Deltarune creator on why he expanded his team and his wrist issues

Back in 2024, Toby Fox told fans that he was bringing in more talent to help work on his next game, Deltarune. He planned to still very much be involved in the creation process, but it meant taking a slight step back.

In a recent interview, Fox explained that decision. He also commented on his physical condition for wrist issues – something we’ve heard about before – which is thankfully is a bit better these days.

Fox told Game Informer in this month’s magazine regarding the team expansion:

“It would not be possible to make or release by myself. Not only just in terms of sheer hours but also in terms of my physical condition. I still have wrist issues, which, while improved, prevent me from typing for an extended period of time. (I just use voice to text for everything). Also, it can be fun to work with other people and thinking of ideas together.”

In the same interview, Fox was asked about the challenges in managing a larger team. Speaking about that, he shared the following:

“I’m not sure this matters to players, but not being as involved in the programming means that the individual tastes and execution of the people working on the scenes often ends up coming into play. As the director my main concern is whether something is fun and matches my intention for the story.

Basically what I’m saying is that I’m in charge of the kitchen, and other people are in charge of the soup. If I think the soup tastes bad, we need to remake it. If the soup has a slightly different flavor than what I asked for but still tastes good, then I’ll let it go. If the soup has a totally different flavor, like corn cheetos, then it definitely needs to be remade. That sounds easy, but the problem is that when the soup ‘tastes bad,’ the answer isn’t always necessarily obvious. It could be because I failed to teach them how to make the soup correctly, but it could also be that my recipe is bad in the first place. Basically, when I’m making something myself, if I can’t execute it, then it’s a bad idea. But when someone else is making something, it’s harder to understand where that line is, and how far to keep pushing through.”

Finally, Fox did say that he needs “as much help as I can get.” However, he doesn’t intend to let anyone write or make music unless he’s involved.

Deltarune is out now on both Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch with chapters 1-4. We have patch notes for updates that have been released here, here, here, and here.