Anyway I want to clear all the cobwebs and use this place as a means of giving some behind-the scenes stuff about this Undertale project I'm working on. I'm entering this with the goal of it releasing by the end of the year, but it's already March, so who knows whether I'll hit that deadline. Anyways, that's the idea - let's get into the project itself.
Oh, one other thing, I would NOT read this if you haven't played Undertale yet, because I will be talking about the game extensively in these posts. That being said, I will not mention any specific characters or plot elements beyond Snowdin in this post and I will give disclaimers in every post about what parts of the game I discuss.
The Idea
When I played Undertale back in October last year, I found it to be one of the most incredible experiences I ever had playing a video game. I was sick at the time, so I literally went through the entire game in one day with a PS4 controller in hand.
Anyways, as the days and months went by, everyone started making videos about Undertale, and since I knew about the game, I watched a lot of them, but a lot of these videos really irked me. Some videos talked extensively about how funny characters like Papyrus are and never really touched on the really neat things the game actually does. Some just blatantly spoil the game and ruin it for everyone. And then there are those who just spout memes.
It's come to the point now where the Undertale fanbase has driven the game's image away from its true purpose, and I have yet to find any video on YouTube that truly explains why Undertale affected so many people positively (although Balrog came damn close).
My idea with this critical analysis is to leave no stone unturned and truly tear apart this game (like I claim to do in my channel bio). Originally it was going to be an unscripted commentary a la Captain Toad, but soon the project expanded into something much greater in scope.
Logistics
Script
The full critical analysis will be approximately the same length as a pacifist run of the game (probably longer, but let's estimate), so around 6 hours. In addition, the thing will be fully scripted. The average speaking rate is somewhere around 150 wpm (words per minute), so assuming that's the case, we're looking at a script of approximately 54,000 words. That's a lot of fucking words.
So let's break this down, shall we?
The plan is to release each area of the game as a separate video, but then also release a full video of the whole thing for those who like to watch things that way. So, to make things a bit easier, we'll divide that 54,000 number by video.
If what I just said is true (and it might not be), then if we account for an intro and closing video we can go with about 8 videos total:
Introduction (not in-game)
Ruins
Snowden
Waterfall
Hotland/CORE
New Home
Ending(s)
Conclusion (not in-game)
Now I have already finished scripting that intro video, and it's 3,210 words long, which should equate to about a 15 minute video (for reference, the "Running in Mario Games" video was 2,898 words and ran 14 minutes, discounting the end card). I am currently scripting out the Ruins, and just finished Napstablook (so about halfway through). That bit is currently sitting at 3,853 words, which is a bit longer than 20 minutes. So here's where we stand currently:
3,210 words - Introduction (complete!)
3,853+ words - Ruins
0 words - Snowdin
0 words - Waterfall
0 words - Hotland / CORE
0 words - New Home
0 words - Ending(s)
0 words - Conclusion
54,000 words - TOTAL
Only 46,937 words left!
So given my standing with the script now, we can sort of guesstimate how long these sections will take. I'd imagine Hotland/CORE to be the longest video and New Home to be the shortest (not counting the intro and conclusion). We'll round to make things easier for us:
3k words - Intro
8k words - Ruins
8k words - Snowdin
7k words - Waterfall
10k words - Hotland / CORE
6k words - New Home
8k words - Ending(s)
4k words - Conclusion
54k words - TOTAL
Remember this is all rough guessing. I genuinely think Waterfall will take less than 7,000 words, but I'll be lenient. Plus, when you get to New Home and Ending(s) it's hard to say what things will be included where, and I haven't figured out all of those logistics yet.
Footage
As of writing, I have recorded none of the game footage, but during my Spring Break, I intend to record most, if not all of it. The issue is that because of the game's dynamic nature, one playthrough won't cut it by any means. In fact, I have determined that I will need to play through the game at least 5 times to get all the necessary footage. I'll try and break it down here:
Run 1 - Vanilla Neutral: This run's purpose is to show a typical neutral ending, while also showing all of the death sequences for all major bosses in the game in a neutral setting. I also plan to show off the "easter egg" deaths (ex. you can kill Toriel in one hit right after sparing her 23 of the necessary 24 times) as well. I will be sparing all normal enemies in the run except for Snowdrake, as he has a bit of significance (if you know what it is, cool, if not, cool too).
Run 2 - Post-Neutral: This run's purpose is to show some alternate stuff not shown in the first one, including characters like sans (yes, you're not supposed to capitalize his name you fool) recognizing the player from a prior run, using the sticks on the dogs, and letting Papyrus capture you during his fight, among others.
Run 3 - Vanilla Pacifist: After clearing the save via folder deletion, this pacifist run will play through the game in that regard. The footage from this run will be shown the most, so I will go and explore all the secret rooms and stuff too. I also pet the Lesser Dog in this run, and that's important because it's the funniest fucking thing in the whole game. I also get amusement from ignoring the Greater Dog, which I will also showcase in this run.
Run 4 - Genocide: After an in-game "true reset", it's time for mass murder. I plan to show pieces of the run throughout instead of dedicating a separate video to the Genocide run. I don't know exactly where I'll talk about the grinding though. Hmm...
Run 5 - Post-Pacifist: Similar idea to Post-Neutral, except this time it's following Genocide.
Essentially, my plan is to color-code the background based on which footage is being shown. This way I don't have to explicitly say "let's switch to the Genocide run". I want to avoid using the terms "pacifist" and "genocide" as much as possible in the critical analysis until we get to New Home because script reasons, so the coding will help differentiate between playthroughs without explicitly saying which one is the good one vs. the bad one. We probably wouldn't make two different colors for Run 1 and Run 2, because they both play out very similarly. I'm still debating on whether to make Run 5 a different color from Run 3, but I have a looooong time to debate that one out.
***
There's a lot of other ideas I've been tossing around, but for now I don't want to think or plan beyond these two phases of the project. If I think too far ahead, then it is very possible I might pull a Duke Nukem Forever and try and include all the latest cool shit in this project only for it to come out 15 years late when no one cares.
Anyways, I hope you found this interesting. This whole post clocks in at 1,449 words that could have been spent on the script, but hey, I like writing about what I'm thinking, even if no one will read it. I'll continue to update as the project goes along, so you can consider this your Kickstarter update for that project that you have no way of giving money to. Yeah, that.
-MML
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