Hilda is one of the best cartoons/animations I've ever had the privilege to enjoy. Hilda Creatures, however, is one of the worst mobile games I've ever had the misfortune to download. I'm an extremely avid mobile app user, with over 500 apps on my phone at any moment (I work in the mobile app industry), yet I've almost never felt as ruthlessly exploited by a mobile app as I have with Hilda Creatures and its persistent dark design.
If I were a parent, I would never permit my child to use this app. As an adult, the only reason I didn't delete the app immediately was that I legitimately couldn't believe that this kind of poison was permitted within an app store, and I almost masochistically persisted within the app, curious if it would continue to mercilessly attempt to exploit my attention and my wallet.
The dark design within Hilda Creatures is immediately apparent. Scenes must be unlocked to progress, yet unlocking takes dozens of hours of attentional spend, dozens or hundreds of app opens, and like clockwork, every time I opened the app I was assailed by pernicious efforts to trick me into either paying for features I didn't want, or accidentally watching minute long ads that made me want to hurl my phone at the wall.
The in-app ads are omnipresent. Want to claim your daily log in reward? Well, the button to do that is buried under a giant button begging you to watch an ad first.
Want to take a photo of your critter? Bam, full screen ad pops up.
Your plant died, want to watch an ad to revive it? Plants die the same day you plant them if you don't come back to water them, and watering them for more than 2hrs costs acorns, and oh, want more acorns? You'll need to watch and ad for that, or pay up.
I couldn't open the app without feeling sick to my stomach that the game designers were so despicably exploiting the attention of living, breathing humans.
I hope Hilda Creatures gets banned from the app store until such a time as they remove their relentless monetization and attentional monopolization gimmicks. It's pure poison. Do not let your child anywhere near this app.
I took dozens of screenshots and videos of my experiences within the app so I could identify each of the elements of dark design therein. Happy to share them if anyone wants further proof points or explanations.
