10 Years of UNDERTALE

• 25 September, 2025
• UNDERTALE

On September 15th, it officially became 10 years since UNDERTALE released. If you count the demo, it's been 12 years already. This game, in no light of the phrase, has genuinely changed my life for the better. It's corny to say, but... I honsetly don't know where I would be without the game. It was the little butterfly effect that got me to where I am right now. As a celebration, Toby Fox and Fangamer put together two 10th anniversary streams, where Toby would show off various unused concepts from development and give insight to how he thinks of the game now. A month beforehand, he set up a website to submit your "UNDERTALE Memory." It was only open for 24 hours, and when I learned of it, I was unfortuantely in the hospital for my bladder problems. So, I painstakingly recreated the Marlette talking sprite on my phone as I waited in bed for a doctor...

I admittedly could have worded myself better here, but in my defense I was tired and my brand of autism makes me inherently bad with words. But, I want to elaborate a bit on this "memory."

History

I was completely unaware of UNDERTALE until the month after its release. During this time, I still ran my ROBLOX roleplay game, The Epic Crossover (TEC). A friend of mine who was an admin decided to morph themselves as Sans, and asked me if I knew about UNDERTALE. I said no, and they said I'd really enjoy it. I said maybe, since I wasn't too big on RPGs...

... Stop looking at me like that!! I was 13 and stupid, okay!?

Anyway, I quickly looked up the game out of curiosity. I watched a Jacksepticeye playthrough, starting with the skeleton brothers, and something sparked inside of me. I wished to play this game badly, but assumed I never would be able to due to money trouble. So, I researched the hell out of the game. I watched playthroughs, I learned about the pacifist and genocide routes. I learned about the neutral routes. I knew about the Asriel fight. Then, suddenly, I was gifted the game on November 7th. I don't remember by who anymore, but, I remember being so shocked... and, of course, I played it immediately after.

I may have been massively spoiled on the game, but i thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The only moment I wasn't spoiled about was the True Lab, which completely shocked me. I wasn't expecting that segment at all... and, I'm so glad I never looked up a guide for this part. It makes me wonder what my reaction would have been, had I never spoiled myself on everything else... Either way, UNDERTALE had entered my life and refused to leave. It was a hyperfixation I have never experienced before. I was previously hyperfixated on Kirby and occasionally Sonic the Hedgehog, but UNDERTALE gripped me in a way no other game really has... well, except Pizza Tower, but even then. A friend of mine endearingly said that my personality became UNDERTALE, and it's a fond memory. I started using Reddit more to express my love for the game in the subreddit, r/Undertale. I learned about the alternate universes fans made of it, specifically Underswap and Underfell. However, my love for this game ended up being weaponized against me.

Because I was a 13 year old undiagnosed autistic kid, I was very overt about my passion for UNDERTALE. A few, now ex-friends of mine at the time often got annoyed at me for not being able to talk about anything else. I remember being ridiculed because I drew Sans's slippers green by one ex-friend in particular, who even years later, argued with me that it makes more sense if they were white, pink or blue. It made me deeply insecure about my interest in UNDERTALE. I, as a kid, initially mischaracterized a lot of the UNDERTALE cast, especially Sans and Papyrus. I overcorrected this, and that insecurity transformed into putting other people down for their own interpretations. I became elitist. I joined and eventually became a moderator for r/UndertaleCringe, a subreddit dedicated to making fun of mischaracterizing the characters or drawing self-shipping fan art. The subreddit also posted a lot of unmarked fetish art, to which I also contributed to. I remember posting weight gain art that I secretly liked onto the subreddit, and watching everyone cringe at it. I believe I was 14 at this point. I still do have a heavy preference for canon-compliant content that keeps to the original characterization, but I held this preference as a superiority amongst others. I let this cloud my perception of the alternate universe community surrounding UNDERTALE, which blew up. Eventually there was an alternate universe that really struck my fancy, and I joined the Discord server for it. There, I eventually faced further ridicule from a few other members about my interpretations of the characters. I specifically remember an argument about how I felt Sans has 1 HP, based off of in-game data, only to be mocked for taking something so literally from the game. Arguments about the topic were surprisingly common in the server... I also became a moderator, but due to my undiagnosed autism, this often led to users actively taking advantage of my anger from being misunderstood and I got kicked off of the team. I wasn't perfect and would overreact, but the opposing users were not under as much scrutiny as I was. I also was treated by the staff from then on as a "problem user." There was a user in the server arguing that lolicon is okay and normal, and when I brought up my experiences, they started insulting and shittalking me. They would even vague about me in the vent chats. I took that as reason to leave, and I haven't looked back since.

I'm still friends with a few people from the staff, as they understood my situation and realized that I wasn't really treated all that fairly. However, most of them... I don't really know where I stand. The whole experience of that Discord server has particularly discouraged me from being active within fan communities at large. I was already distant before joining, but these events stuck to me. It's made me really, really hesitant on expressing my love for this game... however, I can't deny one thing: because of that server, I have the best friends that I do now.

In 2020, I joined Team Switched Underswap development. There, I met my current partner, close friends, and their friends as well. I got invited into friend groups, and felt really connected. My most notable contributions is the writing for Sans and Papyrus, of which I made about 60% of the writing. I wrote the key emotional moment in the Sans hangout. I wrote primarily Papyrus, due to my experience writing him on King for Another Day in 2018. I remember the dialogue I drafed for KFAD2 in high school... I might still have those papers around. They were on gridded paper in red micron pen... I wasn't really into writing before UNDERTALE came along. After I got older, I realized how powerful and important storytelling is. I wanted to replicate that style of writing Toby has: comedic, honest, emotional. I'm not perfect, but, I like to think I'm somewhere on the spectrum of "good."

Even as new games released, I found myself stuck to UNDERTALE. This game always lurks in the back of my head, the way it's influenced my writing and art style. Toby says he's not an artist, but, I took heavy inspiration from how he in particular draws expressions. UNDERTALE also introduced me to artists that heavily influence my work now, like Temmie Chang and Gigi DG. Gigi especially influenced my work, with their art mimicing that of paintings in how it lacked linework. It's pretty obvious, I think...

Marlette

It's no secret. I really enjoy the dynamic of Sans and Toriel, and I have since day one. In 2018, I visited the concept of a fan child between them both. The idea floated in my head for a while, but I finally drew the concepts. I didn't revisit this idea until 2021, drawing another concept.

After showing these concepts to friends, one in particular, CHAOS_FANTAZY suggested the name "Marlette." I liked that name, and began to think on the concepts further... and, eventually, I couldn't resist and made comics! After some comics, I even explored what she might look like in other alternate universes.

My ideas were that Marlette in Underfell would be more mischevous, where her pranks rely more on slapstick comedy. In Underswap, she takes more after Sans and is hyperactive. Then, in Team Switched Underswap, she would technically hold the role of "princess," and would be nudged to act more polite and "royal" by Toriel. She would actively connect better with Sans in this situation, having the parental troubles completely swapped and she struggles to connect with Toriel.

There's not much I can show about Marlette, but, I hope these little things suffice.

Streams

When I was watching the streams, I was shocked at the new content shown off. Toby cheekily noted after showing off a new area in the Ruins that this was all for show, and admittedly I was a little disappointed. Friends of mine were convinced that it would still be a part of a small 10th anniversary update, and I was hoping I was wrong. But, eventually, this was proven right. They only released the music and the exclusive battles made for the stream at the time, and it left me pretty annoyed I and other artists would have to re-create the art. Thankfully, the day after both streams, they released the art assets created for the stream, so I guess that works! I'm not AS disappointed. Sucks it won't be released officially, but, at least folks can re-create it much more easily!

The new areas, to me, really helped address some of my biggest criticms of the game (which, isn't a lot!!). First, every major area except for CORE was expanded upon a little. The Ruins provides a way to see its old city, Old Home. Snowdin forest has a tucked-away section where a lumberjack is working. Waterfall has a snippet of an entire underwater city, showing Onionsan really wasn't kidding when they said it wasn't big enough for them. Hotland had extra buildings, and New Home's city was shown. The reason I was disappointed was SPECIFICALLY because we would never be able to see these areas in particular. Not only that, but a lot of interesting lore was dropped in the stream that makes it hard to go back and look for when it is not in a playable state. Toby's main reasoning for not releasing the build is to encourage creativity among interpreting the game, and acknowledging he likes the game the way it is and doesn't want to be a perfectionist about it. First one I somewhat disagree on, as I think releasing it would allow people to experiment with the content and see what they can do with it. This was remedied by releasing the music and sprites. The second reason, I fully understand though. Just let it be known I have absorbed this into my encylopedic knowlege of UNDERTALE lore.

... Oh, also, two of my friends worked on it!? Specifically TheMaxine and colinator27, also a part of Team Switched. I already told them both, but I'm incredibly proud of them both for the opportunity that they got. I'm so happy for them!!!

All in all, thank you UNDERTALE, for existing.