's fine with me though".

Accolades

The game appeared on several year-end lists of the best games of 2015, receiving Game of the Month and Funniest Game on PC from Rock Paper Shotgun, Best Game Ever from GameFAQs, and Game of the Year for PC from The Jimquisition, Zero Punctuation, and IGN. It also received Best PC Game from Destructoid, and the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award and Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game from the SXSW Gaming Awards.

Undertale garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its story, narrative and for its role-playing. At IGN's Best of 2015, the game received Best Story. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Undertale for Role-Playing/Massive Multiplayer Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and the D.I.C.E. Sprite Award. Undertale was nominated for the Innovation Award, Best Debut, and Best Narrative at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2016, at the Independent Games Festival the game won the Audience Award, and garnered three nominations for Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Narrative, and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The SXSW Gaming Awards named it the Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game, and awarded it the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award. The same year at the Steam Awards the game received a nomination for the "I'm not crying, there's just something in my eye" award. In 2019, Polygon named the game among the decade's best. In 2021, IGN listed Undertale as the 20th greatest game of all time, while in Japan, a nationwide TV Asahi poll of over 50,000 players listed Undertale as the 13th greatest game of all time.

Deltarune

After previously teasing something Undertale-related a day earlier, Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune on October 31, 2018, for macOS and Windows for free. Deltarune is "not the world of Undertale", according to Fox, though characters and settings may bring some of Undertale's world to mind, and is "intended for people who have completed Undertale"; the name Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale. Fox stated that this release is the first part of a new project, considering it a "survey program" to determine the project's future direction. Fox clarified that Deltarune will be a larger project than Undertale, stating it took him a few years to create the game's first chapter, much longer than it took him to complete the Undertale demo.

Chapter 2 of Deltarune was released on September 17, 2021, after Fox acquired a team to help him with further development. Once all chapters are complete, the game will be released as a complete whole; Fox stated that he does not have an anticipated timetable for completion. Deltarune is planned to have only one ending, regardless of what choices the player makes in the game. Although the first two chapters were released at no cost, Fox plans to charge players for the finished release.

See also

In Spanish: Undertale para niños