UNDERTALE Art Book
Every video game has concept art... UNDERTALE is no exception...
I guess the difference here is that I'm not an artist LOL
Hope you enjoy this glimpse into the world of UNDERTALE anyway!Toby Fox, page 6
The UNDERTALE Art Book is an official book featuring art from throughout the development of Undertale, available on Fangamer. It includes early sprites, concept art and screenshots, alongside commentary, mostly from Toby Fox, but also other developers of the game, which provides insight on the context of these assets. The book's back cover features a gold debossed Annoying Dog.
The book was an Undertale Kickstarter stretch goal reward for reaching $37,500 during the campaign, and released physically and digitally on November 23, 2016.
The book is 228 pages long and is divided into 7 chapters.
The preface is a short section featuring legal information about the book, the table of contents, and quotes from Toby Fox and Temmie Chang.
The chapter goes over each of the game's locations.
Toby mentions how the Ruins and the underground as a whole were inspired by the video game Brandish.
Several early screenshots are included, with Toby stating he used colored tiles as placeholder graphics until the entire demo was finished. He also says the switch puzzle room was one of the first working rooms in the game. One screenshot shows an early attempt at the tileset by Merrigo.
Temmie created concept art of the first room of the Ruins, as well as the background for the hallway in Toriel's Home, which Toby notes has a lot of empty frames which he wanted to put something inside of, mentioning artwork or maps. The foyer would have a map of the underground in the large frame above the staircase, the art featured also shows a coat rack next to the entrance.
Temmmie also created concept art for the outside of Toriel's home, but Toby went with the default Ruins tileset as nobody drew it. A water wheel connected to the house was meant to explain how Toriel gets electricity, which the water earlier in the Ruins was meant to reference.
Asriel's room was originally going to have an astronomy-themed mobile crib, as Toby thought Asriel might have an interest in the outside world. This concept was later repurposed in the 10th Anniversary Stream.
Easynam created the final tileset for the Ruins.
Temmie created concept art of the inside of Toriel's Home, which featured a bathroom and the dining room as a separate room.
Toby details the plan for an ice cave halfway through Snowdin, which would be full of fireflies. He says it was cut as he could not figure out how to do it or how it would fit with Papyrus and Sans's japes. Another cave was planned to appear in place of the tunnel after the final XOXO puzzle, which would feature "funny and interesting visuals". Temmie Chang created concept art for both caves.
Temmie created concept art of Papyrus's room, as well as a page of monster designs including Loox and Vegetoid.
Temmie created concept art of Toby's original vision of Snowdin Town, which would be a larger town, with the camera scrolling in all four directions. It was downscaled after he couldn't think of many houses or how to direct the player to Papyrus.
Temmie created a sprite for a sign outside of Grillby's, but Toby forgot to implement it.
Merrigo created the parallax background in the southern offshoot, while Temmie created the background for QC's shop.
Temmie created concept art of Waterfall based on Toby's description of a "black marsh with glowing blue water".
Temmie created concept art of Napstablook's house, and Toby comments that the inside of it should have been different from Papyrus's toolshed.
Gigi D.G. created the sketches for the inside of Mettaton's house and the outside of Undyne's house, while Chess created the sprites. Toby notes Mettaton's house was added late in development, while Gigi D.G. describes it as cute, comparing it to Mettaton himself. Toby additionally mentions Undyne might have had a pet fish, but calls it too weird.
Toby created the initial mockup for Undyne's crag and Merrigo improved it.
Kenju describes the process of creating the tileset for Waterfall, noting that he thought it was meant to look abandoned. He also created unique sprites which could be used as landmarks. Toby mentions regretting not using the eye crystals and geodes.
Kenju created the tileset for Hotland without context of what would happen there. Merrigo created different art of the CORE that would have been used on the second floor.
Toby notes how Temmie's Hotland concept art had been his desktop background for over a year by the time of the book's writing. He also mentions how Temmie was too busy with school to create sprites by the time they reached Waterfall and instead created sketches.
Gigi D.G. created the posters for Mettaton's musical and Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. The latter previously used placeholder sprites that read "gigi i'll pay you to draw a mewmew poster" and "SERIOUSLY".
Clairvoire was commissioned to create the sprites for Mettaton's Game Show sign, hands during encounters, disco ball, Undyne charging, Mad Dummy's splash as well as a bag of dog food in the Lab.
Toby's concept art of MTT Resort included pillars that were meant to make it feel high-class.
Toby humorously notes how he can't tell the difference between his concept art and the final version of Muffet's lair.
Gigi D.G. created concept art of the CORE based on Toby's description of "the feeling of leaving a party and heading into a dangerous area". They also drew concept art of Mettaton's boss room after they found the previous version boring during their playthrough.
Kenju created the tileset for the CORE, with Toby's suggestion of blue circuit-like floor patterns. He mentions that his favorite bit in the tileset are the CYMK tubes.
Toby describes how the walls in the True Lab's long hallway would laugh at the player, but cut it as he decided it would either be too scary or too cheesy. This concept was later repurposed in the 10th Anniversary Stream, although with different sprites. Toby also mentions how he created every single graphical asset in the True Lab.
Merrigo created the tilesets for the Last Corridor and the initial background of the surface based on Toby's concept art. She also created the cityscape in the background of Papyrus and Sans's scene in the True Pacifist ending credits.
The chapter goes over each of the game's characters.
The protagonist originally had a black outline which was replaced as it blended in with black backgrounds. Toby states that if the protagonist's sprites looked "too good", the player would have different expectations.
Toby mentions that Flowey appeared in his head fully formed and did not change through development. Chelsea Saunders's 3D artwork of Flowey used for a Steam Trading Card was inspired by Keiji Kinebuchi's Pokémon Trading Card Game artwork. Chelsea says Flowey "still manages to look creepy when made outta just a few shapes". Flowey's encounter sprites were some of the first sprites Toby created for the game, and were inspired by the character Face from Cosbydaf's NES Godzilla Creepypasta.
Toriel was first imagined as a human-like goddess, similar to Myria from Breath of Fire III, and would have been required to be killed in order to proceed. Toby realized it felt "wrong" for her death to be mandatory once he started writing her dialogue. Toby also mentions that Fallen Down was first created for I Miss You - EarthBound 2012, and was intended as a "Game Over" theme similar to The Legend of Zelda. Toriel's encounter and face sprites were one of the first pieces of concept art Toby created for the game, and initially did not include her horns, which were later added to distinguish her from the Mimiga species from Cave Story.
Temmie Chang created Toriel's overworld sprites, which took many revisions. According to Toby, Toriel's chair was originally too small and not cozy enough. Leigh Davis created Toriel's Steam Trading Card artwork after Toby noticed her art style from her "Nomarios" series. Leigh reminisces that after playing through the Ruins, she wanted to stay with Toriel forever.
The Toriel Plush sold via Fangamer was designed by Toby and finalized by Jenna Post. A sketch of Toriel by Fangamer staff Laura MW and Adil Mohyuddin was used as reference for Chelsea Saunders's 3D Toriel model.
Napstablook was not originally intended to appear in the game, and was only added after Toby's friends seemed to like them after they appeared as a placeholder in Toby's encounter mockups. Toby also mentions that Ghost Fight was created before the game ever existed, and that its inclusion in the context of Undertale was inspired by Pepper Steak from OFF.
Papyrus's first design is described as "kind of creepy, with no obvious redeeming qualities". He would wear a fedora and his favorite show would be called "My Little Boney". This earlier iteration was somewhat inspired by Dedan from OFF. Toby says he's glad he was completely changed, as having a mean-spirited character wouldn't have been right. Toby also mentions that Nyeh Heh Heh! and Bonetrousle were originally the main battle theme for an earlier RPG game he worked on. That game would later be revealed to be Deltarune, and the tracks would have taken the roles of Lancer and Rude Buster respectively.
Papyrus's "battle body" was designed by Temmie. Toby compares the initial sketch to Captain Falcon from F-Zero and the final design to the miniboss from Sting Chameleon’s stage from Mega Man X. Temmie created Papyrus's encounter sprite after Toby's initial attempts.
Linnet created Papyrus's Steam Trading Card artwork, which originally had stickers with the words "COOL DUDE" and "NICE COOK" that had to be removed to keep it international. Guzusuru was asked to create sprites for Papyrus's date, but Toby decided they were "too good" and drew "a ton of terrible looking ones". Toby created several sprites for Papyrus's last attack, which would have included "a bunch of ridiculous stuff", like "an entire circus", as well as a row of 19 "cool buses" based on Homestar Runner.
Temmie Chang's concept art of Sans's outfit included an option with either a visor or a hat. Toby says Sans was originally going to run poker at a casino. Drak created Sans's Steam Trading Card artwork, for which Toby suggested keeping Sans out of the card itself, and only having him be visible in the full view. Drak added a spotlight as they were unsure whether Steam would allow an empty black card.
The Annoying Dog has a page in this chapter, although it only contains one large image of many Annoying Dogs.
Betty Kwong designed Temmie during a stream where she was drawing what she thought her friends looked like. Temmie Chang adapted the design as a mascot for social media.
According to Toby, Undyne took a long time to be developed, both in terms of appearance and writing. He wanted her to be the first boss to try to kill the protagonist, and he experimented with various accents to make her more interesting. Until Toby began programming her monologue, she had an interest in fashion and singing.
Temmie's first sprites of Undyne wearing armor looked "a bit too much like a normal knight" to Toby, and did not feature the sharp shadows. Toby modified the helmet, and noticed her waist-armor needed to be longer.
Gigi D.G. commented that Toby's initial design for Undyne's outfit during the date with Alphys looked like "she was going for a jog". Toby's friend Jones told him to put Undyne in a jacket. Gigi D.G. also created Undyne's Steam Trading Card artwork, which was also used to reveal Undyne's existence several days before the game's release.
Toby's first design of Undyne the Undying had her hair far more vertical, which was only changed as it wouldn't have fit on the screen.
Alphys was first envisioned as male. After Toby grew to dislike it, she was given eyelashes. Toby described Temmie's first drawing of Alphys as "too smooth and round" and that she was supposed to look "like a triangle". Later, Toby also compares her to Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons. Temmie created Alphys's overworld sprites in Microsoft Paint when she was visiting Toby.
Mettaton was inspired by the robot from the film A Grand Day Out from the Wallace & Gromit series. Temmie created concept art for Mettaton's first appearance in the Lab. A "very very early" sprite of Mettaton EX was created, which Toby scrapped before much progress was made. Encounters against Mettaton's box form was inspired by R7038 from EarthBound Beginnings. An unused encounter sprite with a similar perspective to R7038 was also created, but scrapped as it wouldn't have fit in next to Alphys's sprite. Mettaton was planned to, as well as initially programmed to, recline on the bullet board when it goes high. Toby removed the behavior as "the transition didn’t look good".
Temmie created sketches for QC where she was wearing a bonnet, which Toby comments on, saying he likes it and wonders why it wasn't used. Temmie also created a mockup of QC's shop screen, which included items such as a hamburger, couch, basket, fuzzy rug and calm rug.
Gerson's face was drawn by Toby, with Temmie drawing the rest of his shop sprite. Bratty and Catty's sprites were first created by Toby, and redrawn by Ipgd.
First sprites of Asgore included his sprite seen at the end of the Undertale Kickstarter video. Toby compares him to a combination of Sinistral and King Berebus from Brandish. Toby also mentions that Asgore's hair was black or brown during most of the game's development, and only changed near the end to make the overworld sprite more readable. Asgore was programmed to be able to hold his trident at any angle. Toby asked "three or four" different people, including Temmie, to draw Asgore's trident swing animation, but was the one to create it in the end.
An unused special attack had Asgore's eyes flash six times, after which he would swipe his trident six times. Then, he would flash both eyes white, lift his trident, roar, and slam his trident to create shockwaves. Toby scrapped the plan as it would have made the battle too difficult, and the spear wouldn't have fit on the screen.
Each boss encounter was planned to have a unique background, where Asgore's would feature boxes moving in parallax. This was later scrapped, and Undyne's encounter was the only one to feature a moving background.
Omega Flowey was first sketched by Toby Fox, with several redesigns needed until Everdraed was able to work on his graphics. Toby originally created a different set of faces for the end of Omega Flowey's battle, which he described as "too funny" and "still really good though". Some unused faces were later repurposed for the 10th Anniversary Stream.
Everdraed was tasked with making Omega Flowey's visuals "unsettling". Everdraed originally intended for his teeth to get damaged as the fight progresses, and return to a perfect state after reloading his SAVE. Omega Flowey's side vines were originally going to undulate, which was scrapped when it made them too visually distracting and too difficult to layer above other assets. The bones, chains and tubes in the top corners of Omega Flowey were originally colored and "weirdly animated, with each element struggling against the others". Everdraed also takes note of the fact that the tubes were mixed with worms.
More moving vines were created to be used for the background, but were not used as it made the bullets too difficult to dodge. The Venus flytrap in Omega Flowey's fly attack had a "VACANCY" sign that switched to "NO VACANCY" when all the flies went in, and in a variant of the attack suggested by Everdraed, the sign would change before all flies managed to get in, so the remaining ones would move elsewhere. The Venus flytrap was also originally supposed to be separate from Omega Flowey, popping up from the bottom of the screen. Everdraed also created an alternate design for the nostrils with more realistic shading and "some real weird sniffing action".
Everdraed made several visuals to be used on Omega Flowey's TV screen, including one of a house falling down.
Toby originally envisioned Asriel to be fought as a child during his encounter, and the "God of Hyperdeath" form was inspired by a program Toby made to test visual effects, where he used an image of Toriel with "evil eyes". Toby considered giving Asriel "boyband hair" for "5 seconds" and is glad that, despite not using it, Asriel was understood to be the kind of character to have it anyway. Toby described sprites of Asriel standing as "a doofus standing there so I decided to make him fly". In an unused attack that was programmed, but left out as it was too difficult, Asriel would have spun his head fast enough that it turns into an eye and fire beams. Another two unused attacks are described, one where eyes would appear and fire lasers, and another where Asriel would fire both orange and blue attacks from his hands.
Vegetoid was originally going to be a pumpkin named "Squashy". A more difficult variant of Whimsun would have had butterfly wings. Toby intended for the protagonist to be able to talk to the snoring guests, but forgot and did not care enough.
Temmie created the initial sprite for the Nice Cream guy with a salmon-colored body, which was changed by Toby. She also created full body sprites for Big Mouth.
Magnolia Porter created the initial sketches of Ice Cap, Snowdrake, Jerry and Monster Kid. Temmie created the sprites of Monster Kid, which Toby edited as they looked "really pissed off".
Temmie created her own designs of the Canine Unit members, which were scrapped as "they all looked too... real? Basically they didn’t look crappy enough". Dogamy and Dogaressa were inspired by the comic Trobblers by Brian Lee. The idea for Lesser Dog came from Temmie's art after being asked to draw a smaller version of Greater Dog, which Toby describes as having a "weirdly long and puffy neck". The following days, Toby would ask Temmie to look at "some important concept art", which would be the same art of Lesser Dog with its neck edited to be longer each time.
A sprite similar in shape to Omega Flowey, with the filename beast_drawing.png would have been "a wall in Waterfall", but was scrapped as "it didn’t... make any sense".
Aaron was created after Toby was jokingly asked by a friend to be added as a very muscular and strong enemy in the game. Toby took this as an opportunity to have Temmie draw a muscular horse, "because she hates muscles and horses".
Several cut designs for Onionsan were created by Toby, including some which are very different from the final design. The text "ninoon", an anagram of "onion" can also be seen on the concept art. Toby mentions that it is clear Onionsan was added last minute.
Hotland was intended to have many robots and cyborgs, including the 98 Robot and 100 Robot, but they were eventually cut as Toby deemed them unfitting alongside Mettaton. A cheerleader and Larpy were planned to be enemies in Hotland. Hotland was also intended to have more lizards, one of which was going to be the lizard person, which Toby describes as reminding him of Cheez-Its.
The River Person was originally intended to have a random chance to wear a flowery muumuu.
The bombs present in Mettaton's MTT News segment were originally meant to all be unique. A sprite for Fashion Bomb was created.
Toby programmed the encounter with RG 03 and RG 04, but it was not used as he couldn't find a place to use it in. He also describes an amalgamate of the Royal Guards named "ASURA".
Michelle Czajkowski created the original art of Muffet, which Toby "more or less traced" and "put them directly into the game".
The original design of Reaper Bird had significantly shorter legs, which Toby changed as he did not find it creepy enough.
Madjick's original design had floating hands, which Toby compares to Rayman from the Rayman series, as well as Plok from the video game Plok!.
Toby describes Everyman as "just a good guy who shows up on occasion".
Concept art of Whimsalot has similarities to the Grim Reaper, with a skull-like face while holding a scythe.
A frowning, blue demon similar to the Red Demon was planned to appear later in the game, with an amalgamate version.
Toby confirms that Lemon Bread is a reference to the video game Gunstar Heroes.
Several unused designs for Hard Mode enemies were sketched, although Toby only expressed regret for not including Mr. Sunshine and the Troubleboys.
The ficus licker was first created alongside three other, differently colored NPCs, all of which were meant to be used as placeholder NPC graphics.
Burgerpants started as a character inspired by PaRappa the Rapper, but later "went wrong".
Gyftrot was designed by Magnolia Porter as a Hotland enemy, which Toby changed the horns of from vents to pine trees and used in Snowdin instead. Magnolia also created the design for a seagull monster because she likes seagulls, but Toby "did not take the bait" and did not use it.
The chapter compiles art from the Undertale Kickstarter's updates, including two comics based on the Kickstarter's success.
The chapter features concept art of the game's user interface. It includes mockups of the interfaces for encounters and the date with Papyrus, as well as the overworld menu's items, Cell Phone and stats options. It also includes unused loading screen artwork and concept art of the manual created by Temmie Chang, as well as a screenshot of a room similar to room_overworld, with Toriel talking.
The chapter features concept art of various cutscenes from the game. It includes Temmie Chang's artwork for the intro and Asriel's flashback cutscenes, as well as a mockup of the True Pacifist Route's barrier cutscene before Asriel's encounter.
The conclusion is a short section featuring the book's credits and thanks Kickstarter backers and the reader. It also humorously thanks Toby Fox himself, the mailperson who delivered the book, the mailperson's friends and family, and "the mice and bugs" that read it.
The last page's background features many Annoying Dogs and a note written to the reader to find "the REAL annoying dog" with "the telltale wink and grin". This references page 97, where the Annoying Dog located in the 12th column, 6th row from the top right of the page, bears this expression.
The artists credited include:
- Temmie Chang
- Clairvoire
- Michelle Czajkowski
- Leigh Davis
- Chess
- Gigi D.G.
- easynam
- Everdraed
- Toby Fox
- Guzusuru
- Kenju
- Betty Kwong
- Linnet
- Magnolia Porter
- Merrigo
- Chelsea Saunders
The Fangamer staff credited include:
- Amanda Johnnson
- Jon Kay
- Tony Kuchar
- Adil Mohyuddin
- Laura MW
- Jenna Post
- Audrey Waner
- ↑
New UNDERTALE products (incl. art book) will be available for purchase (pre-order?) in about 40 minutes at Fangamer.
— Toby Fox (@tobyfox) on Twitter, November 23, 2016.
