Scramble Saga

With the release of the genocide route plans, we can finally share one last proper part with you. A part that was actually finished all the way back when the comic was still actively being worked on, but couldn't share with you until now, as it revealed the hunter's true name: the name select screen.

You didn't think we were done, did you?

Those of you who have read last week's update are already aware that the six humans before Chara were originally planned to appear in the comic, albeit in a very subtle abstracted way that'd leave a lot of their design elements up to interpretation. I had personally looked forward to getting to show these characters off, so a while back—long after I realized I wouldn't get to do so in the comic proper—I conscripted @voltrathesparking to handle designing these characters instead.

Those designs are before you now, in the same order they were mentioned in last week's update: Clayton the Brave, April the Patient, Dr. Mason the Integrous, Carol the Kind, Xavier the Perseverant, and Vera the Just. Even though these characters couldn't be physically seen, I like to think they had a profound effect both seen and unseen on the Underground the humans after them know, and I always figured that getting to see them would be a great reward for completing this route of the story.

Flowey wasn't redesigned, at least not overall. The extra embellishments to his design, i.e. the cloak and the crown, are specifically for the fight against him in Waterfall, just so he carries a little more intimidation factor there; wherever else he appears, he should be thought of as still having his initial design of a humble, unassuming golden flower with seven petals.

I've blustered about wanting to have Scramble Saga done for years now. Even though I wanted to work on it, I would beat my own ambitions down by thinking to myself I just couldn't present the story in a way that I was satisfied with.

But it's been long enough. Even if it isn't my original vision, I want it to be done. I want everyone who's waited all this time to have the ending to the story. So we're going to give it to you.

The above is a semi-organized write-up detailing all our old plans back when the comic was in active development, with absolutely minimal revisions and additions just for things to flow and make sense. There's a further preamble in the document itself; I'll let it do the talking. More bookkeeping under the cut:

Yes, I'm still here.

Yes, I still think about Scramble Saga frequently.

Yes, I do regret not finishing it. Rather frequently, actually.

No, that doesn't mean I'm actively working on it.

No, I can't point to any one thing in particular that made me stop working on it.

I guess after college, there was the quarantine, and really adult life in general has been simply exhausting—so much worse than I ever could have guessed it would be.

No, that doesn't mean I've given up on Scramble Saga either.

I still really want to tell you guys what I had planned for this.

No, I don't know when I'm going to share it with you, or what form it's going to take.

For everyone who's still waiting, I'm really sorry.

Yes, we are alive and well.  We had higher ambitions to get everything we promised done before everything that’s happened this year...well, happened.

The project is effectively on indefinite hiatus for the time being.  I’m so sorry to everyone who’s been patiently waiting for more information regarding how this project would continue, but the long and short of it is the weight of the world is a lot to bear right now, and energy to work on a project of this caliber is in short supply.

If you’d like to stay in touch with us and discuss some less spoilery parts of the AU more casually, you’re welcome to join our Discord server.  For now, I’m afraid that’s all we can offer.

Yes, another year has come and gone, and many of us celebrate to leave 2019 behind us.  According to society, it is a good time to start anew, a good time to make amends...a good time, perhaps, for us to stop lying to ourselves.

Yes, many of you have probably figured this out if you’ve kept a close eye on how development’s actually gone, but only now are we finally willing to admit it to ourselves:  Scramble Saga cannot continue, at least not in its current form.

We both had more time to work on Scramble Saga when we first started—I was unemployed at the time, and Chaos was in the easy part of his college education. As time has gone on, though, our available time to dig in and work on ScrS has decreased significantly.  Chaos and I both have jobs now, and it's been hard to take what little time we have left to turn around and keep working on something we've admittedly slowly been losing passion for.

We couldn't leave you all empty-handed, though. We've been sitting here behind the scenes trying to come up with the best way to tell you about all our plans, and—considering if it weren't for your continued patience and unending support, we probably would've quit sooner—we'd appreciate your input on the matter. We’ve opened a Google Forms survey to collect your feedback on what you'd like to see—be it specific boss fights, looks at as of yet unreached locations, or just the bits of re-written lore we had worked out—as well as how you'd like to see it.  Gutting parts of the journey will probably do this regardless, but we'd like to preserve as much of the emotional context as we can, we're just not sure what the best way to do that is. -Clare

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for.

Full album here, or click the picture.

Hi, everyone!  Yeah, we are still alive, we didn’t get deleted from the face of the Earth by the Tumblr purge (In fact, results on that little poll were rather inconclusive, so for now we’re staying here).  We’re as tired as making excuses for delays as you are of hearing them, so suffice to say, life has just been doing a great job of getting in the way.

In light of the recent announcement regarding a certain smiley trash bag’s inclusion in a certain prestigious fighting game, though, we figure there is no better time to dust off this blog a bit.  We intend to be releasing a new part, well, SOON [TM].  We can’t promise the greatest of haste getting through the Waterfall arc, but we do at least want to get back into regular production again, instead of letting the project sit for as long as we have.

For the now, here’s a preview image:

I would once again like to thank the audience for all their patience.

We’ll be back soon.  I promise.

So it’s finally happening, is it?  This website is self-destructing. I always thought it would happen...but not so soon and not over this.

None of our posts have been flagged, thankfully, and we intend to keep this blog running as long as we are allowed to.  Nor have we exactly been hemorrhaging followers—but many of our real-life friends have begun to close their accounts and move on to greener pastures.  I’m sure more than a few of you would be all too glad to jump off this ship, anchored here only by content producers like us.

We would be glad to leave as well, but we would be loath to abandon the following we’ve amassed here as well.  Those of you who have been with us from the beginning know that we started out on Reddit, but with our hiatus, there remains no audience there for us anymore.