OASIS Diaries #14: Meet YongBoi, The Mind Behind The Games

OASIS Diaries Feb 1, 2023

How's it going, Natives!

Welcome to another edition of our "Meet-The-Team" series in OASIS Diaries! This week, we have the pleasure of introducing you to YongBoi, our highly creative Game Designer.

YongBoi is a true innovator, constantly finding inspiration from unexpected places. With the skills and drive to turn game ideas into reality, he's been instrumental in making our Oasis games happen! So sit back, relax, and get ready to hear more about YongBoi and his journey in game design!

A Word From YongBoi

Hi there! I am YongBoi, a Game Designer with 3 years of experience in the field. It's been about a year since I came onboard ProjectOasis.

“My passion for creating games stems from my desire to showcase what's in my mind — my ideas, the things that come out from my imagination, and share it with others.”

— YongBoi, 2023

So far, I've created 10 games — ranging from casual to fast-paced, puzzles to endless — for both mobile and PC, including Steam games. In terms of my taste in games, I enjoy things like Dota, Minecraft, puzzles, and adventure games.

YongBoi is always on the lookout for the next game idea!

Drawing Inspiration From Unusual Places

I find inspiration for my games from all sorts of places. Sometimes it just hits me out of nowhere. It's everywhere - I could be watching a cool video and suddenly get an idea for a game.

For example, I once saw a video on Reddit of a cute frog singing with its mouth opening and closing. That inspired me to create "Bugs Free," a game of a hungry frog that catches bugs by opening and closing its mouth.

Frog singing a song. from PixelArt

The animated video that inspired "Bugs Free"

Other games, like "Puzzle Match" and "Chicken on the Run," were based on simpler games with a twist. "Puzzle Match" has a shuffling mechanic that makes it more challenging as you progress through levels. And "Chicken on the Run" gets harder with more obstacles and tricky paths to guide the chickens through.

The Game Design Process

So, when a game idea pops into my head, I quickly jot it down before I forget. I love bouncing ideas off other people, it's just fun to talk about what we could do with a game and how it could play out.

Once we have a rough idea of the core gameplay, I bring in the troops — our designers and programmers. The designers help bring the game to life by sketching out how it would look and refining the artwork. Meanwhile, the programmers handle the technical side of working out the actual mechanics of the game. It's pretty cool to see our ideas start to take shape!

Sketches of the basic gameplay of one of our Oasis games

Making Sure We're All on the Same Page

We have a document for each game we work on called the "Functional Specification Document". It's a comprehensive list of all the details about the game, including gameplay, story, and scoring system. Basically, everything you need to know about the game is in this document. Having this ensures that everyone is clear on the key aspects of the game, and if there's ever any questions, we can always refer back to it.

Now it's time to build! We work on putting everything together and go through the process of balancing. The whole process takes a few weeks for us to get a first working version for a hypercasual game. Of course, bigger games can take a lot longer, the more complex it is — sometimes even several years!

And after that, we do more testing and refining to make it even better.

My Greatest Challenge — A Balancing Act

Balancing games can be a real headache, especially in our game "Rubber Ducky Go Fish". We had to make sure the fish values were on point, and figuring out the right amount each fish was worth, as well as the probabilities of getting each fish, was a challenge. But, lucky for us, we have our trusty programmer, Nick on our side. He's a pro at balancing games and economics. And if we ever need a hand, the other programmers chip in too. We're a team, after all!

To create balanced, sustainable, and secure game economies, we utilize tools like Machinations in our game design and balancing process. These tools enable us to model different scenarios and predict the effects on the game economy, helping us create games that are fair and enjoyable for all players. Our aim is to design games that are well-balanced and free from any potential exploits or imbalances that could harm the player experience.

One of the many flowchart diagrams generated by the Machinations tool for our fishing game, "Rubber Ducky Go Fish"

Balancing these many fishes is tough work!

What Is It Like Working in The Oasis Team?

I'm thrilled to share that our Game Design team has cranked out 5 new games in the last few months. This was a milestone for us as we shifted our focus to game development. What I love about working here is the freedom to bring my ideas to life and being able to collaborate with the programmers and designers to bring my vision to reality. They often add their own touches and make it even better!

Thoughts on Gaming in Web3

I've been into crypto for a few years now and even tried mining, but I didn't continue for long.

Moving on to the topic of the metaverse, NFTs, and games, I think that the current trend of "play-to-earn" is a bit overhyped and takes away from the true purpose of gaming. While I can understand the appeal of earning while playing, I believe that this focus on earning takes away from the overall playing experience.

Games should be all about having fun, getting lost in a new world, and enjoying the journey. The earning part should just be a bonus. Personally, I'm all about making games that are just straight up fun to play.

And that's the story from me! I'm YongBoi and I hope you'll check out our games in the Oasis metaverse, if you haven't already. We're always excited to hear feedback from you Natives!

Look forward to more new games and the next OASIS Diaries!