Now I have picked my game, Undertale, comes the planning process and the solving the problems that come around it. To Begin planning, I thought that the best way to start planning was to go through the game some more and look more of what my level could do to enhance the story. Something I love much about Undertale, and many others do too, is the story surrounding the game and the hidden lore found by talking to different monsters in the underground. I believe that building upon this could be a good way to explore more in why some of the characters are in the underworld, as it is known that the monsters were once on-ground rather than below. After looking through the characters and learning more about them, I decided to plan my level around the two skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus, learning more about their backstory and finding how they joined the town of snow-din as two of it’s most known citizens.
Idea Generation
Though I have formed my original Idea of having the story and level take place with the intention of being around the two brothers, I need to further enhance the idea and think more of how and why this is happening, and how the story will take place, and the cause of it. For that, I wanted to try different ways of Idea Generation in order to do so.
This mind mup highlights different aspect of the level and everything that will be involved, four main categories including Story, Setting, Character and “In The Past”.
Story goes through what is going to happen, having Frisk going to the past and meeting the past characters and learning why they came to Snowdin and how, seeing the town before the snow came. It also includes a sub-category about how the character is going into the past, using Sans Time Machine that is hidden away in his garage.
Setting goes through the landscape of Winter, Christmas, and the overall feel of Snowdin Town and the different houses and accommodations that goes alongside it, having taverns and houses that are built from wood and glass, being very cosy and basic. The whole level would be the same looking as the present, the difference being that the snow would be more than usual, which would then later give the town it’s name of “Snowdin”.
Characters listed are consisted of the present characters, however adding two that were previously known as dead, Chara and Asriel. This shows the characters and sprites that will be needed for the level, knowing that I will need all of them, including new ideas on what they will look like now they are in the past.
The Narrative Design
The Story of my level is to find out and play into the backstory of the main Characters Sans and Papyrus, and explain more than spoken about in the prior game, giving both closure and an explanation to the story. This is something many fans of the original game were eager to learn about, learning about all the characters except from the two skeleton brothers. From a Narrative stand-point, this lacks story-telling and leaves two major characters out that are loved by both the fandom and the characters in-game, as characters talk about their unknown beginnings, and the mystery surrounding around their story. This is what I will add and improve upon, discussing the two characters and visually showing how and why they came to their residence, and how they met the characters.
The Level and Environment Design
In order to plan out the level and design what the level will look like, I began to gather different reference images, including in-game screenshots, some fan-art by the community of the game. There are multiple images, and all will have captions as in order to have some way to understand what belongs to what.
These reference images show the multiple locations that the level will take place in, or that off what it will take inspiration from, as in the future, the level will look like the first couple images but with more snow, with more snow particles and a grey mist surrounding it. The tavern, as seen with it’s orange and brown look, will be the place the main dialogue takes place, learning and talking to Sans and Papyrus here and asking what brings them to town. This will also be the place you, Sans and Papyrus will get stuck together, for-which will give the town the name of “Snowdin” as Papyrus exclaims that they have been “Snowed-in!”. This is where the main story will happen, and most, if not all, the dialogue will happen within the future segment. The image with the tiled floor is shown to be Sans workshop, which holds the time machine and will be the place for the player to go in-order to time travel to the past to find the story continuation. All the places shown in the reference images will be available to the player to explore, but with the addition of it being more snowy and some parts will be damaged due to this, and some characters will be in different areas, rather than in places that are not open, due to the snow, like the library.
The whole layout will be covered in snow, as the snow is what starts the level into it’s plot to get inside the tavern. For this, I have to edit the characters from the original layout out and add more snow to the level. I completed this in different chunks, first the christmas tree, then grillby’s and then
Grillby’s Transformation
For the design of the New Snowdin town, which is more snowed over than usual, I wanted the once forest background to be more darker and flat, showing that the trees are in their prime and this is some time ago. For the creation of this, I have sketched out the idea of more darker experience and grim forest. The trees are backed up and the snow on the ground grows, as indicated by the darker clumps on the ground. This is a simple design, but still shows the nature of the change in time,showing it to be different than the original design.
For Grillby’s to fully transform into a snow ridden building, it had to be shown that there was a lot of snow filling the surrounding area. As it’s in design, I had the background grayed out as to highlight the new design as to show the new design more clearly. This new design is much like the old design, but with the inclusion of much more snow, both on the roof and on the ground, showing large clumps of snow. This new design is to show that the snow storm is getting worse, and visually illustrates how the snow is getting too much for the town. The weather is changing, and is shown through the amount of snow.
Though the initial design is complete, I needed to create this with pixel-art, as to fit in with the game and it’s design. So for this, I took the original design for Grillby’s and sketched over the original design, making few features (The sing, colours and door) and updated/improved upon them, giving the Grillby’s Asset a new look. The inclusion also came with adding more snow to the top and the bottom, and I created this design on Paint.Net, taking the colours of the asset and adding more to it. This was something I also did with other designs, changing different parts of the town in order to remove citizens and add more snow.
This asset will be used for the location of the level, as the characters will be in here for the majority of the experience, Frisk arriving and slowly making their way inside as the storm gets worse. Frisk will have to make a distraction for both Sans and Papyrus, as the storm will be bad and it will guide them into the building to meet the rest of the characters. Thought the player can not come into the buildings, apart from the Grillby’s Tavern, the character can walk around the level freely and walk in the snow.
ICD – Initial Concept Document
Character Designs and Assets
As all the characters will be in the past, they will be the same as they are now, as it’s only supposed to be a couple years prior, not much will change with appearance and features. The only things added will be the characters Chara and Asriel, as both were killed prior to the base games opening, so the two will be alive and well in this rendition, so I will use the same assets as well that were previously featured in the base version of Undertale, as they were shown, but not for very long. The full assets sheet for all the characters are here, and they will all be the characters appearing in the level.
The image below are all the characters in Undertale, and will be featured in the level inside of the Bar. This is where Sans and Papyrus will talk to the residents and learn of their friendship and make a relationship with everyone, driving them to stay in town. From left to right, I will name the characters. Chara, Frisk, Flowey, Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Undyne Armoured , Mettaton V.1, Mettaton V.2, Asgore, W.D GASTER and Asriel. The characters are all to be included in the game, apart from W.D GASTER who will remain in the background and the shadows, a fan-favourite character who does not interact with the character. The rest of the characters will be able to spoken to, including Sans and Papyrus, though they will be reskinned from their appearance right now. Frisk, the second character in the list, is the players character, so they will also not be included in the list. The characters will remain in their outfits/designs, and keep the personalities they did previously, nothing needed to change but their memory of Sans and Papyrus.
Sans and Papyrus
I created a design for Sans and Papyrus’ outfits when they come to visit for their holiday, showing the initial idea for them being on holiday when first arriving in the level, both being fitted in very summery and warm clothes, as both were previously living in the hottest part of the underworld, “Hotland”. This is just an initial design, as I would normally create this in Pixel-Art, as to fully design the assets as if there were added to the level. But with this design, I wanted to experiments with what it would look like, and different ideas for outfits.
From my designs, I wanted to show that the two brothers were going on Holiday. To do this, I stripped them from their present day outfits, and gave them less formal attire, revealing more skin (Bone) and showing the two dress into something more relaxed. I completed this in Paint.Net.
From them wanting to go on Holiday, I gave the assets summery clothes and a summer appearance, showing the two skeletons in less clothes than their normal outfits. This is what sets up the story, and are the only two changes to assets in the level, as their the two characters who are yet to go through any changes in the story at the point, but as they visit and get snowed-in and talk to the citizens, they grow their relationships with them all, and realize this is the perfect place for them to reside in.
For my Itch.io page, I have designed game art for the level, as shown below. This image depicts Papyrus and Sans talking outside of Grillbys, and Frisk watching from behind the wall. This is to show the game as it’s story, showing Frisk in the shadows, almost depicting them and they’re future, as they go back in time in order for them to stay in the town.
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