Dane Hildreth
Down to Clown
Idle Gacha Game
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Welcome to Funtasia -- a circus for the weary and disheartened, ready to put a smile on your face and lights in your eyes! You are the new owner and must make sure the circus does not despair! Collect clowns and put them to work to increase profits tenfold, and maybe discover the secrets behind their past along the way.
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About the Game
Release: May 2023
Platform: IOS
Team Size: 2
Project Length: 4 Months
Engine: Unity
Summary
Down to Clown is a mobile, idle, gacha game with a core gameplay loop of gathering in game currency through idle gameplay, collecting new and unique clowns, and unlocking lore and upgrading to improve currency scaling.
Screenshots
My Contribution
In this game I was a lead designer and creative director focusing on the user experience, core gameplay, asset production and narrative design.
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I was responsible for certain aspects such as:
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Designing the screen layout, the core loop, and gameplay experience.
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Writing the progression of the tutorial gameplay.
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Storyboarding summoning animations.
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Making a prototype for animations of Game object and UI in Unity.
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Running playtests and collecting feedback.
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Managing the IOS App Store Page and shipping the game.
Part of my design responsibilities was the UX and UI design. This is the initial wireframe made to plan out screens before prototyping in Unity.
Tutorial Design
Playtesting and Feedback
Our team conducted three rounds of playtesting over the course of 2 months to further refine the project and modify the final scope. I created forms for the play testers to fill out after their session and we developed plans to address any issues or comments we received. Below are some examples of the answers we got from our play testers from various rounds.​
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Our team conducted three rounds of playtesting over the course of 2 months to further refine the project and modify the final scope. I created forms for the play testers to fill out after their session and we developed plans to address any issues or comments we received. Below are some examples of the answers we got from our play testers from various rounds.​
Reflection
This game taught me a lot about time and project management as well as how to reevaluate scope as the project progresses.
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I'd love to revisit this game eventually to redesign the ticket and whimsy system as I believe the ticket prices breakdown after extended play.
Credits
Dane Hildreth - Creative Lead
Jake Gollub - Techical Lead