Prerelease:Deltarune

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Deltarune.

To do: Add comparisons where appropriate. Content from the timeline should be incorporated on its respective subpages, only with more detail. The version of the game shown in the 6th Anniversary livestream had some differences to the released versions of the game. These were all/mostly Easter eggs or jokes but may still be worth noting. Replace the images with higher-quality versions if possible. There's a new official status update on Deltarune! It has some new media from chapters 4 and 3.

Deltarune began as a small project by Toby Fox, which was worked on simultaneously with Undertale. That game ended up releasing first, leaving Deltarune to end up having to be both its own thing, along with a pseudo-sequel to Undertale. Despite this, work was being done for the game all throughout the development of Undertale from everything but the actual programming aspect. Development has since sped up, thanks to the addition of an entire team, something which would not have been possible during the development of Undertale.

Summarized Development Timeline

Before 2011

• Unknown; sometime while Toby Fox was in elementary school - Toby's eldest brother develops a RPG Maker game titled "New Genesis". The main character is named Ralse, which Toby would later take the name of and append an I to the end for the name of Ralsei in Deltarune. "New Genesis" is never finished.

(Source: Toby's Secret Base: Volume 5 (English translation))

2011

• Unknown - During a bout of illness, Toby Fox dreams about an ending to a game that doesn't exist. After waking up, he decides to make that game a reality.

(Source: Interview with Nintendo of Japan (English translation))

2012

• March 29 - A seemingly regular Tumblr post by Kanotynes depicting a deck of playing cards inspires Toby to develop these designs into actual characters. This post would inspire the characters of Lancer, King, Clover, Rudinn, Hathy, and the other kings seen in the jail.
• April 26 - Early drafts of an unnamed project by Toby are made.
• December - Toby starts to learn about basic programming variables in RPG Maker 2000. He begins to develop an RPG, which would later become Undertale.

2013

• July 17 - Toby adds the final goal to the Undertale kickstarter. If $45000 is reached, he says he will start writing the script to "another game" after development of Undertale is finished. He adds "The "other" game... I can't tell you anything about it. Its very nature is shrouded in darkness. Ha ha ha.".
• August - Toby starts creating concept art of the characters, a month after the Kickstarter for Undertale ends.

2015

• September 15 - Undertale is fully released to the general public. Several references to "the dark" appear, indicating that Deltarune was in mind when creating Undertale.
• December 8 - In the comments to a Reddit post talking about Dreemurr.com, a fan site collecting works by the Undertale community, users discuss deltarune.com and him.png, confirming that they existed by this point. While the post itself is deleted, a screencap survives, revealing that the reason why deltarune.com was discussed was because dreemurr.com originally used that domain before being asked by Toby to change it. Later, one of the commenters, frozenLake123, tweets at Toby asking if deltarune.com is official. They receive no reply.
• December 9 - The first snapshot of an image called him.png appears on web.archive.org. The image, used for the site deltarune.com, appears to be completely black; however, when brightened, it reveals a passage of Wingdings text that translates to "THIS NEXT (space) EXPERIMENT (space) SEEMS (space) VERY (space) VERY (space) INTERESTING", quoting the text from the unused room_gaster in Undertale.

(Source: Christopher Moon on Twitter)

2016

• July 1 - The first complete snapshot of deltarune.com appears on web.archive.org. The website is completely black, except for a new version of him.png on the left. When brightened, the Wingdings passage reads "THREE HEROES APPEARED (space) AT WORLD'S EDGE". This is a direct quote from the Legend in Deltarune, indicating that the Legend (or at least this part) was finalized at this point.
• August 17 - deltarune.com is updated to again revise the Wingdings text in him.png, this time reading "THREE HEROES APPEARED (space) TO BANISH THE ANGELS HEAVEN". This too is a reference to the Legend in Deltarune.

2017

• July - Undertale is released for the PlayStation 4. An Undertale themed PlayStation 4 dynamic menu was release alongside it with a new music titled "Before The Story" plays in the background, which would later be used for the completed file select screen in Chapter 1 of Deltarune.

2018

• September 18 - Undertale is released for the Switch. Clam Girl, when encountered in the True Pacifist epilogue, tells the player that the time they will meet Suzy, their neighbor's daughter, is "fast approaching". She turns into a Goner as she says this, and disappears just like the others, indicating a possible connection between W.D. Gaster and this "Suzy" character.
• October 30 - Deltarune is teased to the general public with a takeover of the official Undertale Twitter account by what is presumed to be W.D. Gaster.
• October 31 - Deltarune Chapter 1 is released as a demo. Toby asks everyone to remain silent about the game for 24 hours - however, the mania over a brand new Toby Fox game exceeded all pleas.
• November 1 - The 24-hour silence is lifted. Toby posts a lot of stuff about Deltarune.
• November 20 - The soundtrack for Deltarune Chapter 1 is released.

2019

• April 18 - Toby states he is making great progress with the design of Chapter 2, and also shows some concept art of a dog tank that never made it into Chapter 2.
• June 12 - Toby states that 50 songs past Chapter 1 have all been concepted out and are at various stages of completion. Toby also states that he is making pretty steady progress on Chapter 2.
• July 5 - Toby talks about showing some of the game's main scenes to other members on the team and having them react.
• September 15 - Undertale turns 4. Toby teases many things from Deltarune Chapter 2.

2020

• May - After failed trials of non-Game Maker engines, proper development on Chapter 2 starts.

(Source: DELTARUNE Status Update Sept 2020)

• September 15 - Undertale turns 5. A pre-recorded anniversary concert is held live on YouTube. At the end of the stream, several Deltarune Chapter 2 songs are teased in piano form by Toby.
• September 20 - Toby posts about the status of Deltarune in its entirety, along with citing a chronic hand and wrist pain flareup as a factor in the chapter's delayed development.
• October 31 - Deltarune turns 2. Toby states that steady progress is being made on Chapter 2 and comments on how it's apparently very funny.
• November 23 - Toby posts an image of Cyber City that has an abnormally large-sized toilet that Temmie sprited. Toby would end up using this as a well-hidden secret in the final game.

2021

• January 19 - Toby states that Chapter 2's development is going well and feels positive about the direction it's headed.
• April 17 - Toby says that Chapter 2's development is going well. He also states that one of his friends tried out a late beta of Chapter 2, giving positive feedback while also stating that Berdly was her favorite character across both chapters, subtly hinting at an increased presence of Berdly in the upcoming chapter.
• July 20 - Toby states once again that Chapter 2's development is going well, and that another friend tried out a beta version. They really liked it, but missed the giant toilet Easter egg and apparently had to reset the game as a result.
• September 8 - The teaser for the Undertale 6th Anniversary livestream plays the first 15 seconds of "It's Pronounced Rules" from Chapter 2's soundtrack.
• September 15 - Undertale turns 6. Toby, along with a few people from Fangamer, stream Deltarune Chapter 1 "for no reason". Deltarune Chapter 2 is teased and revealed.
• September 17 - The Deltarune Chapter 1&2 demo is released. Gaster(?) briefly returns on Twitter a few minutes before the new demo releases. Toby also posts another status update of Deltarune, that mainly focuses on future planning. The soundtrack is released simultaneously with this chapter.

2022

• May 16 - Toby states that "the game development is going well" and that he's brought even more people on-board to assist with development, reinforcing his positivity about the game's direction.
• September 15 - Toby posts a status update confirming that no new releases are planned for the rest of the year, while also noting that development of Chapters 3-5 are progressing at a more efficient pace compared to 1 and 2. Toby states that Chapters 3 and 4 have had the most work done on them at the moment, and shows off various pictures, videos, and audio clips from what the development team has completed so far.
• September 17-18 - Fangamer runs a 24-hour Spamton-themed sweepstakes to raise money in support of flooding victims in Pakistan. The site for the sweepstakes features a number of hidden pages attached to it that reveal a LOT of content and hints related to future chapters.

2023

• April 1 - The spring issue of the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter is released, in it Toby provides an update to Chapter 3, stating that the main focus is finishing it and it will soon begin translation to Japanese. He also states in higher tier versions of the newsletter to avoid exploring the files and going into a room full of "four thousand little tree objects" and then writes that a brief segment involving cowboys teased in the sweepstakes "is in danger of being cancelled."
• June 30 - The summer issue of the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter is now out! Toby gives another progress update on Chapter 3 stating that the final overworld area is now being worked on. Toby mentions that he focused on "unusual gameplay elements" for the chapter. He ends off by saying that Chapter 4 will be a more "standard" chapter.
• September 14 - The autumn issue of the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter arrives, celebrating the eight anniversary of Undertale. Toby states that Chapter 3 is now "playable from beginning to end" and that the amount of stuff left to do is now considerably less than what's already been completed. Toby also reveals that a planned stealth section was scrapped from the chapter because "a mechanic which basically just makes you move slower isn't necessarily fun," providing fans with an MP3 file of the segment's theme (which consequently will go unused).

• October 31 - The Halloween issue of the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter arrives, celebrating the fifth anniversary of Deltarune's first chapter. Toby reveals that Chapter 3 is "pretty much content complete" and that development is now shifting focus to Chapter 4, with a new producer being hired to help the team out. Toby also states that the next release will consist only of Chapters 3 and 4, with Chapter 5 being held off until a later date; in light of this, he also states that future newsletters will avoid information on the state of development unless development is close enough to completion or something amusing occurs. To commemorate five years since the release of Chapter 1, Toby conducts an interview with the Chapter 2 development team, revealing various early sprites and test animations.

2024

• February 13 - The Valentine's Day issue of the Undertale/Deltarune newsletter is released. Toby reveals that the Japanese localization of Chapter 3 is currently in the works, and that it will be followed by final porting and bugfixing. The primary focus for the developers at the moment is Chapter 4, which is being developed with an internal deadline in mind; some minor work is also being done on Chapter 5. Toby credits the anonymous producer with helping improve the team's efficiency and expresses confidence in the amount of work that'll be done in 2024. As part of the newsletter, Toby also conducts an interview with concept artist Gigi DG, revealing previously unseen concept art from Chapter 2 and upcoming chapters.

Sub-Pages

Early Development 2011-2018. Before Undertale, there was Deltarune.

Later Development 2018-Present. The story so far...

Concept Art