In an update on the Undertale front page, its sole creator Toby Fox shares his thoughts on the game on its fifth anniversary, and goes into detail on the development of its follow-up Deltarune.
Deltarune's first chapter released on Halloween 2018, and Fox plans to release the rest of the game in chapters as well. Fox also admits to struggling with development, as Deltarune's scope is much larger than Undertale's. He lists several points that are more complicated, included the systems and graphics, and also mentions there is significantly more content to Deltarune overall than Undertale—all in all a big task for someone who has only made one game, as Fox states himself, and currently, Deltarune is actually being developed with the help of a small team.
Fox goes on to say he's "largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing" to fully outline Deltarune, and after searching for an alternative to GameMaker, the engine used for Undertale, decided to go back to it after all, which accounts for a large portion development time. With that out of the way, Fox feels "very confident" he can deliver Deltarune's second chapter by the end of 2020. He even goes so far as to offer a complete status breakdown on the progress of each aspect of the game, including the implementation of battles and cutscenes, right down to bug-fixing and translation.
He's also very open about the physical strain of game development, and how his physical limitations keep making the process difficult, saying: "I'm extremely grateful to have a team helping me carry out my design especially because of my disabilities, which have also made development more difficult.
"Although I have long suffered from wrist and hand pain, about five months ago my wrist was the worst it's ever been. I could not play the piano, use the mouse, and barely could use the keyboard."
Because of this, the Deltarune team may still grow in the future. Included in the post is a list of aspects Fox suggests he may need help with to deliver the third chapter, including, but not limited to, a new wrist. You can find a list of disciplines and requirements in the blog post, submissions are possible until the end of September.
There is no set release date for Deltarune chapter two yet, as Fox feels "the real actual time value may be around 50% done". This post exemplifies once again that game development is hard, but it's nice to hear from a dedicated developer who is hitting their stride and trying to look after their health, too.
