This is gonna be a bit essay-ish but I figured I should respond to some questions, concerns and rumours that are goin around. So, full disclosure on the parts I can actually confirm. If you want more, youāll have to ask Toby and Tem - I donāt know exactly what they think of me and Iām supremely anxious anyway, haha. Theyāve been very supportive and kind to me though and I think theyāre great people. Anyway, hereās the way of it.
Firstly, So Sorry is the Fan Troll. I has originally backed to design a monster but I thought long and hard and said āHey, I think Undertale is literally the best, I want to help out, I know its a joke tier but would you be cool with me backing itā. He said yes and was kind of surprised at the time. We started talking about stuff before the Kickstarter ended. It didnāt take long for him to find out who I was, I have an internet presence like a lot of folks, and we got talking about it. I didnāt want my weird, niche interests to have any effect on the game because I had no desire to tamper with the game or anything. Thatād be weird. In any case, I do have interests outside of my more peculiar things and Undertale was real important to me. It made me feel things a game had not done for a very long time, if at all.
So, Toby asked me if Iād be cool obscuring the connection since the character is a pre-existing thing. Part of its so the game feels like a self contained unit and give him control as a creator, which I totally get and I was fine with, and part of it was to avoid the issue of people seeing the name, googling it and giving me stick. Which happened anyway cos someone saw the battle in the discussions on /v/ I think and linked my gallery. Part of it is, obviously, so you can search for content of the game and not find my stuff. It isnāt shame, as far as Iām aware, to not want something unrelated associated wih you. Asking for major alterations to the character felt weird, its kind of a part of my identity, y'know? Like if someone asked me if my face could come with detached lobes or green eyes, Iād feel a little comprimised? When I expressed that kind of thing though, he seemed to understand.
I thought a bunch about what I could make work that would keep it distinct but true to the character. The game was full of mom/dad jokes, so I suggested the joke name So Sorry (Hey Mr Sorry, can I call you So?) and he liked it. He also asked if he could remove the hat and I said sure, like, its just window dressing, y'know? A hatās a hat, not my whole identity. He added it back in of his own accord and added in half a dozen in total I think - Iām not even sure if Iāve even seen all of em. I think my favourite is the party hat though, it always makes me laugh. Otherwise, Toby seemed fine with the character being as they are and I really like the interpretation he came up with. Thereās a rumour going around that not only would I not accept any comprimise, I was rude to Toby for asking and I donāt know where thatās coming from. A lot of them seem to be based on me being a secret and Toby hating me but Iām fine with the secret thing and as far as Iām aware, Toby doesnāt think ill of me. You can probably ask him yourself.
In terms of input, the design and general personality were mine. I think I might have come up with the paper ball attack? I didnāt expect it to take up much of the window though, haha. I might be wrong though, its been a couple of years. I think I suggested an attack where the pen chased you like in the game Snake. I didnāt come up with the ā3D tush wiggle attackā - that has orange/blue mechanics which I didnāt know anything about til I played the game. He also ran the whole dialogue of both paths by me before the game - I think the Fight version is actually the funnier of the two and I totally recommend people do it at least once, haha.
I think the array of faces So Sorry pulls in the whole thing are hilarious, too, and theyāre part of the anxiety dealy I have. That was, by the way, the only real concession Toby asked of me - I think I suggested a dreary or stammery kind of anxiety, but both of those are covered by Napstablook and the character that would become Alphys. In fact, a lot of friends thought Alphys was my contribution due to how her anxiety manifests. I suggested a more desperate and energetic anxiety instead and we went with that!
Iām really happy with how it turned out, despite the abuse people have been slinging my way. Nobody has to look at my work just because Iām in the game - I know my stuff is not for everyone, hence I keep it to the sites I post on and Iām not offended if people donāt like it. My work has no bearing on any discussion of the game though - my interests donāt touch the game, only my identity, and Iām happy to keep it that way.
A lot of people compare my inclusion to Muffet and I think thats kind of weird. Muffet is tied to the intro by way of the bake sale, Iām tied to it by means of bad jokes. I think the Muffet fight is honestly probably one of my favourites, even if it is a little abrupt, its just paced kind of perfectly in its place in the game and the music sells it perfectly. So Sorry doesnāt have any pacing concerns, meanwhile, because theyāre a secret and the music feels a little more out of place because it isnāt echoing earlier music - Spider Dance has elements of Dummy and Ghost Battle, I think. In any case, I think Muffetās design is excellent and it feels a bit weird to compare the loser dragon I designed as a teenager ten years ago and identify with to something an incredibly talented comic artist drafted and designed more recently. I am what I am and a great artist I aināt, haha. I just wanted to be a part of something I loved. I wasnāt the only one, considering other people opted in to contribute designs to the game. Woshuaās also great.
I didnāt want to interfere with the game any more than I did in the end - I was super excited to see what Toby was going to make. In the end, the whole thing was worth the wait and Iām very happy to have played a very small part in helping the game be. I still have the original sprite I think Tuyoki did for So Sorry on the overworld but I donāt think its up to me to share it without her say so. Iād ask if its cool and link it, but Iām actually kinda shy, haha.
