Last Oasis News

With the unfortunate timing of the COVID-19 outbreak and our release date, we decided to have all Donkey Crew switch to remote work.

Donkey Crew has always been a very international team, full of people from all around the world. Many travel to visit their families and friends, some have children and elderly relatives, so we've made this decision out of health concerns of all of our devs. Thankfully, everyone in the team is currently healthy and doing well, so this is purely a precaution.

The release is still on track! Our schedule won't be affected by the "work from home" policy and we'll be announcing the concrete date in a few days, so hold tight (and wash your hands)!

Until then, check out how some of our devs set up their new workplaces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usJjeNVEpC8

One of the core elements of Last Oasis is the open-world PVP. We are designing features around the premise of encouraging dynamic relations between groups and solo players that won’t result in the typical “kill on sight'' mentality of many MMO and survival games. Last Oasis can provide a fun experience to very different kinds of players, and everyone’s playstyle is valid in its own way.

Balance, not buttons. Our approach to PvP in the game addresses potential issues with balanced mechanics that promote meaningful battles instead of drastic measures that prevent them entirely. The decision to attack is often not easy since it takes resources and time that might not pay off with the loot.

Different goals for different folks. Unlike in other games, not every player has the same end goal as others. Small groups and solo players mostly focus on survival, trading, farming, and so on. Large groups tend to focus on clan wars and conquering lands.

Controlling the oases do not limit other players. An oasis claimed by a clan doesn’t restrict any basic features like base building, it just provides bonuses to its owners. This leads the owners to want other players to settle on their land instead of driving them away. Players bring oasis owners resource bonuses and taxes from trading, and a player killed in PvP stops generating them.

Different PvP roles. Conquer and balance mechanics lead to dynamic PvP relations between players. Oases owners protect small groups and solo players from pirates to get more bonuses from their lands and fight off other large clans in wars. Solo players and small groups feel safer in other players' territory as long as they’re not hostile. Pirates get a real challenge since they’re hunted by oasis owners and get good loot only from very rich players, avoiding attacking poor ones.



If you represent a clan and would like to participate in our Closed Beta, please join our Discord (link below) and get in touch with our Community Managers (Error 404#2288 and not_so_gladiator#0184). They will collect some information about your clan and will get back to you in case your group is selected for participating in the beta.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Although life would not survive without the oases, no Nomad should feel safe inside them. Rupus and other nomads can be as deadly as lack of water. Players who log out inside oases without any protection bet high on good intentions of others, as their characters, bases and Walkers can still be interacted with.

For a weary traveler who seeks to rest just for a moment, sometimes the wasteland is the best option. Staying inside a strong base can be as safe as hiding in the desert, but building such a structure is no easy task. Many beginning players will choose the wasteland instead. To travel there, they need to reach the edge of the and activate the Leave Oasis option. At this point, they can either travel to another Oasis or safely leave the game.



The wasteland is no place a nomad can actually live in. There’s virtually no water, no food, and nothing to build better equipment with. Nomads need to visit oases in search of needed resources. And when they go inside a danger zone, they need to be prepared. So they craft and scavenge useful items, acquiring many valuable possessions over time. Their load increases and they quickly learn an important lesson. It is difficult to travel swiftly with anything more than a stick they found and a rugged shirt on their back.

To solve this problem, nomads invented walkers - a perfect way to cover a lot of distance while keeping the most needed belongings at hand.

The Firefly Walker is the first vehicle new nomads can build. It’s versatile but it doesn’t excel in any particular task. It is propelled by pedals but crafty nomads will also be able to upgrade it with wings for increased speed. The walker can carry a few small structures on its deck, like a campfire or a crafting station. It is too small, however, to handle a bigger load like heavy chests or resource harvesting machines. Every nomad, whatever their occupation, eventually will need more space to keep their goods safe.

Ruins of destroyed Walkers



Bases allow nomads to protect themselves, their walkers and many possessions from the greed of pirates. It takes a lot of experience to construct a sturdy structure, and no nomad is born with woodworking abilities. Therefore, before players raise their first wall, they must learn base-building skills in the player Tech Tree.

The bases are built piece by piece and can take any form and size - from a simple cubical house to a guarded fortress. Experienced builders can choose what materials they’ll use, so they can create structures that will be light and easy to transport or heavier but able to withstand more punishment. Finding a sweet spot is not easy. No nomad wants to leave such an expensive structure behind, but the more impressive the camp and the more riches it protects, the more likely it is that someone will try to plunder it.



Bases, like all structures, are not indestructible. If hostile nomads decide that there’s enough value hiding inside a structure, they’ll seek to destroy it. Using their siege weapons, they’ll launch devastating hull breakers at the most vulnerable parts of defenses. Most often they’ll know where to hit, having investigated the target before the battle, as they’ll want to make each shot count. On the other hand, hull breakers, although very pleasing to fire, are no easy thing to craft.

With or without their own base, every nomad can become a victim of a pirates’ attack, Rupu’s aggression, or nature’s wrath. There’s no escaping the danger - one can only choose how much of it is enough. If a nomad decides that a given oasis is too perilous, they can travel to another one.

When the players approach an edge of an oasis, they access a global map overview, with neighboring oases displayed there. They can inspect each available area to learn its terrain type, level of danger, and its claim status. Most oases rich in resources will be claimed by a clan, and clans can add an additional layer of safety.



Clans collect a profit for every settler in their territory. Whenever someone harvests a resource inside a claimed oasis, the dominant clan gets an additional bonus to their resource yield. Because the bonus is not cut out of the settler’s yield, it is a win-win situation. Similarly, the tax nomads always pay for using a Trading Station goes to a clan that holds an oasis. So to make sure everyone benefits, clans most often provide some kind of protection to other nomads.

It’s up to a clan what strategy they’ll use to enforce the order. They might send out patrols to deal with unwanted aggression, set up guards at the Trading Station, or provide convoys for traders. Whatever they decide to do, pirates that do not have a good plan and considerable firepower will not survive long.

Trading station concept art



Yet even the most powerful clan cannot protect anyone from the scorching sun. When the time comes, everyone must evacuate before the increasing heat boils them alive. The bases will be dismantled, packed and stored on walkers.

Every base must be carried by a single walker, so transferring a sturdy war camp to safety will require a walker with ample cargo space. This is one of the rare times when those who possess little are at an advantage. They don’t need expensive vehicles. They will quickly gather their belongings, transport them to a safer place, and wait for the big walkers to come in screeching and carrying whole clans armed in top-tier siege weapons.

[h2]UPDATE 2020.01.17[/h2]
We released a follow-up video to better explain some aspects of the Safe Logout mechanics:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Some Nomads say the sandworms are the architects of humanity. Legend has it that when these creatures crawled onto the earth, they secreted a lake of precious amber. When our predecessors drank from it, they became able to comprehend their mortality.

Sandworms are one of the biggest threats nomads will face. Battling them is an effort that often ends in chunks of gore flying through the air. It may seem that no one would undertake such a risk, but there are good reasons for doing so.

The worms are ravenous. They rapidly deplete the oases of all their natural resources, turning them into wastelands, hence the Flotillans see them like a plague. The body of the worms contains some of the most valuable crafting materials, which makes them prime targets.
Many Nomads dream of challenging a sandworm, although very few possess the know-how to defeat them.

concept art of the sandworm


Not much is known about the hunt itself. Stories have been exaggerated, and it can be difficult to discern fact from fiction. Still, there are one or two things that every captain worth his salt knows.

Despite their massive size, the sandworms are elusive creatures. They will hide under the ground until something big enough strolls into their territory. Although the sandworms are likely to ignore small animals and humans walking on foot, they are always hungry and there’s almost nothing that can prevent them from going after a walker once they’ve sensed it.

Once a sandworm focuses on a target, it loses sight of everything else. Teams of Nomads can use that to their advantage and lure the beast into the desired direction with their fastest walker, while using the weight of their largest walkers to slow down the worm and attack it with their most powerful siege weapons. Sometimes rival hunters will follow behind the combatants, waiting to claim the spoils for themselves.

early sketches of the sandworm


If the hunters are short on skill or luck, all that will be left of them will be few planks of wood rolling around the desert.

But if they succeed, they have reason to tap a few barrels of fermented cacti. They’ve just gotten their hands on some of the rarest and most sought-after resources – enough to make their entire crew rich and powerful. They can sell the worm’s body parts or use them to craft top-tier equipment.

The hunt for the sandworm is over, but the Nomads’ endless race against the sun continues...


Psss.. grab some free Last Oasis wallpapers and a super-cool printable poster of the sandworm at this link

Being forced to be constantly on the move, it is only natural that the humans of the world of Last Oasis evolved into a nomadic society. Asian nomadic tribes are among the key references for many design choices, especially when it comes to the sounds and music that characterize our game.

To pay tribute to the Tuvan/Mongolian throat singing that inspired our music, we implemented a new prototype feature that allows players to chant together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0nfTIQx56A

In Last Oasis players can sing using keyboard inputs. Each numpad key is triggering a different note. Note length depends on how long player holds down the key. Modulation keys are responsible for 3 types of singing - throat and overtone singing included.

This Chants System is built from almost 800 singular samples, all live recorded, to make it sound natural. The system also uses the same musical key as the game's soundtrack, so both fit together.