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When the snow falls down, the layers blanket in cheer.
It will be a Very Dog Hole Christmas this year!
The Dogmoles and Abberanth share presents and toys,
It's such a delight to behold, oh joy!
...But deep within the DOG HOLE, something's amiss...
It seems that one pup just can't stop tossing and turning!
Why could that be in such a time of bliss?
A NIGHTMARE, perhaps? No...! That's a passion that's burning!
What could be afloat...? Well, let's find out together...
Oh...! It's a-
Artwork by Autumn.
Welcome to the first seasonal(?) Dog Hole Dungeon “newsletter”(???). These aren’t really “seasonal” or really actual “newsletters”, and I don’t like having to larp as Toby to get the point across, but this format is both the most concise and entertaining way to provide status updates, so here you go. But before I get into the progress update, let me tell you a story.
Spritework by Scare.
I, like many others, who were watching the Undertale 10th Anniversary Stream saw all the new stuff and suddenly got a rush of inspiration upon seeing that final message at the end of the stream. I was thinking “people are going to be scrambling to make full versions of everything shown off in that stream, but I’m a battle/enemy programmer, so if anyone’s qualified to make a full version of the Dog Hole segment, it has to be me…”
And so I got to work. I pulled an all-nighter just making a recreation of Mr. Sunshine and Aberrant in the TML Undertale Engine. It was pretty shoddily put together, but it was enough to convince some likeminded people to help me with making a full Dog Hole game. And now here we are.
About a week after the stream, I posted a proof of concept video to YouTube, showcasing the first 10 floors of the Dog Layer, while framing it as an Undertale update gameplay walkthrough. At the time, that’s all there was, but the reception was stronger than I could’ve ever imagined. Suddenly, almost every prominent figure in the fandom was talking about this game one way or another, and it quickly became incredibly stressful yet incredibly validating. For the rest of the year, I was just doing my own thing behind the scenes, but when Dog Hole came around, I was suddenly thrust into the spotlight and didn’t know what to do. I quickly became even more reclusive, only sharing updates in close spaces. I’m scared of being famous; one misstep and everyone treats you like the scum of the earth - I just want to make something I think is cool, so I’m doing that… but keeping quiet about it can be really hard sometimes. So yeah, to say this game changed the course of my life would be an understatement. This game is going to come out eventually, but it will take time. Everyone wants this, so I have to deliver. The game will be good. It HAS to be good. Please, be patient!
Spritework by Techncolour & Scare.
You’d probably know of it if you’re reading this page, because you can only find our game updates here (I am personally not a fan of GameJolt). But yeah, this wonderful website is being put together by the awesome fizziy, known for FunnyFeline (they also wrote the bad Christmas poem at the top of this page…), so be sure to check out their work! At the time of writing this, it’s sort of barebones… but that’s fine. It’ll probably stay this way outside of potential visual changes later on.
Anyways, the moment you’ve been waiting for…
Spritework by Techncolour, Scare & DazzledHeights.
At the time of writing, the first two layers are fully content complete. The third layer already has over half of its room layouts finalized and 3 out of 5 enemies are being actively worked on. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been 3 months since we started working on this game… I’m proud of how hard this team works!
Testing for the game started yesterday. They will ruthlessly and tirelessly test the game as new builds of what currently exists are given out weekly. When this newsletter goes live, they will be testing the second weekly build. The tester team is already pretty big, so no need to apply… Sorry…
Not counting secret areas and encounters, here’s a more precise visualization of just where we are in development. Just as Toby said, giving percentages or even just numbers in general is inherently deceptive, as the last 1% could take years while the other 99% is done in a week, so take these statistics with a grain of salt.
Rooms: 61/102
Enemies: 11/30, with 3 more actively being worked on
Bosses: 3/7
Overworld gimmicks: 5/8
Music: 38/50 (both secret and Toby tracks are considered here, this also might change in the future as the tracklist changes almost weekly at this point depending on our needs… Actually, is it fair to count this right now?)
As always, you can listen to what currently exists of the soundtrack here!
Layer 3 ended up coincidentally becoming the “Chapter 3” of Dog Hole Dungeon, as it messes with the formula and introduces new gimmicks into the gameplay loop. Nothing as crazy as the Boards, but I feel like a certain gimmick’s inclusion might be really divisive among Undertale fans specifically, so I’m trying my best to make sure it never feels obtrusive or too obscene. But yeah, for you battle fans out there, sometimes floors will have more than one battle if you go out of your way to trigger them! They don’t really award any bonus except for extra POINTs, so it’s mostly about the experience (or the extra POINTs…).
Deep in the city heights (or lows?)... It’s easy to get lost. Vertically, this place seems to go on forever…
Even though we’ve got 5 programmers in total (including me), I actually do most of the enemy work myself. I’m the only one that does bullet patterns*, so I hope they feel difficult-yet-fair. I’ve never directed a team like this before, especially one as big as this, so it’s a big learning experience for everyone, and me especially.
So, here’s a video showcasing a work-in-progress segment for Layer 3 including an early version of the new “audience” mechanic for some battles!
If you’ve played Paper Mario, specifically The Thousand Year Door (remake or original, it doesn’t matter), then you’ll know exactly what it’s about. Not all battles will use it, but I hope that it’ll keep the battle gameplay from getting stale after a while. Keep in mind that right now, what’s shown of this mechanic is SUPER EARLY (I started working on it this week!), and will end up evolving in the future. Sorry about it being kind of underwhelming right now… but I have plans!! It’ll be better! I promise!!
*As I was writing this section, another programmer just told me they wanted to try doing bullet patterns. I guess this didn’t age well…
Spritework by Techncolour.
Unlike most other fangames, you may have noticed that we’ve never released a DEMO. This is an intentional choice, as this game isn’t nearly as big as many others, and I believe that the entire game coming out at once would have more of a personal impact on people.
Once the game is content complete, which will hopefully be sometime next year, we’ll go through this process.
Finish up loose ends with the help of testers (polishing, fixing, tweaking, rebalancing, etc.)
V
Notify people that the game has officially gone gold
V
Prepare promotional material such as key art
V
Release
V
If there’s enough demand for it, Japanese localization via the help of community members?
V
Go our separate ways knowing we were satisfied and move on to different projects
My current ETA for this game (factoring in testing and fixing) is sometime in the second half of 2026, but there’s no way to be sure as of now. If DELTARUNE releases close to when we’re planning to, we’ll push back the game to polish it up more, and to avoid Toby’s release overshadowing this game.
Remember that we’re not Toby, just a bunch of fangame devs making what we think is cool in our spare time. Life can and will get in the way of development - and it already has, but I think the wait will be worth it regardless.
So there’s that. Now, I want to talk about something else, but I don’t have a good transition into the other topic… so uhh, HARD CUT!
Once the game is out, if you’re interested in helping with making a Japanese version, please reach out to us! Starting next year, I am going to set aside more time to fully commit to learning Japanese, because I’ve been doing it on and off this year but haven’t been able to be consistent with it because of how busy I am in general. I try to incorporate small bits of Japanese into my work to help with remembering certain words and phrases, so I feel like working with localizers would also be a great way for me to learn the language too. (Unfortunately, it has the side effect of me coming off as a weeb, but like, who really cares…)
Artwork by Autumn.
That’s about all I have to share for now. I cannot thank everyone enough for how much this little fangame means to me. Sometimes I am up late into the night working on this game because I feel like if I can’t see this game through to completion, I won’t be able to with my other personal projects. In all honesty, when the game comes out, I’ll probably go into hiding for a little bit… The reason I’m even doing this is because I’m making what I want to see out of a game like this, so I shouldn’t let it become more stressful than it already is. This game is just one out of many possible interpretations of a Pit Of 100 Trials-like Dog Hole game, and I’d like to keep it that way. Just because we’re making a Dog Hole game doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel inspired to have your own go at it.
So, um… see you in a few months!! And thank you for everything, including your continued support!! Merry Christmas!!
-Techncolour
Artwork by Autumn.
What?
You're still here?
Looking for secrets, aren't you?
Scram!!
Artwork by Dynamic Lemons.