From "Creativity and Rhythm" to Viewing Gas Hero
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From "Creativity and Rhythm" to Viewing Gas Hero
Unlock experiences in a new world that are different from real life.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Mable Jiang
Today I spent three hours reading Creativity and Rhythm, a book by renowned Japanese game planner Yoshihisa Yoshizawa. This is a book that deeply influenced Johnny, the creator of Gas Hero, introducing many frameworks and methodologies on how game planners form creative ideas and design rhythm in games.
As I read, I reflected on how these frameworks might apply to Gas Hero, combining insights from my close observations over the past several months, jotting down some notes along the way.
Core Creativity [Theme / Concept / System (Means + Path)]
A game often begins with an idea, but very few ideas are substantial enough to become a true core concept—many lack sufficient depth to support a full game or generate derivative supporting ideas (which should all reinforce the central concept). Of course, creativity doesn’t require entirely new ideas; more often, it's about combining existing elements in novel ways.
I’ve never dug deep into what exactly sparked Gas Hero for Johnny—he may not even know himself (I’ll save that tease for a future podcast). I’m always curious about the creative process of game designers: during creation, do they already have complex theoretical structures like xyz firmly in mind?
He honestly told me that’s not how it works. The journey to a core idea is more like a spider weaving its web—building strands here and there until converging at the center. Throughout this process, the designer constantly asks themselves questions and tries to answer them. This gradual emergence from chaos toward clarity feels more like artistic creation than rational structuring. Much of the logical reasoning presented later in AMAs is actually post-hoc reflection (laughs).
So, in the absence of definitive answers, let me boldly attempt to organize this using Mr. Yoshizawa’s framework based on my own understanding.
Johnny was heavily influenced by Kairosoft. There was one Kairosoft game whose name he couldn’t recall—I even asked GPT and still didn’t get it—but its core feature involved multiple settlements interacting with each other. He saw this as a promising social experiment, but due to overly simplistic interactions (mainly cooperation, in my view), the pacing suffered (too slow, easily boring), and the sense of social engagement failed to sustain itself.
Yet this insight served as an initial spark in forming Gas Hero’s core idea, establishing the theme: social interaction. This step resembles, as mentioned in the book, how the shogi-inspired mechanic inspired Dig Dug.
So how can we build sustained social engagement?
People live daily under societal rules, performing actions that give meaning to their existence. Therefore, assuming "humans are social animals" holds true, if a game can abstract human social interactions, it may create a rich social arena.
Thus, I boldly extend this further: the concept of Gas Hero—what players should be playing—is “constructing a virtual human society where people continuously interact with sustained motivation.”
But while saying “build a virtual human society” sounds simple, the reality is far more complex. The key lies in filtering systems and mechanisms that best serve the game’s core concept, preserving only essential rules—retaining the essence of human interaction while eliminating noise.
The emphasis here isn't on “virtual human society,” but rather on “sustained interactive motivation.” With that in mind, we dig deeper: what fundamentally drives human sociality?
There may be no single correct answer. Yuval Noah Harari, in Sapiens, argues that from ancient times, Homo sapiens were unique in their ability to tell stories and imagine shared realities—enabling large-scale coordination beyond tribal limits (around 150 individuals per tribe) through “creating hope.”
We thus identify a crucial supporting concept behind the core idea—hope. Many milestones in Gas Hero unfold alongside different forms of hope: small surprises, big goals. I often joke with others: “regret is the engine of human progress”—it is regret that gives rise to hope. Only through continuous generation of new hopes do players remain motivated to keep engaging.
Another vital supporting concept is *bonds*. What are bonds? Working together within a settlement to achieve a common goal is a bond. Falling just short of becoming PvP champion this cycle and vowing to beat your rival next time—that too is a bond. It sounds similar to “hope,” but focuses specifically on relationships formed between players through gameplay—whether the joy of cooperating in guild challenges or mutual respect between rivals hoping to meet again in the next PvP match.
There may be other supporting concepts, but I won’t elaborate further here (after all, I’m not a mind reader inside the game designer’s head!!!)—I’d rather leave some easter eggs from the designer himself for the podcast.
Once the overall core and auxiliary concepts are clarified, the rest becomes a matter of iteratively selecting means and paths that best express these concepts as a cohesive whole—some additions, some subtractions.
The tree-like world structure in Gas Hero is an addition: more complex than a flat world, yet this three-dimensional design allows the concept of “hope” to flourish. Auto-battle, on the other hand, is subtraction—it minimizes player effort in manual operations, shifting focus toward interpersonal interaction (sharing lucky/unlucky box openings and breeding outcomes, assigning combat roles).
All these realizations of big and small hopes, conversations sparked, and behavioral interactions stem from various in-game assets. Thanks to blockchain’s minimal friction in asset transfer, player interactions in Gas Hero become exceptionally rich.
Notably, since Gas Hero presents a virtual society, the design of pathways and mechanisms must also account for real-world societal issues—especially inflation, bubbles, and even stagflation. In my opinion, the most impressive aspect of the designer’s solution lies in seamlessly integrating fixes into the game’s overall structure: from ordinary citizens to World Elders, everyone’s fate is tied together through corresponding incentive systems, sharing hopes and forging bonds.
Rhythm
One joke I always find amusing is that the game designer genuinely wants Gas Hero to have a rhythm of “five minutes a day,” aiming for something “relaxing.” This is why I believe that Kairosoft game featuring settlements and neighbors might indeed be the original inspiration for Gas Hero—Kairosoft titles embody that pick-up-and-play, warm, comforting style.
In practice, Gas Hero does allow you to complete daily actions in just a few clicks (“five minutes a day” achieved?). Whether it's truly “relaxing” is debatable (😂), but it's absolutely “addictive.”
Energy depletes quickly, but then you feel compelled to check hero combinations in the whitepaper, discuss strategies with others, remind fellow settlers to gather resources before falling behind, browse the auction house for stage-appropriate purchases—should you use it yourself or flip it on the secondary market? Here, NFT-based in-game assets introduce additional layers of experience volatility, influenced not just internally but by external factors.
These experiences work because the designer has clearly laid out what to do each day within an election cycle. Days 1–2: compete in auctions; Day 3: challenge the Settlement Boss and Settlement Leader; Day 4: first round of breeding… For players aiming for power or PvP progression alike, the macro rhythm is tightly packed. By keeping high-level structure orderly and tight while simplifying operations, much of the fatigue-inducing aspects of daily play are eliminated. The auction house delivers a six-hour pulse of excitement, while daily rhythms—breeding, opening boxes, weapon rerolling, pet upgrades—provide smaller experiential fluctuations. Larger timeframes correspond to predictable rhythmic segments, while daily rhythms retain significant unpredictability. The whole experience resembles Bach’s Three-Part Inventions—structured overall, yet sprinkled with delightful surprises that break monotony.
In the designer’s own words: “A product contains diverse experiences, each with its own rhythm. When layered together, it creates a kind of Fourier transformation effect. How these rhythms combine—the alignment of peaks and troughs—generates richer, more coupled experiences, adding depth to the overall feel.”
Core Creativity x Rhythm = Comfort
After explaining the two parts above, this section almost goes without saying. After finishing the book, I told the game designer: your frequent use of the word “comfortable” probably stems from Yoshizawa’s influence.
Still, I want to highlight another element in Gas Hero that makes it feel so comfortable: symmetry.
Hero lifespan days correspond directly to quality tiers.
Both energy regeneration and auction cycles occur every six hours.
GMT burn ratios for upgrading, breeding, and auctions.
Balanced income structure between Power Line and Glory Line, positioned at opposite ends of the wealth arbitrage scale.
Gas Hero ultimately manifests in an extremely complex form, yet the skeleton enabling this complexity is the coupling of simple rules. As Mr. Yoshizawa states in the book: “Use as few parameters as possible to accomplish as much as possible.” Simple rules that, when combined, enable a wide range of complex behaviors represent good design. Conversely, overly complex rules restrict players’ creative expression within the game.
After reading Creativity and Rhythm, I asked myself: what exactly makes Gas Hero feel “comfortable”?
There are many possible answers, but I’d say it’s this: enabling players to unlock experiences in a new world that differ from real life—experiences filled with the unknown, excitement, and endless possibilities.
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@Mable_Jiang
