DOCSLIB.ORG

Undertale – the Little Indie Game That Could a Journey Through a Land of Magic, Monsters, and Heart

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Undertale – the Little Indie Game That Could a Journey Through a Land of Magic, Monsters, and Heart Undertale – The Little Indie Game That Could A journey through a land of magic, monsters, and heart By Stephen Weir When Gone Home was first released, video game critics were tripping over each other praise it. Despite its shallow gameplay and clichéd plot, it received a disturbing amount of perfect 10 scores, which instigated heated discussions about the game’s merits. Gone Home’s intention to tell an emotional, relatable human story through video game mechanics set the stage for debates internet-wide, which often turned political due to Gone Home’s progressive themes. However, as a video game, Gone Home utterly failed. Its disdain for traditional games came through its intentionally archaic design; its reliance on 90’s nostalgia to forge an emotional connection came across as manipulative and its resolution was predictable. It pandered to the petulant “video game critic” clique – a group of people that demonstrate a reluctance to enjoy gaming for what it is. Also, Gone Home was barely a game. Undertale is a pseudo-RPG from Toby Fox of Homestuck fame. Like Gone Home, Undertale gleefully disposes of conventionality. Where the former failed to make a meaningful connection with the player, though, Undertale picks up the slack. If Gone Home was the anti-video game, Undertale is the anti-anti-video game. Taking place under a mountain, Undertale tells the story of an ambiguously gendered child lost in a land of monsters and mysteries. An RPG that involves a child in a monster-infested land isn’t unusual, but where Undertale differentiates itself is in its central mechanic. It’s an RPG where nobody has to die. Fighting a spider who throws baked goods at you is a typical battle in Undertale. The protagonist child, with the player’s help, has the option of flirting, talking, or negotiating their way out of battles with aggressive monsters. This may lead to a nonviolent resolution via ”sparing” your enemy. Unfortunately, no experience is gained from this approach. No experience means no leveling up. An RPG where you can avoid leveling up is quite ambitious. Then again, you could disregard all pacifist options and fight ‘til your last breath. If you would rather kill monsters instead of befriending them, you can. No matter the path you take, Undertale can handle it. After your turn is over, Undertale reveals more of its hand. Dodging enemy attacks is entirely up to you. Taking inspiration from “bullet hell” shoot ‘em ups like Touhou, attacks must be manually maneuvered around. The true genius of this system is the way it contextualizes enemy movement. If an enemy is upset, it may fight you with its tears. If an enemy is curious and wants to pet cute humans, you’ll have to evade its paw. Reading an enemy’s emotional state can prepare you for what’s ahead and there’s a layer of metaphor to every attack in the game. Half the fun comes from this analysis. Even the common enemies in Undertale have wild and unique personalities. Undertale’s best moments are also punctuated by its incredible soundtrack, composed by Toby Fox himself, which turns some of the sillier moments into strangely epic encounters. The game makes good use of leitmotifs, which return during pivotal moments and emotionally resonate with the player. There’s a reason YouTube is littered with covers and remixes of Undertale songs. I’d love to explain further, but I don’t want to spoil the fun. It’s difficult to describe what makes Undertale so special without ruining its many surprises. Similar to its spiritual forbearer Earthbound, an active inspiration for the game, Undertale toys with well-worn tropes of its genre. This leads to a steady stream of standout moments – moments you’ll instantly want to discuss with others. You can’t go two minutes on the internet without seeing something related to Undertale and I believe its memetic nature is partially why. Despite its humble graphics and unassuming presentation, it struck a chord with people thanks to smart worldbuilding, writing, music, and mechanics. The game was designed to encourage sharing the experience. And it did just that. Yes, you read that correctly. Play Undertale. In times like these, something with the heart, determination, and unabashed enthusiasm of Undertale deserves all the players in the world. It rewards exploration and out-of-the-box thinking. It's funny, dynamic, sad, cute, terrifying and joyous. It wants you to enjoy yourself. It wants you to remember it. You are completely in charge of what happens to you in Undertale. So, are you going to have a good time? Or... .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ethics at Play in Undertale: Rhetoric, Identity and Deconstruction
    Ethics at Play in Undertale: Rhetoric, Identity and Deconstruction Frederic SERAPHINE The University of Tokyo – ITASIA Program Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JAPAN +81-3-5841-8769 Seraphine[at]g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the effect of ethical – and unethical – actions of the player on their perception of the self towards game characters within Toby Fox’s (2015) independent Role Playing Game (RPG) Undertale, a game often perceived as a pacifist text. With a focus on the notions of guilt and responsibility in mind, a survey with 560 participants from the Undertale fandom was conducted, and thousands of YouTube comments were scraped to better understand how the audience who watched or played the different routes of the game, refer to its characters. Through the joint analysis of the game’s semiotics, survey data, and data scraping, this paper argues that, beyond the rhetorical nature of its story, Undertale is operating a deconstruction of the RPG genre and is harnessing the emotional power of gameplay to evoke thoughts about responsibility and raise the player’s awareness about violence and its consequences. Keywords rhetoric, ethics, deconstruction, pacifism, violence, character, avatar, meta-storytelling INTRODUCTION There are some artistic experiences that stick with us for a very long time, aesthetic memories, that one may put between their first kiss and their first fight. For many of its players, a game like Undertale seems to fall into this category. Because its story puts the player in the situation of making choices that affect dramatically the course of the narrative, and the survival of its characters, it seems people who played this game grow an attachment to its fictional characters comparable to the attachment to a friend in their real life.
    [Show full text]
  • Opera Acquires Yoyo Games, Launches Opera Gaming
    Opera Acquires YoYo Games, Launches Opera Gaming January 20, 2021 - [Tuck-In] Acquisition forms the basis for Opera Gaming, a new division focused on expanding Opera's capabilities and monetization opportunities in the gaming space - Deal unites Opera GX, world's first gaming browser and popular game development engine, GameMaker - Opera GX hit 7 million MAUs in December 2020, up nearly 350% year-over-year DUNDEE, Scotland and OSLO, Norway, Jan. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Opera (NASDAQ: OPRA), the browser developer and consumer internet brand, today announced its acquisition of YoYo Games, creator of the world's leading 2D game engine, GameMaker Studio 2, for approximately $10 million. The tuck-in acquisition represents the second building block in the foundation of Opera Gaming, a new division within Opera with global ambitions and follows the creation and rapid growth of Opera's innovative Opera GX browser, the world's first browser built specifically for gamers. Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera, said: "With Opera GX, Opera had adapted its proven, innovative browser tech platform to dramatically expand its footprint in gaming. We're at the brink of a shift, when more and more people start not only playing, but also creating and publishing games. GameMaker Studio2 is best-in-class game development software, and lowers the barrier to entry for anyone to start making their games and offer them across a wide range of web-supported platforms, from PCs, to, mobile iOS/Android devices, to consoles." Annette De Freitas, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Opera Gaming, added: "Gaming is a growth area for Opera and the acquisition of YoYo Games reflects significant, sustained momentum across both of our businesses over the past year.
    [Show full text]
  • Creación De Una Simbología Para Un Videojuego
    TFG CREACIÓN DE UNA SIMBOLOGÍA PARA UN VIDEOJUEGO Presentado por Carlos Mercé Vila Tutora: María Lorenzo Hernández Facultat de Belles Arts de Sant Carles Grado en Bellas Artes Curso 2016-2017 Simbología para videojuego. Carlos Mercé 2 RESUMEN Mi trabajo de fin de grado consiste en la realización de un videojuego indie 2D de género acción, aventura, RPG(1) abarcando su producción artística y la creación de un prototipo. Para la elaboración de la historia, ambientación, caracterización y personalización de los personajes precisaré referentes previos, desde lo relativo a otros videojuegos del mismo género, series de anime con las que siento afinidad, pasando por un estudio de mitologías y religiones del mundo, centrándome en la cultura precolombina inca. A partir del anterior estudio me introduciré en la parte práctica del proyec- to, la elaboración de bocetos y concept art para plasmar las ideas y poder trabajar sobre ellas. Después de eso, el siguiente paso consiste en diseñar el juego con un estilo Pixel Art: Personajes, fondos, efectos, menús, etc. La elección de esta estética se debe por la afinidad que me produce trabajar con el 2D y por la nostalgia que me da al recordar a los videojuegos con los que disfrutaba de niño. La última fase del trabajo consistirá en guardar el trabajo de forma ordenada y con el formato de comprensión adecuado para proporcionarlo al encargado de la programación del videojuego, pasando el turno de elaborarlo y darlo a probar a algunas personas escogidas anticipadamente para comprobar la línea de dificultad. Palabras clave: Videojuegos, Pixel Art, dioses incas, 2D, iconografía religiosa, indie, mecánicas.
    [Show full text]
  • •Š : a Care-Focused Feminist Analysis of Undertale
    Augustana College Augustana Digital Commons Women's and Gender Studies: Student Scholarship Women's and Gender Studies & Creative Works Spring 2017 “Don’t You Have Anything Better to Do?” : A Care- Focused Feminist Analysis of Undertale Evan Marzahn Augustana College, Rock Island Illinois Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/wgststudent Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, and the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Augustana Digital Commons Citation Marzahn, Evan. "“Don’t You Have Anything Better to Do?” : A Care-Focused Feminist Analysis of Undertale" (2017). Women's and Gender Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works. https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/wgststudent/1 This Student Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Women's and Gender Studies at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's and Gender Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Marzahn 1 Evan Marzahn Professor Jane Simonsen WGST 420 Seminar 16 May 2017 “Don’t You Have Anything Better to Do?” A Care-Focused Feminist Analysis of Undertale ​ Warning: Major spoilers for the video game Undertale ensue immediately. ​ ​ Sans the skeleton, my favorite character, told me shortly after the start of my third playthrough of Undertale that I was “gonna have a bad time.” I had 147 bad times, actually, tallied ​ ​ on a index card in real life. That is, I attempted the difficult final boss fight of Undertale’s “genocide” ​ ​ route 147 times over one week and lost every time, but I improved with each attempt.
    [Show full text]
  • Transcript of Undertale
    1 You’re listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them, and why we suspend our disbelief. I’m Eric Molinsky. Four years ago, I reported a story for public radio about independent video games, which were just coming into their own. If you’re not a gamer and you have no idea of what that means -- think about how video games started. Pac Man was a very simple design. But in the 1980s, you had drive to an arcade to play that game on a cabinet machine, or buy an Atari system. Now game slike Halo and BioShock have hyper realistic graphics. You can move around 360-degree. The stories can last 20 hours long. But that also means, today a single programmer can create a game with the sophistication of Super Mario Brothers that you can play on your browser with a keyboard and a mouse. These independent game designers can make their games about whatever they want. Some of them are very quirky, and very personal. One of my listeners wrote me and said I should check out this hot new indie game called Undertale. It’s gotten huge critical acclaim. I had not played indie games for a while, so went online to download Undertale. And I was stunned by how much the world of indie video games had grown since I reported that story. Julian Feeld is the editor of Existential Gamer, a site that reviews games. JULIAN: Video games growing up were my safe space, they were the place I went to where there was no social anxiety, no human interaction that I’d have to decipher and navigate.
    [Show full text]
  • Undertale - Fanny Barnabé – FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher Liège Game Lab – University of Liège – [email protected] 1
    Narrativization Processes of Video Game Tutorials - From EarthBound to Undertale - Fanny Barnabé – FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher Liège Game Lab – University of Liège – [email protected] 1. Introduction: The Sub-Genre of “Mothertale” Games EarthBound Undertale // (Shigesato Itoi , 1994) (Toby Fox, 2015) 1. Introduction: The Sub-Genre of “Mothertale” Games 2. A Narratological Study of Video Game Tutorials • From a narratological point of view, video game tutorials are ontologically ambiguous: they create a metadiscourse that no longer addresses only the fictional characters, but also the player (Therrien and Julien, 2015) • They produce many metalepses (Genette, 2004) and mises en abyme 2. A Narratological Study of Video Game Tutorials • Unnatural narratives “conspicuously violate […] conventions of standard narrative forms” (Richardson, 2011: 34) • “Videogames are unnatural narratives par excellence” (Ensslin, 2015: 43) 2. A Narratological Study of Video Game Tutorials • In the field of video games, metalepses are not transgressions, but conventions (Allain, 2018) • Tutorial metalepses are moments when the game signals how it is articulating fiction and gameplay 2. A Narratological Study of Video Game Tutorials • Inclusive definition of the tutorial: = Metalanguage intended to transmit utilitarian information about the commands (“press X for X”), the rules (“the sword can break the blocks”), the behaviors expected by the player (“you can do X”) and the main goals of the game (“you have to save the princess”) 3. Three Degrees of Fictionalization How do tutorials articulate the empirical content and the game’s fictional universe? Non-fictionalization of the tutorial Incrustation of the tutorial in the diegetic environment Avatarization of the tutorial - Tutorial metaphors - Fictionalized metalepsis - Raw metalepsis 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Finalists in 21 Categories Announced for Third Annual SXSW Gaming Awards
    P.O. Box 685289 Austin, Texas | 78768 T: 512.467.7979 F: 512.451.0754 sxsw.com Finalists in 21 Categories Announced for Third Annual SXSW Gaming Awards YouTube megastar Séan “Jacksepticeye” William McLoughlin and esports host Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico to host the SXSW Gaming Awards ceremony The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Bloodborne lead in total nominations AUSTIN, Texas (January 25, 2016) — South by Southwest (SXSW) Gaming today announced the finalists for the third annual SXSW Gaming Awards, presented by Windows Games DX, Curse, G2A, IGN, Porter Novelli and Imaginary Forces. Taking place Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. CST in the Austin Grand Ballroom on the 6th Floor of the Hilton Downtown Austin, the Gaming Awards will honor indie and major game studio titles in 21 categories. The SXSW Gaming Awards are free and open to the public of all ages with a SXSW Guest Pass and streamed online at http://sxsw.is/23g6kEc. All Interactive, Music, Film, Gold, and Platinum badgeholders receive early entry and preferred seating. The SXSW Gaming Awards is an extension of the SXSW Gaming event. New for 2016: SXSW Gaming takes place March 17-19, 2016 inside the Austin Convention Center downtown (500 E Cesar Chavez Street). “First, congratulations are in order for all of our entrants and finalists. This year we saw a record number of entries and an incredibly diverse set of games,” said Justin Burnham, SXSW Gaming Producer. "This year’s show – thanks to the help of our hosts and finalists, is going to be one of the best yet.
    [Show full text]
  • How Does the Inclusion of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video
    How Does the inclusion of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves 1 Abstract This report examines the role of narratives in interactive experiences, beginning with an analysis of the compelling nature of narratives themselves. Through combining a traditional definition of narratives (Aristotle, 335BC) and a modern distinction between a game’s context, story, and narrative, (Juul, 2001; 2002) it examines how the principles of ludology and narratology, (Frasca, 2003) reflect both the immense possibilities for narrative-based interactive experiences, and the inherent flaws with combining linear stories with diverging gameplay and interactivity. Focusing on the issue of player agency, it also examines narratives in relation to emergent gameplay (Holland 1997), extending this to the exogenous narratives often seen from YouTube gaming content creators, forming their own emergent and meaningful gameplay that is centred on a video game world, but existing outside of it. 2 Contents Table of Illustrations …………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.03 Imagination ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.04 Early Game Structures ………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.05 Interactivity & A Sense of Agency ……………………………………………………………………………… p.08 Emergence & Experimentation…………………………………………………………………………………… p.17 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.21 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.22 Table of Illustrations Figure 1: Namco (1980) Pac-Man Figure 2: Spierling, Ulrike (2005) Interactive Digital Storytelling: Towards a Hybrid Conceptual Approach. p.8. Available from: <http://www.digra.org/wp- content/uploads/digital-library/06278.24521.pdf> [Accessed 12th September 2015] Figure 3: Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric (2004) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge Mass/London England: MIT Press. Figure 4: Dontnod Entertainment (2015) Life is Strange Figure 5: Sega (2005) Shadow the Hedgehog Figure 6: Rockstar Games (2011) L.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Game Development with Gamemaker Studio 2 Make Your Own Games with Gamemaker Language
    Game Development with GameMaker Studio 2 Make Your Own Games with GameMaker Language Sebastiano M. Cossu Game Development with GameMaker Studio 2 Sebastiano M. Cossu London, UK ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-5009-9 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-5010-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5010-5 Copyright © 2019 by Sebastiano M. Cossu This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Community's Monetary Engagement on the Quality of The
    Effects of community’s monetary engagement on the quality of the final product The game development on Kickstarter MASTER PROJECT THESIS WITHIN: Informatics NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30 PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Information Architecture AUTHORS: Vojciech Sobolevski & Gözde Meydan JÖNKÖPING 05 2021 Master Thesis in Informatics Title: Effects of community’s monetary engagement on the quality of the final product Authors: V. Sobolevski and G. Meydan Tutors: Ahmad Ghazawneh and Osama Mansour Date: 2021-05-22 Key terms: Platform, crowdfunding, game development, Kickstarter. Abstract Kickstarter is a relatively new platform that has risen from coordinating a group of friends and like-minded people to finance some niched and highly unique projects, to the platform, where strangers from all around the world, finance the work of their favorite creators in hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. The academic literature and general focus of the public was concentrated to find what makes a campaign successful, advantages of the platform and its origins. We, the authors of this paper, believe that Kickstarter is continuously evolving, which raises some new questions, not of its history and use, but rather of its future potential and what happens, when the campaigns are won. We will look into how backers interact with the creators through monetary engagement and if these creators are able to deliver quality products when provided with much more resources. Our focus on the game industry allows us to see if Kickstarter performs well within the market, where big players exist with experience and lots of funding. If Kickstarter’s developers will be able to keep up with the industry leaders, using financing through crowdfunding, the platform might become a serious financial player similar to venture capitalists or angel investors.
    [Show full text]
  • Undertale Judgment Hall Theme
    Undertale Judgment Hall Theme Offsetting Waldemar never spiralling so difficultly or waggles any pucker unmannerly. Marcan and phony Andros arrogates some paspalum so one-handed! Sewed Schuyler overwearied purposelessly, he outshining his communion very unworthily. Of comic about. Remain motionless for one of undertale fan lyrics judgement hall out of undertale fan work. Are undertale sans themes le fun. Puppet and toriel, but we have an easter eggs of powerful, undertale judgment hall theme at a banner that there or add a trail of. That song called that kills everyone, undertale judgment hall theme song id school projects toby fox has dreadlocks or begin by roblox games community to? If you have disable inital load on over here. Sorry for this page for a part is cool, when heading into reality would you lol lyrics u never made this when you spend more faces, undertale judgment hall theme. The part in the game, some pants now here is undertale judgment hall theme undertale and the songs in your favourites to have been alright killed. These lyrics chara. Alphys check on mobile device forced to get started it to our own css here soon for a game that! Glad you have an equal love! It to undertale judgment hall theme of appearing in order to talk to? Hello and theme at some point out more on it! Then come u undertale judgment hall theme. Lyrics judgement hall out more fragments to everyone seem to fight. Keep running into view chara same after. This post undertale games such as easter egg? Your face it has a trail of birds singing, undertale judgment hall theme song waking from you need to improve your gallery with.
    [Show full text]
  • Molina Uasuf, Agustín; Bernal Del Nozal, Jorge, Dir
    This is the published version of the bachelor thesis: Molina Uasuf, Agustín; Bernal del Nozal, Jorge, dir. Desenvolupament d’un Framework 3D per GameMaker. 2021. (958 Enginyeria Informàtica) This version is available at https://ddd.uab.cat/record/248446 under the terms of the license AGUSTÍN MOLINA UASUF: DESARROLLO DE UN FRAMEWORK 3D PARA GAMEMAKER 1 Desarrollo de un Framework 3D para GameMaker Agustín Molina Uasuf Resum— En este ensayo se describen los elementos del desarrollo de un Framework 3D para el motor gráfico GameMaker con el objetivo de construir un juego de estilo acción en tercera persona. Este trabajo requiere la integración en dicho motor pensado para las dos dimensiones, componentes tales como la importación de modelos 3D, las animaciones por esqueleto, la iluminación o las colisiones en un espacio tridimensional. Finalmente buscando la recreación de un viejo proyecto de videojuego con el fin de ejercer una comparación entre las dos versiones con más de seis años de diferencia entre ellas. Paraules clau— GameMaker, Gráficos por Computador, Shaders, Animación de Esqueleto, Colisiones 3D, Motor Gráfico, Videojuegos. Abstract— In this essay, it describes the elements of the development of a 3D Framework for the GameMaker game engine with the objective of building a third person action game. This project requires the integration in the said engine thought for two- dimension components such as 3D model importer, skeletal animations, illumination or collisions on a three-dimensional space. Looking for remaking an old proyect of a video game with the purpose of establishing a comparison between the two versions with six years of difference between them.
    [Show full text]