Interview with Developer of Bobo Bay
Bobo Bay is the kind of game that when you see it, you probably think to yourself, I’ve got to play this right now. It’s so cute and sweet and seems like something you could get lost in for hours. From Developer NewFutureKids, Bobo Bay is a pet simulation game where you collect, mash(breed), accessorize, and train little creatures to compete in races and other competitions.
We’re so happy to have Bobo Bay in the showcase and a huge thank you to dev Austin for answering my questions.
Can you tell me more about yourself and how you got started on Bobo Bay?
My name’s Austin, and I’ve been doing game dev for about eight years. I started out mainly doing 3D art. One day I really wanted to make my own game, so I built this little skeet-shooting mobile game and learned how to code through Unity. Since then, I’ve been chasing that one great idea that I would want to take all the way to the finish line.
In August 2022, I started working on Bobo Bay. I’ve always been fascinated by the Chao Garden concept and wanted to take that idea and turn it into a full game, but done in my own way. I developed it for a while, then took a break for a year to make some other things, and came back in August 2023. Since then, I’ve been working on it almost every day.
As far as my personal life goes, I have two dogs and a cat that I love. Also my wife. That I love as well. I read a lot of manga and discovered a late-in-life passion for volleyball.
What kind of competitions can your Bobos take part in?
There are two main competitions in the game: racing and brawling, similar to Chao Garden’s race and karate modes. I tested out some other ideas, and while I’m not ruling out adding more competitions in the future, nothing else I tried was as fun to watch. That’s the main reason I kept it to these two. Since the player doesn’t directly control the Bobos during competitions, racing and fighting are just the most entertaining ones to watch play out.
Racing has a lot more going on. It includes obstacles, different maps with multiple tracks, and traits that impact how the Bobos race. Classic mechanics like climbing and swimming are in, but I replaced flying with jumping since it’s more versatile with the obstacles I’ve built. There are things like balance beams, breakable boards, vine climbs, and rock carries.
Brawl mode is something I really wanted to reinvent. I’ve never been a fan of Chao karate, so I decided to go over-the-top with it. I built it around a rock-paper-scissors mechanic: Bobos can punch, kick, or block. Punch beats kick, kick beats block, and block beats punch. When you kick a Bobo, they go flying into the air, and you can even juggle them. It’s a pretty intense mode. It leans more into randomness compared to racing. Stats still matter, but there’s a real chance a weaker Bobo can pull off an upset. It’s wild though even the babies go hard in this mode.
What else can you do with your Bobos?
There’s a lot of customization. You can swap out the upper face, lower face, back, feet, and arms with accessories and animal parts. With mashing(breeding), there are tons of combinations. There are five different species, and each has its own colors, patterns, eye types, etc. Every Bobo also has individual scale values for their limbs, head, and body. Depending on how you raise them, they’ll evolve into a specific form, and throughout their lifetime, they’ll keep morphing further with mesh transforms. So no two Bobos will ever look exactly alike.
You can also send them to camp to learn to draw, sculpt, or play instruments. They can make best friends and spend time with them. You’ll be able to buy toys they can play with, including larger ones for the garden like a soccer ball. And yes, you can throw them at a wall.
Does combining different Bobos traits also change their personalities?
The trait system is something I’m really proud of. It was one of the first ideas I came up with. I wanted every Bobo to feel distinct based on how you raised them and what they could do. Each Bobo has a main trait, a humble trait, a few personality modifiers, and an item trait slot you can fill later.
Personality mods are basically randomized quirks. One Bobo might eat more snacks. One might sit longer in the garden. Some love going to town, others hate it. These change how they behave without affecting performance directly.
Main traits and humble traits impact both competition and garden behavior. For example, a trait like Hustler lets a Bobo race without getting tired. A trait like Forager lets the bobo find snacks by digging in the garden!
Humble traits are always small negatives. The idea is that every Bobo should have a flaw. Not something you can just breed out or avoid, but something that changes how you interact with them. Asthma lowers stamina and makes them cough in the garden. Pickpocket steals coins out of your pocket when you pick them up, so you’ll have to avoid doing that and just pet them instead. The Cocky trait makes a Bobo stand still for ten seconds at the start of a race because they are so confident that they will win lol. Traits affect how they compete, how they behave in the garden, or both, and they shape the Bobo’s personality as a whole.
Can you explain more about Bobo Stars?
Bobo Stars are part of the Saga system. You’ve got Trials and Sagas. Trials are daily competitions that rotate on a schedule. Sagas are more like big arcs and the “main objective” of the game. You assign one Bobo to a Saga, which includes several competitions of increasing difficulty. You’ll train that Bobo over multiple lifetimes to complete it.
Bobo Stars feel like the ultimate goal of the game because they’re what unlock new species. For example, the Mythic Star leads to the fairy Bobo species. You’ll have to complete a few competitions and then face off against Teeny Croquette, the fairy Bobo, on a new map. Once you beat them, you unlock that map, a sapling of the species, and then that species starts appearing naturally in the world over time. Why are they called Teeny Croquette you ask? Leave me alone.
What kind of accessories can you buy for your Bobos?
There are also tons of cosmetic items. You can buy a knit hat, straw hat, ski goggles, a giant wind-up key for their back, high heels, backpacks, nerdy glasses, cool glasses, masks, or a trash can for their head to represent what they truly are. That wasn’t nice, I'm sorry. Plus there are animal crackers. That’s where you can give them cat ears, dragon wings, bear feet, crab arms, and so on.
If you could mash together any two animals in real life, which would you choose?
If I could combine two animals, I’d go with an otter and an owl. Otters are just super cute, and if you’re mixing animals, it’s fun when they can do something the other can’t. So now you’ve got this otter that can also fly. That sounds good. Let’s go with that.
What does “indie” mean to you?
As for what makes a game indie, I think it depends on who’s calling the shots. If decisions are being made by people who don’t play games or aren’t directly involved in the design, then it stops feeling indie to me. Indie means the team is coming up with their own ideas and executing them themselves. People say it has to do with money, and that’s part of it, but it’s more about creative control. You can get funding and still be indie. But once the scrappiness is gone, once the team loses that hands-on control, it stops feeling independent.
It’s a hard question, though. All I really know is if you made a game by yourself, even a small one, and put it online, you’re an indie developer. You don’t have to sell thousands of copies. You just have to make something and share it. Whether or not you’re still indie probably depends on money, team size, and who’s making the decisions.
Bobo Bay is available to wishlist on Steam right now.