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ethancfmp2025 · 3 months ago

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What is my Specialist Practice and who is notable within said Practice?

During this project I want to focus on VFX and visual design as my Specialist Practice. But what is VFX and Visual design?

Simply put VFX and Visual Design is the practice of designing or implementing visual effects such as Particles, Shaders, Lighting, Animations and Textures to create a cohesive and dynamic scene/level (at least in the area of games design).

Over the course of my last projects I have developed this skillset from creating basic particle systems and using stock Unreal Engine shaders, to creating complex shaders and experimenting with varied visual styles to create unique experiences (see Plaglock, my Rapid Prototyping Project).

I will now go over some notable practitioners within the field of visual design. Though some of them don't directly or solely practice visual design, I think it's worth covering them as they have created visually unique media.

Hakita

Hakita is probably most well known for ULTRAKILL, his first full-on foray into games development, however I had inadvertently discovered him before this from an album he had created in 2017 called “Zen, or the Means Without Ends”.

At the start of ULTRAKILL’s development he was solely responsible for the games visuals, sound design, level design and programming etc. However as the game grew in popularity he gathered a team of people (PITR, Victoria, Heckteck and various other multi-talented individuals) to take over these aspects of development so he could focus on the larger design aspects of the game.

ULTRAKILL is art, and good art at that, all of the systems, narratives, level design and visual design are all so cohesively complex that it would be a rather hot-take to not say so. ULTRAKILL stands out because of the approach taken to making the game, which was essentially “How do we make the coolest game ever”, taking inspiration from sources like art-house film and anime to craft the games’ visual style, as well as using low-res textures and low-poly models to convey its desired look.

The earliest presence that I can find of Hakita online is this bandcamp profile “https://redherringproject.bandcamp.com/community” comprised of most of his earlier music work before the “heaven pierce her” alias which is how I first discovered them at around 2022. According to an interview found here: https://www.prankster101.com/articles/interview-with-arsi-hakita-patala-of-ultrakill/, Hakita got into game-dev because of a course he took, creating various small projects for game-jams (you can find some of these on itch.io) and whatnot. ULTRAKILL was his first commercial project and it came about after Hakita received relatively pessimistic feedback on a stealth game he was creating at the time.

Hakita discusses their creative processes in this interview: https://intothebluesky.com/2021/10/05/follow-up-interview-with-hakita/, where he had this to say about his approach to designing the level 4-2: “the general idea of 4-2 was to have a level that seems very open but without actually sacrificing the constant forward momentum of a linear level, so you’re actually still moving along a single direct path, it just doesn’t feel like a hallway because it doesn’t look like one.” I think this is an underrated technique when it comes to visual design, because it shows how visual representation can convey different settings and emotions despite level design.

Toby Fox

Toby Fox is most well known for 2015 RPG Undertale, which he developed almost solo (he had help from Temmie Chang for a lot of the games artwork). He is also known for Deltarune, the Earthbound Halloween Hack and some work on the Pokemon series as a composer.

As mentioned Toby Fox created the majority of Undertale and Deltarune. He did the programming, narrative design, composing, some artwork and the overall visual design for both games.

Toby Fox stands out to me mostly because his work feels somewhat unfiltered in terms of artistic expression, using basic artwork with great character design and development to create an experience that's not only memorable but emotionally hard-hitting. It’s clear that he takes massive inspiration from things like Touhou and Earthbound in his work and as a result his games tend to feature similar mechanics and gameplay styles.

Toby’s earlier works include that of the Earthbound Halloween hack and various songs for the Homestuck soundtrack, he doesn’t talk much about these (at least not that I can find that's relevant) or how they informed Undertale or any other of his more modern works but it’s obvious how each of these projects eventually led to the creation of Undertale, like the track “MEGALOVANIA” which was originally in the Halloween Hack before being remade for Undertale.

Visually Undertale is quite basic, but it uses this to it's strength. Using consistent colour palettes for different environments as well as unique character designs, Undertale creates an extremely unique 2D visual style that's quite difficult to replicate despite it's basic look.

In an interview with Mary Sue, Toby outlined his approach to designing jokes and trope subversions within Undertale: Interview: Undertale's Toby Fox | The Mary Sue (This website has a LOT of ads, so be careful).

TMS: Some of your humor is just silly jokes, but other times you use it to criticize and poke fun at game tropes that go unquestioned. Did you go into making the game planning to use jokes in that way, or did it just naturally work out like that?

Toby: I just write what’s funny …

Toby is currently in the development of chapters 3-4 of Deltarune, Undertale’s spiritual successor of sorts.

David Szymanski

David Szymanski is most well known for his games Iron Lung and Dusk, with Dusk being his most popular work. Some of his lesser known work includes: Squirrel Stapler, The Pony Factory and Butchers Creek.

Outside of the soundtracks, David is responsible for the entirety of all of his projects developments, with Andrew Hulshult being responsible for said soundtrack (and the sound design).

His work stands out to me as being the catalyst for bringing boomer shooters to popularity and inspiring other games such as ULTRAKILL. I also think he’s a master of atmospheric design, using concepts like claustrophobia and basic text storytelling to reinforce a sense of horror in Iron Lung for example. He makes use of software like GIMP to create gritty, low resolution images used for texturing to make his games look old and slightly nostalgic.

According to Szymanski, earlier in his life he would write quite a bit and thought to get some of his works published, however he “ended up drifting away from that as music and game development took respective center stage.” Taken from this interview: David Szymanski: His New Game, His Old Game, His Horror Fame - DREADXP. His earlier horror experiences helped him gain some notoriety to the point that he was picked up by New Blood Interactive to publish Dusk.

According to the Dusk Wiki, Szymanski used Unity to create Dusk, with GIMP, Krita and Blender used for texturing, visual design and animation. I couldn’t find an interview mentioning his creative process specifically but I found one where he list various inspirations of his creative work: David Szymanski: The DUSK dev dishes on some of his favorite Music, Movies, and More - DREADXP.

#Research #Practitioners

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under-lore · 3 years ago

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Is there anything in the game that tells how long Chara lived Underground before dying?

Sort of. You can, but it will be no more than vague approximations with questionable reliability.

The bond between Asriel and Chara was formed over time, friendship did not ensue immediately.

As for the monsters, viewing the friendship they formed as a symbol of the future for humans and monsters was able to fill the entire underground with renewed hope for the future.

So much so that Chara and Asriel's death fully crushed the hope of the entire underground by itself.

And while it is true that monsters do get attached easily...

Such an effet seems unlikely to be possible if Chara had not been present at least for a few months.

To further support this, there is the fact that Chara as the narrator already knows who a quite considerable amount of the monsters we meet are as well as a little bit of info about them.

We know from Toby Fox's concept art that Chara and Asriel did wonder around the underground while playing. (The only "stars" in the underground are the fake ones in Waterfall)

Other than that, there is the monthly address in which Chara could have gotten to see more people, assuming that they were present at least sometimes during those.

It also seems unlikely that they could have known the underground and its people as well as they do in-game if they hadn't been down there for long enough to have met quite a lot of monsters (and seen quite a few places) in the first place, or at the very least to have heard about them from Asgore, who would know all about the monsters out there.

One can also add the Mr Dad Guy shirt into the mix. Asgore is a very large person and knitting something like this would be a very difficult task that would take a long time to go from start to finish. Even more so when considering the fact that Chara is shown to be an impatient person on top of a child, which does not make knitting any easier. (or if one wants to imagine that Chara did not know how to do so originally and that Toriel would have had to help/teach them.)

One more thing to bring up would be the sprite heights of Chara.

In the actual gameplay, Asriel's sprites is 28 pixels tall. Whilst Chara is 29 pixels tall, the same height as Frisk. Chara appears slightly taller than him.

In the cutscenes dating way back from Chara's fall however, Asriel seems to be taller than Chara.

(Note : Asriel is leaning forward here, which means he appears smaller than he really is, yet even then he's still a bit taller !)

Now, we do also know that pixel sizes and Temmie Chang's art are not necessarily reliable sources in terms of height so this observation is to take with a grain of salt. It might not have been intended to be this way.

But if we were to consider it to be true, then this would prove interesting. It would mean that in between the time where Chara fell and when they died, they have not only caught up to Asriel but even outgrown him a little.

Considering regular monsters can be shown to be aging slower than humans do, this would appear pretty believable. Although its not certain wether this also applies to boss monsters like Asriel or not.

Since we do not know how fast boss monsters grow in height compared to humans (resulting in an unknown variable), that it depends on age a little for humans (and thus on Chara's age which would also be an approximation) and that again pixel sizes and Temmie's art are hardly reliable. Calculating how long it would take for Chara to grow this amount compared to Asriel isn't really possible without making a lot of estimations.

With that being said, attempting to do it anyway would result in a difference which would suggest that Chara would have been underground for a minimum of 2 years. (I want to restate that this result is to be taken with a full teaspoon of salt ! Too many unknown variables.)

#undertale #chara #asriel #chara undertale

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officialambassadorfrisk · 2 years ago

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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 in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.

Outside of artwork and character designs by Temmie Chang, 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. Originally, Undertale was meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014. However, development was delayed over the next three years.

The game was released for OS X and Windows 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 sold over one 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. Two chapters of a related game, Deltarune, were released in 2018 and 2021.

Undertale is a role-playing game that uses a top-down perspective.[3] In the game, the player controls a child and completes objectives in order to progress through the story.[4] Players explore an underground world filled with towns and caves, and are required to solve numerous puzzles on their journey.[4][5] The underground world is the home of monsters, many of whom challenge the player in combat;[5] players decide whether to kill, flee, or befriend them.[4][6] Choices made by the player radically affect the plot and general progression of the game, with the player's morality acting as the cornerstone for the game's development.

When players encounter enemies in either scripted events or random encounters, they enter a battle mode. During battles, players control a small heart which represents their soul, and must avoid attacks unleashed by the opposing monster similar to a bullet hell shooter.[4][5] As the game progresses, new elements are introduced, such as colored obstacles, and boss battles which change the way players control the heart.[7] Players may choose to attack the enemy, which involves timed button presses. Killing enemies will cause the player to earn EXP (in turn increasing their LOVE) and gold.[8] They can use the ACT option to check an enemy's attacking and defending attributes as well as perform various other actions, which vary depending on the enemy.[4] If the player uses the right actions to respond to the enemy, or attacks them until they have low HP (but still alive), they can then choose to spare them and end the fight without killing them.[9] For some boss encounters to be completed peacefully, the player is required to survive until the character they are facing has finished their dialogue. The game features multiple story branches and endings depending on whether players choose to kill or spare their enemies; and as such, it is possible to clear the game without killing a single enemy.[10]

Monsters will talk to the player during the battle, and the game will tell the players what the monster's feelings and actions are.[11] Enemy attacks change based on how players interact with them: should players choose non-violent options, enemy attacks are easy, whereas they become less easy if players choose violent options.[5][11] The game relies on a number of metafictional elements in both its gameplay and story.[12] When players participate in a boss battle on a second playthrough, the dialogue will be altered depending on actions in previous playthroughs.[13]

Undertale is set in the Underground, a realm where monsters were banished after war broke out with humans, in the year 201X. The Underground is sealed from the surface by a magic barrier with a singular gap at Mount Ebott.[14] A human child falls into the Underground from Mount Ebott and encounters Flowey, a sentient flower who teaches the player the game's mechanics and encourages them to raise their "LV", or "LOVE", by gaining "EXP" through killing monsters.[d] When Flowey attempts to kill the human, the human is rescued by Toriel, a motherly goat-like monster, who teaches the human how to survive conflict in the Underground without killing. She intends to adopt the human, wanting to protect them from Asgore, the king of the Underground.

The human eventually leaves Toriel to search for Asgore's castle, which contains the barrier to the surface world. They encounter several monsters, such as the skeletons Sans and Papyrus, two brothers who act as sentries for the Snowdin forest; Undyne, the head of the royal guard; Alphys, the kingdom's royal scientist; and Mettaton, a robotic television host Alphys created. Most of the monsters are fought, with the human choosing whether to kill them or to spare and possibly befriend the monster. During their travels, the human learns that many years ago, Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, befriended the first human who fell into the Underground. When the child abruptly died, Asriel used the child's soul to pass through the barrier, intending to return the body to the surface. The humans living there attacked and killed Asriel, causing a grieving Asgore to declare war on humans. In the present day, Asgore has collected six souls from fallen humans, of which he needs one more to destroy the barrier.

The game's ending depends on how the player handles encounters with monsters.[16][10][e] If the player completes a playthrough without killing any monsters (or killed some but not all of the monsters) they experience the "Neutral" ending. The human arrives at Asgore's castle and is forced to fight him. Sans stops the human before their confrontation, revealing that the human's "LOVE" and "EXP" are acronyms for "level of violence" and "execution points", respectively. Sans judges the human based on their accumulated "LOVE" and "EXP". The human then fights Asgore, but Flowey interrupts, killing Asgore and stealing the human souls. With the help of the souls, the human defeats Flowey and leaves the Underground. They then receive a phone call from Sans, detailing the state of the Underground after the human's departure.

If the player kills no monsters before completing a "Neutral" ending, they can reload their saved game to complete the "Pacifist" ending.[18][16] Flowey is revealed to be a reincarnation of Asriel accidentally created by Alphys's experiments. During the fight with Asgore, Toriel stops the battle and is joined by the other monsters the human befriended. Flowey ambushes the group, absorbing the souls of all the humans and monsters in order to take an older Asriel's form. During the ensuing fight, the human manages to connect with the souls of their friends, and eventually defeats Asriel: He reverts to his child form, destroys the barrier, and expresses remorse for his actions before leaving. The human falls unconscious and is awoken to see their friends surrounding them, each with the knowledge of the human's name: Frisk. The monsters peacefully reintegrate with the humans, while Frisk has the option of accepting Toriel as their adoptive mother.

A third ending known as the "No Mercy" or "Genocide" ensues if the player kills all the monsters.[13][18] When the player reaches Asgore's castle, Sans attempts to stop them, but fails and is slain. Flowey kills Asgore in an attempt to obtain mercy, but is killed by the player. Chara, the first fallen child, then appears and destroys the universe. To enable further replays of the game, the player must give their soul to Chara, restoring the universe and causing a permanent alteration to the Pacifist ending.

Undertale was developed by Toby Fox across 32 months.[19] 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.[20] Undertale's creation ensued after Fox created a battle system using the game creation system GameMaker: Studio.[21] He wanted to develop a role-playing game that was different from the traditional design, which he often found "boring to play".[22] 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".[22]

Fox worked on the entire game independently, besides some of the art; he decided to work independently to avoid relying on others.[19] 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.[22] Temmie Chang worked as the main artist for the game, providing most of the sprites and concept art.[23][24] 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.[25]

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.[26] When working on the battle system, Fox set out to create a mechanic that he would personally enjoy.[27] 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.[19] 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.[28]

The game's dialogue system was inspired by Shin Megami Tensei (1992),[26] particularly the gameplay mechanic whereby players can talk to monsters to avoid conflict. Fox intended to expand upon this mechanic, as failing to negotiate resulted in a requirement to fight. "I want to create a system that satisfied my urge for talking to monsters," he said.[5] When he began developing this mechanic, the concept of completing the game without killing any enemies "just evolved naturally".[29] However, he never considered removing the option to fight throughout development.[29] When questioned on the difficulty of playing the game without killing, Fox responded that it is "the crux of one of the major themes of this game", asking players to think about it themselves.[29] Despite not having played it, Fox was inspired by the concepts of Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (1997), which involved the player repairing the damage of the "Hero" and increasing their "Love Level" by helping people instead of hurting them.[30]

Writing

According to Fox, the "idea of being trapped in an underground world" was inspired by the video game Brandish.[24] Fox was partly influenced by the silliness of internet culture, as well as comedy shows like Mr. Bean.[19]: 1:27:30 He was also inspired by the unsettling atmosphere of EarthBound.[19] Fox's desire to "subvert concepts that go unquestioned in many games" further influenced Undertale's development.[29] 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.[25] Fox felt the importance to make the game's monsters "feel like an individual".[26] 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".[26]

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 mother characters; in the Pokémon series, as well as Mother and EarthBound, Fox felt that the mothers are used as "symbols rather than characters".[22] In response, Fox intended for Toriel's character to be "a mom that hopefully acts like a mom", and "genuinely cares" about players' actions.[22]

Papyrus and Sans are named after the typeface fonts, Papyrus and Comic Sans, and their in-game dialogue is displayed accordingly in their respective eponymous fonts.[31] 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.[32]

The game's soundtrack was entirely composed by Fox with FL Studio.[35] 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,[19] such as EarthBound,[36] bullet hell series Touhou Project,[37] as well as the webcomic Homestuck, for which Fox provided some of the music.[19] Fox also stated that he tries to be inspired by all music he listens to,[27] particularly those in video games.[36] According to Fox, over 90% of the songs were composed specifically for the game.[21] "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.[34][38] For each section of the game, Fox composed the music prior to programming, as it helped "decide how the scene should go".[21] 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.[36] To celebrate the first anniversary of the game, Fox released five unused musical works on his blog in 2016.[39] Four of the game's songs were released as official downloadable content for the Steam version of Taito's Groove Coaster.[38]

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.[40][41] 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.[34] Oxford notes this track in particular demonstrates Fox's ability at "turning old songs into completely new experiences", used throughout the game's soundtrack.[34] Tyler Hicks of GameSpot compared the music to "bit-based melodies".[42]

The Undertale soundtrack had 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.[43]

The game was released on September 15, 2015, for OS X and Windows,[44] and on July 17, 2016, for Linux.[45] 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.[19] A patch was released in January 2016, fixing bugs and altering the appearance of blue attacks to help colorblind players see them better.[46]

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced during E3 2017 that Undertale would get a release for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, a Japanese localization, and a retail version published by Fangamer. These versions were released on August 15, 2017.[47][48][49]

A Nintendo Switch version was revealed during a March 2018 Nintendo Direct, though no release date was given at the time;[50][51] 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.[52] The Switch version was released on September 15, 2018, in Japan,[53] and on September 18, 2018, worldwide.[54] All the console ports were developed and published by Japanese localizer 8-4 in all regions.[1][2]

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.[55]

Other Undertale media and merchandise have been released, including toy figurines and plush toys based on characters from the game.[56] The game's official soundtrack, Undertale Soundtrack, was released by video game music label Materia Collective in 2015, simultaneously with the game's release.[57] Additionally, two official Undertale cover albums have been released: the 2015 metal/electronic album Determination by RichaadEB and Amie Waters,[58][59] and the 2016 jazz album Live at Grillby's by Carlos Eiene, better known as insaneintherainmusic.[60] Another album of jazz duets based on Undertale's songs, Prescription for Sleep, was performed and released in 2016 by saxophonist Norihiko Hibino and pianist Ayaki Sato.[61] A 2xLP vinyl edition of the Undertale soundtrack, produced by iam8bit, was also released in the same year.[62] Two official UNDERTALE Piano Collections sheet music books and digital albums, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales, were released in 2017 and 2018[63][64] by Materia Collective. A Mii Fighter costume based on Sans was made available for download in the crossover title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in September 2019, marking the character's official debut as a 3D model. This costume also adds a new arrangement of "Megalovania" by Fox as a music track.[65] Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai noted that Sans was a popular request to appear in the game.[66] Music from Undertale was also added to Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! as downloadable content.[67]

Deltarune

Main article: Deltarune

After previously teasing something Undertale-related a day earlier, Fox released the first chapter of Deltarune on October 31, 2018, for Windows and macOS for free.[68] Deltarune is "not the world of Undertale", according to Fox, though characters and settings may bring some of Undertale's world to mind,[69] and is "intended for people who have completed Undertale";[70] the name Deltarune is an anagram of Undertale.[71] 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.[71] 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.[72][73] 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.[71][69] Deltarune is planned to have only one ending, regardless of what choices the player makes in the game.[69] Although the first two chapters were released at no cost, Fox plans to charge players for the finished release.[73]

Undertale received critical acclaim, and was quickly considered a cult classic by numerous publications.[82][83] Review aggregator Metacritic calculated an average score of 92 out of 100, based on 43 reviews.[74] Metacritic ranks the game the third-highest rated Windows game released in 2015,[74] and among the top 50 of all time.[84] Praise was particularly directed at the game's writing, unique characters, and combat system. GameSpot's Tyler Hicks declared it "one of the most progressive and innovative RPGs to come in a long time",[42] and IGN's Kallie Plagge called it "a masterfully crafted experience".[17] By the end of 2015, in a preliminary report by Steam Spy, Undertale was one of the best-selling games on Steam, with 530,343 copies sold.[85] By early February 2016, the game surpassed one million sales,[86] and by July 2018, the game had an estimated total of three and a half million players on Steam.[87] Japanese digital PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita sales surpassed 100,000 copies sold by February 2018.[88]

Daniel Tack of Game Informer called the game's combat system "incredibly nuanced", commenting on the uniqueness of each enemy encounter.[79] Giant Bomb's Austin Walker praised the complexity of the combat, commenting that it is "unconventional, clever, and occasionally really difficult".[78] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of The Escapist commended the game's ability to blend turn-based and live combat elements.[89] IGN's Plagge praised the ability to avoid combat, opting for friendly conversations instead.[17] Jesse Singal of The Boston Globe found the game's ability to make the player empathize with the monsters during combat if they opted for non-violent actions was "indicative of the broader, fundamental sweetness at the core" of Undertale.[90]

Reviewers praised the game's writing and narrative, with IGN's Plagge calling it "excellent".[17] The Escapist's Croshaw considered Undertale the best-written game of 2015, writing that it "is on the one hand hilarious... and is also, by the end, rather heartfelt".[89] Destructoid's Ben Davis praised the game's characters and use of comedy, and compared its tone, characters, and storytelling to Cave Story (2004).[4] PC Gamer's Richard Cobbett provided similar comments, writing that "even its weaker moments... just about work".[80] Undertale's absurd humor attracted praise; Game Rant found the Annoying Dog's frequent interruptions a standout,[91] and Kill Screen considered absurdity a signature quality of Fox's humor.[25]

The game's visuals received mixed reactions. Giant Bomb's Walker called it "simple, but communicative".[78] IGN's Plagge wrote that the game "isn't always pretty" and "often ugly", but felt that the music and animations compensate.[17] The Escapist's Croshaw remarked that "it wobbles between basic and functional to just plain bad".[89] Other reviewers liked the graphics: Daniel Tack of Game Informer felt that the visuals appropriately match the characters and settings,[79] while Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer commended the ability of the visuals to convey emotion.[80]

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".[92] The character Sans has been well received by players, being the subject of many fan works.[93][94][95] Professional wrestler Kenny Omega has expressed his love of Undertale, dressing as Sans for the October 30, 2019, episode of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite.[96] Sans's addition as a Mii fighter costume in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate garnered positive feedback from fans, although The Commonwealth Times considered his addition to be a "potential problem" due to the decreasing nostalgia factor for each new character and ever-increasing size of the roster.[97]

Undertale's fanbase has also been subject to controversy, leading to it gaining a negative reputation. After the game's release, some live streamers were harassed by fans of the game for killing in-game enemies and attempting the "genocide" route. YouTuber Markiplier refused to complete his initial play-through of the game, stating that he was "not having fun" due to fan demands.[98]

In July 2016, during a summit about the Internet held at the Vatican, YouTube personality MatPat gifted a copy of Undertale to Pope Francis. MatPat explained his choice of gift by referencing the year 2016's status as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, and connecting this to Undertale's overarching theme of mercy.[99] Later, in January 2022, a circus troupe performed in front of the Pope during his weekly audience at the Vatican to the tune of "Megalovania", drawing parallels with MatPat's symbolic gift of the game to Pope Francis.[100][101]

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,[102][103] Best Game Ever from GameFAQs,[104] and Game of the Year for PC from The Jimquisition,[105] Zero Punctuation,[106] and IGN.[107] It also received Best PC Game from Destructoid,[108] and the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award and Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game from the SXSW Gaming Awards.[109]

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.[110] Undertale was nominated for the Innovation Award, Best Debut, and Best Narrative at the Game Developers Choice Awards.[111] 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.[112][113] The SXSW Gaming Awards named it the Most Fulfilling Crowdfunded Game, and awarded it the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award.[109] 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.[114] In 2019, Polygon named the game among the decade's best.[115] 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.[116][117]

Why did you send. What appears to be the entire Wikipedia page. About Undertale. Are you doing okay anon

#moss answers

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undertale-data · 4 years ago

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[Image Description: an Undertale textbox with “INTRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHICS” in all caps in its middle. To its left and right are a radar screen and an egg, sun, and "WED" from the Dating Hub. End I.D.]

Our sample size consisted of a total of 2651 responses. We did not set any sort of age restriction to take the survey, and no other qualification than self identifying yourself as part of the Undertale fandom.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “AGE OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 31%, or 812 responders, are 13-17 years old; 44% or 1160 are 18-24; 15%, or 398, are 25-30; 6%, or 158, are 31-40; 0%, or 6, are 41-50; 3%, or 91, preferred not to answer, and 1%, or 25, are 12 and below. End I.D.]

The age group most represented is composed of people between 18 to 24 years old (also known as emerging adults), corresponding to 44% of all participants. They are followed by teenagers aged 13 to 17 years old (31%) and young adults aged 25 to 30 years old (15%)

(Many more demographics under the cut.)

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “GENDER OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 374, or 14%, are male; 1144, or 43%, are female; 789, or 30%, are nonbinary; 167, or 6%, identify as ‘other’, and 177, or 7%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

In terms of gender, most people identified as female with a total of 43%, followed by nonbinary with 30% and male with 14%. A significant amount of people responded with “Other,” explaining their identity (or questioning) more in depth.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “UNDERTALE FANDOM AND LGBT+ IDENTITY”. In clockwise order, the results: 1949, or 73%, identify as LGBT+; 293, or 11%, do not identify as LGBT+; 280, or 11%, are questioning; and 129, or 5%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

Considering the great amount of LGBT+ representation present in Undertale, we decided to ask people whether they identify themselves as part of this community. The majority, 73%, has declared to be a part of it. It is relevant to add that 5% chose not to say, and 11% were questioning. It is possible that media containing well developed representation draws more people to it; many people said that the reason they liked certain characters was being able to feel represented as a minority.

[ID: a pie chart titled: “LOCATIONS OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order its results: 1788 responders, or 67%, are from North America; 420 responders, or 16%, are from Europe; 141 responders, or 5%, are from Asia; 94 responders, or 4% are from South America; 83 responders, or 3%, are from Australia; 11 responders, or 0% are from the Pacific Islands; 22 responders, or 1% are from “Other” locations; 92 responders, or 4%, selected ”Prefer not to say.” End of ID.]

The internet has made the game known all over the world, which motivated us to look into the way its fans are distributed around the globe. It is important to consider that since this survey is in English, people were more likely to respond to it if they understood the language, whether it is their native language or not (like Vessel #1, who’s writing this paragraph). It would be interesting if other communities did a similar exercise in the future by translating the survey.

Having said that, we present the results. To get these numbers some of the answers were distributed into their corresponding existing group, and at least three new categories were created.

North America: 1788 votes

Europe: 420

Asia: 141 votes

South America: 94 votes

Australia: 83 votes

The most represented area is North America, which is no surprise considering it’s composed by a majority of native English speakers. It should also be noted that considering Toby Fox is from the US, it makes sense that people with a similar cultural background would more likely hear about Undertale and join the fandom. Europe follows with 420 votes, which could be due to their usage of the English language either as a native language or a frequently taught second one. Asia has a similar situation, however, if we take global population estimates (e.g: 141 per 4.561 billion in the case of Asia compared to Europe with 420 fans in an area with a population of around 746 million people), we can see that the density of Asian fans is drastically lower. After that we have both South America and Australia with a similar amount of votes. In those cases, knowledge of the English language may also factor into the density. Common social media used around the world could also be a factor but we do not have enough data to draw any conclusions.

92 people preferred not to specify and 50 people answered the survey with “Other”, giving their explanation. A few of these responses were put in bigger categories (Canada is in North America, for example). Besides them, the most notable group were Pacific Islanders, making up 11 people, 3 more than Africa. Due to their sizes, further investigation is needed to know if this is a replicable result or just the product of the places the survey was able to reach this time.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED UNDERTALE”. In clockwise order, its results: 937 responders, or 35%, experienced it in 2015; 687, or 26%, experienced it in 2016; 231, or 9%, experienced it in 2017; 181, or 7%, experienced it in 2018; 123, or 5%, experienced it in 2019; 145, or 5%, experienced it in 2020; 88, or 3%, experienced it in 2021; 231, or 9%, don’t know when they experienced it, and 25, or 1%, have never experienced Undertale. End I.D.]

We asked about the exposure to the source material. After all, to be a fan of something, you should know about it. The biggest proportion of fans experienced Undertale for the first time in 2015 and 2016, with those two years amounting for more than half of our sample. As for people who have only started playing during this year, they represent 3% of all participants.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED DELTARUNE”. In clockwise order, its results: 1585 responders, or 60% of those responding, experienced Deltarune in 2018; 275, or 10%, experienced Deltarune in 2019; 213, or 8%, experienced it in 2020; 126, or 5%, experienced it in 2021; 115, or 4%, don’t know; 253, or 10%, have not played but want to; 77, or 3%, have not played and don’t plan to; and 7, or 0%, do not know what Deltarune is. End I.D.]

Many people are familiar with Deltarune as well. Most of them played the first chapter of the game as it was released in 2018, and other people followed in the next few years. Among the people that didn’t play, 253 manifested interest in playing in the future, while 77 stated they knew of the game’s existence but did not plan on playing it.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled "HOW FANS FOUND UNDERTALE". In clockwise order, its results: 870 responders, or 33%, saw someone play it online; 576 responders, or 22%, were introduced by a friend; 539, or 20%, saw fancontent first; 195, or 7%, read reviews or recommendations on social media; 63, or 3%, came through the Kickstarter before release; 50, or 2%, came through a different fandom; 34, or 1%, came by following Toby Fox, Temmie Chang, or other collaborators; 221, or 8%, came through another way; and 101, or 4%, don't remember how. End I.D.]

33% of responders found Undertale by watching someone play it online. The next largest categories were those who were introduced by friends or saw fancontent first, comprising 22% and 20%, respectively. These statistics are indicative of the love that fans have for Undertale: they want to share the game with others, whether by creating and sharing fancontent, or just by talking about the game positively enough to inspire others to give it a chance. In the “other” category, many fans mentioned specific fanworks or AUs as their reasoning for giving Undertale a chance. Other common answers in the “other” category were through the soundtrack, through memes, through connections to Homestuck, and through curiosity about the infamous fandom. One humorous response that stuck out said, “I was searching for the word ‘sand’ and had wrote ‘sans’ by wrong.”

#undertale fandom census #undertale #demographics #results

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advocatewrites-blog · 7 years ago

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Into the Unknown Part 3 Chapter 3

Into the Unknown

Fandom: Undertale, Coraline (book), Over the Garden Wall, Paranorman, Gravity Falls (season 2)

Characters: Frisk, Norman B., Dipper P., Mabel P., Coraline J., Wirt, Greg, the Cat, the Frog; Sans, Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore,; the Other Mother, the Beast, Agatha P., Bill Cipher, Asriel D., Chara D.,

Pairings: Not the focus. Alphys/Undyne, with mentions of Papyrus/Mettaton, sans/Toriel/Asgore, and Wirt/Sara. Due to the nature of Undertale and the dating segments, there is also interpretable Papyrus/Wirt, Undyne/Mabel, Alphys/Dipper, Napstablook/Norman, Mettaton/Norman, Mettaton/Mabel, Sans/Dipper, Sans/Norman, and Sans/Greg.

Rated a high +K for violence, mild language, horrific elements that may be disturbing to younger readers, mentions of child abuse and bullying, character death that is sometimes permanent, and mentions of suicide that may be triggering. These elements remain relatively unchanged from their source material, which most all are for children, but discretion is advised nonetheless.

Disclaimer: Undertale was created and owned by Toby Fox. Coraline was created by Neil Gaiman and owned by Bloomsbury and Laika. Over the Garden Wall was created by Patrick McHale and owned by Cartoon Network. Paranorman was created by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and owned by Laika. Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch and owned by Disney. Any other work mentioned or homage are property of their respective owners. This is a fan-made, nonprofit work that only seeks to entertain. Please support the original franchises.

Start from beginning / Previous chapter / Next chapter

Chapter 3

Undyne was right behind him.

Norman ran along the piers in the Waterfall. Energy spears shot up from the ground, never quite hitting him but always getting closer than he wanted them to be. The floor was splitting below him.

He reached a dead end. Undyne’s footsteps, loud metal clacking on wood, slowed. She knew it was a dead end too.

He turned and saw her take one more step, right where her spears had splintered the wood already. There was a sickening cracking noise as the bridge collapsed. He fell.

“It sounded like it came from over here…Oh! You’ve fallen down, haven’t you? Are you okay? Here, get up…Chara, huh? That’s a nice name. My name is—”

He was awake before he could hear the last part of that.

It took Norman a minute to regain his bearings. He had landed on a patch of golden flowers, the same kind that were in the Ruins. Above head, he could make out just the faintest rays of the sun. He was still in the Underground.

What was that? It was too vivid to be a dream, he realized, and he did not think he had fallen asleep anyway. It was more like a vision. He did not recall having visions, but for some reason, the idea felt right in his head. If he could see ghosts, anything was possible, he supposed.

There was no point of worrying about it now. If it was a vision, it had not told him enough to make sense of it. Norman picked himself up and continued forward.

There was no better way to describe the things that emerged from the ground: they were zombies. They looked as ever bit grotesque as the art in Norman’s room depicted them; pale green skin that should have rotted, skeletal limbs and organs that should be spilling out.

The FIGHT began.

The Cat ran in-between Frisk and the zombies, hair sticking on ends and a hiss in his throat. He stood ready to pounce at the first sign of conflict. Without thinking about it, Frisk ran a CHECK on the closest one.

????? 80 ATK 80 DEF

He’s been asleep for a long time. It’s not his fault.

The zombie lurched forward, but did not otherwise attack. He would not attack them straight out, Frisk realized. So they decided to ACT.

*CHECK *TALK

*CONSOLE *CRITISIZE

*STEAL WIG

Hi! I’m F-R-I-S-K! They signed quickly, ending with a little wave.

The zombies gave her a confused look. Maybe they didn’t understand signing. Frisk reached for their notebook and wrote it down during the zombie’s turn.

The zombie with the wig leaned into it, old eyes struggling to read it. He reached for the notebook and pen.

JUDGE HOPKINS 80 ATK 80 DEF

He’s been asleep for a long time. He did what he had to do.

The place Norman had landed in was a Dump. Most of the garbage had been kept in bins and bags, but quite a bit was flowing through the pond freely. Norman could make out some things that were clearly monster-made, like gloves for six-fingered folk and a jar of construction paper labelled “Temmy Flaeks.” Most of it, however, looked like it came from above; coolers, desktop computers with empty contents, DVD cases with desperate claw marks covering the surface.

Norman was so absorbed in looking for the human-made things that he hardly noticed when the Training Dummy jumped in front of him.

“HAHAHAHA…Too intimidated to fight me, huh!?” said the Dummy. “I am a ghost that lives inside a DUMMY. My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too. Until…YOU CAME ALONG!”

He barely remembered the Dummy, all the way back in the Ruins. Toriel had just told him to talk to it. It did not even answer back.

“What did I do?” Norman asked.

“When you talked to them, they thought they were in for a nice chat,” Said the Dummy. “But the things you SAID…! Horrible. Shocking! UNBELIEVABLE!”

Norman may not have remembered the Dummy very well, but he knew that all he did was ask him how the weather was before Toriel said that was good enough.

“It spooked them right out of their dummy! HUMAN! I’ll scare your Soul out of your body!”

Mad Dummy blocks the way.

“Listen, I didn’t mean—“ Norman started.

He stopped as a series of dummy-shaped bullets were fired his way. He jumped out of the way. He jumped back as they spun around like boomerangs and rushed back to him.

“OWWWW, you DUMMIES!! Watch where you’re aiming you MAGIC attacks!” the dummy cried. “Wait…forget I said that!”

Another set of bullets fired towards him, but Norman easily dodged them and watched them fire back at the Mad Dummy.

“HEY GUYS!” The Mad Dummy shouted as he summoned his next round of bullets. “Dummies. Dummies! DUMMIES! YOU’RE FIRED! YOU’RE ALL BEING REPLACED!!!”

The dummy bullets faded out of existence with sheepish expressions,

“Now you’ll see my real power,” said the Mad Dummy. “Relying on people that aren’t garbage!”

Mechanical whirs filled the room. Norman tried to talk him down again. He didn’t seem much for conversation. Nobody was happy with this.

The next set of bullets appeared, bulkier and boxier than the others. Norman jumped out of the way like the others, only to turn around and find they were still chasing him down. He ran forward, coming face to nuzzle with the Mad Dummy as they lost course and plowed into it.

“DUMMY BOTS! You’re awful???” the Mad Dummy cried.

More missiles were launched towards Norman, and he found himself running in circles. A few more hit the Mad Dummy.

“Who cares. Who cares! WHO CARES!!! I DON’T NEED FRIENDS!”

The dummy bots vanished, and were replaced with a single large bullet.

“I GOT KNIVES!!!”

The knife landed by Norman’s feet.

“I’m…out of knives.”

More bullets filled the field, but not the ones the Mad Dummy used. Most of them faded out before they got close to Norman, instead landing on the Mad Dummy and sizzling.

“Wh-what the heck is this? Acid rain?” said the Mad Dummy. “Oh FORGET IT! I’m outta here!”

The Mad Dummy slipped past Norman and back out into the fields of worthless garbage.

“…sorry, I interrupted you, didn’t I? as soon as I came over, your friend immediately left…oh no, it looked like you guys were having fun…oh no………………………………………………………………………………..”

There was a storm brewing in Blithe’s Hollow. As soon as the sun set and the dead rose, there was a chill in the air. Storm clouds hung in the air, crackling with thunder. Frisk could just make out the shapes that formed as they swirled. But it was not just a storm; that much was obvious. There was a type of pressure on their Soul, the same they usually felt as a Fight started. Something else was going on.

After a long back and forth conversation between two people that could not talk and two games of tic-tac-toe, Frisk understood better. The witch was not buried with the judges. They would have to find her grave, and start from there. Judge Hopkins was the only one, possibly ever, who knew where she was buried, so he led the way.

The town was deathly still. What was once packed with ghosts and people now only held a few cars and bystanders. The only sign that there was still life were the neon signs and traffic lights.

For some reason, that scared the zombies the most.

I know, gas prices have gone too high, Frisk wrote down in the notebook, because it seemed like a smart thing to say.

Jude Hopkins snatched the notebook from them and began writing furiously. He had filled nearly a page when they first heard the screams.

“well…I’m gonna go head home now…” said Napstablook. “oh…feel free to ‘come with’ if you want…but no pressure…”

“I don’t want to impose,” said Norman.

“neither do I…” said Napstablook.

They didn’t seem much for conversation. Nobody was happy with this.

“I live up just this way, in case you want to join me…” said Napstablook. “or, in case, you don’t…”

The neighborhood that sat just above the dump was small. There were only a handful of houses but they were all uniquely shaped. No one house looked the same, and no one house looked like a real house. Even Napstablook’s house was built into its neighbors, forming a perfectly symmetrical image.

The interior was much more what Norman would have expected. There were no chairs, but he remembered how his grandmother liked to phase in and out of furniture and figured most ghosts didn’t invest in things they could not touch. Yet there was a desk with a working computer, a small TV, even a refrigerator. And on the other side of the house were piles and piles of CDs.

“uh…do you wanna…listen to some tunes, or something…?” Napstablook asked.

#fic #Into the Unknown #Undertale #Paranorman #Frisk #the Cat #Norman Babcock #Napstablook #Undyne #featured

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