Crossy Road

After June 2017, the publisher for the Android version of Crossy Road was changed from yodo1 to Hipster Whale.

• Title — Crossy Road • Developer — Hipster Whale yodo1 • Publisher — Hipster Whale yodo1 (pre-June 2017) • Engine — Unity • Platforms — iOS, iPadOS, MacOS, tvOS, Microsoft Windows, Android, Android TV, Windows Phone, Series 30+, Sky Q, KaiOS • Released — iOS20 November 2014 Android23 December 2014 Windows Phone tvOS30 October 2015Nokia 105 (2017) KaiOS • Genre — Endless runner • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer (tvOS)

The objective of Crossy Road is to move the character through an endless path of static and moving obstacles as far as possible without hitting any hazards. By default, the character is a chicken that must cross a series of busy roads, rivers and active train tracks, but there are hundreds of other characters, and depending on the character the environment around also changes, with the obstacles varying. For example, when playing as the Astronaut, the environment is space and obstacles include asteroids. In the original mobile version, the player must hop to go forward or swipe the screen in the appropriate direction to move the character horizontally or backwards. Some characters can only be unlocked with cash or in-game currency. There are a number of special characters in addition to regular characters. For example, the Android version includes Android Robot, based on the operating system's Android logo. Other characters include Doge, Archie, Dark Lord, the mascot of Hipster Whale and #thedress, a female character wearing the dress of the same name. Various popular culture references and games are also included, such as Forget-Me-Not and "Emo Goose" voiced by Phil Lester. The player is able to collect coins, an in-game currency: they are golden-yellow and squarish, with a red C in the middle. These are obtained in-game by collection during gameplay, watching advertisements, completing tasks, collecting a free gift given every few real-time hours, and using legal currency to buy them in various amounts. Coins are counted the top right corner of the screen. One hundred coins can be used for a chance at a new character from a lottery machine. If the player owns the Piggy Bank mascot, red coins worth five coins each are added to the game, and coins received from free gifts or watching ads are doubled. • Illustration — Hipster Whale founders and game developers Matt Hall and Andy Sum at Game Developers Conference

Initially the developers planned to spend only six weeks developing the game, but afterwards realized the game's potential and dedicated another six weeks to completing it. The game's free-to-play model was based on the one for Dota 2. A big influence on the team was the success of the game Flappy Bird. Developer Matt Hall noted that "That was when people really wanted to play high-score chasing games, and they were telling people about it, and there was this cool opportunity." Eventually Hall hit upon combining such a game with Frogger. Other influences included Temple Run, Subway Surfers, Disco Zoo, Skylanders, Tiny Wings and Fez. The game's art style was created by Ben Weatherall.

Three months after its initial release, the game earned over $10 million and had over 50 million downloads. The game found unexpected success in South Korea upon release, with the developers saying at a panel that it sat at the #1 spot of the Korean Google Play Store for 50 days after BTS played the game and was tweeting about it to their fans.

In 2016, Hipster Whale and Disney Interactive Studios launched a spin-off video game called Disney Crossy Road on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 devices. It features Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, as well as some characters from numerous Disney franchises such as The Jungle Book, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Monsters Inc., Zootopia, Big Hero 6, The Lion King, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Moana, Toy Story, Cars, DuckTales, The Incredibles and Inside Out. At launch, the game featured over 100 characters. Disney Crossy Road was shut down on iOS, Google, and Amazon on 12 March 2020.

Crossy Road Castle is an endless co-op platformer that acts as a sequel to Crossy Road, initially available only on Apple Arcade from 2020, but ported to other consoles in 2024. It supports up to four players and can be played with either touch controls or a controller. Players are placed in a procedurally generated tower spanning multiple levels and must work together to get a high score.

With the permission of Hipster Whale, Bob Smith re-wrote Crossy Road for the ZX81, an 8-bit computer from the 1980s. In Smith's words, one of the motivations for porting the game "is to prove that there are some great modern game ideas which don't rely on amazing graphics or great processing power, and could work just as well on much older machines." The ZX81 version was released in 2015.