Hipster Whale
 | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders | Andy Sum and Matt Hall |
| Headquarters | Australia |
Hipster Whale is an Australian indie game development company that consists of Andy Sum, Matt Hall and Ben Weatherall, founded in 2014, shortly before making the game Crossy Road.[1] The company has also created the games Shooty Skies and Pac-Man 256.
History
After meeting at GCAP (Game Center: Asia Pacific) 2013, Andy Sum and Matt Hall decided to go into business together and made the company Hipster Whale.[2] The name of the company came when they were 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 thought the whale was funny and stuck to it.[3]
Crossy Road
Hipster Whale's first game, Crossy Road was planned to take a total of 6 weeks. But after seeing the potential the game had, the developers spent more than 12 weeks developing it. Crossy Road was inspired by games such as Temple Run, Flappy Bird, Disco Zoo, Frogger, Skylanders, Tiny Wings, Subway Surfers, and Fez.[4] The name and concept of the game is based on the joke "why did the chicken cross the road".[5] The company has worked on Crossy Road as its only game that various content updates have been released for.
Other games
Shooty Skies
Hipster Whale collaborated with Mighty Games to develop the game Shooty Skies.
Pac-Man 256
Hipster Whale was hired by Bandai Namco to co-develop the game Pac-Man 256, a game based on the glitched 256th level in the original arcade game Pac-Man.