SURVEY_PROGRAM: A podcast about DELTARUNE

Deltarune video essayist Andrew Cunningham joins Kate to discuss his oeuvre of video essays, his background with the game, how theorizing and the community has changed over time, and his upcoming Ink Theory Part 2.Topics: Initial letdown at Chapter 1. Differences in sentimental approach between Undertale and Deltarune. What got us into thinking more deeply about the game. The Device Theory. Mad about the Knight. Early ideas about the Soul. If you know Gaster, you know ball. Noelle the game-breaker. Inspirations from Jon Bois. Dess-Chara overlap. Kris knight history. Where Carol fits into all this. The symbols behind Ink Theory. Whole-text internal corpus analysis vs. comparative views. Echoes, loops, and duality in Deltarune. Why Tesla? A certain webcomic. Disappointed reactions to Chapter 5. What is a ‘lorehead?’ The Mike trio. The Twitter doppelganger.Subscribe to Andrew Cunningham on YouTube or Patreon.Cover art by Jett (Cordyceptic on Tumblr).

The top international logistics podcast in the world returns to discuss the crisis in international shipping due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Kate, Jackie and Jade also discuss romance, shipping and fanfiction in Deltarune.Topics: We play Tradle. Shipping in Deltarune vs. Undertale. Berdly fans’ people’s war. Suselle investment advice. The Festival. Somehow even more discussion of Pizzapants. Susie and the prophecy. What the weird route DOESN’T change. Why people ship. The conflict between “loreheads” and character-driven fans. How people write Kris. AO3’s shitty tag system. Susie’s thoughts on love. Ralsei’s marketability. And then we get to the good stuff: Ranking ships. (We don’t actually rank them.) Kate tries to sell the gang on Kralsei. We talk about Berdly more. The shadow of Dessriel. Do diehards have Suselle fatigue? Oops, we ran out of time to talk about Spamtenna!Check out Jade’s fic.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Check out show musician hywell on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate is joined by Malady to discuss the yellow lizard scientist/teacher lady, her flaws, relationships, and her place in the worlds of Undertale and Deltarune.Topics: Marmite. Golf. Jay Leno. Undertale as a gateway to literary analysis. Mental health, masking and guilt. Does Alphys suck? Relationships with Undyne, Sans, Asgore, Gerson, and Mettaton. Hetgems. Loneliness and alienation in Hometown.Edited by Malady. Check her out at Weedhacker.net.Cover art from Undertale tarot cards by Dogbomber.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Check out show musician hywell on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Goomy are joined by first-time guest Ana for a discussion on their papers “Who Is Carol Holiday?” and “DELTARUNE: Life Advice” plus more discussion about the Knight, Carol, the main narrative thrust of Deltarune, and more.Check out Goomy’s new Lost Girl remix and Bandcamp.Topics include: Basic narrative structure. When Deltarune really hooked us. YOU are an obsessive. Time capsules of community thought. New information about the shadow crystals. More on the weird route and agency. The shadow Dess left. Parallels between Kris and the Knight. The Knight and prophecy are not engines of staid conservatism. A little of bit of trans Ralsei vis-à-vis the prophecy. The Knight is genderweird, too! What Gerson’s really saying. Which could mean nothing. Some talk on “other knights.” Are we stagnating as a community? I’LL BE RIGHT THERE. What if we gave Laura Palmer a big $$$$-ing sword?Shoutouts to fallencalf and “What’s Up With That Gaster Fella?” by Baldur.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Check out show musician hywell on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Political organizer Samuel Lipson joins Kate for questions about the politics and government of Hometown and a perspective from outside the fandom.Topics: Escapism vs. reality is a little more complicated. Prophecy talk. Sword Art Online. Our history as political organizers. Ettingermentum. Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed. Primary night stories. What makes New England small towns different? Hometown government’s abnormal structure for a city its size. Dying small towns and the appeal of the Dark World. Who did all the adults vote for in the 2020 presidential primary? Is Toriel a normie lib? Hometown’s Bernie Bros. Much Carol talk. Kate unfriends the guest mid-recording. Asgore divorce spiral. What Sans knows.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Check out show musician hywell on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Okay it’s not actually a Milklooker episode. It’s a filler episode. Xtine returns to terrorize Kate for an hour of somewhat Deltarune-related talk. I dunno guys. This one got out of control.

Kate hears BQ’s reactions to playing Chapter 2 for the first time in 2026.Check out their previous episodes: Undertale without Deltarune and Chapter 1.Topics: Charlie Rose for some reason. Kris’s room. The funniest theory of Ralsei’s origins yet. Dangerous amounts of Benadryl and weed. Berdly as Scott Pilgrim. Increased scale and scope of Chapter 2. Metaphorical Darkner designs. A World Cup diversion. The…interesting aspects of Tasque Manager and Werewire’s designs. Noelle’s history. Being put in the girl box. First exposure to the Weird Route. “Smuggling in” mature ideas. More thoughts on gamers. Introducing a brand-new Chapter 2-era Kris Demonology Theory. It Means Tity. December’s conspicuous absence. Asriel’s religion. Soriel oviposition. Noelle’s parents. Reactions to the cliffhanger.References: Sports spinoff episode. Baseball episode. Chapter 5 Weird Route.(Cover art from Chapter 2 concept art by Gigi D.G..)

Kate and Sophia talk dads, dads and more dads: Asgore, Rudy, Gerson, King, and even Mr. Cattenheimer. They break down the role of fatherhood in the story, and the ways dads fail across the story. (This is a sequel to Episode 3, on moms.)Topics: Cat yurts. Deltarune is a land of contrasts. Milves. More Pink talk. Deltarune dads are dead or distant. Asgore’s contrast with Undertale. Child murder. What the flowers represent. The growing seriousness of Kris’s plan. A novel new caller idea. Tenna as an Asgore parallel. A brief diversion on cats and the Cattenheimer family’s role, eh, sploinky? Twin Peaks. Rudy as the first lady…and a Rouxls parallel? Rudy and Asgore are the game’s premier yaoi. These guys raised a bunch of NERDS. People were really disappointed in Chapter 5? Asgore’s relatable unfortunately.Check out Sophia’s Cerebus podcast “Swords Against Cerebus” and Star Wars podcast “We Have to Talk About Dash Rendar”Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!New LOST GIRL remix by Hywell on YouTube!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Jackie reconvene for a follow-up on new advancements in the Chapter 5 weird route, and the complicated feelings playing it surfaces.Previous WR episode: Episode 11.Topics: Noelle’s agency. What’s wrong with Hometown. Dess’s absence. Lore-character reconciliation. Can anyone escape? Looking for who to blame. What is the nature of the soul? You can’t even say “stop” like you used to. Carol’s place in all this. What it means to get stronger. Something else. ESRB T for Teen. How do we find a way to talk about the most intense and personal implications of this story?New! LOST GIRL remix by Hywell!Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Valerie reconvene for a Chapter 5 update on what Deltarune is saying about gender in what is the trans-est chapter yet. (This is a sequel to our Kris and Mettaton episodes.)Topics: Kris fans be like “I love when they suffer,” the blue closet of subtext, Flowery did nothing wrong, more musing on what Ralsei represents, the Forgotten Man, MEW MEW MAGIC RETURNS!, Pink/Kris/Spamton parallels, soul and body, returning to closets again, a few rare notes about takes we don’t like, more on Kris and Noelle’s childhoods, Seth, some speculation about what Kris and the Knight actually want.Sources discussed:“The Girl”, The Knight, & Gender In Deltarune - An Analysis/Theory by Stuffed AlpacaSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Elsie kick off Season 2 with their first reactions to Chapter 5. Full spoilers ahead!Topics: Deltajune. Outfit gonermaker? We’re normal about Tasque Manager. Festival choices. Rudy will be fine, don’t worry about it. GASTER’S GOONS ATE ONION! Anime. Anime. Anime. The seven human flowers. Seth is just like me fr. Going to the Killing Myself Room. IMAGEFRIEND Phantasm Gaster Dess medias. Flowery and Ralsei. Device Theory real. What Ralsei knows, and what Ralsei wants. The best gameplay yet. Miku?!? Another late knight. What’s next?Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Substitute Games Month is brought to a shuddering halt by the arrival of Chapter 5. But, before the drought ends, Kate and Lucretia gab about ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies, the controversial sort-of successor to Disco Elysium.Topics: BREAKFAST_PROGRAM. Lucretia counts to 100 and I leave it in. Five Iron Frenzy is Asriel’s new theme. Speculation about Chapter 5. Apple Girlington. Shitty CEOs are everywhere. Working on indie projects that go south. The problem is that games are a commodity, dingus. Lovely Lady RPG. The end of history. Spies as unthinking weapons of fate. The passage of time in narrative games. Trepanning HOLOCENE. 0/100 Falks. Let a hundred Discos bloom. What’s your spy codename?Music from the ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies Original Soundtrack by Fernando Cabrera.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

It’s SUBSTITUTE GAMES MONTH, where SURVEY_PROGRAM talks about new games that aren’t Deltarune before Chapter 5 snipes us!Kate and Nillin kick off festivities by breaking down AP Thomson’s Titanium Court, modern fae stories, and metatexuality. Within, Kate grapples with the question: can you love a game to death? Topics: Fairies and ferries. The Mountain Goats. Games that don’t want you to play them. Inspirations from Shakespeare. Self-insert characters and gender. The legacy of mobile games. Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and The Oldest View as fairy stories. Cars aren’t real. Kinds of Kindness. Games made by musicians. The only choice a player really has. A Series of Unfortunate Events. Do you really need to see it all?Get Titanium Court and its soundtrack on Steam!References:Post Games interview with AP Thomson and bonus Patreon episodeSCP-1733 – Season OpenerEpisode 25 – Millenial ArtEpisode 12 – Halloween HackSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on YouTube / Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

BQ rejoins the show after discussing playing Undertale but not Deltarune in Episode 19 to react to playing Chapter 1 for the first time. Reactions include gonermaker, religious ska, gender, Greenster, divorce, school experience, the symbolism in the Dark World, and first encounters with every new character, and checking back in with Undertale favorites, immediately picking up on Kris-player dichotomy, and more.We’ll return again with Chapter 2 in the future!Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate interviews Shadow of Roserade about Undertale: Cooking with Kindness, a new Undertale fangame about the green Kindness soul, with cooking minigame mechanics. Can you make the greatest restaurant the Underground has ever seen?Topics: What makes a prequel or sequel worth it? Indie dev timelines. Fate and death. Luna!!!! Why climb the Mountain of Dying? Minigame design and conveyance. Kate is bad at slicing bread. Cozycore indie games. An RPG with no fighting at all. Why to not create different routes. Games set in single neighborhoods. The 10th anniversary stream. Game engine choice. How to write NPCs Toby-style. The surprise character!Download Undertale: Cooking with Kindness and its soundtrack, or join the game’s community Discord.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, available on Bandcamp! Check out Hywell’s “BLACK KNIFE (Vocal Breakcore Remix)”, now released!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Valerie discuss Undertale and Deltarune as art made by a millennial and ask “what defines millennial art?” For this, they define what a generation means as an analytic context, what experiences millennials share that go into their art, and the indie game as the modern equivalent to the personal film.Topics: Other generations flippantly characterized by Friends, Tung Tung Tung Sahur, Buddenbrooks, sex, lies and videotape, and Woodstock, Steven Universe and Fionna and Cake as parallels, economic stagnation and the Great Recession, video games as the eighth art and Toby Fox as one of the first wave of game developers raised on games, The Amazing Digital Circus, and millennials breaking into film and deploying genre with I Saw the TV Glow, Sinners, and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. We talk about our expectations for Deltarune’s ending and our own futures in the context of the generational approach to sincerity.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, available on Bandcamp!Check out show musician Hywell’s “BLACK KNIFE (Vocal Breakcore Remix)”, now released!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Jackie tells Kate about playing Earthbound for the first time in 2026. They discuss the game’s influence on Undertale, Deltarune and the genre at large.We talk about coming-of-age stories and what looking through the eyes of children in our narratives tell us. Topics: RPG mechanics, grinding, the recent translation and tour controversies, Kate learns a distressing fact about Chick Corea and shares an embarrassing drug story, Weird America, what we learn about Ness indirectly (and how that compares to Frisk and Kris), influence on the genre, parallels between Noelle and Paula, and more. We share our predictions and fears about Chapter 5.Check out show musician Hywell’s “BLACK KNIFE (Vocal Breakcore Remix)”, now released!Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, available on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

PODISM 1999 is back with our 23rd episode about YIIK: A Postmodern RPG! In our latest deep dive into the defining indie RPG of this era, Kate asks Lucretia the most important YIIK question yet: What kind of ska would Alex Eggleston listen to?Music: “Into the Mind” by Toby Fox and “Ska Battle” by Andrew Allanson.Support PODISM 1999’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the PODISM 1999 Discord or follow on Bluesky.PODISM 1999 theme music by hywell, available on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Goomy finally discuss the spammy little mailman and ask YOU for help defining the difference between a blorbo and a tumblr sexyman. At the end, we get an EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE (56:40) of the all-new Black Knife remix by Hywell.Topics: Slay the Spire 2. First playthrough reactions. Whither Jevil? Comparing Spamton to Harry du Bois. Pre-Tenna yaoi. Half-Life VR but the AI Is Self-Aware. It’s sad streamers don’t play Deltarune anymore. AO3 stats. The adult role models in Deltarune sure are bad, huh. Spamweed. Who was phone? Where the hell is Grillby?Check out BIG SHOT (1997 Remix) by Cristata + Hywell.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Nillin make a pitch: Deltarune needs sports spinoffs.They talk the recent Winter Olympics, 2026 being the Year of Lancer, Raygun hitting ‘em with the dinosaur, Mario Sports RPGs from the developer of Golden Sun, the dire state of AAA sports games, the collapse of the nerd-jock paradigm, the Glup Shitto Super Bowl, Mode 7, Return of the Obra Dinn, Mario Hoops 3 on 3, Kate comes out as a golfer, potential indie crossovers, and more.Check out referenced episodes:The UT/DR Baseball DraftSans AUsFinal FantasyCheck out Shadow of Roserade’s upcoming game UNDERTALE: Cooking with Kindness.Check out Toriel and Reimu at the Olympic Winter Games.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Griever introduces Kate to the influences the Final Fantasy series has had on Deltarune, and the characters across the series that parallel the main cast. We discuss a variety of — Wait, there’s a DR. GAST???Topics: Swoon, contrasting Dragon Quest’s influence, how each game remixing the setting but keeping some common elements mirrors the Undertale-to-Deltarune transition, a love triangle, loss of player control, and more. Kate takes a brief detour into yelling about Knight identity contrarianism.Check out the slides that accompanied this episode, including BONUS SLIDES just for listeners!Final Fantasy Deltarune CollabSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate has one friend that’s played Undertale but not Deltarune, and another friend that’s played Deltarune but not Undertale. Let’s experiment on them for content.First, Kate and BQ talk about playing Undertale, including sidetracks into the subtle difference between being a fujo and a faghag, gay and furry bars in Seattle, the pronunciation of Papyrus, the relative difficulty of both games, early Reddit sasquatch holes, Alphys as a great female character. Then, I ask them what they think happens in Deltarune.Then, Kate and Triumph talk Deltarune without Undertale. We talk a cavalcade of Sanses, community college pride, what makes a game funny, our reaction to the hiatuses, a shockingly complete reconstruction of Undertale’s narrative from cultural osmosis alone, and I admit I haven’t seen The Godfather.Check out BQ’s OC on Toyhouse and Big Daddy Marc.Check out baseball and Effectively Wild.Other episodes referenced:Episode 4 on AUsEpisode 18 on baseballSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

NowIOnlyWantATriumph joins Kate and Valerie for the first ever UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE BASEBALL DRAFT! Each of us put together a team of 19 Undertale and Deltarune characters to take the field, and it’s up to YOU to decide who wins!Vote now on your phones! Or whatever!Sources referenced:Effectively Wild podcastBaseball Tenna fanart by tappleturks on InstagramSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Cover art by NowIOnlyWantATriumph.Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Is Mettaton the key to everything? No, but Kate and Valerie talk about him anyway. We talk parallels with Spamton and Tenna, the difference tonally between adults in Undertale and Deltarune, and Valerie blows my mind by suggesting Mettaton and Catty are the same age.We take questions from our listeners on Discord about our expectations for the future and various goofy subjects, including Jersey Shore. Would you smooch a ghost?Sources cited:Prokopetz on the tonal difference between Undertale and DeltaruneEpisodes 6 (Kris and gender), 3 (the parents), and 16 (December)Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music is “MEDIUM” by hywell. SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Valerie do some emergency podding about December Holiday, just in time for Christmas. It’s just the start of our talk about the most important absence in the game… We also cover the new newsletter, ARG, and Christmas in the game in general.Merry Krismas!Episodes referenced:Episode 3 on Carol and TorielEpisode 6 on Kris and genderEpisode 10 on musicEpisode 11 on the weird routeEpisode 12 on the Halloween HackSources cited:ACDS sheet of verified email responses by luizzeroxisDeltarune and Twin Peaks by LoreFactsTVSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music is “FALLEN” by hywell. SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Shadow of Roserade talk about the ways the fandom has gone crazy in the hiatuses between chapters. We also chat Alvin, the false dichotomy between theory and fanfic, the Deltarune equivalent of the Zootopia abortion comic, and Azzypants.Sources cited:Episode 4 on AUsEpisode 2 on FriendUNDERTALE: Cooking with KindnessLynxGriffinCourierNew“Umriss” and its dramatic reading“ELEKTIONTRÜCKING”Azzypants: The GameUmrizzypantsSupport SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

That ain’t Falco. Jackie returns to talk Berdly with Kate. We continue the podcast’s grappling with What Gaming Means and the breakdown of the nerd-jock dichotomy.Topics: Our experiences in the fighting game community. The courage to lose again and again. Ice Climbers discrimination. Krerdly talk. Kate makes a rare statement. We take listener questions.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!In this episode: “SMART RACE (Cristata Vs Hywell Mix)”Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Paravellex talk about the 2023 RPG In Stars and Time and what playing it made us think about nostalgia, the prophecy, time and time loops in Undertale and Deltarune.Topics: The recent elections. Differing temporal experiences. 11 hours or 11 years… A theory about Ralsei. Color in ISAT and Deltarune. The prologue. Some Disco Elysium talk. A trans-normative setting??? Assonance. Speedrunning relationships. For king and country. Deltarune’s king. Battleship Potemkin and Sin City. Sans. Loop (the character). The rest of the story happens in your mind!Music from the In Stars and Time soundtrack by Studio Thumpy Puppy.Check out In Stars and Time on Steam and wishlist Truth Scrapper!Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Sophia talk about the 2008 “Radiation’s Halloween Hack” and our own embarrassing teenage works. We find a game of surprising quality and discuss the way it presages several core themes of Undertale and Deltarune.Topics: A correction from last week. Cereal of the dead. Painstaking hand-editing. Brandish. Forum culture. Predictions about Gaster. Yes, I know about Metal Gear. Hot chicks are awesome. “Angry gay guys using super psychic attacks is cool to think about.” Perspectives on queer representation. A return to the concept of the gamer ideology.Sources:“SCP-072 - The Foot of the Bed” by Kate“the halloween hack: a mini-documentary” by miekkonWe reference Episodes 6 (“MANCOUNTRY”), 2 (Gaster), and 3 (Carol and Toriel)Check out Sophia’s Star Wars podcast “We Have to Talk About Dash Rendar”Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.SURVEY_PROGRAM theme music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!This episode’s music, “JUDGEMENT,” also by hywell.Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Jackie talk about the Weird Route, how we can understand Noelle’s motivations and what it all means. What is the nature of the soul? Does an agentic self exist distinct from an essential self? What do Charlie’s Angels even do?Topics: The anniversary stream. Petscop. Ben Drowned. Comparison to Undertale’s No Mercy route. Noelle the gamer. Dess haunting the narrative. Burghley? That Addison is dead. Spamton’s so creepy! Kate gets Touhou’d again. The ominous stuff the Sword Route tells us about where this is going. KRISMAS!!!! Internalized transphobia, fear, and yes, we talk about comphet.We reference earlier episodes: Episode 3, on Carol and Toriel, Episode 5, on moon and Episode 6, on Kris and gender.Support SURVEY_PROGRAM’s Green Room for bonus episodes!Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Ash Taylor joins Kate to talk about how Deltarune uses music and sound as part of its story and gameplay, beyond just leitmotif. In part two (41:00), we talk about her upcoming game, CHORDIOID.Topics: We react to last episode’s TOME. Kate feels old. Undertale mashups and remixes. Wagner OWNED. Omega Flowey. Donkey Konga. The courage to cut. Kris’s piano playing and self-expression. Deconreconstruction. Unique RPG battle systems. Gamedev is hard. Birdbrain!Find the CHORDIOID demo on Steam or itch.io.Intro music: “RAISE UP YOUR BAT” by Ash TaylorMid-roll music: “Sam’s Theme” from CHORDIOID: Volume 0 by Ash TaylorFollow Ash on Bluesky, Twitter or Youtube.Sources discussed:”10 Hotels, 50 Hotels, 100 Hotels” from Undertale Mashup Collab”Waters of Megalovania” by BotanicSage”BIRDBRAIN (w/ OK Glass)” by Jamie Paige feat. Kasane TetoJoin the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Outro music by hywell, now on Bandcamp!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

A VIDEO VERSION OF THIS EPISODE IS AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE.Lucretia gathers Kate and Valerie to reveal the most important character in Deltarune. The one who is connected to every mystery. The one with the deepest lore. The one we all want to learn more about. The one who speaks in hands.That’s right…No. It can’t be. It can’t be him. Is it too late to delete the episodeRead The Tome or see it on Google DriveSee Lucretia on the webJoin the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell (new album out now!)Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Neptune recap and break down the Undertale 10th anniversary stream in Part 1 and the hit indie RPG OFF in Part 2. New lore and character insights from Undertale after ten years! We then become the first ever podcast to talk about OFF in the context of contemporary French ultraleftist terrorism.Part 1 topics: Old forum friends. Sans/Alphys hetslop (it’s good). HR violations. Gerson’s life-changing lines. Clairevoire drew dog food. My sweet little chocolat. The lesbian tutorial.Part 2 topics: Russell T. Davies. The origin of the family, private property and the state. The Invisible Committee. The diegetic player and its influence on Deltarune. Is is right to end a broken world? Changes in the remaster, including the new soundtrack.Sources cited:Undertale 10th Anniversary Stream Day 1 and Day 2OFF 2025 Remaster on Steam or original release (free)”The Coming Insurrection” by the Invisible CommitteeSnowbound Blood: A Vast Error StoryFollow Neptune on Twitter, Bluesky, or Mastodon.Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell (new album out now!) and Alias Conrad Coldwood from OFF.Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

“I’m gonna trap you here in my yaoi realm.”This was supposed to be an episode about Undertale’s 10th anniversary announcements. Since that’s this weekend instead, Kate and Xtine do a reverse chronological walk through Deltarune memories, and get extremely sidetracked.The spider girl. Chris’s Movie. Clocked as gender-ish. A rhyming antonym for “itty.” We didn’t like Paprika. Gaster’s gooners. Touhou talk. Armpit talk. Noelle has the sauce. Deltarune’s premier yaoi. Getting owned in a strip club. Has Susie lost her edge? Hockey fans. Trant Heidelstam. Papyrus. Final Fantasy XV.Sources cited:“AN UNDER’S TALE” by XTRATUNA“Crickets.wav” by ItsTheGoodstuff on Freesound“Ran Ran Ru” by Wagnarock (Digitalis)“Overdrive”Follow Xtine on Twitter or Tumblr.Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell (new album out now!)Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Is it important that the protagonist of Deltarune is transgender? Kate and Valerie say yes.IGN’s Non-Binary Protagonist of the Year. Living in a society versus falling in a hole. Teenventures in Teenland. These clothes hold no power over you any more. THERE’S NO SHAME IN AN EGG. The girl next door. Real weird route hours. The closet scene. Reflecting on the fan responses to Kris. A manhole. Getting stronger. An attempt to talk seriously about Berdly is shut down. What does Ralsei represent?Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell (new album out now!)Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Kate and Elsie talk about inspirations for Undertale and Deltarune, including 1997’s groundbreaking moon: Remix RPG Adventure.Topics: The gamer ideology. Love and experience. Why do we love video games, even though they almost all suck? Chapter 3’s game within a game. The (sorry) Halloween Hack. One ending. Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Car Seat Headrest. Too much content. Lightner merch. How to synthesize narrative and gameplay? Is Smash Bros more narratively compelling than Twine games? Death Stranding, Disco Elysium and how to carve out space for narrative in commercial environments. CHAPTER 7 ENDING REVEALED. The prophecy as game code.Music by The Thelonious Monkees from moon: Remix RPG Adventure.Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Check out Hywell's new album coming Friday!Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Ruby introduces a formerly-oblivious Kate to the wild world of Undertale AUs.Topics: Millenial Valhalla. It’s nice to see you again, Sans. Starbucks unionization. Helen of Troy. Enoch NEO. Janeites. Oz. Competing strains of fandom. N-Sync RPF. A straight line from Star Trek to Hetalia. Defining the “Tumblr sexyman.” Hit ‘em with the dinosaur, Raygun. Basketball shorts swooshing around in the gale. Cape comics. Komaeda’s special day. Driving in my car… We close with some Spamtenna talk.The greater Sansiverse: Kate gets a whirlwind tour that includes Underfell, Underswap, Handplates, Swapfell, Outertale, Outerswap, Ink!Sans, Error!Sans, Dancetale, Horrortale, Undertale Red, Undertale Yellow, Undertoad, Dreamtale, HELP_tale, Glitchtale, Xtale/Underverse and more. There’s so many of these…Donate to the Tapir Specialist GroupJoin the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywell (new album coming Friday!)Subscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

Mama miba! Mom AMOEBA! Kate and Sophia talk Carol and Toriel, the two main moms of Deltarune, and how their stories intersect with the game’s view of family.Topics: OFF. Baggage from Undertale. Madonna-whore complex. You might be worried because your room doesn't have stuff in it, but your family loves you in this game. Alarm clocks and alcohol. Fantasy villains versus real bad parenting. Parallels between Dark World bosses and the adults of Hometown. Kate says “frumpkin” and “multiphoner” within two minutes of each other. T-Rank and C-Rank. Why the heck does Toriel believe in sin??? What Asriel and Dess tell us. It’s like she’s having some kind of “knightmare.” [[HeartShapedObject]]. Carol’s role in the weird route. What are the relationships between the four Holiday and Dreemurr adults? A highly important final question is answered. We finish with some Star Wars talk.Sources cited:Andrew Cunningham on determinationStuffed Alpaca on gender in DeltaruneJoin the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywellSubscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

NOTE: Kate’s audio is a bit clippy in this episode. Sorry.Kate and Riley round up Deltarune’s outstanding secrets, and how Toby Fox uses mysteries in writing. They talk Fun Values, Gaster, what Ralsei knows, Kris’s role in the conflict, blood, DARKER YET DARKER, why Deltarune’s ARGs work where others fail, Dess, IMAGE_FRIEND, playing Deltarune on release vs. all at once, “one ending,” WHERE’S PAPYRUS????, the Knight, the shadow crystals, the prophecy, and surprise at the narrative pace.SURVEY_PROGRAM is an in-depth discussion of the themes, cultural impact, and history of Deltarune by Toby Fox, with a rotating panel of guests.Sources referenced:Wandydoodles’ FRIEND masterdoc.LoreFactsTV’s Deltarune and Twin Peaks essay.Andrew Cunningham on the Knight conspiracy.Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.Music by hywellSubscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.

An oral history of Deltarune Chapter 1, featuring stories from people who were there.SURVEY_PROGRAM is an in-depth discussion of the themes, cultural impact, and history of Deltarune by Toby Fox, with a rotating panel of guests.Join the SURVEY_PROGRAM Discord or follow on Bluesky.In-episode music by hywellOutro music by CRISTATA + HYWELLSubscribe on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / RSS.Story timestamps:Valerie (3:20)Quiet (7:53)photonicDog (8:27)Harriet (13:00)Dare (17:15)tempest2k (25:00)Aria (27:20)Skyplayer (31:25)Paravellex (33:15)Ciat (34:05)Roxie Puddles (36:40)Arashi500 (38:10)Sophia Goodnight (38:55)ValantWynn (39:55)My story and outro (55:30)