Some behind-the-scenes info about designing the game and a few development GIFs. Contains spoilers for the whole thing!

The earliest idea I had for the game was, in fact, a very vague concept for the "hanging on a rope" scene. I was originally thinking of it as being a chandelier, and it was more of a purely heroic moment of "we're in this together, and also hanging on this I just realized we're in love," rather than them being brought to the brink and confessing their love. But that was just a very vague concept for a moment and couldn't turn into a whole game, right?

Some months earlier, I'd revisited my now very old game Base Attack Puzzle, and I found it had some surprising merit, so I kind of wanted to redo its gameplay in a new kind of (read: gayer, with gorlz) game. But my ideas for that stemmed a little too directly from the original BAPuz. For example: a female researcher named Fenda in a cave full of aliens who gets cursed into having grid movement, with a title that punned on "crate" and "crater"...? Yeah, it didn't get anywhere. (Also, yes, the king is named Fendirk after "Defender" from the Base Attack games.)

Eventually, I thought about how I could make that dramatic scene be part of a game, and came up with the idea of two girls climbing a puzzle tower together (because I like puzzle-type gameplay), aiming to become the Mana Goddess, but falling in love along the way. Soon (like 30 minutes later soon), I had solidified which of my various fictional worlds this game took place in, the tower became a downward dungeon created by a former hero turned king, and the girls were childhood rivals. Then maybe a few days later I went like "hey wait, BAPuz but two-player WOULD be really cool..."

Some miscellaneous concepts I didn't do: I considered having you see a few other "challengers" near the start who would serve as tutorials, but that proved unnecessary, and probably would've been both troublesome and weird. Also, while I always planned on the moms showing up to help, early on I thought that might happen more toward the middle of the game. I think the idea might've been to spice up the gameplay around the halfway point, but I have no idea what that Spicy Gameplay would've actually been - having them arrive for the finale ended up being a better fit.

I struggled a bit with what to do for the finale (Area 6) before settling on something fairly basic. Here's some stuff that didn't seem very feasible or fun:

• Switching between the groups at certain spots, or at will (by holding up/down?).
• Interaction between the two groups' levels, maybe even getting all four in the same place? (But I was always aware cycling between four characters would've sucked.)
• Combined with either of the above, though potentially usable in earlier levels too: locked doors and keys which "Ide" would "carry" for the sake of interaction between the groups. (Didn't think the concept of straight-up keys and locks fit with the game's style - there isn't even a pre-existing HUD for them to be displayed on.)

While Asha and Brooke ultimately realizing "it can't be either of us" was part of the plot from day one, it took some more time to realize that not just Asha/Brooke, but no character in this game could satisfyingly become the Goddess in the end. I considered Ide, or the king - or another character you'd meet in the dungeon (likely a monster) who'd be shown getting picked after some new Goddess selections, but that idea seems completely wild now.

I didn't think of it in these terms at first, but the ending is what it is because Goddesshood is not what the game is actually about, and it takes actually reaching the treasure for the girls to realize that. (Which is why I really like the line "C'mon, Asha. [Being the Goddess is] what it's ALWAYS about.")

Finally, about Ide. She's weird, huh? She's basically the way she is because I'm fond of "involving" the player in game stories in unusual ways... even if, granted, it may not be the best fit. (Fans of Libretta should know this well, and suffice to say, it features in other projects of mine that haven't been released yet.) For the record, Ide's name is a play on "I," "identity," "guide," "decide," "ideal," and "ai de (with love)."

Technically, Ide is the character you control, who "guides" the girls (or moms) and can rewind time if they run into trouble. Also, she's in a weird "split-up" situation for most of the game, because she wants to be with both groups at once (which is what allows the player to play as either the girls or the moms). The idea was that Ide's physical body is with the girls (hence why the girls refer to her like she's there, though at least to the player, she's invisible until being called out), but her "mind" is with the moms (so they're the ones who actually get to hear her sometimes).

Additionally, the Goddess's words that Ide remembers hint at some things about Ide. She was sent directly by the Goddess to find a suitable successor for her, and was given permission to "take as many tries as she needs to find the right one," but is a bit forgetful. The implication here is that she went to all sorts of possible candidates, but ended up rewinding every time, until she forgot what she was even doing. (Arguably the reason she forgets is that you, the player, take control of her in the intro with no knowledge of her mission.)

Eventually, she ended up with Asha and Brooke, and only upon being asked to pick between them did she remember what she was meant to do. (Incidentally, an easily-missed easter egg: after beating the game, replaying - that is, rewinding to - the intro with young Asha/Brooke adds a new dialogue choice, "I'm looking for the Goddess," that implies she sort of remembers...)

And lastly, note how above I mentioned considering that Ide might actually become the Goddess at the end of the game. Well, the idea was that you could actually make that choice to submit "yourself." Ide would become the Goddess, and since she's your player character, you wouldn't be able to play the game again... until you rewind that happening. As funny as that might've been, I concluded none of the characters would actually let Ide become the Goddess, hence the way things play out in the final game.

These are some GIFs I recorded during development, mostly when adding basic mechanics early on before making basically any levels. Unfortunately, while these were fun for showing off what stuff I'd just implemented to friends, most of this isn't very interesting to those who have played the final game, but oh well.

"Title Screen Mockup." (Not actually a GIF.) Didn't actually change anything from this, really, just actually implemented selection coloring for the options.

"Syncing Around." Showing the early basic movement, including sync movement.

"Boxes and Rewind." Showing off said just-completed core features.

"Out Of Your Way." Showing the all-important function of making the other girl jump if you push a box into her.

"Pushing Animations." Showing the very cute animation for pushing.

"Teleporters and Such." Showcasing a variety of early objects (all of which are recreations of ones from Base Attack Puzzle, but shh).

"Editor Power." Showing off the basic functionality of the level editor, which I myself used to make the levels.

"Trigger Editor." Here's something not visible in the player level editor: argument editing, in this case for a scene trigger. Also: better dialogue than anything in the real game, honestly.

"Falling Forever For You." Showing the implementation of scrolling the screen once both girls "finish"... through an infinite pit of empty screens.

"Powerful Witch." Showing Brooke's basic ability (though with different words) and its behavior with float boxes.

"WASTED" Showing (very fast) Slimes and monster doors.

"Fools..." Showing all the enemy types, their walk animations, and their death animations.

"Mana Gates." Showing off the gates and the names of all of Brooke's spell sets.

"Very Angery." Showing off Berserk and Chill.

"Powerful Gloves." Showing the Power Gloves and one possible cooperative use.

"Box Buddies." Showing riding around on a held box. I believe at this point Brooke wasn't actually carried by the box automatically, hence the use of sync movement and the awkward way she jumps on it.

"New Shoes." A demonstration of the Levvies cutscene, albeit in a test room before I got to the real level.

After this, I didn't really find much worth recording. Until near the very end...

"Goodbye, Rope." Self-explanatory.