LOS ANGELES — Independent game studio Mad Herons has unveiled its debut title, SEND IN THE CLOWN, a comedy-driven role-playing adventure that puts players in the oversized shoes of a struggling birthday entertainer trying to rescue a 12-year-old girl’s increasingly disastrous party.
Announced September 4, 2026, the roughly hour-long game combines RPG mechanics, minigames, puzzles and branching dialogue with a style shaped heavily by Los Angeles’ improv comedy community. The project is also making its debut at indie game showcase The MIX.
Los Angeles Comedy Veterans Turn to Indie Game Development
Mad Herons was founded by Los Angeles improv comedy veterans Jacques Mouledoux, Karen Park and Nick Park, bringing together backgrounds spanning television writing, engineering, academia and live comedy.
The concept for SEND IN THE CLOWN predates the studio itself. The project originated during the 2024 Global Game Jam, where creators Jacques Mouledoux, Nick Park and Conner McCabe developed the initial idea.
Over the following two years, the concept grew into a larger collaborative production built around comedy and the Los Angeles independent gaming scene.
The development team later expanded to include Tyler Hutchison, director of Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, who contributed to the facial animations for Pockets, the game’s central character.
Courtney Vineys, whose credits include Hades and Hades II, is also among the improv comedians and voice actors contributing performances to the project.
A Birthday Party Becomes an RPG Battleground
At the center of SEND IN THE CLOWN is Pockets The Clown, a birthday entertainer tasked with saving Miranda’s party from her troublesome brother, Tad.
Rather than relying on traditional fantasy RPG weapons and spells, Pockets develops an assortment of clown-themed abilities. Players can master tricks ranging from spraying water flowers to managing piles of questionable hot dogs, earning experience points and improving Pockets’ skills along the way.
Minigames and Choices Shape the Party
The adventure is designed around interactions with the party’s guests, each of whom presents Pockets with a different problem.
Players must complete minigames, solve puzzles, make dialogue choices and build relationships with the guests. Those decisions can influence how the birthday party develops and determine which characters may eventually help Pockets.
The game draws on recognizable genres and mechanics while reframing them through comedy. One sequence has players teach a single father to dance through a rhythm game inspired by the format popularized by Guitar Hero.
Another scenario involves helping an exhausted mother get a break from parenting through quick-time-event mechanics reminiscent of cinematic action-adventure games such as Uncharted.
Players can also attempt to beat a child’s high score in the fictional arcade game America Shoots Guns At The World, presented as a shoot-’em-up inspired by classics such as Space Invaders.
Player Relationships Feed Into the Final Battle
As Pockets moves through the suburban birthday party, the game’s central conflict increasingly revolves around Tad, Miranda’s brother and the character responsible for much of the chaos.
The adventure ultimately leads to an RPG-style final confrontation in which relationships developed earlier in the game can become part of the player’s strategy.
Guests Can Become Allies
Players can select favorite guests they have befriended to join the final battle, with their abilities reflecting earlier interactions.
A single father who successfully learned to dance, for example, can lead a dance-troupe attack. Another character can interfere with Tad’s turn through a comedic interaction if the player established the necessary relationship earlier in the story.
The system is intended to give decisions made during the short adventure consequences beyond individual jokes or minigames. Mad Herons has positioned the game as an experience designed to encourage multiple playthroughs, allowing players to explore different choices, relationships and outcomes.
‘SEND IN THE CLOWN’ Blends Improv Comedy With Indie RPG Design
Rather than building its identity around a conventional fantasy or action setting, SEND IN THE CLOWN uses the familiar chaos of a suburban children’s birthday party as the backdrop for RPG progression and character-driven comedy.
The debut also reflects Mad Herons’ roots in Los Angeles’ improv scene, with comedians contributing both to the game’s writing sensibility and its voice performances.
With SEND IN THE CLOWN, the new studio is betting that a compact adventure built around awkward social encounters, absurd minigames and branching character relationships can offer comedy fans an alternative take on the traditional role-playing formula.
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