Toby Fox, the creator of Deltarune, has shared a progress update about Chapters 4 and 5 of the game.

This update comes via the latest Undertale/Deltarune newsletter, where Fox states that development of the game’s 4th Chapter is going very well after adding more people to the development team, and he hopes that it will be about halfway done by the next update, with the team starting to move on to Chapter 5. He also says that they cannot promise a release date yet.

You can read the update for yourself below:

For the great news… Thanks to increased management power provided by my new producer, we’ve been able to hire a few more people onto the team! Everyone’s only been working on the team for a little over a month and a half, but it’s making a real difference already. The producers M.O. is, “for the fan’s sake, let’s finish this before we become old and wrinkled” … I agree! (instantly stops being wrinkled)

The other news…

Chapter 4 development is going better than ever. We are on track to meet our internal deadline. The new hires are already making a great difference to improve the atmosphere and feel of the chapter. I feel really good about this, champ.

Here’s the current progress:

• Cutscenes: Only a few ones left (some tough ones)! Other than that, need polish.
• Battles: All the attacks are technically done, but still trying to improve the flow of the the bosses.
• Overworld: Still need to create around 10 maps! And polish some others.
• Gimmicks: A kind of complicated gimmick nearly has all of its iterations made. Then there’s whatever needs to go in those 10 maps, and one more thing. (A gimmick is something like the teacup ride from Chapter 2.)
  After all that’s done, everything needs to be flattened out with the steamroller of improvement and pacing. (This takes an unknown amount of time.)

It’s my hope that the next time I update you, a first pass of the entire Chapter 4 will already be at least halfway crushed by a steamroller! And, at least some of the team will be moved over to Chapter 5!

The other other news is…

Despite the game making great progress, we can’t discuss the release date yet. Even if Chapter 4 is completed smoothly, there may be surprise factors, so we’re not at the point where we can make a solid promise. That being said, we will let you guys know as soon as we can! I can’t wait for you guys to see more of the moments and characters I’ve had in my head for the past 8 years…

In other words, the release is still quite far… but also a very real thing that is weighing on us more and more with each passing month.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.