Prerelease:Undertale/Concept Art

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Undertale.

To do: Add sources. (There were some links in todos in previous revisions of the page, that are probably the sources of some of these images.) Add comparisons

Subpages

Ruins This subpage covers concept art related to the Ruins and any characters first seen there.

Snowdin This subpage covers concept art related to Snowdin and any characters first seen there.

Waterfall This subpage covers concept art related to Waterfall and any characters first seen there.

Hotland This subpage covers concept art related to Hotland (up to the MTT Resort) and any characters first seen there.

CORE This subpage covers concept art related to the CORE and any characters first seen there.

New Home This subpage covers concept art related to New Home and any characters first seen there.

True Lab This subpage covers concept art related to the True Lab and any characters first seen there.

Outside This subpage covers concept art related to areas outside of Mt. Ebott.

Other or Unused This subpage mostly covers concept art of characters that didn't make it in the final game.

UI

Various mockups of the battle system by Toby, including some simple placeholder designs, and the creepy Toriel from earlier. Most notably, there were more options for the main choices, such as Check, Talk (which would generally be merged into ACT), Magic (which was completely scrapped) Goods (which became ITEMS) and Run (which would be combined with Spare and turned into the MERCY option).

Various tries at figuring out the final design of the battle interface, most notably showing off the unused Energy magic mechanic. Along with this, there are early versions of the final's main choices, the Spell icon actually going unused in the final game's files. The flavor text in the second image, another reference to Gunstar Heroes, would later be reused as flavor text while fighting Froggit.

Various mockups of the overworld menus, including an early spelling of Undyne's name, wowee!. Most notably, SAVEing was originally a menu option that could be chosen anywhere, and it would track how many kills the player has, rather than the stats screen showing it after killing 21 monsters. The cell phone was going to be Frisk's friend, but this idea was scrapped for being "really bad".

Loading screen design by Temmie that Toby removed because he preferred the loading screen to look shitty.

Mockup of the demo's instruction manual surprisingly drawn by Temmie on a trackpad.

Mockup of the dating sim sprites during Papyrus' date with Aaron's sprite used as a placeholder.

Every major boss fight was supposed to have a different unique background, such as this floating one for Asgore (which actually was programmed). In the end, all but Undyne's were scrapped.

All of these sprites were meant for the very end of Papyrus' "really cool regular attack", which originally would've had bone attacks and then devolve into tons of ridiculous things. Ideas include an entire circus and a row of 19 buses (which is a reference to the Homestar Runner short, Strong Bad Email #87 - Mile). This was scrapped for "every reason", according to Toby.

A placeholder for the console versions' borders, with various humorous images on the sides. Hey, that Papyrus one looks familiar...

(Source: Legends of Localization Book 3: UNDERTALE)

Cutscenes

Intro

Temmie's very first sketches of the game's intro. In the PDF version of the art book, Toby explains that the intro was originally going to have Frisk fall down into the Underground instead of Chara, however Temmie accidentally drew one stripe on their shirt instead of two. Instead of changing this, Toby decided to work it into the story, and have the intro tie into the cutscene during Asriel's boss fight.

Slightly more finished versions of the intro by Temmie. These were actually used as placeholders in the GAMETEST_7 demo mentioned earlier.

Scrapped Flowey Cutscene

To do: This paper has bled writing that mentions Grandpa Semi in it, and it easier to see when you increase the contrast of the image and flip it horizontally. Perhaps try to transcribe this text.

-> if you defeat asgore in one hit

uhhhhh
you win?

(burrows into the ground)

credits play with goofy sitcom theme
song music

Storyboard for a never-implemented cutscene that would've occurred if the player somehow managed to defeat Asgore in a single hit. In the final game, the only time this happens is during the Genocide Route, where the outcome is far more serious. Unused Flowey faces meant for the scrapped cutscene are also still left in the final game.

(Source: @tobyfox)

Pre-Asriel Fight

The cutscene before the Asriel fight was so complicated, that Toby decided to make a rough storyboard of it. The end results are... interesting, to say the least. Of note is that Papyrus' "pepis" text, a reference to a fake swear word used as an in-joke among Toby's circle of friends, bears an uncanny similarity to the "pipis" sign that accompanies the enemy/attack of the same name in Deltarune.

Asriel's Flashback

Temmie's original storyboard for the Asriel flashbacks. Toby came up with different ideas later on, shown below.

Storyboards for Asriel's flashbacks to his life with Chara near the end of his battle in the True Pacifist route, plus some concept portraits of Asriel himself. According to Toby, several planned scenes had to be cut from this sequence in the final game for timing purposes; indeed, of the scenes shown here, the only ones present in-game are Asriel encountering Chara after they fall into the Underground and Asriel & Chara holding bouquets of flowers. Toby's notes, from left to right and top to bottom, read as follows:

eat pie
read books
play in the flowers

they're all wrapped up in bandages, like mummies.

3 poses:
- asriel holding flowers, chara holding too many
- them eating pie, chara holding a knife → knife next to chara
- them looking at stars, parallel to earlier

The contents of these notes also confirms that "Chara" is indeed the canon name for the Fallen Human that the player names at the beginning of the game.

(Source: @tobyfox)

Other

Concepts for the logo of the game. The artist is not listed in the art book.

Drawing made by Temmie right after the demo released for the Kickstarter, showcasing a few early, silhouetted versions of characters that would appear later.