Undertale is a horribly made game

Summary

This video delves into the unique development of 'Undertale,' a game renowned for its unconventional approach. Despite creator Toby Fox's lack of professional development experience, 'Undertale' achieved massive success through its innovative gameplay, where players could choose to spare or kill enemies, leading to different outcomes, including a self-destructive 'genocide route.' The game's code is a tapestry of workarounds and attempts, reflecting a passion for storytelling and player choice. Its art style, though imperfect, adds charm, and the dialogue is managed through a massive 'if' statement, showcasing a commitment to customization. The video also highlights 'Undertale's' inspiration to other game developers and the role of 'Game Maker' in enabling such creative freedom.

Takeaways

• 😀 Toby Fox, the developer of Undertale, is celebrated for creating a best-selling game despite not being an expert developer.
• 🔍 The game's code includes workarounds and failed attempts, showcasing a learning process rather than polished perfection.
• 💥 A unique feature of Undertale is the 'genocide route', where the game crashes itself as a form of ending, symbolizing the destruction of the game world.
• 🎨 The art style of Undertale is intentionally quirky and imperfect, which adds to its charm and has influenced the perception of the game by players.
• 🚫 Some of the game's art was simplified or changed because it was deemed 'too good', emphasizing the desired rough aesthetic.
• 📝 Undertale's dialogue is managed through a massive 'if' statement, a less efficient but unique approach compared to the standard database method.
• 🐶 The game is known for its memorable characters, including dogs that players can interact with, which has resonated with many players.
• 🔑 Undertale features a 'fun value' system that randomizes certain events and secrets, enhancing replayability and personalization of the player's experience.
• 🛠 The game was developed using Game Maker, a user-friendly engine that has been instrumental in the creation of many indie games.
• 🌟 Undertale's success story serves as an inspiration to many solo game developers, demonstrating that passion and creativity can triumph over technical expertise.

Q & A

What was Toby Fox's initial intention for the Genocide route ending in Undertale?

Toby Fox initially wanted the game to delete itself off the player's system as if it had been uninstalled, symbolizing the destruction of the game world by the player's actions.

Why was the initial idea for the Genocide route ending not implemented?

Toby Fox did not know how to implement the feature that would delete the game itself from the player's system, despite his attempts.

How does the game handle dialogue differently from other games?

Undertale handles dialogue through one massive if statement called a switch statement, which contains all the dialogue in the game, rather than using a separate file or database for text.

What is the significance of the 'fun value' in Undertale?

The 'fun value' is a random number assigned at the start of each playthrough that determines the occurrence of rare events and encounters, making each playthrough unique.

What is the impact of the art style on the game's reception?

The quirky, colorful, and imperfect art style of Undertale has been divisive among players, with some passing on the game because of it, while others appreciate its charm.

Why was some of Undertale's art removed or changed?

Some art was removed or changed because it looked too good, which did not fit the game's intended style. For example, an animation of Papyrus was simplified, and an art of Doge was redone to appear 'crappier'.

What is the significance of the lava creature in the development of Undertale?

The lava creature was an early test sprite that was later renamed to 'pole' and used as an object without a face in the game.

How does the dialogue system in Undertale differ from common practices?

Instead of using a database or file system for dialogue, Undertale's dialogue is managed through a massive switch statement that runs every time a dialogue box appears.

Why is the dialogue system in Undertale considered inefficient?

The dialogue system is considered inefficient because it uses a large switch statement that could slow down the game, but Undertale's low memory requirements prevent substantial lag.

What is the role of secrets in Undertale's design?

Secrets in Undertale are designed to be rare and sometimes undiscoverable, adding to the game's charm and encouraging players to explore and replay the game.

How does Undertale inspire other game developers?

Undertale's success and unique design have inspired many solo game developers, showing that passion and creativity can lead to impactful games even without being an expert programmer.

What is the significance of the Game Maker software in the creation of Undertale?

Game Maker is the software Toby Fox used to create Undertale. It is beginner-friendly and allowed him to develop the game despite not being a professional developer.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 The Making of Undertale

The paragraph discusses the development of Undertale by Toby Fox, emphasizing his innovative problem-solving and the game's unique features. It highlights the game's code, which includes workarounds and failed attempts, contributing to its charm. The 'genocide route' is mentioned, where the game crashes as a form of ending, originally intended to delete the game files but not achieved. The art style is described as quirky and colorful, with intentional imperfections that add to its appeal. The paragraph also touches on the game's dialogue system, which is managed through a massive if statement rather than a separate text file, making Undertale a highly customized experience.

05:02

💡 Secrets and Creativity in Undertale

This paragraph delves into the secrets and hidden aspects of Undertale, such as the 'fun value' assigned at the start of each playthrough that determines rare occurrences. It discusses the game's approach to secrets and how they are designed to be missed, adding to the personal experience. The paragraph also covers Toby Fox's coding style, which is unorthodox but effective, and his use of Game Maker, a beginner-friendly software that has been used to create other iconic indie titles. The paragraph concludes by celebrating Undertale's imperfections and the passion behind its creation.

10:04

🐕 The Impact and Community of Undertale

The final paragraph underscores Undertale's influence on game developers, suggesting that many solo developers have been inspired by it. It mentions the game's feature of petting dogs, which resonates with players. The paragraph also invites viewers to join a community of game developers and reflects on the broader impact of Undertale, hinting at its role in inspiring a generation of indie game creators.

Keywords

💡Undertale

Undertale is an indie role-playing game developed by Toby Fox. It is the central focus of the video script, which discusses various aspects of the game's development, including its unique gameplay mechanics, story, and art style. The game is noted for its distinctive approach to player choice, allowing players to spare or kill enemies, which affects the game's outcome. The script also mentions Undertale's 'genocide route,' where the game crashes itself as a narrative device, reflecting the game's innovative and quirky design.

💡Toby Fox

Toby Fox is the developer of Undertale, who is portrayed in the script as a passionate creator rather than a highly technical programmer. The video discusses Fox's innovative problem-solving in the game's code, such as his attempts to make the game delete itself as part of the 'genocide route' ending. Despite not being a professional developer, Fox's work on Undertale has inspired many and is a testament to the game's impact on the indie gaming scene.

💡Gameplay Mechanics

Gameplay mechanics refer to the rules and interactions that make up how a game functions. In the context of Undertale, the script highlights the mechanics of sparing or killing enemies, which is a core element of the game's narrative and moral choices. The video also discusses the 'genocide route' as a mechanic that leads to the game's self-destruction, showcasing the depth of player interaction and consequence within the game.

💡Art Style

The art style of Undertale is described as quirky, colorful, and not perfectly polished. The script mentions that the game's art was intentionally kept from being too polished, with examples such as Papyrus' animation being simplified to fit the game's aesthetic. This art style contributes to Undertale's charm and is a significant part of its identity, setting it apart from other games with more conventional visual designs.

💡Dialogue Handling

Dialogue handling in video games typically involves managing the text that characters speak. Undertale's method, as described in the script, is unconventional, using a massive 'switch statement' to control dialogue instead of a separate text file. This approach is less efficient but allows for a highly customized experience where dialogue varies greatly based on player choices, reflecting the game's focus on player agency and narrative depth.

💡Game Maker

Game Maker is the software used by Toby Fox to develop Undertale. The script praises Game Maker for its intuitive interface and beginner-friendly nature, which allowed Fox to create a complex game despite not being a professional developer. The software supports both coding and a visual drag-and-drop system, making it accessible for a wide range of users. The video suggests that Game Maker's ease of use was a significant factor in the creation of Undertale and other indie games.

💡Genocide Route

The 'genocide route' in Undertale is an alternative path where the player kills all enemies. The script discusses how this choice leads to a unique ending where the game crashes itself, symbolizing the destruction of the game world. This mechanic is a key part of Undertale's narrative, emphasizing the weight of the player's actions and the game's exploration of morality.

💡Indie Games

Indie games are video games developed independently of large commercial publishers. Undertale is highlighted in the script as a prime example of an indie game that has made a significant impact on the gaming community. The video suggests that Undertale's success and unique design have inspired many solo game developers, contributing to the rich diversity of indie gaming.

💡Player Choice

Player choice is a central theme in Undertale, as discussed in the script, where the player's decisions significantly affect the game's outcome. The game offers a genuine choice between killing or sparing enemies, leading to different narrative paths and endings. This emphasis on player agency is praised in the video as a refreshing departure from games where choices are illusory or have minimal impact on the gameplay.

💡Funky Code

The term 'funky code' refers to the unconventional and less efficient programming methods used in Undertale's development. The script describes how Toby Fox's coding, while not optimal, works effectively due to the game's low resource requirements. This aspect of Undertale's development underscores the video's message that passion and creativity can overcome technical limitations in game creation.

💡Secrets and Easter Eggs

Secrets and Easter eggs are hidden features or jokes in video games that players can discover. The script mentions Undertale's use of these elements, such as the game assigning a 'fun value' at the start of each playthrough that determines rare occurrences. These secrets enhance the game's replay value and contribute to Undertale's reputation for depth and detail, as discussed in the video.

Highlights

Toby Fox's Undertale is notable for its innovative workarounds and failed attempts, showcasing the game's development process.

The game's code includes an interesting feature where choosing the 'genocide route' leads to the game crashing itself as an ending.

Toby Fox's initial idea for the game's ending was to delete Undertale from the player's system, but he couldn't achieve it.

Other games like Doki Doki Literature Club and One Shot have implemented the unsettling feature of deleting themselves.

Undertale's art style is quirky, colorful, and intentionally imperfect, which has both detractors and fans.

Some of Undertale's art was changed or removed because it looked too polished, going against the game's aesthetic.

The game's dialogue is managed through a massive if statement, which is atypical and less efficient.

Undertale's code includes numerous if statements and complex conditions, making it unique in game development.

The game features a 'fun value' assigned at the start of each playthrough, influencing rare in-game events.

Undertale's development was driven by passion, aiming to tell a story where player choices significantly impact the game.

Toby Fox's Undertale was created using Game Maker, a software that is beginner-friendly and used for many indie games.

Game Maker allows for both code-based and visual drag-and-drop game development, catering to different skill levels.

Undertale has inspired many solo game developers, becoming a significant influence in the indie game scene.

The game is filled with secrets and hidden content, encouraging players to explore and discover.

Undertale's development process and features highlight the importance of creativity and passion over technical perfection.

The game's unique approach to dialogue and story presentation sets it apart from other titles in the industry.

Toby Fox's humor and personality are evident in Undertale's code and hidden messages.

Transcripts

okay you saw the title but I'm not

talking about the gameplay I'm not

talking about the dialogue I'm not

talking about the story I'm talking

about the way that the game was made see

Toby Fox was not an incredible developer

he never claimed to be he never wanted

to be but he still made one of the

bestselling games of all time because

the code of undertale is filled with a

bunch of interesting workarounds to

problems and many failed attempts you

know how you have the option to either

kill enemies or spare them well if you

decide to butcher them all like a

psychopath which I'm sure you know is

called the genocide route you're

eventually given the choice to erase the

world and when you do that the game

comes to an end by crashing itself and

exiting well what was originally meant

to happen in this ending was a little

more intense the initial idea was to

actually delete the game itself off of

your system gone as if you had just

uninstalled it but the thing

is Toby didn't know how to do that he

tried blessed his heart he tried and you

know what it would probably take me a

hot minute to figure out how to do that

too but it's really funny to see his

attempts at doing so in the code you can

see here that he tries every case

sensitive version of deleting the file

name undertale but no luck there are

other games that manage to do that and

the effect is very unsettling you feel

completely powerless doky DOI literature

Club kind of does something like that

and so does a game called One Shot the

idea is that you only have one chance to

beat the game and if you close the game

or leave well the main character who

you're controlling and needs you um dies

of neglect and then you don't have a

character to play the game with so

you're done playing the game it's pretty

intense so you can understand why Toby

wanted to do something like that and it

would have resonated heavily to feel

completely responsible for not only

killing off every character but also

destroying their world in an alternate

timeline that is the genocide route

ending the many endings of undertale are

part of what defines the game but

another part of that is the art style

it's quirky it's colorful and as you

probably noticed

not perfect it's not beautifully shaded

the line work can be a little funky and

it's kind of inconsistent I was trying

to find the general consensus on whether

people liked the art and undertale or

not and I made the mistake of opening a

steam thread which is the one place I

found that's worse than a Reddit thread

but I did get the information that a lot

of people passed on undertale solely

because of the art and what's funny with

that is that a lot of undertale's art

was actually removed or changed because

it looked too good yeah there's this art

of Papyrus where the animation was too

good so they had to simplify it and this

art of Doge had to be redone because it

and I quote didn't look crappy enough

the bad art and I say that very lovingly

definitely has a charm to it though and

even the completely unused art does too

this was an early test Sprite called

lava creature which is later renamed to

pole and used as an object without the

face big Bob has no known purpose but

just kind of exists unused used in the

game and here's this Sprite of Floy

which I think is meant to be funny but

it's honestly the most unsettling

expression that I've seen this character

have I could imagine flowy saying some

pretty terrifying things with this face

or this one wow and speaking of another

interesting thing about the code of

undertale is actually the way that the

dialogue is handled usually when you

make dialogue in a video game you have a

distinct file that has all the possible

text that can pop up in your game this

is usually a CSV file or a Json and you

can think of it as basically a database

for text so then at different parts in

your code you extract specific parts of

this file and that'll depend on what

character you're talking to if you have

a certain item whatever and that's one

of the most efficient and common ways to

do it but the way that undertale handles

dialogue is much worse all of the

dialogue in the entire game every text

box that pops up is handled in one

massive if statement this is what it

looks like it's called a switch ston and

it works like this a condition goes here

let's say we're looking at a number now

if that number is one do this if it's

two do this Etc so for undertale this

was a huge statement containing all of

the dialogue and every time dialogue was

run it would run case 737 out of what

must have been at least 1,000 lines now

this is technically decompiled code so

it looks slightly different but I

imagine that it's like oh if you're in

this part of the game Talking to Papyrus

make it say this if you're in this

specific Place talking to this specific

character with this specific item do

this undertale is already a highly

custom experience where the dialogue

varies greatly depending on what choices

you make so you can imagine the sheer

size of this switch statement and

usually something like this would be

very bad because it would slow things

down and just very inefficient but

undertale itself requires such little

space and memory that I I guess it's

fine it doesn't cause substantial lag

anywhere and I guess Toby was fine doing

it this way so hey all the power to him

he can make the code as unoptimal as he

wants and it doesn't matter and he can

write it however he wants to there are

rooms with literally hundreds of if

statements there's like 10 cutcenes

controlled by one object nestled in an

increasingly verbose series of if

statements to determine where it goes

the Snowballs in that one room have like

a bajillion vertices and then the best

part doesn't matter Kudos toay on

Twitter for that one they also told us

that the moving text box gag in the

conveyor belt room creates and destroys

and recreates the text every single

frame in order to give the illusion of a

moving box that's right ladies and

gentlemen instead of just moving a box

we're going to make it a stop motion

animation Toby clearly writes whatever

he wants to which is why when you

inspect the undertale website you're

actually given a fun little message at

the very bottom that reads what are you

doing looking for Secrets Don't Put your

nose where it doesn't belong or you

might learn something you don't like he

Toby actually once talked about how he's

sad that games in this era don't have

any secrets hardly which I agree and

disagree with but undertale is

definitely one of the games out there

with a lot of secrets secrets throughout

the game that you might actually never

find and they're designed to be that way

and not because you aren't digging hard

enough for them but because at the start

of each new playthrough and undertale

you're actually assigned a random number

from 1 to 100 called a fun value and

then different rare occurrences happen

to depending on what value you got if

your number is in the range of say 2 to

39 you'll get a call from a random

number as you're walking through Snowden

other events will only happen if your

number is one specific value or in a

very small range the occurrences that do

happen are kind of just fun little eggs

or short dialogue or small changes that

don't affect the gameplay a whole lot

but it is cool and not a lot of games

will predetermine a value at the very

start of your game that affects

encounters because that means you're

sacrificing a lot of content that the

player would just never run into it's a

classic game developers dilemma you want

your players to have a custom personal

experience but the more customization or

choices you give them the less gameplay

will be visible across the board but

undertale is built differently cuz it

said you know what I don't care you

would have to replay the entire game in

order to get some endings and there are

so many conditionals that go into every

dialogue statement heck you skip nearly

all the puzzles in the game if you

choose to kill every enemy undertale is

clearly a game made out of passion

wanting to tell a story give you things

to think about and put you into a video

game where your choices actually matter

not the illusion of your choices

mattering where encounters are the same

no matter what dialogue option you

choose which by the way is the stupidest

thing in game design but whatever

undertale don't do that and the best

part is that to make an experience like

that you don't have to be an expert

programmer if anything is the takeaway

from this video it's that games aren't a

science you don't have to be perfectly

optimal of course some things should be

or else we could this fun thing that we

call lag but they don't have to be

Flawless in how they work they just have

to work they have to do what you want

them to do and tell the story that you

want them to tell remember undertale was

made by one person with the help of an

artist in a free software that software

is game maker who I thank for partnering

with me on today's video I've used game

maker for a lot of my own projects and

it was actually the first game engine

that I started making games with I found

that it's very intuitive everything is

laid out on this nice big dashboard

where you can move everything around

folders are pre-made for you it's very

easy to see everything you're working on

at once visually which My Little

organization brain loves and needs tile

sets animations level editing movement

all these scary things in game

development are wildly uncomplicated

compared to other engines I could

explain all those things to you in like

60 seconds but I don't have to because

there are so many tutorials online that

can teach you how to do it because the

community is massive there's a reason

why undertale used it remember Toby Fox

was not not a professional developer but

he's still made undertale because game

maker is extremely beginner friendly

there's a code option where you can

obviously write code for your game or a

visual drag and drop option which can be

a really nice introduction to just

learning how to think like a programmer

and make your very first game we're

talking Hotline Miami hyper light

Drifter Katana zero Delta Rune also of

course those iconic Indie titles have

all been made in game maker it's

completely free to use for any

non-commercial games you make and if you

do decide to sell your games it's it's a

onetime fee for any PC web or mobile

exports you might make and of course

they also offer console exports download

game maker for free using the link in

the description I am so excited to see

all the Indie Games you guys are going

to bring into the world with game maker

now that my friends is why undertale is

the most horrible game ever written and

I hope it's clear by now we know I was

not talking about the gameplay the

dialogue or the story because that is

incredible the game is imperfect it's

quirky a little weird a little funky but

it's a lovable story and it's really

cool to see how many other games it's

gone on to inspire I'd be willing to bet

that at least 50% of solo game

developers could tell you that they were

inspired by undertale that's all I got

though I'm losing my voice I hope you

have a wonderful rest of your day a

wonderful rest of your day if you're

interested in joining a community of

game developers check out the Discord

server Linked In the description I'll

see you guys in the next one

bye hey there are dogs in the game and

you can pet the dogs this might not be

the first game to have so many dogs you

can pet as many dogs you can pet but

people have been wanting their whole

life is a game where you can pet a lot

of dogs