As the first blog post here, this is a short write-up on the history of OASIS: Tokyo.
Beginnings
My programming/game design journey largely began with making items for a Garry’s Mod roleplay server my friends were running in 2012, but in 2015 I began experimenting with Unity. One of the first projects I made with it - “fpsproj” - is OASIS’s earliest ancestor.
OASIS itself actually began a few months before the end of 2017, when I was playing the Shadowrun trilogy (specifically using the subway system in Dragonfall). These games were the original inspiration for the game.
Garry’s Mod
A few months into 2018, I began work on the Oasis Garry’s Mod gamemode, which eventually ended up becoming essentially the prototype for OASIS. This featured a lot of the same features of OASIS today - procedurally generated missions, weapons with their own magazines, cyberware, losing items on death, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have any video of this gamemode anymore.
The gamemode also featured a few other things that aren’t found in OASIS today. Sectcom NPCs would walk around the hub area, and if you attacked them or another player they would attack you. Since this was originally intended to be a new roleplay server, there was also different playable factions (most of these were made into enemy factions in some form in the final game).
There was also an underground sewer portion of the hub area, which could be used to loot free items, but was inhabited by zombie robots. This turned into the initial level of the Oasis Hunt and the zombie robots there and in the survivors-like-ish extra mode. Money was also an actual item in the gamemode (a la Tarkov). It could be deposited at ATMs around the main map, but you needed a physical credstick to buy from vendors. This was initially implemented in OASIS but I scrapped it after a while. The loose credstick items that give you money now use the model the physical credsticks used.
I launched the server for the gamemode in January 2019. It lasted about a month. After it died, I initially was working on a new completely custom map to relaunch it with, but after a little bit I decided it would be better to rebuild it in Unity to get around some of Garry’s Mod’s limitations (primarily source’s map size, since I was hitting it with the way missions worked in the original map). This would result in the first standalone version.
The Standalone Prototype
The first non-Garry’s Mod version was a bit different than the one it was today, it was originally intended to be a more direct recreation of the original gamemode. Because of that, it featured a largely static map (with some random elements still, passageways being blocked off and such) that procedurally generated objectives were created for. After probably around a couple weeks of work, I ended up bricking the project while trying to add multiplayer (in hindsight, it probably wasn’t actually irreversably broken, but it was for the best I think lol). So, eventually, I started over.
The OASIS That Released
With this new version, which started development in mid 2020, I decided to do things a bit differently, using an art style that was new to me but I could definitely make my own assets for if necessary. I also decided it’d be better if maps were procedurally generated. Over time, more and more decisions were made that ultimately detached this from the original Garry’s Mod gamemode, making it its own thing.
While I’m proud with what I’ve released and I’m happy with it, it is definitely not perfect. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot from it and I’m excited to bring that new knowledge into whatever new project I’m working on next and I want to continue to learn.
The Future
If you are reading this, you may or may not know that I am planning on making an “OASIS 2” (not sure on the actual name yet). I am currently planning it for it to be multiplayer (likely just co-op support, but maybe more), and it will likely be a prequel. It will likely be using a lot of the original story beats I was planning for the Garry’s Mod version’s server, which I ended up implementing into the current game as backstory. So if you’ve read the lore articles that are in-game, you might have an idea on what your role will probably be in this new game!
I will also say though that this is likely at least a year, likely longer away. As of writing, I am still primarily working on Dyskairos, and this will be after that. When I start up development on it, I will likely showcase features with videos on my Youtube. In the meantime, if you want to support my endeavors, buy OASIS: Tokyo and also buy Dyskairos when it comes out! I’d be very appreciative, thanks!