Who actually made Deltarune Chapter 2? While it’s common knowledge that Deltarune
is the brainchild of Earthbound fan Toby Fox, he is always quick to give proper credit to his full
team. He didn’t make Undertale all by himself, and he certainly hasn’t made Deltarune alone.
So who exactly are the developers that helped bring this game to life,
and what other projects have they worked on? For those who’ve finished and loved Deltarune
Chapter 2, it’s worth exploring the team’s other games to find something with a similar flavour,
even if it’s in a completely different genre. There are over fifty people named in Chapter 2’s
credits, including artists, musicians, programmers, localisers, and testers.
Alas, we don’t have time in this video to go over all of their various achievements, so for
now we’ll stick to the core development team. In a progress update published a year ago,
Toby Fox said that there were three people, not including himself, that comprised the main team
for Deltarune Chapter 2. This then expanded to six people at some point before Chapter 2’s release.
Temmie Chang is the game’s main artist and animator, and, as covered in our exclusive
interview with her, she’s been working with Toby Fox since the early days of Undertale.
She’s also released a couple of games herself which fans of her art may want to
check out – Escaped Chasm was her first game, followed by Dwellers Empty Path.
Perhaps the most important member of the Deltarune development team is Sarah O’Donnell,
a Japan-based game developer who first started working with Toby when she helped port Chapter
1 to the Nintendo Switch. Said Toby:
“She's the one that works really hard on all the parts you don't think about.
She's a really reliable person that's helped out with everything behind the scenes for years.”
In addition to her skills as a programmer, Sarah is also a very talented artist who has
made several short Game Jam games along with her own team, Dessert Club. Check out Brittle Blue and
Rootless to see some of her work. Next we have Taxiderby,
an Undertale fan turned Deltarune developer. Not long after Undertale released, Taxiderby
created a fan game, Undertale Red, which very closely mirrors the design of the original game.
This clearly got Taxiderby noticed, as they joined Toby Fox’s team
working on Deltarune. Said Taxiderby: “It was such a wonderful experience
working with this team, and somehow it was my first shipped game?? what's up with that.
I feel like I learned a lot and I'm soooo excited to use those powers for evil”
Taxiderby is currently developing a game called Rainshade, which is
being funded in part by Patreon. They’ve also made some Ludum Dare Game Jam games,
such as Lucid Drifter, and Moment to Midnight. Fred Wood is best known for a series of precision
platformers called LOVE – the latest in the series, LOVE 3, is currently in development.
Fred joined the Deltarune development team last October. While he’s hesitant to reveal
exactly what he did on the game at the moment (for fear of spoilers), he said on Twitter:
“It has been the opportunity of a lifetime, and am excited for the future.
“I've learned so very much and gotten to work with such incredible people and learn so much.
I'm a better developer now because everything I've learned from [the rest of the team].”
Jean Canellas worked mostly on boss fights and enemy encounters. The boss fights were a
collaborative effort alongside Toby and Taxiderby. Jean is particularly pleased with a certain
challenging boss fight which will remain nameless. He said:
“I guess I’ll forever be known for making people rage. I’m ok with that.”
Jean is the programmer and lead designer working on Death’s Gambit, a Metroidvania which is
getting a large content update, Afterlife, on Steam and Switch at the end of September.
Finally, the last member of the Deltarune Chapter 2 main team is Xan Wetherall,
but as they have no online presence, we’ve elected to respect their privacy.
These are but a few of the contributors to the latest chapter of Deltarune – this game was the
work of a large group of talented creators, all of which put in a lot of effort alongside
Toby Fox to help bring the game to life. The moral of the story is that there’s only
so much any of us can do alone. The romaticised idea of a visionary lone indie games developer
is a little unrealistic, as very few games are actually made by just one person in isolation.
The truth is: working together makes everything more fun!