How Undertale Was Made and Why its Success Scared The Creator

This Undertale documentary details the development of the indie video game Undertale and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover how developer Toby Fox came up with the idea for the unconventional RPG and how he wanted to challenge conventional RPG mechanics and tropes and fully embrace the video game medium. While Toby developed Undertale mostly on his own, he did receive help from several artists, most notably a friend of his named Temmie Chang.

The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Toby Fox made and how the game was inspired by a Wikipedia article about arrays. It also details how Toby Fox struggled with the success of Undertale and even caused a burnout. Lastly, the documentary also takes a look at Toby's next project Deltarune.

References:

Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale

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[synthetic]

I finally realized that when Muffet said, "I was hired by a man in the shadows, " She meant she was a fan design.

[shadoninja]

Undertale's soundtrack is one of its strongest assets. I still listen to it years later. It is just so good.

[callumsparrow]

Can't believe Undertale's about to turn half a decade old in roughly 2 weeks.

[PorthoGamesBR]

THIS is the part that people dont see. Toby maybe one of the few indie devs that managed to get a hit on his first release, but it wasnt his first experience. Toby was working on art, programming, music, etc way before he released the demo. And even with the demo he still had to work a lot to create Undertale, write stories, scratch designs and musics. Considering the time Toby studied before creating Undertale, we can say that he worked on it for a least 5 years

[RandoomBoyo]

The 'Undertale' track will always make me slightly emotional about Undertale

[tayebbelahbib]

that's really heart touching, especially the last line when toby said that he hopes someday a kid played undertale creates a similar game, thank you man i really needed to watch that

[narkify]

I can’t believe it’s 2020 and people STILL appreciate this game. I’ll never forget how amazing this game was to play, and I hope others don’t forget it either :)

[brickabang]

“i wonder if kids will get crushes on characters in my game. like, papyrus or sans. i feel bad for these theoretical children”
-Toby Fox before undertale was released

[dewahoki]

"I hope someday a kid who liked Undertale grows up and makes an amazing game. I would be happy to play that."

Me: •-• i cried. really tho that is heart touching.

[duchi]

With how hardcore the Fandom has become
Toby Fox had good reasons to be scared

[WeylandProductions]

It's so fascinating and inspiring how a game made in GameMaker and Microsoft Paint has had more cultural impact and success than most triple A studio games today

[harnessedcomic]

I wish people would give temmie more credit it seems like she did a lot of the work as well

[RadenWA]

What people need to learn from Undertale is that it’s not an overnight success. Toby has had a long background from already established fandoms, namely Earthbound and Homestuck, making things like mods and musics, and then he makes something small as a demo and sets up a funding and expanded that demo only after the funding is well-established.

Don’t fall into the trap (like my studio’s indie game did) of just making a big thing on your own for years out of your own pocket, with no community or backing and then just releasing it expecting it to blow up. It won’t. Save yourself from this disappointment.

[TheRedCap]

you forgot to mention the part when Toby kicked the creator of Super Smash Bros' ass in his own game.

[avalonseer]

I cant wrap my head of HOW THEY USED MICROSOFT PAINT TO DRAW MOST OF UNDERTALE.

[Brixxter]

Deltarune makes me feel "that way" again for sure. There's just something about his humor and creativity that doesn't get stale for me.

[arhamhasan]

On how detailed undertale is. It has separate endings for every route depending on who you kill, it actually *remembers* what you did in the previous route, it has a "hacker" ending too, it focuses on all the small details, even which eye sans winks at you with depending on the route! The loveable characters, the immense detail, the game's graphics and everything all in all, especially the soundtrack... It's simply amazing. Great job, Toby.

[ythunter]

Toby: Earthbound helped me learn how to read
Media: I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that.

[nutninjagoesbananaserc]

I like how everybody just universally agrees that Megalovania is Sans’ theme when Toby himself said he put it in because Megalovania was “the Total Embodiment of Final Bossitude”. Just like Dating Start, the theme doesn’t belong to a character, but to a situation.

[gooeyPhantasm]

I feel like Touhou is not brought up enough when it comes to Undertale’s influences. Toby began playing Touhou games in middle school, and they are what inspired him to compose music more. He performed an arrangement of Necrofantasia at his church in high school, and received a standing ovation. The importance of Touhou to not only Toby Fox but all indie games is too often overlooked. Props to you for mentioning it for like 15 seconds.