Plans for the full release of Toby Fox’s Deltarune have shifted, with the creator confirming Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the adventure will now be released earlier than expected. Initially, Fox had originally planned to launch Deltarune as a paid game once its first five chapters were ready (the first two chapters were offered for free) – but with Chapter 5 reportedly “pretty far off”, the timeline has now changed.
“My original plan was to release Chapters 3, 4, and 5 together,” Fox wrote in a blog post. “However, the finish line of Chapter 5 is still pretty far off… and I don’t think anybody really wants to wait that long to release anything. Especially me. So, new strategy: No more waiting for Chapter 5.”
Per Fox, the game’s third chapter is “pretty much content complete”, with few changes left until it’s ready for release. The fourth chapter “already has a very substantial amount of cutscenes and enemy work done” and development is now progressing well, with an additional producer on board.
Fox appears confident in the progress of the game, and that its upcoming third and fourth chapters will be plenty to satisfy patient fans, who’ve waited several years for more news about the status of Deltarune.
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For now, the wider plan for Deltarune remains in place – eventually, it will comprise seven major chapters that tease out strange mysteries, like the nature of the soul. The first two chapters of the game follow the adventures of a teenager named Kris and their odd companions, as they work to uncover the truth behind the appearance of strange Dark Worlds, and their incursions into the ‘real world’.
It’s expected that future chapters will deepen this strangeness, as players unravel a unique mythology, very loosely tied to the world of Undertale, Toby Fox’s previous, award-winning adventure game.
As of writing, the full version of Deltarune does not have a firm release date, but we can likely expect to hear more in the coming year. Fox has announced he will refrain from detailed development updates for now, only letting fans know “if development is getting close to completion, or if something funny happens” – so those looking forward to more Deltarune updates will need to remain patient.