Chapter 2 Development

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Deltarune.

To do: The Chapter 2 development team interview includes early assets from Chapter 2's development; make note of these and their differences from the released chapter. Likely more information from the developers that should be here.

Early Music#

printer_noise.mp3#

Very simple 5 second loop of printer noises and a backbeat, meant for an unused character called Printor, who was scrapped as Toby felt there were too many NPCs already. A simillar sound is used in Chapter 5 labeled silly_printer.ogg.

Power of NEO (Unfinished)#

"After creating UNDERTALE, one of my goals for DELTARUNE was for players to finally be able to challenge a "real" version of Mettaton NEO that didn't just end in one turn. For that purpose, I actually created a few music mockups for an extended version of Power of NEO.

There's even another one from 2016 (lol)

… Unfortunately, try I might, I could never create a full-length version of the song that I was satisfied with. Eventually, the boss concept evolved to involve Spamton, and with that, the music changed as well.

I still like the last half of the song. The guitar section was inspired by Brandish's song "Ending 2". All of it is pretty placeholder though.

It's still fun to imagine fighting something to this... Though, if I was given another opportunity to extend POWER OF NEO, I would probably do something different." - Toby Fox

Power of SPAMTON (Older) and Power of SPAMTON#

"Unfinished tracks. The drums are especially placeholder.

Once Spamton's presence in the NEO battle became solidified, I realized the original track wouldn't fit anymore. So, I tried to work in some more sinister and creepy feelings... That idea became this.

The two tracks are nearly identical, but the "newer" version has different drums and more elements of Spamton's theme in the intro. (It's also even more unfinished...)" - Toby Fox

From 1:09 onwards in both versions, the song structure is almost identical to "THE WORLD REVOLVING", complete with the more prominent usage of that song's leitmotif, followed by an instance of the "Don't Forget" leitmotif before looping. "BIG SHOT" would later downplay the usage of "THE WORLD REVOLVING"'s leitmotif, while completely removing the "Don't Forget" leitmotif.

Spamton Battle (Forgotten)#

"Apparently this was the first concept I came up with for Spamton's battle theme. To be honest, I have absolutely no memory of this. When I found it in my files I was quite surprised. (Maybe Spamton made it himself...)

By the way, originally I was planning to have Spamton's intro song, "HEY EVERY !", also be his shop theme. It was planned that it would slowly drop in pitch the longer you stayed in the shop until it was unrecognizable. But, that ultimately did not match the tone of the dialogue, so I ended up using Dialtone for that." - Toby Fox

Giga Queen (Old)#

"The song that plays when Giga Queen first appears is actually…

A slowed down version of the original battle song I had created for her!!!

Though the instruments are placeholder, I actually think this song isn't half bad. Just, it didn't really sound much like a boxing match. After I created the Thrash Machine power up sequence beforehand, I decided to instead make a song based on that." - Toby Fox

Castle Town (Unfinished)#

"Originally I wanted the Castle Town to sound very upbeat, but something about it reminded me of like… That one Gotye song.

The melody of the initial parts ended up a bit too repetitive for me. I really like how the song sounds from 0:45.

The song is completely unfinished past 1:27." - Toby Fox

Epic Rouxls Battle (Old)#

Originally revealed in the Undertale 6th Anniversary Livestream, this is what Toby had to say then:

"I started to come up with an epic song for when you first battled Rouxls. After starting the song though, I realized... He's not very epic at all. Feels like if he had a song like this, you'd actually be able to defeat him in one hit. So, I didn't do anything with this one." - Toby Fox

However, in the September 2024 newsletter, he revealed the following:

"I actually showed this one before. But the truth is that I had made it for Chapter 2 and not Chapter 1. The song was way too serious though, so I had to make a goofier battle theme later." - Toby Fox

Queen Battle (Original)#

"I think this is my favorite of the unfinished tracks... At least, it's the one I listened to the most when I was working on the game.

Back when Queen looked more intimidating, I wanted to use this as her boss theme. Personally I still really like it, and I even wanted to try to use it for Berdly's battle instead... but the issue was that it just didn't match either of the theme melodies I had already created for those characters.

Bizarrely, I seem to have made this after already making her theme song, as an early version of her theme song is inside of the project file.

1:30 onward (piano only) is totally unfinished." - Toby Fox

September 2019 Status Updates#

On Undertale's 4th Anniversary, Toby teased a good number of things from Chapter 2 on his Twitter such the Annoying Dog's car animation from Chapter 2, concept art of Wide Susie and some videos.

Game Status#

Toby would discuss the chapter's status in a few tweets.

I want to share some small things from DR but I want to do another small progress update first. The design of the actual game and the specifics of what happen are going really well. I have a lot of confidence in the game that is currently written in my notes. At least, I think people that enjoy the things that I make, will enjoy it. That's all I'm ever aiming for.

There are other aspects that are facing some hurdles, but they'll definitely get overcome. Trust me when I say that, although I want to take my time making an excellent game, I also want to get the game into peoples' hands as quickly as possible. Seriously.

Videos#

Thís video features a mockup of Cyber City with an early version of Welcome To The City. This version is at 160 BPM, while the final game slows it down to 152 BPM. This was likely done so the music doesn't loop as much. The teased Welcome to The City music is also still in the final game, under cybercity_old.ogg. The mockup features a room design not seen in the final game, and the Annoying Dog in a toy car, which would end up as an Easter egg in the final game. A silhouette of Queen is also seen, which most likely means her design was finalized by September 2019.

Toby also jokingly stated "the City is extremely small." in a reply to the same tweet. While this might suggest that the city was meant to be shorter earlier in development, it's more likely to be a joke about how the entire Dark World (and the City in addition) is contained in a tiny computer room in the final game.

2019 Mockup	Final Sprite

Interestingly, Kris's standing sprite also looks different in this mockup than the sprite in the final Chapter 2 (which is carried over from Chapter 1). The cape around their shoulder has a greater amount of blue shading on it, their hair and their leg are drawn differently, and their arm is tilted slightly further forward compared to the final. (For the video of Cyber City mockup, you can see there's a stray brown pixel, likely just a coloring error.)

Two videos posted on September 15th featuring two versions of Lost Girl. The first version (shown left) is used in the game, while the second version (shown right) so far hasn't been.

Of note in the first video is the fact that Noelle's legs, hands, ears and antlers are using her Light World palette rather than her Dark World one. Susie's talk sprites also feature differences, mostly in the hair.

2019 Mockup	Final Sprite

September 2020 Status Update#

To do: Add anything else of note from the update.

On September 15th, Toby would release a fairly lengthy update about the status of Deltarune for the 5th anniversary of Undertale.

Screenshots#

Some screenshots of Chapter 2 were provided, some of which have a couple of differences from the current release version.

September 2020 Build	Chapter 1&2 Demo Onwards

Likely to avoid spoiling Rouxls Kaard's appearance as an item, his item name and sprite have been censored. It is almost certain that he was still there in that build however, as there are a few pixels still left over from where his sprite once was on the far right side of the box. Kris and Susie also still have their HP from Chapter 1 and not the higher amount of HP you start with in Chapter 2, and the edges of the room were made a bit rounder in the current release.

September 2020 Build	Chapter 1&2 Demo Onwards

The tileset of the Cyber City in this room is pretty basic at this point. The street crossing is much wider as well. The information sign and the City Werewire are absent.

Completion Estimates#

Toby would also provide some estimates about the completion of the chapters in the post. The following is Toby's own words.

CHAPTER 2 (04.15.20 - 08.13.20) Phase 1: Design
Main Design 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)
Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren't programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing
Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what's there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done...? We'll see what happens. It'll be a lesson for everybody.)

PROGRESS CHAPTERS 3+
Phase 1: Design
Story and General Game Progression (First-pass) 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (First-pass, lacking cutscene instructions) 95%

Map Design (textual) 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn) 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don't do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual) 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets/visual) 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (Concept) 95%

Music (Completed) 50%

Visual Design:

BG concept (First-pass) 75%

Important Character, Bosses (First-pass) 100%

Phase 2
Sprite Art 20%?

Other Content Creation 0%

Phase 3
Release Readiness 0%

(These numbers can be somewhat deceptive though. My true design style is to reach the moment where we have to make something, then suddenly think of something different at the last minute. This is always how it's been with me and my work. It feels like no matter how much I plan, everything comes down to what I think of at the last second…)

Miscellaneous/Closing Notes#

Toby would reveal that he now had a team working on the game. he would also reveal that he has chronic pain in his hand and wrist, of which a sudden flareup in the latter had impacted development. Toby concludes the post feeling optimistic about the future of the game's development.

Toby later would add a small update on September 16th to the post, revealing that he had received thousands of applications and thanking everyone for applying.

November 2020 Test Builds#

To do: Could use some tweaking and polishing

After there was a call for more developers to join the Deltarune team that would help work on Chapter 2 and future chapters in the September 2020 Status Update, a few new members were accepted and joined the team, one of them being Fred Wood. He was tasked with handling all the Maus interactions besides the battles. In November 2020, he was working on the Maus bridge puzzle that comes from the acid river portion of the Queen's mansion, and on May 21, 2022, he decided to showcase one of his many recordings he did while working on Chapter 2, one of which was a very preliminary version of the Maus bridge puzzle he worked on.

At the time it appears there was no tileset for the acid river section of the Queen's mansion yet, and so there is only simple placeholder tiles instead. The sprites for the Maus themselves were different, the sprites for the houses were also different (3 sprites shown of which resemble a tent, a small city, and a blue house surrounded by trees), the sound effects were also placeholders, and it seems you originally had to get the Maus to the cheese instead of filling up two uncolored houses. Also, the puzzle would start each time you switched a house, instead of you having to use a traffic light to release the rodents. There's a blue bar in the top right of the screen that may seem random, but it actually lines up with the placement of the current room's name when the 8-4 Debug Menu is active, though the reason it was censored out of this recording is unclear.

Chapter 2 Development Team Interview#

An interview with the Chapter 2 development team was included as part of the Halloween 2023 Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter, in which some early footage and mockups were included.

Characters#

Susie#

Chess created the Dark World sprites for Susie, along with Kris as the first thing she worked for Deltarune. Based on the interview alone, Toby Fox requested her to draw a base sprite for Temmie.

The process began with an initial attempt, where Chess drew Susie's hair tucked into her vest, although the color palettes were noticeably different from the final.

Berdly#

Mockup	Final

During the development of Chapter 2, Chess designed the Dark World form of Berdly, stating that a "More Powerful Form" can be used. However, Temmie realized the initial design of Berdly has too much details to animate.

Cyber City Mockup#

A mockup of a room in Cyber City, appearing to be a halfway point between the final version and an earlier version left in the files. This rendition contains some insights into the process of creating these rooms. Various sprites from Chapter 1 are used as character placeholders: Kris is obvious, while Ruddin and Jigsaw Joe respectively stand in for enemies and neutral NPCs. The latter role would be filled in by the Addisons in the final version of Cyber City. There are also various MS Paint lines and annotations used to denote things like invisible boundaries that enemies can't move behind, traffic cones, doors, and a spawn point for a "Viroviro that appears once" (presumably the Virovirokun used to teach Noelle about the game's battle system).

Giga Queen Mockups#

When asked who their favorite character to make things for was, Chess stated that she liked making content for Queen, and provided two GIFs of Giga Queen progress. The first one is a mockup of the battle with her. Besides the basic graphics that were made for the background, one of the big differences between this mockup and the current release are that the UI for the health bars weren't used here. The second one is a test for her hand slam frames, notably using an earlier design for her close-up sprites that features her nose, with Queen being more to the left than in the center as a result.

Early Battle Gifs#

Two gifs showing early versions of the Queen and Spamton NEO battles were included.

Queen#

A gif of the unused birthday attack, which was made to submit as a joke bug report for Toby Fox's birthday. The battle appears to be unfinished, as Berdly isn't present, Queen uses "I'm Computer" as a placeholder line, and the battle seems to be taking place in the battle test room.

Spamton NEO#

A GIF showcasing an early iteration of Spamton NEO's Pipis attack, in which Pipis will hit a moving platform and spawn small Spamton heads that fly at the player. Notably, the top right shows the current room and the current value of global.plot and global.encounterno, implying that an updated version of the 8-4 debug menu is being used. This also reveals that the battle is taking place in the battle test room.

The code for the early attack showcased here still exists inside of the code of obj_pipis_controller, the object that handles Spamton NEO's Pipis Cannon attacks. The sprites for the tan-colored Pipis however, are not present in Chapter 2's files.

Additionally, the Pipis graphics shown in this GIF actually appear to be sprite edits of Birdo's egg projectiles from Super Mario All Stars, which implies that the finalized sprites for the Pipis were built off of those. The original un-edited sprite from All Stars can even be seen for a few frames when the first Pipis bullet spawns in, before immediately switching to the edited sprite.