Bobo Bay started out as a passion project to soothe my nostalgia and love for the Chao Garden of older Sonic games. After three years of development and more than 20,000 wishlists, it's finally getting closer to the finish line.
When I started the project, I thought I was one of the few who was saddened that a standalone Chao Garden game never took off. Little did I know that there's a massive community who've been waiting years for something like this to come, and I couldn't be any more grateful for the support my game's gotten, even if it isn't an official successor.
I'm happy to talk about development, what sets Bobo Bay apart while still holding true to its Chao Garden roots, and why I set out to help revive a niche that's been long-forgotten.
What is Chao Garden?
It's a mini game from Sonic Adventure 2. Has a cult following.
Great to hear from you Austo! It’s been really fun seeing all of your dev updates. Hope you have a great new year as well!
In terms of questions, I was curious about your thought process regarding how you chose to implement the game’s competition modes and other features. I remember hearing from one of your dev blogs that you tried some ideas other than karate and racing, but none really sticked the landing. Is there a specific process you utilize to determine if certain features make sense in the overall gameplay loop?
Thanks for the question :)))
Well regarding the competition modes, I really wanted my game to keep the Chao Garden idea of the player not really "doing" anything during it haha. I didn't want the player to like control the Bobos. So if that's the case, then the competitions need to be fun to watch. Obviously there is some interaction with cheering and such, but it needs to be entertaining to just sit there and watch your bobo perform. Racing and brawl was obvious and a good choice by the original sonic team because it's just enjoyable to see little guys compete like that. The other ones I tried out just didn't end up being that fun to watch. Or atleast it got old really quick. Brawl and Race stay interesting for a long time. Not opposed to adding more competitions post release, but would need to be a really good idea.
For other features, I just don't want things to feel out of place. So if it feels like a new feature idea would just amplify/multiply the fun, then I'll add it. Some new feature ideas feel like it's pulling away from other parts of the game or it just feels like I'm adding it just to add it. For example, farming lol. I don't want to add farming even though lots of people have suggested to add farming.
Any chance of cooperative or even multiplayer aspects? Like trading bobos or competing against friends to find the best bobo 😅
Recently I added "bobo codes" which allows you to generate a code of your bobo and send it to a friend so they can import it into their game.
Other than that, I would like to add the ability to race/brawl online. Just like peer to peer with friends. It just didn't seem important for the full release, but I would like to add it soon after!
Thanks for the AMA, I'm a big chao garden fan so this looks like a lot of fun!
In Sonic Adventure 2, you have to collect Chaos Drives by playing the main game, and this allows you to slowly upgrade stats for Chao. Did you fit a similar mechanic into Bobo Bay? And if so, how does it fit into the game, where there isn't another "main" mode? I'd love to know how that works.
And another question if that's okay, the Chao breeding and genetics system is surprisingly complex for what it was. Can be expect a similar, or even deeper breeding system?
So the main way you get food and such is to win races and spend the money in the town on items. That is the main loop. However, there are a few other ways to earn money and items. One is the betting lounge which is an underground room that is open at night that allows you to bet on races. The other is something I'll be announcing soon! It's a BIG new feature that I think will satisfy a lot of people who wanted that "platforming" element in the game. It's not just straight up platforming levels lol, but it's a good way to explore that fits my game's vibe.
It's deeper :) That is my favorite part about Chao Garden so I know I had to go even bigger with the customization possibilities. So yes, full genetic system plus tons more individual differences for each bobo that can be passed down to "children".
I played a bit of the demo, and I'm very happy with it so far! Excited to see what the full game brings. I will say I hope bobo's behavior will be expanded on, like idle poses, running around, playing by themselves or each other, etc. Right now they seem a bit static.
they actually do quite a bit. You gotta get more bobos in the garden to see though! I'll take note of maybe thinking of more stuff they can do by themselves before they learn skills and get toys cus most of their interactions are with those and other bobos. Thanks for playing :))
Thank you for the AMA!! Been following Bobo Bay for a couple of years, but 2025 wasn't my best keeping up to date with stuff year, so I might have missed this:
What's the plan for balancing the off time when waiting for Bobos to grow? Like, will there be like minigames or other activities in town? And how do you choose the fashion available for customizing the pc?
I don't think you SHOULD be open to ideas, please develop what you feel is best for the game, but if you happen to be, are there any plans for sufficiently evolved Bobos that might have defeated the champions of each activities to maybe get brand deals and become in universe influencers? I just think it'd be funny if we could become the exploitative social media parent. I mean, that'd be mean, but funny. Or are there any plans to allow those Bobos to move on to a better life?
hello!
Yeah the town is pretty big now so there is lots to do there. Other than raising bobos, you can bet on races, upgrade the town through public works, and there is another new big feature I'll be revealing really soon that is more "exploration" based :)
The player has a cellphone you can use to customize the character!
Lol I actually did have a similar idea way back with sponsoring bobos. Never really worked out, but I'm open to it if I find a good way to fit it in haha. I have a vision for what I want release to look like, but I'm open to other ideas after! Release will be in the next few months!
Thank you!!
And by choosing the fashion, I meant how do you choose what styles to include, why some clothing items over others, and that stuff! Like, how did you decide on what fashion was right for Bobo Bay.
oh! well for the bobos, I just add anything cus that's fun lol.
For Parfait(MC), i worked with a concept artist to concept some different outfits and such. I designed the original one so for that I mainly just endlessly scrolled Pinterest to find cute ideas. I wanted her to be hip and cute and a little timeless.
For her other outfits, we went a similar route, but also came up with a theme for each season. So Summer being skater and fall being witchy.
This looks WAY better than Poglings.
Is there anyone on the development team besides you?
<3 It's mostly a solo project, but through my Patreon I've been able to contract some incredible artists to make things like new accessories, 2d art/icons, and music! The entire team will be in the credits :)
Sir, I just watched Rose smack Dad across the face with a metal chair and then witnessed Gary shoot Clip in the head. These are the "other competitions"?
Im onboard.
Also, I'm not familiar with Chao Garden so would you say that Bobo Bay is more of a cozy game like Stardew or a collect and train like PalWorld?
hehe :)
hmmmm that's tough. I think it has a lot in common with Stardew since I thought about it a lot when designing this game, but the creature collecting thing is def more similar to Palword. Tbh i think the game is pretty solid combo of both those games!
Are you already or have you considered doing something that replicates the VMU aspect of the Chao stuff. IIRC, you could take them on a VMU like a Tamagotchi and do mini-games / earn stuff?
Could be a fun inclusion as like an idle pop out window or someway to access it via browsers so you could connect via your phone etc.
I mean I would love to. Have no idea how to do that, but could be a fun project after release to see if it's doable.
Idle games are so popular, I think more games are going to start incorporating them as side content. Very interesting direction things are going there. Telling about how little time people have these days.
Sounds pretty cool! I'm looking forward to taking a closer look when I get home (Steam is blocked at my office!).
Maybe it's too niche, but have you given any thought to a companion app for the VMUPro?
Wait is that actually possible haha? Didn't realize I could do that.
How do you decide when there's enough variants, colors and traits for bobos, or do you always want to add more (if time/resources permitted)?
Hey :) Well early on I knew I wanted 5 species with 5 forms each(with various morphs for each of those forms) to get to a larger number than Chao.
For colors, it just worked out to be 100 colors total because of the texture size and even split between all 5 species.
For traits, I ended up finishing 30 main traits, 30 humble traits, and 30 item traits recently! I was close enough to 30 ideas for each that I thought were doable in the time frame, so I felt that was a nice number to aim for.
So idk I mostly just felt it out and decided on something early. I'm always open to adding more stuff post release. Though colors will probably stay at 100. I have plenty of more trait ideas and I even already have a bonus(chaos chao equivalent) bobo you can unlock that is separate from the 5 species :)
Chao Garden in it’s original form could let you transfer Chaos to the VMU for minigames, yes? Does this title replicate that to an extent?
Not as of now no. I'm not sure how I would even do that, but I'm open to doing it after release.