Happy Spring, everyone.

The snow has finally melted. Which means it's time for the dog to go outside, immediately roll in a puddle of mud, and then violently shake the mud all over my computer monitors.

I had to wipe the screen with a napkin. Now my game engine looks brown. It's fine.

Despite the mud, and the constant looming threat of more mud, the team has been working incredibly hard. Let's get right into the update!

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that Chapter 5's development is finally reaching the finish line. And when I say finish line, I mean you can actually see the checkered flag waving in the distance.

Right now, the chapter is entirely playable from start to finish. I mean it. You can walk from the first room to the very last room without the game instantly crashing. (Usually.)

We have officially handed the game over to a professional QA testing team. They are doing rigorous testing. What does that mean? It means they are running into walls for hours, trying to use key items in the wrong places, and trying their absolute hardest to break the game in ways I didn't even know were possible.

TIMELINE

If you remember the rough timeline I posted a while back, here is what it looks like now!

As I warned in previous newsletters, I didn't think the game would be released in the first half of 2026. And look! It's Spring 2026 and the game isn't out yet! My predictive powers are truly terrifying.

Since we are deep in the testing phase, the text and story are officially locked in. Large-scale changes are completely off the table. (Unless I find a typo so embarrassing that I have to bribe the programmers to change it.) Gameplay tweaks are still happening, but we're mostly just squashing bugs.

Like I said before, we don't have any external factors surrounding the release date. We'll release it when it's done, but "done" is finally close enough to touch.

Speaking of the music, I've spent an unhealthy amount of time polishing a few specific tracks in this chapter. There's one song that plays when a certain character... well, I won't spoil it. But it feels really special. I hope you look forward to hearing it in-game soon.

I want to switch gears for a second and talk about something a bit more serious.

Recently, there's been a lot of discussion online regarding the lack of official translations for UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE. As I mentioned in an announcement on Bluesky recently to our fans in Latin America, I wanted to address this and apologize.

DELTARUNE relies incredibly heavily on its writing, its pacing, its specific brand of weird jokes, and careful character nuances. If I release something official, I want it to match my vision exactly.

Right now, I am only able to closely supervise the Japanese translation because I have a localization team I trust deeply, and I can actually understand the language myself. Translating the game into highly gendered languages, while trying to preserve the intentional ambiguity and feelings of the original text, is a massive and difficult undertaking. I'm a perfectionist, and if I can't guarantee it's done right, it's hard for me to officially stamp it.

I know how frustrating this is. You guys have supported me so much, and it breaks my heart to see you feel left out or ignored. Our international community means the world to us. While I can't promise new official localizations right this second, please know that your passion is heard and I care about you deeply.

(On a related note: I am continuing to talk with Fangamer to try and find more affordable merchandise shipping solutions for Latin America. Also, while I don't control the Undertale Symphony tour dates, the organizers have definitely heard your enthusiasm loud and clear!)

Even Flowey is coming out for some fresh air. It’s unavoidable, but eventually Spring will show up...

Anyway, to lighten the mood... our friends at Fangamer have been cooking up some new stuff!

First up, Kanotynes has designed an official deck of DELTARUNE playing cards. If you don't know the history here, this deck is actually based on a set of original illustrations Kanotynes posted way back in 2012. Those drawings originated characters like Lancer and Jevil, and ultimately helped inspire the development of this entire game.

It's kind of surreal to see them finally printed as real, physical cards you can hold in your hands. I tried to do a magic trick with them and immediately dropped them all on the floor.

Next, Fangamer is releasing the new "HERO_" figurine series! Right now, the HERO_SWORD, HERO_AXE and HERO_SCARF figurines are available. They are incredibly detailed, and I am reasonably confident that they won't come to life and wander around your desk while you're asleep.

(Though if they do, please let me know, that might be a liability issue.)

CHECK OUT THE NEW MERCH »

Working on Chapter 5 has been a really long journey. Sometimes it feels like I've been staring at the exact same pixels for a thousand years. But seeing it all come together into a polished, complete experience on the screen is a surreal feeling. It actually feels like a real video game now.

Please keep your eyes peeled. I really believe Chapter 5 will be in your hands very soon. Take care!