#undertale-completionist

[shimmershy]

Undertale Month Day 30: The End/Surface/Respite

The coloring and everything are a bit messy, but I wanted to finish off the month with something nice. :) Undertale is a game that is so important to me. Not only did it encourage me to draw more things outside my comfort zone, but it's also been a huge comfort for me ever since I first played it. I feel like I would be a completely different person if I hadn't stumbled upon it a little over six years ago. All this to say, I don't think I'll ever stop caring about this silly little game, and I'm really glad it exists. :)

[septic-skele]

Whumptober 2024 Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~

Read on Ao3

Panic Attack, Classic

Trust Issues, Underswap

"I warned you", Underfell

Hallucinations, Swapfell

Healing Salve, Classic

Not Realizing They’re Injured, Underswap

Magic with a Cost, Underfell

Forced to Stay Awake, Swapfell

Broken Window, Classic

Slurred Words, Underswap

Convenience Store, Underfell

Starvation, Swapfell

Multiple Whumpees, Classic

Blackmail, Underswap

Childhood Trauma, Underfell

Wound Cleaning, Swapfell

"We had a good run.", Classic

Revenge, Underswap

Blood Trail, Underfell

"It's not your fault.", Swapfell

"Let the bedsheet soak up the tears.", Classic

Tourniquet, Underswap

Forced Choice, Underfell

Collapsed Building, Swapfell

Surgery, Classic

Nightmares, Underswap

Muzzled, Swapfell

Denial, Underfell

"Who said you could rest?", Classic

Hospital Bed, Underswap

Making Amends, Underfell

[mania-sama]

okay i just finished undertale’s true ending (neutral -> pacifist) and i feel sick to my stomach. like i was originally intent on a genocide run afterwards but when i reopened the screen and “flowey” was staring at me and begging me not to reset. like i wasn’t even planning on resetting any time soon, i was just. reopening it to see if the screen was available for me yet. but it made me flood with guilt and i’m honestly probably going to have nightmares about the amalgamations and that fcking flower.

i see why people love undertale so much. genuinely a phenomenal game that truly makes the player not want to hurt anyone. i was scoffing originally at the guides saying “play genocide only if you can stomach it”. then i got to the real ending and… yeah. we’ll see if i ever play it.

[very-uncorrect]

Fuck it I'm not putting myself through this anguish any longer, I'm just gonna watch the ending of portal 1 on YouTube so I can be in the knowing when playing portal 2

[cybertronian-menace]

Vaccines don't cause autism. Papyrus Undertale breaks into your house and stares at your baby like this

Until they're autistic. Sometimes Undyne comes with him and this makes your baby gay. If Mettaton is with him. Baby will trans gender.

If Sans shows up all hope is lost the baby is ruined and it's first words will be "get dunked on". Throw the baby away. Start over. New baby.

Y'all keep misunderstanding my vision so here's the run down. Warning: I'm doing just about every character in the gane

Papyrus = autism

Undyne = gay. All sexualities included in this

Mettaton = trans. All gender identities included in this

Sans = ruined baby. Start over

Frisk makes the baby determined

Toriel takes over. Her baby now

Asgore makes the baby terminally divorced

Alphys makes the baby a weeb

Flowey makes the baby a video game completionist

Napstablook gives the baby depression

Burgerpants makes the baby a loser

Temmie gives the baby Adhd also a college scholarship

Bratty tries to eat the baby. And catty like. Totally saves the baby!!! Omg Bratty!!!

Mad Dummy gives the baby anger issues

Asriel becomes a big brother to the baby

Monster Kid makes the baby an Undyne and Papyrus stan

Snowdrake makes the baby the worlds worst comedian

Greater dog plays cards with the baby and loses

Lesser dog is overwhelmed with affection from the baby

Dogressa and Dogamy cancel out Asgore's terminal divorce. Only a 5% of them showing though.

Doggo gives the baby a nicotine addiction

☝✌💧❄☜☼ ☜☼☜✌💧☜💧 ❄☟☜ 👌✌👌✡ ☞☼⚐💣 ❄☟☜ ☠✌☼☼✌❄✋✞☜

Grillby wants the baby to pay its tab already

Heats Flamesman makes the baby Really Good at remebering names

Chara makes the baby terminally misunderstood

Jerry makes the baby the absolute worst. Another ruined baby.

Froggit makes the baby not know why it's here

Vegetoid teacges the baby the importance of a balanced diet

Whimsalot makes the baby a battle hardened knight akin to Joan of Arc

Loox gives the baby a Complex

Woshua cleans your baby. Why is your baby so filthy

Aaron makes the baby a gym rat

Shyren gives the baby Vocal Talent

Knight Knight makes the baby sleepy

Madjick makes the baby a wizard

Astigmatism gives the baby an even bigger complex

Whimsum makes the baby anxious

Icecap wants your baby to stop looking at its hat

The baby puts a decoration on Gyftrots horns much to his dismay

Annoying Dog runs away with the baby and leaves a strange dog residue in the crib

The Nicecream guy makes your baby want to open a business in the worst locations

The Royal Guards make your baby a Dude Bro in the best way

Tsundere plane totally doesn't think your baby is cute or make it a tsundere or anything

Vulcan makes your baby the ultimate hypeman

Pyrope makes your baby turn up the heat

Muffet makes your baby broke. Also it owes her 9999G

Moldsmal makes the baby understand the world

Gerson makes the baby Old

Migosp makes your baby friends with the wrong crowd

Final Froggit makes the baby know exactly why it's here

Moldsbygg makes your baby respect boundaries

Mad Mew Mew makes the baby a magical girl and also better than everyone else

[hellspawnmotel]

do you have any personal thoughts on what exactly is it that drives the player to do a snowgrave route? or do you think we're not supposed to know yet..? like you know how in undertale the genocide route is mostly about curiosity and using the player's completionist mentality agaisnt them, i feel like snowgrave has something to do with the prophecy but we cant know for sure yet, do you think snowgrave would be more about playing with people's feelings or something like that ? sorta like, "I like noelle so i'll spend more time with her and make her strong" "i dont like berdly so i'll play the route where he dies" or maybe literally just "I love when stories make me feel awful so that's why i'll play the Mean route" LMAO since i think thats common in ppl who like to discuss the route

it’s interesting, I think it’s something we don’t really have enough information to know yet. I think it depends on the nature of the soul and how it got to this world, what put it here and why. I think…. the holiday family is kind of the center of everything, and noelle is the only member of it who’s like, available? rudy’s in the hospital and carol & dess are already fully involved, but noelle was still innocent and ignorant, and healthy. so to that end I don’t think it’s necessarily about who noelle is as a person, it’s because she has access to this power. the ability to break the game.

the thing that keeps getting brought up in chapter 3 is “freedom”. you want to play your own way and do whatever you want. youre enjoying the youthful days. it’s fun. I think the mechanics of the weird route are in direct conversation with the geno route and how people have reacted and gotten used to it over the years, and turned it from like a dark secret to half the conversation around undertale. so it’s asking “how far are you willing to go in order to achieve that same ‘freedom?’ we already know you’re willing to kill all these sweet and fun characters, you want that same thing again, but what if the only avenue to get there was through the slow psychological destruction of an innocent girl? would you be willing to do these terrible things to her? would you be willing to select just the right action to hurt her over and over? would you be willing to sit and watch the consequences of what you’ve done?”

I mean. that’s one angle anyway. I also subscribe to the idea of the weird route as “power-leveling” your favorite character, or just wanting to make the “weak girl” into something strong and threatening, in defiance of all those games that wouldn’t let you do just that. youre helping her of course. and girls like her dont usually get to become the strongest. you want to see it just once.

I think the former is much more likely to be the overall “point” of the weird route, but maybe the latter is like, the internal justification the player/soul gives themselves within the narrative. and of course in real life every actual person playing is going to feel differently and have different reasons. but again, we really don’t have enough information to make that kind of call. it could just as easily be something that will become clear only when we get much deeper in.

[zluckychap]

"dunk tank" behind the scenes

part 1: inspiration

ever since we first got teased of the possibility of killing painter, i have been sitting back and watching in amusement at the fanbase’s reaction to this information.

… and taking rigorous notes

there are people who are convinced that they’re never going to kill him. there are people who cannot WAIT to bash in his screen. and, there are the people who would like to spare him, but care more about getting the badge and aren’t afraid to admit it.

killing painter has become one of the most divisive topics in the fandom. case & point, this poll in the community server from back in April about which choice people would make, split almost exactly down the middle with “kill painter” winning by a mere 1%

if you take in the amount of people on the server who didn’t know this poll existed (myself included) as well as the people who play the game without being in the server, my guess is that the actual ratio of people who’d kill vs. spare painter is likely higher.

but keep in mind: the poll question is “would you kill or spare painter,” not “do you like painter or hate him.”

nearly half of the people who voted chose to spare painter, and the people who voted to kill him INCLUDES the people who are just doing it for the badge.

ok my point is that overall the fandom likes the guy despite how crazy we are about his death.

that got me thinking of the themes of Undertale, even more so now with the new Deltarune chapters out. the completionist instinct we have in Pressure is similar to what we have in Undertale, but that game fleshes it out more by giving it a name: Determination.

the difference is, Undertale doesn’t have badges for making specific choices. we only make these choices because we have to see what happens when we do.

in pressure, this is also true, except here our motivations are mainly driven by those empty badge slots waiting to be filled. doing these things for the experience, but also the reward

and it’s not hard for us to do annoying or harmful things to the characters to get the badges, because at the end of the day they’re fictional. yes, we love them, but all they can really do is whatever has been implemented in the game.

that got me wondering how these guys would react to knowingly being on the receiving end of our crazed antics. understandably, not very well. 

i had the idea of painter overhearing the players talking about the update, and that’s how the script for dunk tank started!

part 2 of behind-the-scenes coming later today

[tiredandkindaoverworked]

DISCLAIMER: There are likely going to be spoilers in these for many games. Proceed at your own risk

I posted about it 2 days ago or smth and then promptly forgot about doing it but here they are:

welcome to

Redacted Gaming HCs

——————————————————————————

• Various members of the Shaw Pack are fans of the Telltale games. Ash and Milo previously played The Wolf Among Us together while in college. They invited David who wasn’t super interested at the time.

• Once a week for a few months, the Shaw Pack would get together and play through The Walking Dead: The Game. Clementine was declared the pack’s baby and by the end of Episode 5, there was not a single dry eye in the house.

• Angel, Baaabe, Sweetheart, and Sam all have a Stardew Valley world together.

-Angel runs that world like a tight ship. I’m talking spreadsheets, notebooks, a chest in every villager’s house with favored items, the whole shebang.

-Baaaabe and Sweetheart go mining together and will sometimes end up accidentally blowing up either one or both of themselves with bombs.

-Sam’s the fisherman. He finds it peaceful, though sometimes his mic picks up his furious clicking. If he’s not fishing, he’s foraging or tending to the crops/animals. He’s always the first one out the door to pet all the animals every day.

• Darlin’s not much of a gamer, but they like watching Sam play with the other mates. On a quieter night when Darlin’ doesn’t have a gig, they’ll shift and lay around on the couch, watching Sam’s little character run around. They let out a little huff of playful fake jealousy every time Sam gives a gift to a villager. This is usually met with a chuckle and head scratches.

• Lovely likes playing indie games. Hades, Hotline Miami, Undertale, Limbo, Hollow Knight, Mouthwashing. Their current fixation is Balatro and right now, they’re playing through Spiritfarer with Vincent. Eventually, they plan to get Vince to play It Takes Two and Split Fiction with them.

• Damien is not much of a gamer, but he is an enjoyer of soulslike games. He’s also a bit of a completionist. So far he’s 100% on Elden Ring, Dark Souls 1&2, and Lies of P. He’s currently playing Sekiro and plans on playing Black Myth: Wukong after finishing Sekiro.

- Huxley once asked Damien why he liked the soulslike games and Damien told him they were relaxing. That was probably the first and only time Hux has ever looked judgmental of him.

• Dear and Freelancer play Schedule 1 together. They frequently delight in giving their products the most unserious names. Freelancer’s the grower/cooker, Dear is the dealer (and also the one who goes around punching cops and then riding away on their skateboard cackling evilly). Without consulting each other, they both inadvertently went with v-neck, jorts, and sandals for character creation and brush out into laughter when they saw each other.

• During Damn Crew hangouts, Gavin once commented on their lack of diversity in games they play. In response to that, Lasko found and purchased an Xbox 360 with Kinect and now game night also come with a delightful Just Dance 2022 portion of the night. You’ve never seen 6 adults lock the fuck in so quickly.

• Speaking of Lasko, now that he’s gotten more confident in himself, that’ll sometimes come out in games, but very specifically, in Overcooked. He makes the gameplan in his head and he’ll assign people to specific positions and make them make plenty of dishes beforehand, knowing the timer doesn’t start until they start serving.

• Hush LOVES the Pokémon Games. He saw Doc’s GBA sitting on a bookshelf and asked them about it one day. Doc spent the rest of the day explaining (read:gushing) the world of Pokémon and teaching him the basics of Pokémon Emerald. Hush’s favorite Gen 3 starter is Mudkip. (Not biased :3)

• David, Christian, and Arden play Apex together. David’s a Bloodhound/Pathfinder player, Christian’s an Octane/Mirage player, and Arden’s a Wraith main.

• Ollie once tried Genshin Impact for 20 minutes and then uninstalled. He didn’t like it. He felt it was too much like Breath of the Wild. He did like Kaeya’s design though.

• Elliott plays the Assassin’s Creed series. He really liked Black Flag and Odyssey. He refuses to engage with the AC fandom because he finds it toxic and annoying and it’s much more enjoyable when he doesn’t have people whining in his ear about how awful it is.

• Lasko once left The Stanley Parable open overnight and came back super late after work to find an achievement he was never expecting to get.

• Anton plays the Sims every so often where he’ll build his and Love’s dream house and has them living together in it.

• If there’s a game with in-depth main character creation, Elliott spends a lot of time trying to recreate Sunshine in those so he can have them with him on his adventures. Sunshine finds it a little weird to see themselves on screen, but they also find it endearing to see how much attention and care Eli puts into it.

• Milo plays scary games even though he hates them because he knows what kind of awful shit Sweetheart sees on a day to day basis and watching him freak out for a couple of hours is fine with him if it gets their mind off things. Sweetheart also gets a little freaked out by these games, but they’re better at hiding it. Milo’s reactions and commentary keeps them cool and grounded.

• Baaabe has a switch and plays the Yakuza games on it when they cuddle with Asher. Ash loves to feel how engrossed they get in the game when they clutch his fur in shock or they actually sit up and show him the screen, going “Babe, can you believe this??” to which he’ll give a sniff of disbelief, even if he doesn’t really know what’s going on.

• Blake plays rhythm games. Or, I guess, played. Not much time for Osu with a very present being in your head.

• Aaron is just a tetris god??? He’s really good at tetris. His 40 line clear is 0:54.

-This isn’t a headcanon, I just feel the need to share this with you guys, I was looking up the WR on 40 line clear to make sure I wasn’t being super egregious about how fast Aaron could clear it and the WR is 13.650 SECONDS? I am a former Tetris enthusiast and that processing speed is absolutely insane to me.

• Dear is the best at Wordle, Connections, and the Crossword. So far, they have a 72 day streak, with Huxley at 41, and Lasko at 39.

• Guy hates horror movies and Honey is ok with them, the same thing happens with video games. However, Guy’s able to handle it a little better when he watches Honey play horror games. He still gets grossed out by all of the gratuitous gore. When Honey began switching up tactics throughout the current game, he questioned why their playstyle was changing so drastically repeatedly and was absolutely horrified to find out that the Xenomorph’s AI learned from how the player played.

• David and Milo hate Back 4 Blood. (;-;) Asher was fine with it, but they just couldn’t get with the deck system and found it too bloated and unmanageable. They enjoyed the simplicity of shoot zombies.

——————————————————————————

If I think of more, I’ll make a part 2, but that’s it for now :D

[entryn17]

people are still so quick to go "yeah i caused all these routes when playing undertale except for the really bad one the game explicitly says is my fault entirely and is crafted in such a way to be specifically tedious for me to go through with to prove a point about my nature as a curious player with (sometimes) a completionist streak. then it's actually a dead child possessing me and making me press all those buttons"

[carlyraejepsans]

UTY!Flowey, "lore" and how to criticize a fan prequel without being an insufferable pedantic, a guide by Biscia.

(for my muskless fellows, here's a transcript of my thread on Undertale Yellow that I posted on Twitter. enjoy!)

There's this really frustrating attitude in fan spaces i like to call "lorepilling" where people are substantially more concerned with encyclopedic knowledge of details & minutiae (so called "lore") in place of full-text thematic/narrative analysis as if the two are mutually interchangeable.

It's especially common in large franchises and story heavy videogames, and it's like... Are You Treating This Piece Of Art Like A Trivia Battle Or Are You Treating It Like A Story

This is coming from a person who is also deeply autistic about UTDR trivia btw, I'm just saying that when it comes to transformative *stories*, depending on the impact it has on character, themes, and narrative structure... lore is expendable.

Ultimately this is why most of the UTY criticism i see (on twitter specifically) falls flat. What does it matter if "lore" means Flowey couldn't chronologically be there when the justice human fell, as long as the game narratively justified his presence in the story in a compelling way?

The real criticism, in the end, is that it didn't.

He's a plot central, main cast character from the canon returning in a cast of mostly OCs and what does he have to show for it? An admittedly sick boss battle in 1/3 endings, sure but... not much else. He has no significant "presence" in the story, no tie, interaction, or even just... an opinion on the rest of the cast. Which is a huge miss when Flowey's meta role is to be Thee completionist player mirror. He's the OG lorepilled UT fan! He's an opinionated little shit!

This isn't to say that UTY *didn't* engage w/ his metanarrative. When me and @a-town-called-hometown first started playing the game (we were both skeptical of Flowey's inclusion), he immediately said "It would be really cool if they made it so this has been going on for a while and Clover has no idea". Which is precisely what the game did in the neutral ending, and what I will openly say was the most well written & well executed part of this game's story...

...a part we almost didn't see, because the pacifist ending disappointed us so much we lost all will to replay.

To put it in the words of my friend Mel @clowwwnbytes, there's a deafening hollowness to UTY Flowey's motivations & core principles where his guilt towards Chara—and resulting black and white thinking—should be. You're telling me Mr Kill-or-be-killed, "sacrificing yourself to do the right thing is stupid", would stand there after 1000s of failed attempts to make Clover survive, look on as they make the same mistake Asriel he did, and fondly call them friend? Cue the guitar, roll the credits?

He would lose it. Oh my god he would lose his goddamn mind, he would throw the nastiest temper tantrum in the world. Are you serious? How dare you. How DARE you. All this effort, all my patience, and you just let yourself DIE for a few worthless idiots? I should've let you ROT!

*clears throat* sorry got a bit too into character. as i was saying.

I can understand a UT prequel wanting to distance itself from the canon Chara storyline in order to form its own identity, but then turning around and choosing Insane About Chara The Character™ for a sidekick is... far from optimal. In the end, Flowey comes across as underutilized and inconsistent, with a whole lot of wasted potential.

This is an issue I have with UTY's character writing (original AND returning) and story structure as a whole. Lots of inconsistent character arcs, tonal dissonance, overuse of situational sadness... it's an amateurish work, after all, and you can feel it. There's no shame in that.

(Though, there ARE some issues that i take more seriously with its writing, especially when it comes to its two main female characters—Ceroba's lack of narrative agency and depth borders on misogynistic writing imo. But that's a topic for another day)

Over all, UTY was an incredible piece of collaborative transformative work, with gorgeous art and a genuinely incredible OST, which... would have benefited from more experienced writers. But hey, you can only ever learn by trying!

For all it could've been a better story, it certainly did not fail to entertain: both when my friend was playing it, and after in our many discussions of its writing, its faults and how it could've been improved (royal scientist!ceroba character fix you will always be famous. to ME!)

I'm sure this project served as an incredible source of experience for the developers: as individual creators AND as a team. I look forward to their future projects!

but also if i have to see another person say UTY is better than Undertale i might turn into The Jonker.

end of the essay! really couldn't stand any of the pedantic ""criticism"" I'd seen of this fangame so far, so i had to say my piece as someone more versed in analysis. happy to elaborate on anything in the replies or in my inbox!

[maripr]

I do have a theory about deltarune that's not as smart as other people's theories, so don't really look too much into it

Also I'm not trolling

My theory is that Kris is Chara. Not as in haha Kris is evil and is gonna destroy the universe.

But that Kris is the actual human who fell down and we named in Undertale. They seem to be a troubled kid, with both good and bad qualities. I think Chara is the "true name" in the sense that it's a placeholder name for the PLAYER

So in Undertale the player and the fallen human end up having the same will to destroy everything just to see what happens in the genocide route, overwriting frisk's personality. But Chara introduces themselves as the demon that comes when people call its name.

Meaning literally when the player inputs the name. That's why Chara is the "true name". At the end of the day, it's the player who's to blame. Chara confronting us at the end of the genocide route is kinda like the game turning on us, like "this is what you wanted after all"

The character we name in Undertale has a backstory and gets corrupted into a demon by us in the genocide route, while possibly just being a narrator in the pacifist.

I simply think Chara is not a real name lmao.

The difference between Undertale and deltarune is that the fallen human is long dead in UT and the barrier between them and the player is thinner. In deltarune they're still very much alive and resisting our control.

Basically this is my theory: Chara is the True name of a completionist player. Kris was the true name of the human being who fell down and died in Undertale, but survived and grew up in deltarune, albeit with a difficult upbringing.

This also makes me wonder if Frisk exists in the deltarune universe and if we're gonna meet them

[gooselycharm]

answering some asks

thank you!! i will at some point in the future for sure. i'll probably retire the "completionist bundle" i had been offering though. it was just kind of hard to handle logistically and i've gotten a lot busier since i first put the listing up. also sorry you didn't know it got printed!!! i am not good. at marketing. despite running a store and also that being my real life job

thank you so much!!! <3

you're welcome!! thanks for asking and enjoying! related, i might put up the "something else" process PDF somewhere to read for free... should i make an itch.io. i always thought having an itch.io was really cool

thank you!!!! what being unemployed does to a mf. also there is a printed version of that in my store right now! everything is on sale for 25% off and i'll be closing my shop for a month next saturday~ so get it while you can~

hahahaha omg thank you!! i'm very flattered... i just really.. really really.... really like their dynamic. chapter 4 wassss soooo juicy and i feel sooooo VALIDATED !!!!! LOL. watch this space.

omgggggggg if i someone gave me enough money to quit my job i absolutely would. however 1) i am pretty slow at art 2) i don't think i have it in me to do another long form project like that rn 3) i feel like this probably exists already and though that doesn't always discourage me from pursuing an idea, in this case i don't really feel the urge to~ also sorry, this ask is from like. two years ago.

(is pulled off stage via comically oversized cane)

actually, i don't really think transness as a theme is that prominent in undertale. i think the most that pops up is the usage of they/them pronouns to refer to chara/frisk/the playable character that, at first, seems like a way to make the protagonist more relatable - such a blank slate, they don't even have a defined gender! everyone can project onto them! and then, it's revealed at the end that they do have an actual identity, a name, etc. i believe that the usage of they/them pronouns perhaps could have started as a storytelling tool in undertale (i think there are some realllyyyyy old tweets of toby using he for frisk), unlike deltarune where i think the kris' nonbinary identity is thematically important from the get-go.

i thought i didn't have that much to say about this but it turns out maybe i do. it's been a LONG time since i played undertale, though, so i might be getting some things wrong. also, i don't think it's any of this is a negative thing. it's just different and interesting in its own way!

anyway sorry some of these are like two years old. i haven't really felt the desire to interact with fandom much but im back. pls send me asks about deltarune i wanna yap/doodle

[horrorvale]

HorrorVale Development Blog: End of Year

Hello, citizens of HorrorVale!

As the year draws to a close, we (or more specifically me, Dustin) wanted to put together a little blog to talk about HorrorVale! How launch went, what our current and future plans are, and more!

(Note that this blog post does not receive audio, so if you respond I cannot hear it.)

Dream Colosseum

First, before I start talking about HorrorVale's Launch, I want to discuss an upcoming patch.

Currently, we're working on a massive patch for HorrorVale that will include the following:

Even MORE bug fixes

Brand new optional dialogue for every single party member in the game for main story cutscenes

More skill re-balancing

Other minor things and scenes I still wish to include

But most importantly... The DREAM COLOSSEUM!

I originally didn't think many people would bother with the "Secret Bosses" in HorrorVale, but since so many of you enjoyed them and also desired to get more opportunities to mess with party combinations, I decided to punish you horribly!

The Dream Colosseum is a brand new feature that will allow you to fight Bosses you fought previously, now all scaled up to End game stats, with new moves and quirks, and all very difficult.

If you've fought the "Last Secret Boss", now you get to imagine what a Dream Colosseum version might be like.

It will require you to 100% the game to access, but won't give any unique rewards outside of a cosmetic change to Alice's bedroom so people don't feel compelled to torture themselves for completionists sake. Naturally, there won't be any new trophies either.

Right now we're working steadily on this update, and hope to have it out very early next year.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about how launch actually went for HorrorVale...

HorrorVale Launch

After 8 years in development and 5 years since announced, HorrorVale finally released on October 1st, 2024.

This reception has been tremendous.

Leading up to release, I was anxious but overall feeling pretty good about launch. There were minor things I wish I had included or changed, but knew that delaying what was otherwise a feature complete game would be extremely silly.

I actually intended on releasing these things as a patch in the first week of launch, in the hopes of catching most people before they get too deep in the game.

...What I did not expect however, was the unfortunate discovery of several bugs, some of which were game breaking.

What made these bugs especially frustrating is that most of them were NEW bugs, created from me adding things right before launch, or fixing other unrelated bugs.

Due to these bugs and the massive influx of new fans, comments, reviews, and more I found myself extremely overwhelmed, and it ended up being probably one of the most stressful 2 weeks of my life after launch.

In the end, everything worked out and I was quick to patch the game...

...Multiple times.

Still, despite these issues the reception was overwhelmingly positive. Certainly some critiques here and there, but the general response was that the game was so enjoyable that even the most egregious critiques could be brushed aside. All of the wonderful things I've read by people who had fun in the world I created... It truly means the world to me. The... Underworld you might say.

I'm sure some people are also interested in how the game actually DID. Good reviews and positive reception are one thing, but this is also a product being sold, so how did it DO!? Did it SMASH RECORDS and become bigger than UNDERTALE? Did it FLOP???

Well, to be honest I'm not entirely sure!

Which is a strange thing to say, but it's difficult to gauge "Success" when so many factors can change what that means. For a AAA game, success means something very different to a small indie game with a publisher, which also means something very different to a ragtag team of people with no real budget, no publisher, no marketing, and especially no notoriety whatsoever. Not to mention as first time developers we have little to compare it to...

But that being said...

As of right now, HorrorVale has sold...

1,000 COPIES!

That's an INSANE amount of people. If all of you were in a big room crowded around me, I would be very scared.

That's 1,000 new citizens to HorrorVale that have entered its gates.

If we gauge success purely based off "did it make back what you invested in it?", then HorrorVale was absolutely a success!

However, unfortunately it did not necessarily meet the expectations we had.

Going into the launch of HorrorVale, I had 3 goals in mind.

To make back what I invested in it (out of pocket, not including Patreon earnings)

To pay Matt, the composer full royalties for the HorrorVale OST (since he created the entire 170 track monster soundtrack for FREE.)

To be able to devote myself full time to Game Development

Of these three... Only 1 has been achieved so far.

While I generally try to avoid discussing topics like these, I feel like it's important context for the next piece of discussion. The future of HorrorVale.

HorrorVale: Act M

HorrorVale: Act M is a small side story featuring none other than Mothman himself! This spinoff game was greenlit thanks to HorrorVale fans reaching our Wishlist goal for the main game. This game will tell the story of HorrorVale from Mothman's perspective, giving you new insight into his side of the story, as well as elaborate on events leading up to and following that story.

I think there's something really special waiting for you in Act M, and I want to use it as an opportunity to experiment with the HorrorVale formula based off of feedback from the main game.

No matter what, this project will begin development and it will be in your hands....

...At some point.

Which is where the previous topic comes into play, because naturally how long Act M takes to make is dependent on the time I have free to work on it. HorrorVale sales could certainly pick up, and I might one day be able to devote myself fully to game dev, but for now Act M will have to follow the same development process as "HorrorVale", which means it's difficult to give an estimate of how long it'll take to make!

What I can say for sure, is that Act: M will be much, much shorter than HorrorVale. Don't expect a 50 hour experience! I'm aiming for something more like 8.

And yet, you might be asking yourself dear reader...

"How can we help?"

Indeed, you asked yourself that exact sentence and in the voice of the King from Zelda CD-I no doubt.

Which brings us to the next topic!

Patreon Revival

My original plan after HorrorVale launched was to completely retire the HorrorVale Patreon as it seemed unnecessary at that point, but since:

We did not reach our expectations of sales so far

Several fans expressed a desire to support the game in some way because of the Steam Early Access debacle

I thought it made sense to keep it up and give it a little makeover.

Now fully dedicated to "Act: M", you can expect Monthly Progress Reports here, just like the main game!

Not only that, but we've added a brand new "Cryptid" Tier, that will allow you... Yes YOU! The ability to design a Creepy, Scary, or Starry for Mothman to fight in Act: M! We don't want Mothman to just fight all the same enemies as Alice! He'd naturally encounter foes she never even knew existed. This is your opportunity to help the game out and get to be a part of it as well.

(Please note that in order to participate in this reward, you must be 18 years or older and willing to give all rights of your design to Batworks Software.)

(Also please note that Mothman will kill your beautiful creation with a crossbow and it will hurt very badly.)

Since as of now I can't "live" off of HorrorVale sales, instead my plan is to put it and Act: M Patreon earnings towards Act: M itself and Mystery Future Project. This will help ensure a smooth development cycle as possible. If you're interested in helping out the HorrorVale universe, now's your chance!

Of course, forking over your hard earned candy isn't the only way to help though!

Just enjoying the game and telling your friends about it is a MASSIVE help. Without a marketing team, word of mouth is a tremendous help to us, and it's thanks to that that we're here at all!

Closing

In closing, I just want to say thank you to all of the HorrorVale fans that have supported us over all these years. The love that HorrorVale has been shown has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. As long as I'm able to, I'd like to read every comment and message I can, but I fear that if the game does get bigger one day I won't be able to see them all. Just know that the love you've given Alice and her friends mean the world to me.

Wait Stop Right There What Do You MEAN "Mystery Future Project"???

That's all for now goodbye!!!!!!

*The device he was speaking from explodes spontaneously*

[smashy-headcanons]

Today I have finally beaten Earthbound!!!

My thoughts (spoilers aplenty):

Ness is joining the "oops this is mine now" squad.

There were multiple parts of the game (especially near the end) where I thought "Oh just like Undertale". You can definitely tell where there was inspiration.

While the ending implies Paula does have feelings for Ness (her goodbye is very prolonged and awkward), most mentions of them having a relationship feel very "oh a little boy and girl are hanging out, obviously that's his girlfriend teehee". Though I can see that being very intentional tbh.

Jeff you oblivious fuck answer Tony's phone calls or at least write him a letter. "That Tony has a heart of gold" bitch I'll kill you (affectionate)

I do enjoy Poo, but I feel like even for how late into the game he joined, he had less dialogue or chances to really shine than Paula and Jeff. The part where he rejoined with PSI Starstorm was awesome though.

Ness is rich as hell god damn

Give me more inventory spaaaaace.

Controversial opinion mayhaps but while this game does have some good tracks most of its music is either mid or just... bad. And that is coming from someone whose standards for good/enjoyable music is close to rock bottom.

DO NOT TRY TO GRIND FOR THE 1/128 EQUIPMENT. I SAY THIS AS A (PSEUDO)COMPLETIONIST, IT IS NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE. YOU ALSO RISK DILUTING A MAJOR SCENE IF YOU OVERDO IT.

The foreshadowy ending is very funny to see when you're playing in 2025 and Mother 3 still isn't released outside of Japan.

The fight against Giygas did have me genuinely curious about Earthbound Beginnings. If I don't play it myself I may watch a let's play.

Overall, while there were some gripes I had I liked it a lot and I do recommend the game to those who haven't played it.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

just had a horrible headcannon for the killer boi. But leaning more onto the fact that player can interact with his au.

Like, something new au aren't just born like that they basically go through rebirth any undertale timeline can become a something new timeline only when a player/creator directly influences the au. Their are all different kind of players and I imagine as more something new timeline are created the worse it becomes for the Killer as the player tries to find new ways to push the au to be new and different even from other of its kind.

Like imagine speedrunners competing to turn sans into killer as fast as possible. Role-playing controlling killer to live out their fantasies until they get bored. Completionist trying to do everything you can possible do to every person including sans.

All Killers have different experiences some things remain the same but as more timelines are created the more different they become. I imagine this means that any time Nightmare gets a new Killer he has to figure out what's different with this one especially as the more he goes through different Killer the harder they are to predict.

That’s perfect. I love it. He’s like the Multiverse’s mutating experimental cockroach.

[homoquartz]

okee dokee here's some video game recs!! indie/small studio only

these games are ALL top marks for me. there's none that i'm like, meh about. they do have some issues probably, but it's outshined by how fun and memorable they are. i'm happy to expand on any of them.

exploration games

what remains of edith finch

slime rancher

firewatch

subnautica

paradise killer

journey

strategy/puzzle games

overland

dorfromantik

unpacking

potionomics

the witness (recommended only if you're not a completionist - one of the puzzles is timed to take like 2 irl hours)

grim fandango

portal 1 and 2

farming sims

stardew valley of course

my time at sandrock (early access)

narrative games

disco elysium

i was a teenage exocolonist

little misfortune

tacoma

the stanley parable

other

hades

viscera cleanup detail

psychonauts 1 and 2

night in the woods

soma

undertale

left 4 dead

life is strange (first game only)

bonus (big publisher but old so people forgot it): bully / canis canem edit