If Toby Fox thinks his way of making games is pretty inefficient, that probably shouldn’t be a big surprise given how many years it’s taken to get a little over half of Deltarune into players’ hands. Fox jokes that his way of making games is “stupid,” but he equally knows that it’s also what’s given them a unique charm to attract massive fanbases going back to Undertale.
Approached for an interview by Game Informer (paid article link), Fox was apparently hesitant in part because of that self-described “stupid” way of making games. Once he actually agreed to the interview, though, he quickly softened that stance. “I don’t actually think [the way I make games is] stupid, at least in a totally bad way. Clearly many people are pleased with the result,” Fox says.
Undertale and Deltarune are built out of unique enemy encounters that each have their own unique mechanics, but “in other RPGs, there may be enemies across the games which primarily only use physical attacks,” Fox explains. “The appearance and animations may be different, but aspects like weaknesses, HP, and other statistics can just be altered near instantly in a database.”
But that ain’t how Fox’s games work. “In Deltarune, we can’t rely on just tweaking numbers. Everything in the game is simply a container for a never-before-seen gimmick,” he continues.
“Every enemy has new bullet patterns, new [actions], every area has new puzzles, etc. I don’t necessarily think this is a good or bad thing, after all Final Fantasies are some of my favorite RPGs… but the method that I have chosen is not very efficient for development.”
With Deltarune Chapter 1 landing in 2018, Chapter 2 in 2021, and Chapters 3+4 in 2025, I think it’s clear that Fox is right about the efficiency of this development model. But the devotion to the details is part of what has made these games so beloved, and Fox says “it’s up to the players who waited to decide whether it was worth it.” I think it’s clear what side they’ve landed on.
