Create fantastical creatures
Creature Garden App
Product design
Creature Garden is Tinybop’s 6th app of the Digital Toys series. It is an open-ended construction kit that gives kids hundreds of parts to create and play with. Kids can race their creatures through obstacle courses, see if they will (or won’t!) walk, swim, and fly, and cross creatures to make new breeds.
The app is available for iOS on the App Store and in 50+ languages.
App trailer
Tinybop branded opening animation
Users can create and collect all types of creatures
Users start with a body as a base and can build and test their creatures
Creatures can be pinned against each other in races
Creatures can play, interact, and even make babies in the open play area
Different limbs, pieces, and features a user can choose from
Mini race machines that test for locomotion on land, air, and in water
Interactive play items and race obstacles
Breeding creatures produces an egg that hatches one with shared traits from its parent
Race entries and medals
Air racing
Land race
Water race
Inspiration & Reference Imagery
Inspiration drawn from curiosity cabinets and illustrator Natasha Durley’s style
Process
UI guidelines
Wireframes
Alternative App Store icons
Sketches
Results and Reactions
Average session of time spent in the app is at 18 minutes on initial launch, higher than 89% of Tinybop apps.
Featured on the App Store multiple times at time of launch and beyond, The Creature Garden has been mentioned by other outlets and materials, both printed and digital.
Contributions
Art & Creative Direction, User Interface Design, User Experience, Marketing
Launched
Tinybop, 2018
Collaborators
Leah Feuer and Diva Hurtado · Natasha Durley, Illustration · Holly Graham and Jessie Sattler, Technical Art · Yin Liu, Robert Blackwood, Unity Engineering · Brian Jacobs, Sound Design · Beckie Choe, Motion, Illustration & Design
Press & Mentions
Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Wired, Designweek, School Library Journal