The shopkeeper in snowdin art from UNDERTALE, by Temmie Chang
Aware of his own limitations with art, Toby Fox noticed Temmie Chang's work on Tumblr and contacted her about working together on a game. Temmie agreed, and Toby proceeded to effectively infodump about the game over Skype.
During development, while Toby was developing the personality one of the game's characters, Papyrus, Toby would message Temmie in-character as Papyrus.
A early screenshot of the battle system in UNDERTALE in the forum thread.
On October 29th, 2012, the Starmen.net user "MrTenda" posted a joke thread about a non-existant romhack called "UnderBound", going as far to state "Forget Hollywood, forget Bollywood, this is it." The thread was a joke about overly ambitious romhacks being announced.
On February 4th, 2013, Toby revives the thread and announces his work on "UnderBound 2" which he presents as an EarthBound romhack made using new modding tools, stating that he's "using a combination of HDMA and Mode 7 to increase the resolution of the SNES though at the cost of the color palette". He posts an early screenshot of what will later be announced as UNDERTALE (this is the earliest known screenshot of the game), alongside revealing the character Flowey, the nameless main character, and a battle theme.
This is the first public mention of what will become UNDERTALE.
An early version of the song "Enemy Approaching" that was attached in the post.
VOD of the Fangamer stream in question (divided up into parts by the uploader, to watch in full the uploader has a playlist on their channel)
On May 3rd, 2013, Fangamer, a video game merch company run by the same people as Starmen.net (and in fact the Fangamer company owns Starmen.net) held a livestream, in which the main event was a playthrough of a very early demo of UNDERTALE.
This is the first time that UNDERTALE has been shown to the world. The demo is very early, with temporary assets and many differences from the version that was released publicly.
During this stream, the first fanart of UNDERTALE was created, a drawing of the character "Migosp", which the player encounters in battle, on a paper plate.
I did ask Fangamer via email if the plate still exists, and received the following response:
I also asked the Reid Young, the co-founder of Fangamer on Twitter, who was there for the livestream, if he knows anything about the plate:
I think this was drawn by... @stitchwyrm ?? I'd be shocked if it was still around but who knows, haha
— Reid Young (@reidman) June 29, 2024
It's true fate is unknown, but it is likely lost. It has been preserved by being on stream though.
Undertale.com shortly after the demo's release
On May 23rd, 2013, the UNDERTALE demo was released to the world, containing the first area of the game, known as the ruins. The demo is notable as it runs on a previous version of it's engine, Gamemaker. Since the release of the demo, UNDERTALE had upgraded from Gamemaker 8 to Gamemaker Studio.
The first part of iHasCupquake's Playthrough of the demo
After the release, both organically and upon suggestion of Toby, various YouTubers play the demo, including iHasCupquake, MainlyBadassHero, and others.
The UNDERTALE Kickstarter trailer, reuploaded by another user
On June 24, 2013, the UNDERTALE kickstarter is launched with a goal of $5000 and an intended release window of Summer 2024. Rewards include a copy of the game, having a character added to the game, and more. Stretch goals include a Mac port, a secret boss, and an alarm clock app.
Post by Toby Fox announcing funding reached, with art by Temmie Chang
On the same day of the Kickstarter being launched, it reaches it's funding goal of $5000.
Note from the Kickstarter update feed for UNDERTALE.
30 days after it's launch, the UNDERTALE Kickstarter closes, with a total of $51,124 raised out of an initial goal of $5000.
Update from Toby Fox stating the game's delay
On February 21, 2014, Toby Fox makes an update to the Kickstarter stating that the game is approaching 50% completion but is being put on hold until April as Toby is completing college at the time, and therefore is unlikely to meet the Summer 2014 release window.
Video announcing the release date
On August 22nd, 2015, Toby Fox releases a video announcing the release date of September 15th, 2015. In the description of the video, he notes that the video is "Not the release trailer, that will be cooler."
The release trailer
On September 8, 2015, the UNDERTALE release trailer is uploaded. It is edited by Everdraed, who contributed to the game, and features a joke 3D scene by Chelsea Saunders.
On September 15, 2015, after years in development, UNDERTALE is released to the world on Steam.