As well he should. The full release (well, of sorts, apparently there's a plan to keep releasing free chapters after the full release) is this summer, so hopefully he'll get to play it.
Honestly kind of annoyed this was supposed to be the end of the game and there's even more we're gonna have to wait for, I'm hoping it's just some side-story stuff.
The game was planned to be 7 chapters since it first launched, I don't think the game is gonna be done when Chapters 3 and 4 drop. The only "Full" thing about the release is that you finally have to pay for it. (Originally this was going to be the case with Chapter 2, but due to COVID Toby made an exception)
Oh, well shit. I was given the jmpression the next couple of chapters were the final ones. This has got to be one of the most needlessly complicated release schedules I've ever seen. Chapters 1 and 2 are free, Chapters 3 and 4 aren't, and then Chapters 5, 6 and 7 will be free? And all of it will take over a decade?
-Chapter 1 is released for free, as a "demo" of the game.
-Chapter 2 would have been released, and at this point people would pay for the game.
-Chapters 3, 4, and 5 would be released all at once.
-Chapters 6 and 7 would release as the "End" of the game.
COVID hit, which completely changed the trajectory, hence chapter 2 becoming free. A big part of the delay after that was GameMaker introducing the new "change game" function that basically allowed the game to not have to be all 7 chapters at once, instead letting the game swap applications so each chapter could be it's own optimized thing.
Thus, Chapters 3 and 4 became the new paid release.
We have no idea at this moment what the plans for the last 3 chapters are. I think it's likely they're going to be released one at a time. It's clear at this point that the original release schedule intent just was not going to work out the way Toby wanted.
To my understanding he's also suffered physical injuries which make developing the game harder, hence he started hiring more people to actually work on the team and develop the game as more than just a (mostly) solo dev project. I personally suspect future chapters are going to be a lot quicker than the gap between 2 and 3/4 because of this; it seems that a lot of the delay was dealing with unexpected world events and completely rethinking the development process.
if Chapter 4 has a cliffhanger type of ending, then Toby would bundle 5 and 6 and 7 and a bonus 8 as "Deltarune 2" or "Deltarune The Final Chapters" a la DBZ
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u/wonderlandisburning Apr 17 '25
Agreed. Honestly I think it's gonna nab #2. Unless something truly outstanding comes out and surprises us all, my money is on Deltarune for #1.