Hipster Whale

Hipster Whale Pty Ltd
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded20 November 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-20)
Founders
  • Andy Sum
  • Matt Hall
HeadquartersThe Arcade,
Melbourne
,
Australia
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Andy Sum
  • Matt Hall
  • Clara Reeves CEO
Products
Services
Websitewww.hipsterwhale.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2]

Hipster Whale is an Australian independent video game developer and publisher founded on 20 November 2014 by Andy Sum and Matt Hall, shortly before making the game Crossy Road.[3] The company has also created the games Shooty Skies, Pac-Man 256 (in collaboration with Bandai Namco Entertainment), and Disney Crossy Road (in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios).

History

After meeting at GCAP (Game Center: Asia Pacific) 2013, Andy Sum and Matt Hall decided to make Hipster Whale.[4] The name came from discussing free-to-play games and the word "whale" came up in the conversation. Sum was doodling as they were talking and began drawing a whale, which would later become the company's logo. Sum and Hall kept the whale as the mascot for later on.[5]

Hipster Whale's first game, Crossy Road was planned to take a total of six weeks to develop, but after seeing its potential, the developers spent more than 12 weeks on it. Crossy Road was inspired by linear movement games (modern successors to classic platform games)such as Temple Run and Flappy Bird.[6] The name and concept of the game is based on the joke "Why did the chicken cross the road?".[7]

On 22 May 2015, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Hipster Whale announced Pac-Man 256, which featured Pac-Man trying to escape ghosts and overcome a glitch while performing the same mechanics as the 1980 video game, with the glitch based on the Level 256 glitch from the original arcade game,[8] but with upgrades and freemium purchases.[9] On 20 August, the game was released, with the game then being released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 22 June 2016[10]

In March 2016, Hipster Whale announced a spin-off of Crossy Road, Disney Crossy Road, which would be published by Disney Interactive Studios.[11] On 20 July, the company announced its move into video game publishing, and appointed former Atari and Krome Studios Melbourne employee Clara Reeves as the president of Hipster Whale; she had recently worked at Film Victoria.[12] On 7 September, the company released an update towards Disney Crossy Road, which added Monsters, Inc. characters to the game and a mode called the "Weekend Challenge".[13]

Products

Year Title Genre Platform
2014 Crossy Road Endless arcade mobile game iOS, tvOS, Android, Windows Phone
2015 Pac-Man 256 iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, OS X, Linux
Shooty Skies iOS, Android, Meta Quest
2016 Disney Crossy Road (Discontinued) iOS, Android, Windows Phone
2018 Piffle iOS, Android, Nintendo
2020 Crossy Road Castle iOS PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch

References

  1. ^ "Hipster Whale - Press Kit". Hipster Whale. Archived from the original on 29 August 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  2. ^ "The Arcade Melbourne". The Arcade. Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Publisher Spotlight: Hipster Whale - AdColony". AdColony. 16 January 2015. Archived from the original on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Crossy Road Press". Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  5. ^ "Crossy Road: Making the next Flappy Bird". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  6. ^ "Matt Hall". Twitter. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  7. ^ "More than fun and games with local developers". The Sydney Morning Herald. 5 March 2015. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  8. ^ Dotson, Carter (22 May 2015). "'Pac-Man 256' by Hipster Whale is 'Pac-Man' Meets 'Crossy Road'". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  9. ^ Hamilton, Kirk (21 August 2015). "Pac-Man 256 Is Endless Pac-Man With A Fun, Glitchy Twist". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 15 November 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2016 – via Univision Communications.
  10. ^ Wilson, Jason (22 June 2016). "Pac-Man 256 is munching endless pellets on PS4, Xbox One, and Steam". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  11. ^ "Disney and Hipster Whale Announce New Game". Creative Victoria. 17 March 2016. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  12. ^ Brightman, James (20 July 2016). "Crossy Road studio Hipster Whale expands into publishing". Gamesindustry.biz. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2016 – via Eurogamer.
  13. ^ "Disney Crossy Road Guide – Monster Inc. Update, Unlock All Characters, Weekend Challenge and More". MobiPicker. 8 September 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2016.