i still cannot believe we finished this lmao.

For those unaware (which how tf would  you be aware of this) me and clantis have had the idea of making a coop map for a LONG while, even before co-op helper. We both enjoyed partnership and wanted to see more coop celeste maps. We made a prototype player seprator and experimented with making actually hard gameplay with celestenet interactions but they turned out to be too unreliable and limited to actually do anything so we quickly scraped it. Even though that failed the idea sat in the back of our heads for a while before we learned about co-op helper which let us finally make something (we didnt plan on making anything just yet though). After afc (a friendly climb) released we both really enjoyed our time playing it and goldening it and my interest in making a co-op map grew even further. Around january 2026 we finally decided to hop on and start actually making a map. I kinda had to convince clantis to start because idr why but he kinda didnt want to and i said we should try and if we hate it we wouldnt commit but oh boy did we end up commiting. We wanted it to be a simple summit themed map that wouldnt be tooo hard but would still be harder than any coop map before (which was basically just partnership and some other ones). According to the last changed date of roomone.mp4 we started taking it seriously ~12th which is when we finished our terrible ass room one. It was horrible and garbage but we actually liked making it. Every room after room 1 (which was overhauled into the version in the final map) was basically never changed in any major way. We would only fix stuff for comfyness and fun as well as fixing bugs and skips. The early rooms (up to 1k-2) were made 100% together, with clantis using loenn while streaming his screen while i mentioned ideas and we implemented them as we went along. 
Around 1k-2 our mapping process devolved slightly, i'd often find myself bored with no interesting ideas, and i let clantis use loenn without supervision while i did other shit to pass the time. This super hands-off approach is seen in scrappedstuff with the first version of 1k-2. What bro was cooking is beyond our comprehension but thankfully i managed to lock in and actually be helpful. On that topic, id lie if i said the effort split for this map was 50/50, im not even sure if 60/40 is true, sometimes it felt like 70/30 (clantis/me if that wasnt clear). I do feel like some of that comes from the fact that he had loenn access for most of the mapping (i only opened loenn a handful of times before 3k, which is where i mostly took over until flag 2 and the split which ill get to later) so he was doing shit faster than me, but also he more experience with good gameplay than me and was able to test stuff more throughly than me. Overall i do think i held up my own weight, but this map wouldve 100% been impossible without him. He was the one to place every single triggertrigger in the map, he single-handedly created 2/3rds of flag 2 as well as 2.5k-2 ALONE while i was busy. He was the one who set up all the practice rooms and their teleports. He did all the boring shit (like the aformentioned practice rooms). He kept up with playtests by making immediate changes while i sent them to him. I think 60/40 seems fair overall, like sometimes it was 50/50 sometimes i did more shit (very rare event) and sometimes he just did our whole to-do list while i was asleep. I do feel a bit bad that i didnt put more work in, but he also did stuff without it being assigned to him so i think its aight. (i hope its aight). I dont think the fact i did less stuff was from lack of effort or laziness at all, it just happened that way. All im trying to say is that this is still OUR map, even if he did put in more work than me.
The mapping process was mostly smooth, thats mostly because we took a massive break from mapping after getting past flag 3. That sounds a bit weird since flag 3 is the 2nd to last room in the map, however flag 3 was made before 2.5k-2 and before we decided to do the split. The split was single-handedly the worst part of making this map. I came up for the idea of "what if the players split up for a little that would be soo cooool :3 :3 :3" and we decided to try and make our rooms seperately. The split was supposed to be longer, featuring a flag themed around every 500m  summit section (except 1.5k ofc). After i made my room (the 2d split room thats in the map) we realised how different our ideas were. Clantis had built a moce-like bumper section and a zipper part that was 15% zippers and 85% flag 21 from 7d, while i made a single long room with all 500m sections in one. We both fucked up quite a lot and spent a lot of time trying to amend this by making new gameplay and scrapping old gameplay, and it took a WHILE before we came up with the current split idea which im mostly fine with. We did have to split the 2d room roughly in half difficulty wise with a flag "4?" because otherwise that shit was too hard. Even with the checkpoint 2d split is still wayy harder imo.

Personally im perfectly fine with the "co-opness" of the map. I know its not really co-op a lot of the time, its more of a deathlink challenge, but i think thats good. Its better that we made gameplay enjoyable rather than forcing the players to interact and restricting what we could do. I think the fact that you both see each other a lot while beating the rooms is great and im very happy with the final result. 
Its still crazy that we got to where we are now, and the maps vibe wouldnt be possible without my amazing girlfriend wtorek. Her art gives the map so much more life, and makes it feel so much more than it was before. The arrows look great and dont get in the way at all. If vanilla celeste had a co-op mode thats what the arrows would look like. Its peak. The endscreen is stunning and even something as simple as the map icon makes the map more alive.