Welcome to LIGHT IN THE DARK, a digital fanzine focused on the dark worlds of Deltarune chapters 1-4!We aim to celebrate how Deltarune’s themes make us feel joy, wonder, maybe some fear, among other emotions. This dark world-centric zine will be filled with color and life, as well as completely free and non-profit.This project is unofficial and unaffiliated with Toby Fox or his team. LITD is made by fans, for fans!
DELTARUNE Chapters 1-4 releases on JUNE 5TH, 2025 with the Nintendo Switch 2!
Interest check is closed!!
Applications open on June 14th!
Frequently Asked Questions
Wait... chapters 1-4? But 3 and 4 aren’t out yet...Yep, that’s exactly right. Since chapters 3 and 4 are set to release this year, we’re setting up this zine in advance now, so once the chapters do release we can spring right into action and get to work with applications!UPDATE: As of 4/2/2025, we have a release date! The schedule has been updated accordingly!
What kinds of creators will be accepted?As of right now, we’re planning on accepting artists, writers, and musicians. Since this is a digital zine, we want to take full advantage of our medium and let contributors get creative with multimedia submissions! Of course, that doesn’t mean you must do something crazy, just that you have the option to. Things like animation, PMVs, or even small fan games aren’t off the table! Because the UTDR community has such a wide array of creations, we want to keep things open.
How big will the zine be?This largely depends on our interest check results. If a great amount of interest is shown, we will do our best to accommodate!The typical breakdown of contributor sizing for zines usually goes like this:
Page artists > Merch artists > Writers > Other contributor roles (cosplayers, musicians, etc.)
What does a digital zine consist of?A digital zine is usually a downloadable PDF that you can look through yourself! While a physical zine would be fun, none of the mods really have the means to produce one at the moment. Plus, a digital format allows for more multimedia projects that are representative of the UTDR community. We still plan to have digital merch – wallpapers, emotes, digital stickers, you name it!
What kind of content is allowed in this zine?LIGHT IN THE DARK zine focuses on the dark worlds we see in Deltarune chapters 1 through 4. This means that canon content focusing specifically on the light world will most likely be omitted; we want to see Kris, Ralsei, Susie, Noelle, Berdly (and others?) in their adventures into the dark, along with all the friends they meet along the way! Basically, it will be darkner- and lightners-in-the-dark-world-focused.This being said, we’re not looking to include highly fanon/AU content, as well as submissions based solely on predictions or theories. Especially with the new chapters, we’ll have plenty of canon lore to work with, so don’t worry!
We will NOT accept in the zine:
NSFW or suggestive content.
Hate speech or symbols.
Fetish material.
Do I need zine experience to apply?Nope! While it’s great to have prior zine experience, it is not at all required. In fact, we would love to be the opportunity for artists without zine experience to get some under their belt. We hope to prepare a fun and exciting experience for you!
What does it take to apply?While this zine aims to be 13+, you must be at least 16 years old by the time applications open to apply. In your application, you will submit 3 of your best pieces that show the breadth and depth of your skill. You will also have the option to link an extended portfolio if you wish. For writers and musicians, you must submit no less than 2 pieces.For page artists: We would like to see experience with drawing backgrounds, good composition, and a variety of characters if possible, though none of this is necessarily required.For all applicants: While your example pieces do not HAVE to be Deltarune, it would be much appreciated if they were!
Will this zine have spoilers for the new chapters???????????Uhh, yes! Haha. Though, don’t worry; after the chapters release, we plan to give a grace period for people to actually play the game (including the mods), and then we will have a longer period for applications so that people can finish soaking up everything 3 & 4 has to offer. You also don’t even HAVE to play the new chapters to apply; you can still base your piece off the first two chapters! If anything, we want to achieve a balance of submissions between the four chapters if possible.
What is a zine?A zine (short for magazine) is a collection of text and images surrounding a specific theme. Historically, zines date back to the 1940s, and are usually defined by being self-published and handmade. Zines have also been known to provide community for socially isolated and/or marginalized groups, giving those who have been dismissed an opportunity to have their voice be heard.A fanzine is usually produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon -- or in the case of most zines you see online, fandoms.
I'm new to zines as a concept. How do these things work?Typically, a zine is a booklet -- either physical or digital -- you can flip through to see lots of amazing art and short stories surrounding one theme; in this case, Deltarune's dark worlds and the events that unfold within them.
Sometimes, zines or zine-like projects also take the form of navigable websites that viewers can explore to see all the content.Here's roughly how things go:Our interest check will tell us how big of a project this may end up being, and we will decide the contributor limit from there. (Ex. 40 page artists, 10 merch artists, 5 writers, 3 musicians)We will share a summary of the results with you all, and then we wait... for the new chapters... It could be 1 month, or it could be several. We'll just have to sit tight and see! We promise all the mods will be on top of things (since we're super excited for the chapters too).Once we get a release date, we will update our schedule accordingly. Applications will be set to open most likely around a week after release day. Again, you DON'T have to play the new chapters to apply, nor do you need to have portfolio pieces representative of the new content. (You will most likely be exposed to spoilers, however.)Contributor applications will be sent in via Google Form, and then we will share the results with you all via email. After this, its a few months of zine prep! Everyone submits pitches for their ideas, and us mods pick out an idea for each contributor to do, in order to get a decent balance of subject matter across the pages, merch, writing, and music. The creation period is usually around 3-4 months, sometimes longer to accommodate for stragglers.Then, since it's a digital zine, we don't have to go through shipping and manufacturing and all that. Once the zine layout is prepared and everything is running smoothly, it will be released to the public for everyone to enjoy!Phew, that's a lot. We figured a full explanation of zines was warranted considering they don't seem to be all that big in the UTDR space.
Still have questions for us? Leave an ask on our Strawpage!
Schedule
Our schedule has been fully updated! Take a look below!
| EVENT | DATE |
|---|---|
| Zine announcement | |
| Interest check open | |
| Interest check close | |
| Interest check results | |
| Applications open | June 14, 2025 |
| Applications close | July 14, 2025 |
| Application results | July 28, 2025 |
| Pitches due | August 11, 2025 |
| Pitches assigned | August 15, 2025 |
| Check-in 1(25% complete) | September 19, 2025 |
| Check-in 2 (50% complete) | October 19, 2025 |
| Check-in 3 (75% complete) | November 19, 2025 |
| Final pieces due | December 20, 2025 |
| Zine release | January 2026 |
Moderators
Hii me goomy! Like the pokemon. I've been a UTDR fan for nearly a decade now, and it's been a dream of mine for a while to host a Deltarune zine! I'm so excited for the new chapters I think I might throw up on the floor when they get announced! Follow me on twitter dot com!
hiihii! i’m lynnie, an illustrator and someone who has been a UTDR fan since 2016! this franchise has irrevocably changed my life, and i’m beyond happy to give back even a fraction of my love to this series through this zine! i hope you all enjoy it!
Hi! My name is Aqua, I've been an UTDR fan since 2015 and it's been my favourite franchise ever since. I'm really excited to be participating in this zine and I can't wait to see what everyone creates for this game that I'm definitely normal about!
dan
