GAME · 2015
Undertale
- Developer
- Toby Fox, 8-4
- Publisher
- Fangamer, 8-4
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation Vita, Xbox Series X and Series S
35 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (35)
- #001
Undertale was developed by Toby Fox over a period of 32 months.
- #002
Development of Undertale was funded by a Kickstarter campaign that ran from June 24, 2013 to July 24, 2013, raising US$51,124 from 2,398 backers against a US$5,000 goal.
- #003
Before Undertale, Toby Fox was best known for composing music for the webcomic Homestuck, a role he began in 2010; Undertale was the first full game he wrote.
- #004
The title Undertale was inspired by Toby Fox's observation that EarthBound and Homestuck each combine two words, and by Cave Story, from which he swapped "story" for "tale" and "Cave" for "Under" because the game takes place underground.
- #005
Fox wanted to make a role-playing game that departed from traditional design, which he often found boring to play despite his love of JRPGs, and sought interesting characters and use of the medium as a storytelling device rather than keeping story and gameplay abstractions separate.
- #006
Temmie Chang served as Undertale's main artist, producing most of its sprites and concept art.
- #007
The defensive portion of Undertale's battle system drew inspiration from the Mario & Luigi series and bullet hell shooters including the Touhou Project series.
- #008
While designing Undertale's battle system, Fox aimed for a mechanic he would personally enjoy, seeking an experience as engaging as Super Mario RPG (1996) and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003).
- #009
Fox chose not to require grinding in Undertale, leaving it optional, and avoided fetch quests because they involve backtracking, which he dislikes.
- #010
Fox kept Undertale's difficulty easy and engaging, and after asking friends inexperienced with bullet hell shooters to test it, he found they could complete the game and considered the difficulty optimal, especially given the complications of adding another difficulty setting.
- #011
The idea of finishing Undertale without killing any enemies emerged naturally as Fox developed its negotiation mechanic, though he never considered removing the option to fight.
- #012
Asked about the difficulty of a no-kill playthrough of Undertale, Fox called it the crux of one of the game's major themes and asked players to think about it themselves.
- #013
Although Fox had not played Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (1997), its concepts inspired Undertale, including repairing the damage of the "Hero" and raising a "Love Level" by helping rather than hurting people. Fox also cited Cave Story (2004) as a general inspiration.
- #014
According to Fox, the concept of being trapped in an underground world for Undertale came from the video game Brandish.
- #015
Fox drew on the silliness of internet culture and comedy shows such as Mr. Bean, as well as the unsettling atmosphere of EarthBound, when developing Undertale.
- #016
Fox's wish to subvert concepts that go unquestioned in many games shaped Undertale's development.
- #017
Fox found writing easier once a character's voice and mood were established, and considered world-building a natural process that expressed the stories of those within it; he stressed making Undertale's monsters feel like individuals, contrasting them with the identical monsters he saw in RPGs such as Final Fantasy.
- #018
Toriel, one of the first characters to appear in Undertale, was designed by Fox as a parody of tutorial characters.
- #019
Fox's dislike of Fi, the companion in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, who often revealed puzzle answers early, shaped Toriel's creation. Fox also believed role-playing games generally lacked strong mother characters, citing the Pokémon series and Mother as examples where mothers serve as symbols rather than characters.
- #020
Fox intended Toriel to be "a mom that hopefully acts like a mom" who "genuinely cares" about players' actions.
- #021
Toriel initially had to be killed to progress in Undertale, but Fox changed this before the game's demo release, feeling it was wrong that killing her was the only way forward. This decision led Fox to add the option to spare monsters, which made him understand what "Undertale was really about."
- #022
Papyrus and Sans in Undertale take their names from the typefaces Papyrus and Comic Sans, and their in-game dialogue appears in those matching fonts.
- #023
Undertale's credits list both Papyrus and Sans as inspired by J. N. Wiedle, author of the webcomic Helvetica, which features a skeleton named after the font.
- #024
Papyrus began as a sketch in Fox's notebook, conceived as a mean-spirited character called "Times New Roman" who wears a fedora.
- #025
Sans was originally written to run poker at a casino and to tell more puns, though Fox decided the extra puns would not be as funny as he had thought; the casino idea returned in the Xbox One port, where Sans runs a casino at his and Papyrus's house.
- #026
Alphys was first conceived as a man in Undertale, but Toby Fox grew to dislike this, so the character became a woman and eyelashes were added to her design.
- #027
Asgore was initially meant to be intimidating in Undertale, but Toby Fox made him more goofy, drawing inspiration from his friend Reid Young, the founder of Fangamer.
- #028
Fox drew Undertale's music from Super NES role-playing games such as EarthBound, the bullet hell series Touhou Project, and the webcomic Homestuck, for which he had supplied some music. According to Fox, more than 90% of the songs were composed specifically for the game.
- #029
"Megalovania", heard during Undertale's boss battle with Sans, had appeared earlier in Homestuck and in one of Fox's EarthBound ROM hacks. Fox wrote each section's music before programming it, saying this helped him decide how the scene should go.
- #030
Fox first tried composing Undertale's soundtrack with the music tracker FamiTracker but found it difficult and unintuitive, so he played segments of the music separately and connected them on a track. In 2016, for the game's first anniversary, he posted five unused musical works on his blog, and four of the game's songs were released as official downloadable content for the Steam version of Taito's Groove Coaster.
- #031
The Undertale soundtrack was positively received and was described as a key factor in the game's success, particularly for its extensive use of character leitmotifs across multiple tracks.
- #032
Oxford stated that this track especially shows Fox's ability to turn old songs into completely new experiences, a skill she says is used throughout the game's score.
- #033
A concert tour devoted to Undertale's soundtrack music, arranged for a 25-piece orchestra and curated by Toby Fox, was announced on March 17, 2026.
- #034
The Undertale orchestral tour is set to begin on August 23, 2026, with dates running through 2027.
- #035
Performances on the Undertale orchestral tour are planned for North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and Australia.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Undertale — Wikipedia
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