DOG HOLE DUNGEON NEWSLETTER
- Issue 3 -

Hi again! Happy Summer!

This issue is probably the biggest one we’ll ever release, so let's get right into it with no hesitation.

GAME PROGRESS

We have continued to expand the team, bringing even more programmers, artists and musicians on board. For the last few months, the majority of our efforts have been focused on touching up and polishing earlier parts of the game, adding new and engaging gameplay mechanics for the sake of additional gameplay variety and replayability factor, bashing our heads against the walls while trying to work our insane technical magic, and finally, drinking a ton of orange juice to beat the heat. (Orange juice is not in the game, sorry...)

It feels nice not having to do everything while still making sure stuff is being done.

Back in March, I said that we will hopefully have all of the final layer’s enemies complete by the time this issue is on your screen. At the time of writing this, we are still on track to meet this goal. The last few remaining bullet patterns will hopefully be done either this or next week, depending on how active me and the other programmers are. After that, attacks for bosses and extra enemies will start being worked on. Including Jerry and another returning Undertale enemy that I can’t talk about right now, there are roughly about 40 unique enemies to fight! Wohoo!

The final layer’s enemies are incredibly tough and have a very intense treasure-trove of bullet patterns - even for Undertale standards - and will likely need lots of balancing with the help of the testers once they get their hands on them. But, you can win if you treat danger realistically; Carry a lot of food around and immediately eat some if anyone hits you.

Without spoiling too much, here’s a very sad-looking bullet unleashed by one of the enemies in the final layer.

While the final layer’s rooms have not started to be created yet, we are working on various movement-related gimmicks related to them, such as rafting, moving climbing tiles, and platforming. Oh, and another programmer was working on Dog Slots, but gambling isn’t relevant to the final layer...

Assets for basically the entire game continue to slowly be made in the background, but when I need something done quickly, I usually just do it myself. Sorry if the art I do looks bad.
One of the other artists and I have been hard at work at chipping away at 3D work and mocap used for various things throughout the game.

After the final layer is complete, we will begin to finally work on side content! I estimate that the game will be content complete by New Year’s, as there’s still a lot of (reasonably achievable, yet still difficult and impressive) stuff to make. Given the slightly bigger team, we felt like we could do a tiny bit more, so we’re taking it easy and not giving ourselves hard deadlines.
I have a strong feeling that the secret boss is going to be the hardest thing to make in this game. Wait, you didn’t read that... it’s a secret...!

By the end of the Fall, the goal is for the testers to be able to progress from F100 to F0 (with finished art) in one or more sittings while being able to fight (and spare) all regular enemies without the use of debug features, even if sequences and bosses are currently missing or incomplete by then.

Oh yeah, we added proper controller support. You can’t remap your inputs, though, so please use SteamInput for that. True Dog Hole Dungeon Fans will go out and buy a new controller just to play this game... I know I did! But, because you don’t need it to test the game, that’s probably a waste of money, so maybe it’s not good to be a True Dog Hole Dungeon Fans.

We also added a screenshot hotkey. You can make an instant memory at the cost of your computer’s memory by pressing F2 at any time during gameplay. If for some reason you don’t have function keys, pressing 2 should suffice, but we might remove this if it gets in the way of testing the game...

(We are still not adding a run button. Please don’t ask. ...what? Nobody was asking for one?)

SAKURA LAYER REDESIGN

To make our Place, Japan themed layer not compete with Flower King’s Place, Japan themed Dark World, I redesigned the entire layer in a rush, minutes after watching the Chapter 5 trailer in the Nintendo Direct. I think it looks way better now, and all my issues with it before (such as the really, REALLY bad contrast) are gone and killed.

I still don’t know how I did both the new background and tileset so quickly. It sort of just appeared in front of me, like a quick snack...

Sometimes, I make assets so incredibly quickly and on the spot that I forget to make concept art for them. So, if you’re ever wondering why a theoretical Artbook PDF release would look like it’s missing about half of the contents it reasonably should have, there’s your reason...

It’s now a thick bamboo forest mixed with a desert. Try not to get dog-flavoured sand in your eyes or drown in the lakes of dog drool.

I drew the bamboo while being driven to a family member’s wedding. Not sure if that makes it special or anything, but I guess it’s spiritually marriage-coded bamboo now.

BENCHES

This is a very, extremely long section of this issue, but every layer in the game now has a bench you can sit on to rest and heal. I wanted to incentivise taking breaks and taking in the scenery in a way that feels natural, so I did just that.

CLIMBING OVERHAUL

Even though the game prominently features climbing, it admittedly wasn’t very fun before. While the original vision was to make a cruder version of the system in DELTARUNE, adding the ability to jump has vastly improved the overall gameplay experience. It’s a lot more fun now, too! (Do keep in mind that there are a few places where you won’t be able to jump...)

For super-climbers, good things are in store for you guys! As noted before, we now have the capability to have moving climb tiles to create very dynamic challenges, but there are also badges you can get that upgrade your ability to climb more efficiently, such as moving quicker or jumping farther.

BADGES

Behold! The key to infinite replayability! Badges are objects you can randomly find by exploring, and can be equipped to have minor gameplay effects. You can only equip one badge at a time, and can change at any time outside of battle. They can do many things, such as change how the SOUL interacts with bullets, making moving around faster, or even just have entirely cosmetic changes. There’s a few unique badges hidden around that are tied to special challenges, so if you’re willing to risk it all...

If you’ve played Super Mario Wonder, they pretty much work exactly like that game.

ENEMY INDEX

Missed an enemy’s joke? Or just want to learn more about them? CHECKing in battle will now give you index cards for most enemies (with a few exceptions) which you can read up on when out of battle. It’s mainly just fun little trivia, but I felt like it was important to have in this game since all enemies are based on different types of fans...

PLATFORMING

We were planning to add this into the final layer as its big new gimmick months before Chapter 5 released, so it was a big surprise to see actual platforming done in Deltarune. So because of that, I rethought out how I was going to implement platforming, and realized “This gimmick is awesome! I just want more of it to chew on before Chapter 6!” so now our implementation is very similar. Anyone who has played through Chapter 5 (which is probably most of you reading this) should just be able to pick it up immediately, with the only changes being to how ACTs are selected.

Because of the song in this video, I’d recommend watching this as the last thing you do while reading this newsletter...

Bear in mind that this is an extremely early prototype video recorded a week after Chapter 5 released, and the system has been vastly improved since then. As with everything in this newsletter, it’s all subject to change, and some things are still unpolished.

We still have yet to effectively implement this into the level design, so a lot of things relating to this mechanic are still up in the air at the moment. Worst case scenario, we cut it. Not everything lands, but we’ll see...

SOUL VISION REWORK

Instead of being tied to climbing and sliding, it’s now a universal system. It can even be triggered by cutscenes for dramatic effect.

When getting close to any kind of bullet on the overworld, your SOUL and eyes will start to glow as a warning and your HP will be displayed. Touching the bullet won’t immediately hurt you (outside of Platforming), instead triggering a short danmaku challenge like normal.

If you don’t like this visual, you can turn it off.

IMPORTANT NEW SONG(s)

This is a song that is very special to me.

Long-time Undertale fans will know that originally, this song was from a very different, now-cancelled project that I used to work on, despite asking for my credit to be removed... The project this song used to belong to met a terrible fate one day. So! With permission from the original composer, the song now belongs to this game, and will be used in a (hopefully) better context as well as dissociating it from its origins.

I would prefer not to talk or think about the other project... so please don’t think of that when you hear this song play in this game.

This will be the final song that we will upload publicly until the game releases next year. 50 songs to listen to before the game comes out is already a ridiculous sample size, so...

Have a listen.

You found an "accompanying graphics". I don't know who that person is don't ask about them
People will like the scenery in this game, I think

Here’s another song, this time for an extremely weird enemy that you can fight in this area. I wasn't going to put this one on SoundCloud until the game comes out, but Neocities doesn't host audio for free. Enjoy this private link until then...

This song is also retooled from a now-cancelled project, but it’s not one I worked on, so I don’t really have any emotional attachment to the song... because the song was also never publicly released and I hadn’t heard it before until I was sent it.

Fortunately, that project seems to have met a better and more peaceful end..

I think this song will fit in pretty nicely, though...

I have one last surprise. Check SoundCloud. There’s some sort of “highly anticipated battle theme” release there...!

Well... that’s all for now. Back to working on the game! Bye bye!