The End of 'The Two of Us'

Two weeks ago, after deliberating as a team, we decided to stop working on The Two of Us. We realized that the project we had in mind was too ambitious, and decided to pivot and start a new smaller, more focused project.

Mini Postmortem

Before starting on TTOU, our vision for the game was relatively simple: a remake of one of our game jam projects. However the premise rapidly expanded. This was our first major project, and two of us were going to be working full time on the game. Of course we could add that feature!

We tried to ignore the scope creep in the beginning, but along with the increased scope numerous questions arose that we struggled to answer. How should combat work? Will there be character progression? What's the new story? Will we be able to finish this game?

Instead of having a concrete design for our expanding game, we had a nebulous concept of something grandiose. Keo was pumping out beautiful looking assets, and Kyle and I worked on an increasingly complex level editor/engine. We were all getting a bit lost in our own work. At a certain point, we realized we needed to set a milestone for a playable prototype because we weren't getting anywhere. We set aside a month of time, and started working hard to finish the list of features and assets we needed for the minimal prototype of our game. Halfway through the month, we were no where close to finishing the prototype. At this point, we had a decision to make. We could either keep trucking ahead and finish this game no matter how long it took, or set aside TTOU and start anew on a smaller, better planned game. We pressed the reset button.

What Now?

Using the lessons learned from working on TTOU, we've started on a new project. It's still in early development, but we're very excited about it. More details coming soon, stay tuned!