A majority of items in the game can be acquired by players for free - it’s a fun game and players love to share it with their friends. “We thought engagement was the most important thing,” said Hall, referring to the advertising, which doesn’t pull players out of the game experience. They settled on launching with 50 characters that players could buy to play the game, and video ads, an idea inspired by another hit indie game, Disco Zoo. They also didn’t want to add any now-standard free-to-play game tactics like coin packs or energy mechanics (which force you to wait to play or pay to get back in action). They didn’t want to have to buy advertising, which requires large outlays of cash. Sum and Hall looked at Flappy Bird’s addictive qualities and tried to make a game that would engage players, keep them coming back and also have a decent shot at going viral. They turned to artist Ben Weatherall for the cubelike design, called voxel (three-dimensional pixels) art. Hall did most of the infrastructure and user interface programming, while Sum did most of the character and sound design. They collaborated over Skype to design and implement the game. They both live in Australia, about two hours apart. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac The original plan, said Sum, was to make a game in six weeks, which would let the small team get back to other gaming projects. Matt Hall (left) and Andy Sum just wanted to make a popular game. (You can see it in action in the trailer below.)
It’s an “easy to learn but hard to master” tap-and-swipe game that is instantly engaging. In the new game, a pixel-art chicken has to cross the road, dodging obstacles like cars and predators, to get to the other side. Explosive growth in iOS and Android game sales stole the market from portable game consoles in 2014, but the sheer number of titles available makes it difficult for developers to rise above the noise.įor Hipster Whale, the Crossy Road secret sauce consisted of classic gameplay, cuddly retro characters - and a whole lot of luck.Ĭrossy Road plays like a version of ’80s arcade mainstay Frogger, with updated 3-D graphics and wacky characters in place of the vintage game’s log-hopping amphibian. The rapid rise of such a simple game is the type of overnight success story that drives indie developers to keep pounding away at their keyboards in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
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