A META-HISTORY OF UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE 2005 - 2015
Chronicling the development of Toby Fox's narrative universe
These posts are meant to be a relatively comprehensive, chronological list of important events in the development of Undertale and Deltarune. This was initially conceived as one post, but it got so long that I had to split it into multiple parts, and I might even have to split it up further in the future. I also plan to update these posts to account for new information that will inevitably be revealed. Don't forget! that reblogs don't include edits made to the post, so you'll have to check the originals to see any updates.
Below are links to other parts in the series.
2005 - 2015 2016 - 2021 2022 - 2025 2026 ONWARDS
All posts in chronological order
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2000~
At some point when Toby was a young child, he and his older brothers discovered RPGMaker 2000 and began using the software to create their own games. Toby appeared in one of the games his brother made as a green mage, and its main protagonist, named "Ralse", would later have his name cribbed when Toby was coming up with Ralsei for Deltarune. [*]
2005
On March 26, in perhaps Toby's earliest surviving Starmen.net post, he posts Ness's Halloween Spontanza, an EarthBound fanfic about "old man Giygas". It's basically a load of nonsense. [*]
On March 27, Toby, at age 13, releases Arn's Winter Quest, a winter-themed EarthBound romhack, on Starmen.net. One of Toby's first forays into what could be called game development, it (if nothing else) spawned the "I'm Old!" injoke. [*] The hack was well-regarded on Starmen.net, at the very least enough to have people creating strategy guides for it two years after its release referring to it as a "popular rom hack". [*]
2006
On September 30, Toby creates a post titled "Manegg" on Starmen.net, with an image attached - a sprite intended for the romhack PoeTrader.smc, named after a fellow Starmen.net user, that never ended up getting made. In spite of the conspicuous title, teenage Toby says it's not worth asking about. [*]
On May 6, Toby posts a piece titled "Debug Menu" on Starmen.net. Its an evocative little drawing of what seems to be Ness fighting a personification of the debug menu within EarthBound's internal workings. The meta theming prefigures some of what Toby would do later in his games. [*]
On July 6, Toby posts a joke thread with the title EarthBound Hidden Mysteries - Theo? where he plays the character of an EarthBound dataminer who purports to have made a shocking, scary discovery of an unused entity in the game files, which he calls Theo. The image links on the post are broken, but Theo is described as a disembodied face (at least after the dataminer manipulated the original image). The dataminer speculates about what Theo might've originally been, whether Giygas's first phase, Dr. Andonuts, or a secret PSI ability, which would apparently have summoned a "CAT". Notable for being a very early instance of Toby coming up with an idea that pretty straightforwardly prefigures aspects of Gaster. [*]
2007
On November 3, Toby posts an EarthBound fanfic to Starmen.net, titled Ness's Halloween Bashareeno, or alternatively Ness's Bangin' Hot Halloween. This evocative but somewhat abstruse piece of writing appears to detail an interpretation of the confusing predicament presented near the end of EarthBound, involving Giygas, the Apple of Enlightenment and the Devil’s Machine. In the fic, Giygas seemingly becomes aware of his own place within the fictional narrative and game program of EarthBound, and realizes that he himself is Ness, and possibly every other character. The violent, incomprehensible descriptions of Ness-Giygas transcending his embodied form as he eclipses the strictures of time and space, along with the musings on a potential “higher entity with true free will”, very much seem in retrospect to be portents for Gaster and his role within Deltarune. [*]
2008
On November 4, Toby, age 17, releases Radiation's Halloween Hack, also known as Press the B Button, Stupid! or simply the Earthbound Halloween Hack, on Starmen.net for the Halloween Funfest. The many, many ways in which this hack prefigures the imagery, symbolism, themes and narrative of Undertale and especially Deltarune deserves a post all of its own, but the Halloween Hack is perhaps best known for being the origin of the most popular track in the entire series, MEGALOVANIA. An accompanying document Toby made detailing the development of the hack, containing musings about its narrative and themes, is preserved here.
2009
On January 11, Toby submits radiations holiday hack (also known as peepee.exe) to the Starmen.net Holiday Funfest. Not actually an EarthBound hack but rather made in RPGMaker, this game is more akin to a playable shitpost, though it elaborates slightly on the Halloween Hack's narrative and continues Toby's exploration of meta themes. [*]
In April, the same month Homestuck is launched, Toby joins the MS Paint Adventures forum, marking the beginning of his involvement with the comic. He would go on to post "bad piano covers" on there, capturing the attention of the comic's author Andrew Hussie and getting him recruited into the music team in December, with Toby initially reaching out to Andrew through a private message. [*] [**]
2010
Toby becomes friends with Andrew Hussie and gains a reputation in the Homestuck fandom during his time as a musician for the comic.
In February, music composed by Toby for Homestuck is released to the public for the first time with the Homestuck album Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead.
On October 14, Toby releases The Baby Is You on the MSPA forums, a crude 14 minute album about Homestuck character Dave Strider giving birth to his friend John Egbert. Not really relevant to anything but I thought it should be mentioned. [*]
2011
Toby resigns as moderator of the PKHack forum on Starmen.net to focus on his Homestuck work. Toby eventually assumes a leadership position on the Music Team.
At some point prior to Undertale's development, Toby moves in with Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie and begins development of the game in his basement. [*]
On January 5, Megalovania is covered for Homestuck and released as MeGaLoVania. [*]
Suffering from a fever, Toby has a dream at some point this year about an ending to a video game. After waking up, he decides he wants to make this game he dreamed of into a reality. This would eventually become Deltarune. [*]
On July 9, Toby tweets: "The edge of the shadow, where reality and dream meet." Likely teasing Penumbra Phantasm, an infamously planned but never finished Homestuck track. For a long time widely speculated to be Deltarune-related because of thematic similarities, but this is somewhat dubious. May relate to the dream Toby had this year. [*]
On August 22, Toby posts on Tumblr: " ＡＴ ＂ＳＨＡＤＯＷ＇Ｓ ＥＤＧＥ，＂ ＳＨＡＴＴＥＲ ＴＨＥ ＴＷＩＬＩＧＨＴ ＲＥＶＥＲＩＥ｡ " in response to an ask about Penumbra Phantasm. [*]
On September 2, Toby was the first person to like a post by a Wingdings-themed joke blog. [*]
2012
In January, an EarthBound fan album is released, including tracks which had been made by Toby Fox. Among these is Fallen Down, later used as Toriel's theme in Undertale. Also included is Megalo Strike Back, which would become a popular song in Undertale's fandom. [*]
On April 1, Toby releases a Yume Nikki fan album he composed, titled made up yume nikkis. It includes waltz of seccom masada and its chiptune variant, which would later be repurposed as the Forgotten Man's theme in Deltarune, along with a track called amphitheater, referenced in a (previously unused but since patched) Bibliox ACT option in Chapter 4 of Deltarune, indicating it might be included in a future Chapter's soundtrack. [*]
Digital artist Kanotynes posts custom playing card designs in March. [*]
Toby comes across them in April, [*] and decides he wants to make an RPG using those designs. He asks Kanotynes if he can, and gets consent. [**]
Kanotynes had also posted drawings that same month which feature suspiciously FRIEND and Kris Deltarune looking characters... but this could just be a coincidence. [*]
By late April/early May, Toby has already created sprites for Lancer, and written dialogue for him and Jevil. [*]
He composes Heartache as "Joker Battle", Nyeh Heh Heh as Lancer's theme, and Bonetrousle as the main battle theme. [*] [**]
Ultimately, development of this game doesn't even get past a single playable room before being put on ice. [*]
In October, "sans." is committed to the Sburb game engine as part of the sample project, and a bit later "April 2012" from Deltarune is as well. [*]
On October 15, Toby posts the unfinished track "patient" on his tumblr, originally intended to be used in Homestuck. This track would be remade and repurposed for Undertale as Another Medium (a title referencing the Medium from Homestuck). [*]
In December, Toby hits the random button on Wikipedia and ends up on a page about arrays. This inspired him to begin game development again. He began by programming a combat menu, inspired by Shin Megami Tensei, and developed the story of Undertale around it. [*]
At some point in 2012 or 2013, Toby composes Undertale's Snowy, likely originally for the Tundra biome in Starbound. [*]
2013
Toby brainstorms ideas for Undertale. Conceptualizes a "karma system" which he ends up not implementing. Comes up with the Blue SOUL platformer mechanic. Comes up with Orange/Cyan attacks. Comes up with the idea of the final boss attacking you in the menu. Comes up with Toriel. Comes up with dating the bosses. Comes up with "Memmaton", the "hot robot". [*] [**]
Toby uses a random name generator website to come up with "Napstablook" and "Asgore". [*]
Asgore is initially conceived as an intimidating silent type, but Toby makes him goofy after thinking of his friend Reid from Fangamer. [*]
Toby comes up with Papyrus (originally called Times New Roman), basing his initial design on Dedan from OFF. Initially conceives of him as a basement dwelling neckbeard type, but changes this to make him more likable. Around this time, also comes up with Sans and another character who Toby censors - very likely either Gaster or Grandpa Semi. [*]
Toby comes up with Undyne, initially conceiving of her as a goofier-looking "anime fish". [*]
Toby comes up with Dr. Alphys, initially conceiving of the character as a man, as more of a mad scientist type, and having him be responsible for magical technology in the Ruins.
Toby, at some point, plans a boss fight against "Grandpa Semi", likely related to the skeleton brothers since SEMI is a font. By the time of Undertale's final release, almost all information about Grandpa Semi would be expunged from the game and never mentioned publically by Toby.
At some point, Temmie draws the intro cinematic to the game. Initially, both Toby and Temmie think she's drawing illustrations of the main character's backstory. But, mistakenly, Temmie only draws one stripe on their shirt instead of the two on their in-game sprite. It's unclear exactly when, but at some point later, Toby goes back to these drawings, already planning "certain things", and decides to capitalize on this fortunate accident.
In February, Toby jokingly reveals the project on Starmen.net under the name "UnderBound 2", and shows off a number of WIP screenshots. Flowey is shown and his description references FACE from NES Godzilla Creepypasta, later cited as an inspiration for the character. The track Enemy Approaching is also included. [*]
In April, Toby takes screenshots of the game where the menu displays the name "CHARA". [*]
On May 9, Toby posts a track on Tumblr which sounds suspiciously like Tenna's theme. [*]
In May, Toby teases Undertale during a meeting with fellow Homestuck musician "Jit", playing Enemy Approaching and MEGALOVANIA. [*]
In May, Fangamer streams an older, WIP build of the Undertale demo. [*] Later that month, Toby releases the demo to the public. In the demo's files, information about future bosses and characters can be found, including Papyrus, Sans, Mettaton, Alphys, Asriel, "Undine" and Grandpa Semi, who was initially supposed to call your cell phone ordering a pepperoni pizza, like happens in one of the Fun Events of the final game. [*]
On June 24, Toby launches the Kickstarter campaign for Undertale, including its demo (containing the part of the game set in the Ruins and ending shortly after the Toriel boss fight), with the game projected to release in Summer 2014. Marketing mostly features assets from the Ruins, but also Sans and Papyrus, and a shadowy silhouette of Asgore. Toby emphasizes the meta elements, stating that fourth-wall breaking concepts such as LV and Saving are integrated into the narrative world, and also highlights the sparing mechanic, additionally promising that the game's bosses can be befriended and dated. Toby writes as a short plot synopsis: A long time ago, two races ruled peacefully over the Earth: HUMANS and MONSTERS. One day, a terrible war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magical spell. In the year 201X, a small child scales Mt. Ebott. It is said that those who climb the mountain never return. Seeking refuge from the rainy weather, the child enters a cave and discovers an enormous hole. Moving closer to get a better look... the child falls in. Now, our story begins. Toby sets the funding goal at 5000 dollars, with an Extended introduction manual ($7500), Macintosh port ($10000), and Secret Boss ($12500) as stretch goals. [*]
Undertale's Kickstarter campaign reaches 200% funding in 10 hours, immediately meeting the first two stretch goals. Toby starts cooking up additional goals. [*]
On June 25, the Secret Boss stretch goal is met and Toby announces a $17500 stretch goal where Magnolia Porter will make additional monster designs for the game. [*]
On June 26, Magnolia Porter's stretch goal is met and Toby announces that at $20000 backers will get patches and wallpapers, and at $25000 they'll get exclusive soundtrack remixes. [*] Monster Kid is among the first designs Magnolia creates.
On July 3, the $25000 goal has been met and Toby announces the Undertale Alarm Clock app as a reward for $32500. [*]
On July 10, the Undertale Alarm Clock is funded, and Toby announces a $37500 goal where backers get a PDF showcasing Undertale's production art. This would eventually become the Undertale art book, released in October 2016. [*]
On July 17, the Art Commentary booklet is funded, and Toby announces the final stretch goal: $45000 for an expansion to the Undertale universe, in either the form of comics or a sequel game. Of the latter, Toby says: I can't tell you anything about it. Its very nature is shrouded in darkness. Ha ha ha. [*]
This is to say that by July of 2013, ca. 13 months after the initial conception of Deltarune and 7 months after the initial conception of Undertale, we have proof that Toby has already decided that Undertale and Deltarune will share a narrative world.
On July 24, Undertale's Kickstarter campaign comes to an end, with over $50,000 in funding. Toby thanks his backers for not only making this game possible, but also ensuring the future of its narrative world. To commemorate the successful campaign, Temmie draws teaser art featuring Flowey, Toriel, Napstablook, Sans, Papyrus, Monster Kid, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton and Asgore. [*]
In July and August, Toby creates what seem to be sprites or concept art for Susie. [*]
Susie's initial conception came shortly after Toby played Phoenix Wright for the first time, and Toby thought of her as being like Maya Fey - a small, cute, sassy companion. [*]
In one of Toby's "oldest text document[s] about Deltarune [he] can find", Susie is mentioned to rest her chin on Kris's head. In 2025, Toby mentioned that he's happy that even though this hasn't happened in the game, everyone intuitively understands it as true (referencing its common appearance in Krusie fanart), proclaiming that he "won". [*]
At some point this year, Toby composes the melody of Rude Buster. [*]
At some point, Toby draws concept art for flashbacks to Asriel and Chara spending time together, for the climax of the Pacifist route's final boss. [*]
2014
On February 3, Toby says that he just found out that someone else is making a game that sounds "VERY VERY similar" to an idea for a non-Undertale game he's had for 2 years (which we now know is Deltarune). Likely referring to Omori, which was announced as part of a Kickstarter campaign later in April that year, and which also features a mysterious, depressed, knife-wielding protagonist, and a plot structure split between dreamworld adventures and life in a mundane American suburb. [*]
On February 7th, Toby posts a fansong made for the character Noisemaster from the comic Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G. [*] Toby later remakes and repurposes this theme to be Mettaton's boss theme. Gigi, for their part, would work on both Undertale and Deltarune as a concept artist. [*]
On February 18, Toby posts a joke tweet thread about Luigi "getting the sack" because of Nintendo's biggest financial failure happening during the Year of Luigi (2013). Notable for suspicious similarities to the motif of erasure and forgetting as explored in Gaster's and the Forgotten Man's stories in Undertale and Deltarune.
On February 21, Toby says that Undertale is nearing 50% completion but that progress may slow down as he's becoming increasingly busy with schoolwork. He indicates the game might have to be delayed. [*]
On May 3, Toby graduates, and begins full-time work on Undertale. Also, a Korean translation of the Undertale demo is officially released. [*]
On June 21, Waterfall is nearly content complete, and Toby begins work on Hotland, the final major area of the game before the endgame. Teases the tracks Quiet Water and Spooktune and shows off sprites of Monster Kid. [*]
On August 15, Toby posts another Cucumber Quest fansong, a boss theme against the Nightmare Knight. Would later become a mainstay of deranged Knight speculation in the Deltarune era, which itself would be somewhat vindicated when the Roaring Knight's eventual leitmotif would sound not too dissimilar to this track's melody. [*]
By August 31, Toby has gotten a lot of work done on Hotland and the CORE, and teases some things from them. [*]
On October 30, Toby gives a small status update and says that he's been working on time-consuming parts of the game. Hopes that by the end of the year, a rough draft of the full game will be finished and playable, and that work will have begun on Asgore, the final boss. At the end, he teases that there might be more beyond the final boss and "ending". [*]
On December 7, a friend of Toby's replies to a tweet on his old personal account, referencing an idea he had once about a player character that develops their own agency. Clearly prefiguring Chara and Kris.
On December 18, Toby finishes creating the Asgore boss fight and announces it on Kickstarter. He once again teases that there might be something more to Undertale after its "ending". [*]
2015
On January 15, Toby puts Undertale on Steam Greenlight, along with a new trailer for the game. [*] [**]
On February 22, Undertale has been greenlit on Steam, the Alphys date has been finished, and Burgerpants has been created and added. Toby teases that he still, incredibly enough, has some bosses and areas left to make, along with "a certain path =)" [*]
In April 2015, Toby draws what he calls the "first ever sketches" of Noelle, Ralsei and Susie. [*] Puzzlingly, this is in spite of having shown screenshots of files from 2013 labelled "susie" and "susies".
Toby creates concept art of the main characters of Deltarune, and titles the file simply "THE FUN GANG". Toby would later publically post it in 2018, but cover up certain parts of it for fear of spoiling the game's plot points. Later, in 2025, he would reveal more parts of the image following the release of Chapters 3 and 4, and presumably intends to do so again in the future. [*] [**]
Toby writes rudimentary dialogue and response options for Ralsei, which he would in 2018 remark accurately reflected how people ended up feeling about the character. [*]
On May 30, Toby teases that the Genocide Route is almost fully complete, except for one boss fight, likely Sans. [*]
On June 30, Toby reveals some heartbreaking news: you can't marry the robot. [*]
On August 22, Toby announces that Undertale will be released on September 15 that year. He excitedly says that the game may be better than "just alright", based on the impressions he's gotten so far. [*]
On September 8, a week from release, Toby puts out the now-iconic release trailer, featuring the Hotland vents for the first time. [*]
On September 15, Undertale is released.
On the day of release, Toby tweets an answer to those asking what to name the fallen human: "Your own name" (if you can't think of anything else) [*]
Undertale's release features a number of allusions to Deltarune, mostly through vague elements of Sans's backstory, "unused" files in the game's data such as "room_gaster", where ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN can be found, and through the game's Fun Events, which were intended to be rare events dependent on an internal random number generated at the start of a playthrough; however, Toby messed up the code, accidentally spelling the word "fun" with inconsistent capitalization, leading to the events not being accessible except through manipulation of the game. Despite this, Gaster is discovered by dataminers almost immediately following the game's release, leading to many years of speculation and fueling an active and passionate theorizing community. [*]
On September 19, Toby responds to a fan inquiry, with a cryptic teaser involving Sans's broken machine.
On the same day, Toby responds to someone asking about Undertale secrets and a potential boss fight against Gaster.
On September 24, Toby says that he almost included an enemy with an "I'm Old!" text bubble in Undertale (an inside joke from his old EarthBound hacks). Possibly referring to Grandpa Semi or Gerson. [*]
On October 5, Toby responds to some fandom controversy in-character as Sans, but notably has him almost quote a Gaster follower, saying that "it's rude to talk about people that are listening". [*]
At some point in the second half of 2015, Toby composes an early version of Deltarune's TV WORLD using Death by Glamour as a base. [*]
In early December, the Deltarune.com domain is registered, and fansite with that domain is politely asked by Toby not to use it, resulting in them changing it to dreemurr.com. [*]
On December 8, some fans notice him.png on Deltarune.com, a darkened image of all caps Wingdings stating: "THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY VERY INTERESTING", but it goes largely unnoticed otherwise. The next day, someone archives the page on the Wayback Machine. [*]
On December 31, Toby thanks his fans for all the support he received in 2015, but says that lately something has left him with a "burning, inexplicable feeling", something whose "very nature is shrouded in darkness", and that in 2016 it would be nice to start something else.
Continued in the second part of this post, detailing development from 2016 to 2021, on the demo of Deltarune.
