Here I am again, starting this post-mortem with no filter: we didn't understand jack shit about anything. We were on a limbo about what to do about and for the game, and we all were dealing with stuff in the rest of the academic subjects and not really paying attention to this one.

Exe and Balthazar warned us about how humongous the scope was; we didn't take notice.

We were kind of goofing around in class while looking for references and ideas, when we should have been done that as homework and talk constantly.
The idea for a MOBA 2V2 was definitely chosen and we started planning and pre-producing. I wrote a really barebones document and we all decided the final details of the idea, with the core gameplay experience. We got another warning about the scope and that cutting parts of it was mandatory; we said that we would do that in time.
Martín started doing some level planes and a just a little bit of rudemntary concept art, which showed fantastic ideas.
Pablo and Fabián were doing... I don't remember what they were doing.
I started making the 3C for the Warrior class.
Between the back and forth of the pre-production we realised that not only the scope was a clusterfuck, our ideas and work were not what the project needed (for example, a 180 square-meters of size map made for 4 players) and that the team was not functioning as intended. Take not that we had never worked this way, in the sense that we had never worked with a team this big with a project this big) so the reality kicked us in the teeth multiple times.

I think a week or two had passed while we were polishing some things; teachers were really mad at us for too many different things, so we stopped to think for a bit. If I recall correctly, we were on the week 3 of class. What this break meant? It meant that, after this class, in just 20 minutes, the guys came up with a new idea and that we were meant to start working on it as soon as possible. I, the suppousedly game designer of the game, didn't say a word. That broke my pride a bit, the sight of the team being broken since the start. We all were split, each one with its particular ideas, with no efficient communication. While this was happening, I started to realise that my role (that is, game designer) was slowly taken by Martín and I was starting to feel useless. The breakpoint actually was when, in the fourth week of the classes, we were asked to present the complete idea for the game; I misunderstood some things and said that the game would have modular levels, which was not true.
That marked my loss of authority as game designer and I just started following the tide.

Sincerely, I have some memory gaps about that year, so I can't really precise what happened after the idea of the dungeon crawler was presented, but we went back to the MOBA 2V2 and we started raising the knife to cut as much as possible.

So we actually cut so much that we ended up with a one-on-one fighting game, in 3D, and that the only playable level was going to be a temple in heaven. Everything started to seem as it was going to be buttery smooth... But a lot of things changed and they all fell over Martín.

My friend started to lose positions and roles for things that the teachers imposed us (I don't blame them) and the decision was made: he was our wildcard, because of his adaptation skills and knowledge of all areas of game development (which I endorse, he is a great developer who knows about programming, art, souns design, producing and more).
He first lost the role of Level Designer (which was taken by our artist, making a level without level design, just looks and realism) and then the producer role, being relegated as animator (!!!) of the characters. He was excited at first, then he realised that it was a downward spiral.

Another week or so went by and I had the 3C finished, and even a proof of concept with online gameplay (Fabián was always a skilled programmer).

Depends on the lens with which we look like: the future could be bright or a chronicle of a death foretold.
Even today I can't really tell which one was correct.
See you in the next part.

SPANISH VERSION: https://ivanpiccione.blogspot.com/2021/04/9-meses-de-pasion-y-dolor-pt-2-inmadur...