OASIS Diaries #13: Meet Dibski, The Backbone of The ProjectOasis Design Team

OASIS Diaries Jan 18, 2023

Hello Natives!

We’re back with another edition of OASIS Diaries! Rather than focusing on development alone, we want to get up close and personal with the team members of our project!

In today's segment, we’re talking to one of our longest-standing team members who's been with us since the beginning — meet our very talented and dedicated designer, Dibski! If you have experienced the Oasis Metaverse before, you have definitely seen the adorable and meticulously designed assets that make our metaverse come alive!

This your gateway into the mind and story of Dibski!

Hello from Dibski, the Designer

Hi everyone, my name is Dibski and I’m a Designer working on ProjectOasis! Some of the things I like are hiking, drawing, traditional and heavy music, spicy food, and Harvest Moon games.

I've been with ProjectOasis from the start of the project until now, more than one year later and counting! This is the journey of how ProjectOasis began and developed from a design point of view.

The always dependable, & down-to-chill Dibski!

Background

I’ve spent 4 years in the design industry with experience in web design, UI design, marketing design, and asset creation. I first started my journey in arts in college where I studied Multimedia Design. Upon graduation, I worked in the traditional web design industry and then moved into creating the design for a browser-based game. I learned a lot and grew as a designer there as I was involved in pretty much the whole design process, from sketching and developing the wireframe to the final UI design.

Designing icons is a lot of work but fun!

How Did I Get Into ProjectOasis

Around this time, I got into crypto. I learnt about a cool project involving NFTs in a story-based game setting, codenamed “NFT Story” (ProjectOasis’ initial name at that time). It was the very first pixel art NFT metaverse game on the BSC network. I was pretty excited to work on it.

We started with a base pack and added onto it with our own custom designs. I had the chance to put my hand to creating pixel art designs for characters, buildings, and other game assets.

Some of the custom game assets by Dibski

Rough Seas When Working on Oasis — Challenges Faced

I face many challenges working on ProjectOasis but also had a ton of memorable moments. One of the main challenges is the difference when it comes to working on Web3 compared to Web2 design.

There is an extra layer of complexity to take into account when we are designing for Web3. Traditional web design is a lot more straightforward. There are standard formats and established best practices to follow and most users are familiar with how it should look and behave. With Web3 design, we have to keep two sets of audiences in mind, Web3 users and Web2 users who are often looking for different things. The Web3 audience are looking for something different, something that stands out and catches their interest. But we also have to balance for Web2 users who expect things to be similar to what they are used to and is easy to navigate.

Web3 design is new territory. We had to and still are experimenting and trying out many different things. When we realized some things didn’t work that well, we changed to a new direction. Some things which we worked on previously did not get released due to this.

Part of an unreleased comic in the older days of ProjectOasis

Another challenge in designing for Web3 is that there are strict criteria that we have to follow. This is because once the design is up, we cannot change it if it exists on the blockchain.

Thus, we had to have clear guidelines for both the Design Team and Dev Team to follow. We also needed to streamline our process, especially when our team grew, so that when we passed the assets to the Developer Team there is no confusion.

Memorable Moments

One of the things I enjoyed most was working on the video. I had a lot of fun working with other designers working on the storyboard and character designs! We did the animations frame-by-frame. Pretty painstaking work, but it was totally worth it to see the final result!

What’s more exciting was that our video caught the eye of a pretty well-known influencer! The hype grew from that and a lot of people were interested in what we were doing. It was then that we got the validation that we were on to something big.

What Is It Like Working in The Oasis Team?

I've always said that the Oasis Design Team functions like a democracy. Although we have a Team Leader and each of us are in charge of our respective parts, we can propose ideas at any time that we will discuss and make a decision together as a team.

We meet twice a week. Once on Monday, to check-in on what each member is working on, and to propose new concepts or ideas along with some brainstorming. At the end of the week, we update each other on our progress by showcasing our work to get feedback on it.

Working with the other departments can be challenging because there are clashes sometimes between what each party is expecting. There are some things that we couldn't do due to constraints. And other times, we disagree about the best way to go forward. But even though we have differences in our view on how things should be, we always try to understand the other party. At the end of the day, we want to achieve what's best for the project.

Why Am I Still Doing This?

I’ve been with ProjectOasis from the very first day until now. There were many ups and downs but somehow we still managed to pull it together and this is why ProjectOasis is still here today.

I have never considered leaving. Why?

Because ProjectOasis is like family to me. Working in the Oasis Team, we help each other. When I have difficulties, my team members are there to pick me up and vice versa.

“To make everybody be in "one pot" is hard, but to be a family means we make it happen so that we're moving together.”

— Dibski, 2023

All of you Natives, including the team, partners, and investors are part of this Oasis family. Together, we can bring about greater change to the BSC space and beyond!

That’s it from me, Dibski! Thank you so much for listening to my story.

Peace out, until the next OASIS Diaries!