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YBdesigning

@ybdesigning.bsky.social

A personal Figma adventure to the GameDev Try out Figma files on figma.com/ybdesigning Support me on patreon.com/ybdesigning Follow me on youtube.com/@ybdesigning & instagram.com/ybdesigning

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Don't you worry about my Mini Metro fancraze.) I will do another game soon... But before that wait for some exciting update for my channel!

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Hi, everyone! I've made my first short video "How they made Mini Metro" Here I tell simplified & a bit speculated story about making of Mini Metro by @dinopoloclub.bsky.social I'm gonna continue this format for "How they made..." shorts/reels. Any feedback is welcome! youtube.com/shorts/awY9m...

youtube.com

How They Made Mini Metro

YouTube video by YBdesigning

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Thank you for good games and inspiration! Here's for more awesome play time!

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

What's inside? Please consider supprting me for more Figma and game research projects

Mini Metro Interactive Prototype

In this Figma file
- Experiment with Figma prototype of the famous game about managing beatiful minimalist metro!
- Learn the size of UI/UX design that is needed for such game development
- Lots of text styles, colour system, icons, components and more reconstructed in Figma
- Learn the insights on game design

Upcoming Updates:
- desktop version
- solutions (playing Mini Motorways for inspiration)

Support me

If you want more Figma & game UI things suxh as that or monthly polls to help me choose next game/idea/ to pursue, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

Patreon.com/ybdesigning

These are my top and only supporters:
Yuliya 78, Vladimir Li, Виктор Талаев, Екатерина Болатова

YB

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Figma file for Mini Metro videogame released! Available at figma.com/@ybdesigning Everything done without use of AI Created with @figma.com Recreated the game of @dinopoloclub.bsky.social

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Will be thankful for any opinion from gamedev industry people on such a format of miniessays and post itself And if you liked it, support me on Patreon and suggest other games for such analysis. Also, it's only a first part. The next post will be about my recreation of the game UI in Figma.

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Conclusion and more to links to learn about their creation processes. GDC talk about the game design of Mini Metro: youtu.be/kmHXk4Y35QM?... GDC talk about music youtu.be/FgV4hSfsl00?... Long talk with Disasterpeace & Mini Metro audio designer youtu.be/Bd0d_NdI2qI?...

12.
Conclusion

So, there we have it.

Mini Metro is a champion of minimalism:
- Its gameplay is easy to learn, but hard to master
- Its aesthetics are iconic (hehe!) and efficient
- UX helpful and just enough

But for me personally it haven’t escaped the main problem of minimalist approach: The lack of novelty over time.

It’s just my opinion! Still the game is awesome and I recommend it for everyone who loves trains, game design, strategy, graphic design and trains!

13. Here’s more...
To play: From this developer

Mini Motorways
It’s a spiritual sequel to Mini Metro.
But harder better faster stronger.)

To Learn: From this developer

GDC talk about making of the game
Very interesting talk. You can see their train of thought while they were cooking

Serialism & Sonification in Mini Metro (GDC 2018)
Disasterpeace tells us how they created procedurally generated music in the game

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Accessibility of Mini Metro

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Risks of Minimalist approach

8.
Level variety
So, each level in Mini Metro is a different city.
And their variety is achieved by manipulations with...

1. Map conditions
Water masses
It’s placement pressures you to buy lots of tunnels

Passenger boarding speeds
Number variable

Frequency of stations and passengers
Number variable

2. Resources / upgrades available
Tokyo has superfast bullet trains
Level has special resource

Lisbon allows just up to 5 lines
Limit player

Relative frequency of upgrades
Number variable

9.
Level variety

3. Cosmetic differences
Each city has their own color identity
Cosmetic

Some cities have small differences in station icons
Cosmetic

Several cities use bridges instead of tunnels
Cosmetic

4. Challenges
Optional challenges change your playstyle and make the level feel unique.

- Use only one tunnel in London
- Use only looped lines in Pairs
- Connect square stations up to 2 lines in New York

What’s even cooler:
They’ve been adding lots of levels after release,
and Steam version allows to play levels created by community!

10.
Risks of minimalism
After unlocking every level I started completing hard challenges. I felt awesome when I did the 1st three levels, but then I've started noticing the repetition in challenge rules and pretty quickly lost interest in completing them.

So it means that for me at that point the game has lost the sense of novelty

Possible solutions I would suggest — adding more character to the cities by:
- Adding challenges more in line with the cities;
- Adding some cultural accurate icons;
- Maybe, adding small unlockable facts about their transit systems
I know it means more research work, but I feel that it might be just as rewarding

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Aesthetics Inspirations: Harry Beck, Massimo Vignelli. Disasterpeace helped to achieve a unique musical approach.

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Tried to analyse game design, but I am not sure how much I should cover in such mini-essays.

2
Inspired by their experiences in navigating the London metro map, developers from Dinosaur Polo Club jammed and created the game about managing the rail transit networks.
And in the process, they’ve mastered the Minimalist approach to game design.
Let's see how they did that.

3.
Gameplay: easy to learn...
So, what do you do in the game? Basically the game loop is as follows:
- You use rail road lines to connect ever-appearing geometrically shaped stations, so that passengers could ride the train to the station of their shape.
- Every in-game week you choose which upgrades to receive,
- And try to avoid passengers overcrowding your stations, which will be a game over. Simple.

Fewer game elements you have —easier to learn their basics

4.
Gameplay: easy to learn...
...hard to master

Fewer game elements, also allow you to pay more attention to polishing their Mechanics.

Some examples of interesting conundrums you need to care about in the game:
- Some stations are rare, but popular — you have to plan an easy access to them
- Should you spend a tunnel to go under the river, or make a rail line go around the water, but make path longer?
- Sharp turns at the stations make trains stop at them even if station is empty, so you should avoid that

Difficulty spikes up fast after initial weeks and you start revising your strategy before angry city government closes up your underground.

5.
Quick to boot
The UI/UX of the game is top notch too:
- You can stop in-game time to decide your next move, or you can speed it up, if you are sure with your decisions.
- The game pauses the time, when you violate rules of the challenge to help you undo the wrong action.
- The simple graphics make game fast to boot.
- Launch the game and you will continue right where you were

The last point are also why I find it's mobile version as a good example of plug'n'play kind of a game.
- I found myself playing Mini Metro while waiting for lunch, for friend or even while riding the subway! Meta!

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Mini-essay/review/analysis thing about Mini Metro. In times, when I couldn't play huge games, it was one of those mobile games, that kept me going. Thank you, @dinopoloclub.bsky.social

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

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YBdesigning @ybdesigning.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

I am creating a blog where I research video game design, recreate their UI in Figma and developing web guide for the gamedev. Please consider subscribing to my figma.com/ybdesigning and supporting me on patreon.com/ybdesigning

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