Chapter 1 Demo (2018)

This is a sub-page of Proto:Deltarune.

To do: Version differences. Verify that there are no major differences in the PS4 version's unused content compared to the desktop and Switch versions Revisional differences in the recent update to the Switch version. Check for any differences between the original Chapter 1 and the Chapter 1&2 demo.

Undertale 2 A demo for Deltarune, officially named SURVEY_PROGRAM due to the nature of its intro cutscene, was suddenly released for Windows and Mac OS X on Halloween 2018. Boy, it's surely a spooky start to the game.

Notably, the game itself is not revealed until after beating it; only after the end-of-chapter cutscene is it revealed that the game's name is Deltarune and that the preceding content was Chapter 1 of it. Before beating it, the game window's title only displays "Contact", "The Beginning", "The Dark", and "The Return", instead of displaying "Deltarune". The first title, the "SURVEY_PROGRAM" name, and the nature of the deltarune.com website (at the time) intentionally disguise that the program is a game at all. Obviously it's no longer possible to hide the existence of the game itself as a secret anymore.

Switch Build Paths#

Within the Nintendo Switch version's options.ini file are some leftover build paths.

[LLVM-Switch]
SDKDir=C:\Nintendo\SDK-5.4.0\NintendoSDK
UseNEX=False
nMeta=C:\Users\8-4gamer\Desktop\sunkus-switch\DELTARUNE\options\switch\application.nmeta

Differences From Final#

• The Shadow Crystal doesn't yet exist, and as such you don't get one from defeating Jevil.
• Holding C to skip text isn't enabled by default; instead, the player must reach the Dark World within 8 minutes to find an item called the Wrist Protector on the floor above them, which enables this feature. The Wrist Protector was removed from the final game due to text skipping being on automatically.
• Holding X doesn't make the soul move at half-speed in battle.
• There are several differences in menus.
  • The Dark World pause menu is missing many sound effects, mainly for selecting things and backing out of submenus.
  • The TP graphic in the status menu has a stray red pixel in its top left.
  • The "Return to Title" option is instead "End Program", bringing up a unique submenu giving the option to press X to back out or press ESC to close the game.
  • Play time is only counted in minutes and seconds like in Undertale, rather than in hours, minutes, and seconds.
  • Since this demo only features Chapter 1, the Chapter Select doesn't exist and the only options in the main menu are for copying a save file, erasing a save file, and switching the language.
• Some of Noelle's graphics are a bit rougher in this demo. These would be updated in the Chapter 1&2 Demo.
  • Noelle's side sprites are different, featuring longer teeth, a flatter face, her tail being absent from her side sprites and a bigger smile. Her walking sprites are also two frames as opposed to four, looking very rough in comparison to the final.
  • Noelle's dialogue portraits are also different, featuring a longer face and a slightly different hair style. These early talk sprites are still left in the paid release.

SURVEY_PROGRAM
Final

• AUDIO_INTRONOISE.ogg (the sound played when the game's logo appears) is in mono in the Chapter 1 demo, but was re-rendered in stereo for all later releases.
• Save files store raw GameMaker room IDs instead of using a list explicitly defined by the developers. As a result, saves made in the later Chapter 1 & 2 demo and the full version are incompatible with this demo.
• Dogcheck has entirely different logic: as there is no explicit room list, it instead just disallows room IDs outside the range 1-130. This makes PLACE_CONTACT a valid save room in the demo (whereas it is invalid in the full version), and makes room_empty and room_man invalid save rooms in the demo (whereas they are valid in the full version).

Debug Mode#

This demo features a debug mode that was largely removed from the full release.

Download .bps patch for enabling Debug Mode File: DELTARUNE_debug_mode_bps_patch.zip (238 B) (info)

Patch this .bps into your data.win or use a hex editor and edit the following locations in data.win.

• 3E8144 and 3E8138: Set to 01. Enables debug mode.
• 3E8568: Set to 00. Disables the "dogcheck", allowing you to enter rooms above 130 via save file editing.
• 404450, 404468, 51DAA8, 52436C, 524370: Set to 1800, 1801, 94, 00, and FFFFFFFF respectively. Fixes the crash when warping into room_flowershop_2f.
• 46C04C: Set to 0000. Enables the kingcutscene debug display.
• 480A84: Set to 00000000. Enables the Starwalker hotkey.
• 4C6230: Set to 01. Enables the Jevil chain debug display and hotkeys.

Enabling debug mode will show a few additional things during the game:

• The frames per second will be printed in the top-left, in red.
• Areas with enemies will have a red and cyan box to the upper-left and lower-right of your character.
• In the King fight room, the values of several variables will be displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen.
• In the Jevil fight, a red square will be shown on Jevil's neck.

Additional hotkeys are available as well, some of which are reused from the previous game.

• O: Sets the FPS cap to 3.
• P: Sets the FPS cap to 60.
• Z and other "action" buttons: Displays a small rectangle in front of you for one frame, indicating the "interaction" hitbox.
• R: Restarts the game. No need to press it 7 times.
• S: Opens the save dialog anywhere. Using it will usually unlock your movement, if it was locked by a script.
• L: Immediately reloads your save.
• D: When held down, pushing 3 through 9 will teleport you to various rooms starting at the dark world to the middle of the game. The plot and party variables are updated to bring the story to the correct position.
• J: When held down, pushing 6 through 9 will teleport you to various rooms, the first 2 to a broken battle test room, and the other 2 to the two end game bosses.
• W: When held down, pushing 2 through 6 will teleport you to various rooms near the end of the game. The plot and party variables are updated to bring the story to the correct position.
• C: When held down, text will automatically advance as if you were using the Wrist Protector item.
• Ins: Moves you to the previous room by internal order.
• Del: Moves you to the next room.
• F10: Takes a screenshot and saves it within the DELTARUNE folder.

Additionally, there are various context-specific debug commands.

During the 'CONTACT' intro:

• ← Backspace: Skips to Kris's room.

In the light world:

• F: Sets the FPS cap to 58.

When fighting the Starwalker:

• ← Backspace: Would dispel the Starwalker... if the beatcon variable was set to 89898, which never happens.

In an elevator:

• 0: Plays the elevator moving animation, though does not change the room you are taken to by exiting. Also moves backwards through the background colors (see 2).
• 1: Starts the elevator moving animation, but never stops it. In the upper elevator, this prevents you from moving and thus softlocks the game.
• 2: Changes the background color; grey (CC basement) -> lighter grey (CC ground floor) -> white (CC top floor) -> purple (Jevil's prison) -> peach -> cyan

When fighting Jevil:

• Down: Decreases 'condition' by 1. This starts the 'head chain' animation, if it's not already playing. If it is playing, this has different behaviour.
• Up: Increases 'condition' by 1. If the head chain animation is playing, this will stop it. If the rotate/fade animation is playing, this has different behaviour.
• Space: Increases the distance at which Jevil's head is swinging, during the 'head chain' animation.

To do: This doesn't seem to be linked to debug mode - it checks the objects own debug variable, which is set in create and seemingly never changed.

8-4 Debug Menu#

The script scr_84_debug exists in every version and chapter of the game, but its code is normally deleted from release versions. However, it was left intact exclusively in the Nintendo Switch port of this demo, revealing it to be a special debug menu. It was likely created and used by 8-4, Ltd. during development of the Japanese localization.

This script is ran in obj_time's Step and Draw events.

Controls#

• Clicking the right stick on a controller opens the menu
• Up and down on either a D-pad or a keyboard moves the cursor
• Pressing the A button on controller or ↵ Return on a keyboard executes your current selection
• Pressing the B button on controller or ESC on a keyboard backs out of your current submenu, closing the menu if you're not in one

Structure#

Options

Rooms

Font Test

A basic test of the game's typers and their associated fonts accessible from the font test option. Opens a selection on the left side of the screen that displays the following text with whatever the current typer selected by pressing left or right is:

Notably, this test refers to typer 15 as "pap font", likely short for "Papyrus font" considering it's right after typer 14, "sans font". This is the only indication that this otherwise unused typer was intended for Papyrus, as this typer uses the normal font and his signature font isn't present in the files.

Version Differences#

Changed Text#

SURVEY_PROGRAM	Deltarune Chapter 1 (1.00)	Description
* Great job, Kris! * We earned ~1 EXP and   ~2 $!	* Great job, Kris! * We earned ~1 EXP and   ~2 D$!	A simple terminology error; the Dark World's currency is "Dark Dollars", "D$".
The $!?# Squad	The $!$? Squad	"#" was made a control character in Chapter 2, so Susie's team name suggestion had to be altered.
* The DARK $!?# Squad!	* The DARK $!$? Squad!
* All proceeds go to Rudinn   Relief Funds, I guess. * It's only 40G!	* All proceeds go to Rudinn   Relief Funds, I guess. * It's only $40!	Yet another currency error. "G", the currency in Undertale, was changed to "$", which as described earlier still isn't correct, but it's at least closer.
* Choco Diamonds, only 40G, I   guess.	* Choco Diamonds, only $40, I   guess.
* (Hathy offers a Hearts Donut.) * (Proceeds go to Hathy's Health.   It costs 40G.)	* (Hathy offers a Hearts Donut.) * (Proceeds go to Hathy's Health.   It costs $40.)
* It's a mere 40G.	* It's a mere $40.
(Sepia and Menu Art)	(Sepia and Menu Art, Borders)	See below for more on borders.
8-4 Ltd.	8-4, Ltd.	Japanese localization company name fix.

SURVEY_PROGRAM	Deltarune Chapter 1 (1.01)	Description
* Sure? It wasn't that good. * It'd probably improve it.	* Ya sure? 'd probably make it better.	Said by Susie to Top Chef. Probably changed because the TopCake does turn out to be one of the best healing items in the game.
* (If you go to back to sleep, you may miss a lot of important things.)	* (If you go back to sleep, you may miss a lot of important things.)	Grammar fix.

SURVEY_PROGRAM	Deltarune Chapter 1 (1.02)	Description
* Looks like you accidentallly   dropped it...	* Looks like you accidentally   dropped it...
* It would be a a lie to   say that I, too...	* It would be a lie to say   that I, too...	... never make typos when writing lots of dialogue.
* (Kris got the Hot Chocolate.)	* (You got the Hot Chocolate.)	An interesting change from a game lore perspective.

Console#

The console release of Deltarune: Chapter 1 (there labeled as "version 1.01") so far seems to only have very minor and otherwise unnoticeable differences between the PC version.

To do: There could be more.

bg_cc_arena#

This graphic had a single stray pixel to the left of the large spade removed in the 1.01 revision, although it's oddly back there in the 2021 Chapter 1 & 2 release (potentially on purpose, given that Queen's arena in Chapter 2 has a similar stray pixel). The stray pixel above the actual arena graphic is still in both versions, though.

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(Source: Original TCRF research)