Cosmic Shore Origin - A Deep Dive into the Vision and Culture at Froglet Games

This was an extensive interview delving into Cosmic Shore origin. Hope our dears reader here have fun understanding Froglet's company culture and product!

What is the vision and the goal for making Cosmic Shore?

Vision

Cosmic Shore is a game that player could have different classes or customization of individual flying vessel there that could change the length and or the size or shape of the ribbon, or the flight characteristics of the ship. We aim to celebrate our unique traits in a shared space.

Goal

When mobile games started to capture the public's attentions, simple and fun classics such as Snake really captured the essence of pure joy of engaging gameplay. Froglet Games CEO Garret would like to recreate the satisfaction of asymmetric player dynamics and destructible environment (one of signature feature in Red Faction: Gorilla) with fine-tuned gameplay that is unique to each player and Tron light cycles art style.

How did the idea of Cosmic Shore came to be?

Cosmic Shore is a project for a long-time coming, Garrett has never seen a multi-player game that allows player to control a team of three and have wildly different mechanics that balanced off each other.

When it comes to multi-player game, war comes up naturally as a concept. But war is never interesting by itself and often times it is ultra-aggressive by nature. What really drives the war is actually territory control, so he believes that by simulating the common theme of area control in video game, specifically in strategy games.

What we can take out of it is to take territory control in video game to another dimension, and that one more dimension becomes volume. In a more nerdy term in our game, we call it "Mass" - one of the fundamental elements that composes Cosmic Shore Universe.

The concept of health is taken away from Cosmic Shore because "Mass" is essentially the territory and health of the player at the same time, and players can focus their mind on strategies of how to maximize their health.

It comes from the lesson taught by nature and science: almost all life structures exhibit multifunctionality. A large proportion of our team members are scientists in various of fields, by embracing the nature of science is the core identity we would like to embody and transfer to our game.

When was the first time our CEO having a clear idea about Cosmic Shore?

About 15 years ago, Garret started thinking about what that could look like, and talking about it with friends, and thinking of more like a capture the flag game, but just thinking about how player could have different classes or customization of the flying vehicle there that could change the length and or the size or shape of your ribbon, or the flight characteristics of the ship.

It was around 2007 when he was working for Flock . Garrett has been a passionate gamer for a long time. The idea of making a game was a bit scary since programming was something that he thought might not be the profession within his capacity. As time went by he started his journey on material science when python became the script language to get researches done, it was the time when he realized that programming was not something untouchable.

Tail Glider - The Hobby Project and Prequel of Cosmic Shore

The team has a self-taught Game Developer John Zak, who was an amateur game developer. Learning, teaching himself C# and Unity and dabbling in game development there, and started a bunch of little projects himself. And our CTO Isaiah Merrill, who is a devoted friend of Garrett, as well as a seasoned Software Engineer for his own professional career, went on supporting the dream Garrett had on both technical and financial aspects without hesitation.

They aimed to quickly develop a multiplayer minimum viable product (MVP). The initial MVP involved just a few people experimenting with their own trails. For various reasons, including collaborating with Isaiah, a highly skilled computer scientist and game developer, the team naturally involved him early on. This project was more of a casual hobby for all of them, with sporadic work and intermittent hacking sessions.

Garrett and his team initially competed for high scores in various illusion games, but they realized that illusions didn't provide engaging gameplay. However, when they developed flight controls, it felt like a unique experience of flying on a mobile device, even while sitting in the bathroom. Their excitement drew the interest of their kids and extended family, sparking a competition for high scores.

As more people started playing, they saw the potential and decided to prioritize Tail Glider. It was a revenue-positive project, ticking all the boxes for the team, and they knew focusing on it was their best chance for survival amid budget constraints and other projects that weren't making progress.

Cosmic Shore - The Beginning of Froglet Games

When the initial members of the team founded their own company, the vision revolved around being a startup studio. The idea was to create smaller companies that they could later hand over to operational partners. They aimed to repeat this process, becoming experts in the initial stages of a company's development, making it a marketable venture or even just retaining a small ownership stake while others managed it.

They wanted to specialize in the front-loaded aspects. At that time, they had several projects underway, but none stood out. Garrett decided to bring John into the team, leveraging his enthusiasm and capabilities, and the project that piqued his interest and mine was the one the team chose to pursue. As they delved into it, this project increasingly absorbed Garrett's attention and gained momentum. Unlike their other projects, it quickly became playable and gained internal popularity.

Once the team had a vision, they recognized the game's potential as a groundbreaking sport that could transcend traditional gaming classes. This became evident when they realized that mass control could unite vastly different gameplay styles.

The concept of connecting players across these differences became more tangible with the mechanic in place. They started crafting classes, with the first being a shooter that could follow rails created by other players. They also introduced a drifting character capable of triggering explosions by colliding with crystals, resulting in a thrilling gameplay moment.

Signature Gameplay Elements

Trail Blocks

Once the group of like-minded people started to prototyping it, one of the first things they noticed was that the blocks could exhibit multiple functionalities in gameplay as well as a part of UI. And human eyes are really good at filtering various frequencies of occlusion so we can look through a chain of linked fence and see what's on the other side even though the chain links are occluding quite a bit.

The gaps between blocks gave the player natural fun things to slip between and fly around in. And so even before it was a game and we had collisions or anything, it was just damn fun to just fly around the environment and play with the tail that Garret was creating in this little Etch a sketch experience.

The block shapes each ship class omits can tell the individual story. We can actually morph the block indicative of some aspect of what the character is doing and give them some degree of control over the volume that they're creating. And by adding up all these little obvious blocks of volume, then give every player the ability to just look at the environment and assess who's winning and how much volume control the team has.

Ship Classes

The team continued to develop new classes, and their approach evolved. Instead of creating entirely different classes from scratch, they began integrating one or more new mechanics into existing ones. For instance, the original idea for rail riders didn't involve flying, but they decided to combine flight with rail-riding abilities. They also considered introducing a new character with an alternative way to navigate the map, which could also incorporate rail riding. This incremental approach allowed them to gradually introduce new mechanics to the classes.

After prototyping five classes that showed great potential, they made a firm decision to focus solely on these five for over six months. Despite the temptation to explore more classes, they recognized the need for discipline and believed that refining these five classes and their associated mechanics was the right course of action given the extensive work required.

The team has been striving to achieve the dream of creating a class-based game with a wider variety of classes than ever before. The goal is to extend the appeal of these classes into vastly different types of gameplay and unite players who enjoy these diverse experiences. It's not just about establishing a medium for connection; it's about enhancing the overall gaming experience.

They envision players taking on a range of challenges, from swarms to formidable adversaries to pesky smaller foes, resulting in a visually diverse and re-playable game. As a sport, the ultimate aim is to have more viewers than players. They want to make the game enjoyable to watch, stream, and view replays because the emergent gameplay ensures that each viewing experience is unique and exciting.

Team-based Arena

Rocket League successfully delivers entertaining gameplay with just two RC cars and a ball on a static map. The beauty of Rocket League lies in the emergent physics-based gameplay that leads to crazy trajectories, unexpected angles, and wild collisions. Combining rotation and other factors results in remarkable ricochet shots, creating unexpected goals when players are flying through the air and suddenly get bounced off.

The simplicity of these gameplay mechanics generates captivating replay moments. Even for those who may not actively play Rocket League anymore, they can't resist watching a great replay moment on platforms like Reddit. The team believes that their game has the potential to take this concept to a higher level. With a diverse range of classes, environments, and players disrupting those settings in grandiose ways, their game promises to deliver even more captivating moments that rival Rocket League's appeal.

Dynamic and Organic Environment

The game is rich with embedded philosophies, one of which revolves around the concept of asymmetry between creation and destruction. This idea reflects the harsh reality of life, where people can dedicate generations to building something, only for it to be undone by a single act of terror or other forces.

In the game, this philosophy is vividly embodied. Every move you make involves placing one block at a time, and in an instant, some dolphin can come along and erase it all. This unique aspect of the game captures the essence of life exceptionally well, and it's challenging to find another game that portrays this quality with such precision and depth.

Froglet Company Culture

The prevailing philosophy over the past decade has seen more and more companies claim to be people-focused, which is a commendable shift from product or problem-centric approaches. However, there's room for improvement by prioritizing relationships within a company. The strength of a company lies in the capabilities that result from the relationships among its members.

While individuals possess their own skill sets, when two people collaborate, they invigorate each other, maintain momentum, and gain unique capabilities as a team. The social graph of a small company has numerous edges, each with its distinct strength, and many successful companies naturally emphasize these edges without explicit modeling.

By intentionally thinking in this relational model, it fosters gradual changes that accumulate into a truly relationship-focused company. This means moving beyond a people-focused model that treats roles as transferable, interoperable units. Instead, investing in people and their relationships becomes paramount, despite the risk and cost of personnel turnover. Over time, the gains from nurturing these relationships far outweigh the losses.

Even if the company faces setbacks or dissolution, the enduring relationships will persist. These connections may no longer work on a unified vision, but the people can continue drawing on each other's strengths for decades. Strengthening these relationships benefits both the company and the individuals, creating a lasting network of support and collaboration.

The Story Behind Our UX/UI Designer Maya and Garrett

The story is that Garrett and Maya used to work together at Mackinac, and during their collaboration, they started creating a board game together. This project holds a special place in their hearts as one of the best they've ever had the privilege to work on. They take immense pride in what they achieved, and the board game became something they truly enjoyed playing and working on. They hope to release it as merchandise under the Cosmic Shore brand in the future.

The project not only demonstrated their ability to create something exceptional together but also allowed them to explore and refine their game design sensibilities. Many of these insights proved to be transferable to video games, even though they initially discovered them through the board game. This experience deepened their understanding of thoughtful decision-making, which is a strong suit of board games and how it contributes to action strategy games.

Furthermore, Maya delved into UX UI design, addressing a significant need within the company. As Garrett developed his skills as a Gameplay Engineer, Maya evolved into a versatile UX/UI Designer, displaying an impressive range of talents. Maya’s multifaceted role extends beyond the traditional UX UI designer label, encompassing aspects of systems design and game design.

Maya wears product hats when necessary, provide unique insights due to her remarkable working memory, and can see connections and potential issues that others might overlook when considering a multitude of factors at once. This extraordinary skill contributes immeasurably to the team, making them an irreplaceable asset and a valuable resource in helping others with her work.

We Are Looking For Great Talents!

The philosophy we're advocating is a departure from collecting arbitrary responsibilities that create interoperable roles with other companies. Many existing systems were designed with scalability in mind, assuming every company aims for massive growth and headcount expansion over time. We've found that there's something uniquely powerful about a roughly 20-person team, where hierarchy isn't necessary. As organizations grow beyond this point, hierarchical structures tend to emerge, distancing people and diminishing the strength of relationships. This can lead to defensive behaviors and various forms of toxicity. Our strategy is to avoid scaling and maintain a small, capable team that can expand its capabilities without expanding its size.

When we hire people, we seek those who are passionate about our mission and interested in various aspects of game development. Their specific interests and skills don't need to align with conventional departmental roles. We have the flexibility to match their tasks with their interests, creating a unique synergy. We encourage both specialists and generalists, as they each bring strengths to the team. Our focus is on whether individuals have a passion for the project and a desire to learn and contribute to game development. We provide mentoring and support to help them grow in their chosen direction.

At this point, we are an unfunded team, relying on passion rather than financial compensation. We understand that it will take time before we can offer more than sweat equity. However, we aim to provide an environment where contributors can take pride in their work, whether that leads to a job within our team when we secure funding or serves as a valuable addition to their portfolio. We share this mindset with many open source projects, as we are also an open source project.