Bloom Collective
Fantasy Collection
An endless-runner type game for mobile
Collection & Loot Mechanics
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The Fantasy Collection is a long-term event (30 days) within the game POP! Slots, which is based on the collection mechanics of winning outfits via a system of loot boxes. The project is an outcome of our game's need for beautiful and attractive collection mechanics based on a secondary currency system (gems, in this case). Initially, the project focused mainly on collecting visual content (outfits), and later on, awarding prizes to the players (chips) has been added to the feature. These prizes instantly linked the players back to the game's core loop.
My Role
My Role
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My responsibilities in this project were to characterize the whole feature, including the mechanics of the collection and the loot boxes, the event itself, and practically everything that is involved in it. In addition, I designed the UI of the entire project and had been the creative leader in terms of concept art, animation, and 3D. Following that, I was also positioned as an Art Director for other designers who have been working on updates for new themes and mini-features within the Collection.
A Collection of Cosmetics
The Fantasy Collection consists of 30 outfits (15 for each gender), with these being divided into different rarities (Casual, Rare and Epic). When launching the second Collection (Red Carpet Collection), the feature had included even more outfits with a brand new rarity: Golden Outfits.
Collection Packs could be purchased at the in-feature store or earned by completing various challenges throughout the game. The packages are purchased using a secondary currency we produced specifically for this purpose - special gems with a star carved into the middle of them, referring to the Backstage icon design, where the player's outfits are collected and eventually stored.
Collection Packs & Gems
The Collection Packs are a dynamic loot box system, which were developed as part of the project in order to provide variable content (outfit progress points in different rarities, chips and gems) and in different quantities as a derivative of the Collection Pack itself (Mini Pack, Big Pack, Mega Pack). Each Pack guarantees the players progress points for a certain rarity of an outfit, depending on the branding of the Pack itself.
Prizes
This feature was initially characterized around collecting and awarding outfits only, without awarding any chips prizes, as a product requirement. Eventually, arguments came up during an advanced stage of the project’s production and I was asked to add a set of prizes which will be awarded for each outfit.
In addition to that, we decided to also add a big prize awarded to whoever finishes the entire collection (an incentive for finishing to collect all the outfits, even if the ones that the players liked most have already been collected by them). In order to intensify this incentive even more, this award was expanded into three jackpots which are awarded to players who finish collecting each of the outfits from a certain rarity. These prizes also helped us to amplify the differences between the different rarities.
Dealing with Duplicates
Collecting an outfit and the reward that accompanies it is done by completing the total points in its progress bar. These points are randomly granted when opening a Collection Pack. After multiple actions of opening the Packs, one might start receiving progress points for outfits which have already been completed (duplicated points). In order to avoid possible frustration of the players when receiving duplicated points, we have decided to solve this in a way which will excite the players and grant them with even more prizes.
Thus, I embarked on a small journey in search for game mechanics for coping with this issue. The simple and easy-to-produce option was chosen: collecting duplicated points into an individual progress bar during the Collection Packs opening flow (outfits of different rarities granted a different value for each of their points). When the new progress bar is filled up, a mini-game called “Extra Treat” will be automatically activated at the end of the current opening Pack flow. The mini-game consists of a picker mechanism - tapping on one of three covered cards to reveal its granted prize. After this flow, the gift icon that is presented above the Extra Treat’s progress bar would be upgraded and the bar itself would expand – this is in order to explain to the players that the future prizes will be bigger, but also more difficult to achieve.
Tap the image below to explore the Collection Packs Opening Flow & Extra Treat Flow
FTUE
The Fantasy Collection's FTUE (First-Time User Experience) is not only helping the player to be familiar with the new feature, but also making the player open a Collection Pack. This happens by earning free gems, just a bit more than enough to open the smallest Pack and end with some spare gems. This leads the player to be also invested in the collection of some of the outfits and even start their savings for purchasing their next Collection Pack.
These are the information screens that accompanied the Fantsy Collection:
Launch
The launch of the Fantasy Collection was very exciting for our players, both because of the outfits themselves and because of the loot box mechanism that worked fluently. However, over time and after producing a number of Collections in different themes, it turned
out that a large amount of outfits for a kind-of-small period of time is very expensive to produce and it may be better to change the business model of the project.s very expensive and it may be better to change the business model of the project.
Take a look at the release video of the Fantasy Collection:
Here are some selected screens from the small-scale events that accompanied the Fantasy Collection:
New Themes & Mini-Features
The Collections in POP! Slots were launched in various themes (with new outfits, logos, backgrounds, and changes in the UI). The second Collection was produced with me in the position of Art Director. This Collection included, in addition to everything mentioned above, the development of another mini-feature that accompanies the Collection and provides Golden Outfits for limited periods of time throughout the event. This Collection was called the “Red Carpet Collection”.
Take a look at the release video of the Red Carpet Collection:
