zarla-s:
So I got the Undertale artbook and I BET YOU’RE CURIOUS ABOUT WHAT COOL INFO IS INSIDE IT so here are some of the tidbits I think are particularly neat [SPOILERS]:
Undertale owes a massive debt to EarthBound (of course) but also to an old SNES game called Brandish. Brandish, incidentally, features a main character named Varik (sup halloween hack) who is supposed to be you, thus you never get a good look at his face.
Toriel’s house was going to have a water wheel for power, thus the water
in the earlier parts of the Ruins [So for the worldbuilding set, you
could theorize that the Ruins aren’t hooked up to the Core]. That big empty frame over the stairs was going to have a map of the underground in it, and originally there was going to be a bathroom and dining room.
There was going to be a big ice cave full of fireflies in Snowdin, and in that bit where you slide behind the trees right before Greater Dog, there was going to be a strange place with a lot of funny and interesting visuals, like a museum and wall art and dog things, but both never came to be.
Papyrus in his very early stages was going to be a creepy fedora-wearing brony with no redeeming qualities, but Toby decided that was too mean-spirited and decided instead to give him only redeeming qualities, thankfully. EARLY PAPYRUS WAS INDEED PARTLY INSPIRED BY DEDAN FROM OFF which makes this even more amusing to me, haha
Early concept art for Papyrus’s room has bits that would later be given to Alphys! He also might have been into scrapbooking. His box of spare bones got turned into his attacks it seems.
The original sign on Papyrus’s door said “No girls allowed, no boys allowed, no small white and annoying dogs”. “Weird colors” shine underneath Sans’s door all day.
Snowdin was originally going to be a bigger town you could walk around in vertically, like ones in Earthbound, but eventually it was kept a horizontal line to guide the player more easily.
The inside of Napstablook’s house and Papyrus’s garage look the same because Toby never got around to changing it.
Undyne was going to have a pet fish but Toby decided it was too weird.
I’m taking these and how the human is only referred to as MC, mainchara, or Human in all the production notes and filenames, as confirmation of the theory I’ve always had, which is that “Chara” is not supposed to be a name but an abbreviation of “character” and the naming screen saying it’s “the true name” was supposed to be a joke. The fallen child is supposed to have YOUR name.
Here’s what the top of the Core looks like!
And here’s what Alphys’s bed looks like unfolded. It is indeed a cube because it was easier for Toby to draw.
There’s an explicit mention of the bag of dog food “judging you for your sins”.
Mettaton was going to have a pile of sparkles in his room.
Originally one of the walls in the True Lab was going to laugh at you, but Toby decided it’d be too scary/cheesy. I have no idea how I would’ve reacted to this honestly.
A lot of Toby’s tweaks to other people’s art involved making it look worse or goofier on purpose. The hidden Papyrus sprites you might have seen (like that one of him lookin suspicious) went unused because they looked too good, haha.
Flowey was partially inspired by Face from that infamous NES Godzilla creepypasta! This sort of blew my mind but it completely makes sense when I think about it.
Toriel is indeed inspired by Mimigas from Cave Story, and originally you were going to have to kill her, but in the process of writing her dialogue it felt wrong that violence was the only answer, which is when Toby realized what Undertale was REALLY ABOUT
Originally at one point Toriel was going to cry. :o
Napstablook was just a placeholder character originally, but testers liked him so much that Toby ended up making him an actual character. Also Toby refers to Napstablook as he. Ghost Fight (the song) existed before Undertale did but using it for a ghost fight was inspired by Pepper Steak from OFF.
Speakin of OFF, firstSans totally has that look if you ask me. Originally Sans was going to run poker at a casino, which might be why he’s so keen on getting money from you in the game as is.
Sans has a special seat at the bar with a towel on it, so when he drinks and the fluid goes through him it goes on the towel. He “SOMEHOW DRINKS WITH HIS MOUTH CLOSED”, and he was going to drink ketchup OR soda. Also Toby’s “grillbert??” joke about Grillby is what made it impossible for me to take Grillby seriously ever.
PAPYRUS HAS LIPS??
Just cute Temmie sprites, shhh.
Undyne took a long time for Toby to figure out characterwise. She was into fashion and singing for a long period! Undyne the Undying’s hair was going to be vertical (sort of super-saiyan-ish) but it wouldn’t fit onscreen.
Alphys was originally going to be a guy! To change her from guy to girl Toby added some eyelashes. She’s meant to be kind of triangle shaped and he is aware she looks like Lisa Simpson.
Mettaton was inspired by the robot from Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Day Out. He was also sort of inspired by R-7037 from Mother in terms of having an unbeatable (by normal means) robot battle. Some early sprites for him had him tilted just like that evil can robot.
He also might have had a bit of Gakuen Handsome going on in his EX form. He was originally going to leave a trail of sparkling tears whenever you hit him. And do a heart with his hands as a robot.
A GREAT TRAGEDY
Asgore had black/brown hair for most of his development, and actually only has blond hair on the overworld because it made his sprite easier to read. So feel free to write about Asgore bleaching his hair if you want.
Toby also had trouble figuring out how his hair works which makes me feel better about how I can never keep Goatdad’s hair consistent.
Originally when you did damage to Omega Flowey you would knock his teeth out.
Asriel’s adult boss form came about from Toby messing around with a sprite of Toriel by giving her evil eyes and thinking it looked really cool.
Toby also says “Everytime someone calls final-boss Asriel hot an angel gets its wings. An angel of death.” so make of that what you will, haha. He flies around because he looked like a doofus just standing there (Toby’s words).
Asriel was going to have an attack where his head would spin around so fast it’d turn into an eye that’d shoot a lot of wiggly laser beams at you and it was even programmed, but it was too difficult to dodge. There was another scrapped move involving eyes shooting lasers as well.
The first versions of Asriel’s final form were kinda intense.
The Dogi were inspired by Brian Lee’s Trobblers.
Angriest Monster Kid.
A friend of Toby’s asked jokingly to be in the game and to make him very muscular and strong, and so Toby asked Temmie to draw a muscular horse since she hates muscles and horses. AND SO WE GOT AARON.
The unimplemented RG03-RG04 duo were going to have an amalgamate form called ASURA. There was also going to be a frowning demon to go with the smiling demon in Snowdin, and an amalgam demon. But Toby forgot to do it.
That terrifying bird dude attack Reaper Bird did has “Name: Everyman. Description: Just a good guy who shows up on occasion” for its notes.
Burgerpants started as a Parappa-type character and went wrong.
For a while in development there were going to be spells and MP but they ended up never getting used.
You know I never really noticed how Asriel’s final form is meant to mirror the Delta Rune until these concept sketches. The hearts are even oriented the right way!
Thanks Everdraed.