October 3, 2022
Celebrating 10 Years of Being Hyper
Hyper Hippo Celebrates 10 Years in the Entertainment Industry
News
We can’t believe it – we’re turning 10! This October marks a milestone anniversary for us at Hyper Hippo. The last ten years have been an incredible journey and looking back on our defining moments, we’re even more excited about what’s to come.
How it started
Hyper Hippo was founded in 2012 when a new pod of Hippos set out to create the next big game. The only problem? We were so busy dreaming big that we forgot to think small. When we realized the game we’d been developing wasn’t the hit we were looking for, the team threw down the gauntlet. Six months, anything goes. Every idea counts.
Our journey is driven by our desire to help people find the fun in their days – even if they only have a few minutes to play.
We’d spent the last few months emulating the large game studios by designing and developing an expansive, complex world for our new game – and it hadn’t seen the success we were looking for. So what if we created a game that was all about the small victories? Rather than designing a game that required hours of playing to achieve a win, what if there was a game made up of only wins?
This is where our journey began–with a drive to create and capture the small moments.
Our breakthrough game, AdVenture Capitalist, is the result of thinking small and it set us on the path we’re on today. What we sometimes refer to as “snackable” entertainment, our journey is driven by our desire to help people find the fun in their days – even if they only have a few minutes to play.
We once received the feedback that the reason players love our games is because there’s no losing; only winning more slowly. This sentiment captures where we started, and what we’re always working towards – creating games that are the accumulation of many small moments of fun, compounded together.
To learn more about our Hippo History, check out our documentary series about how AdCap came to be.
How it’s going
Since the release of AdCap in 2015, the AdVenture world expanded to include two more games: AdVenture Communist (the great rivalry of lemons vs. potatoes!) and AdVenture Ages (who doesn’t want to travel through time and space?!).
As our portfolio grew, so did our team of creators. Growing our team allowed us to lean into exploring new games and IP, fresh concepts, and new platforms. We’ve had some incredible wins in the last decade: AdVenture Capitalist surpassed 100 000 subscribers on YouTube; we collaborated with Netflix to release Dungeon Dwarves, an idle dungeon crawler adventure; and GamesIndustry.Biz recognized us with a Best Places to Work 2021 award.
There were also times when things didn’t go as planned and we put everything we had into creating games we thought people would love, that ultimately didn’t see the success we were looking for. In these instances, we paused to reflect, adapt, and apply our learnings from our mistakes to keep pushing forward.
From the beginning, our greatest success stories have come from pursuing ideas that we think are fun, being comfortable with failing along the way, and listening – carefully and constantly – to our players, our communities, and our team. Going into the next ten years, we’re hungry to continue iterating, innovating, and inventing to bring you new ways to play and connect. After all, experimenting is the way we know to discover ideas we never would have expected – oddball ideas that bring countless moments of joy to us and our fans.
The Highlights
2012: A new pod of Hippos comes together with a mission to help people find the fun!
2015: Calling all investors! The world’s greatest money making idle game has arrived and lemonade stands are where it’s at. Fan fun fact: Did you know that AdVenture Capitalist was originally titled “Progress Bar: The Game”?
2017: All signs point to profit! AdVenture Capitalist is awarded Best Instant Game of the year from Facebook.
2018: Comrades, the time for spreading glory (and potatoes) has arrived! Tap your way to becoming a glorious leader with the launch of AdVenture Communist. And of course, take every opportunity to stick it to those greedy capitalists along the way.
We’ll BC-ing you – on the coast! Our Vancouver studio hub officially opens in March 2018.
2019: We’re sleepless with excitement! Our Seattle studio hub opens in 2019.
2020: When the world went online, we went international. Our Hippo family grew significantly as we expanded hiring to all across Canada, Washington and California!
2021: Oh no! The Timeline of the AdVenture universe has been thrown into chaos, and only you can help! AdVenture Ages has arrived to help you tap your way through the ages (with your trusty robot sidekick, of course).
We love our amazing Hippo team–and the feeling is mutual! Hyper Hippo is recognized with the GamesIndustry.Biz Best Places to Work 2021 and Health & Wellbeing awards.
2022: Assemble your party! Dungeon Dwarves, a new epic idle dungeon crawler adventure is released on Netflix. Netflix and Dungeon Crawling is where it’s at!
Keep those profits coming, investors! AdVenture Capitalist is awarded a Silver Creator Award from YouTube for surpassing 100 000 subscribers. Take that, Com!
Your ticket to paradise has arrived! Our newest game, Vacation Tycoon, is released in app stores around the world. Conga dance your way to riches while welcoming thousands of guests to your luxury resort. All with the help of your quirky yet loveable manager team, of course!
To our players
When we say we couldn’t have done it with you, we’re not playing around (pun intended)! Our journey has taught us that only by listening closely to you, our players, can we hope to discover what makes a game truly special.
From the beginning, our greatest success stories have come from pursuing ideas that we think are fun and being comfortable with failing along the way.
To say thank you, we’re celebrating our anniversary in true Hippo fashion with a series of luxurious (and ludicrous!) giveaways across AdVenture Capitalist, AdVenture Communist, AdVenture Ages, and Vacation Tycoon. Each game is offering a unique prize worthy of a septendecillionaire, a supreme leader, a top agent, and a resort tycoon. Intrigued? Log in between October 10th and October 20th, 2022 for a chance to win a gold suit, a tropical vacation to paradise, a Roomba iRobot, a trip to the world’s largest potato AirBNB, and much more. We’ll leave it to you to figure out which game you’ll need to play to win the prize you’re after. *wink*
In-game celebrations will also include new animated content and once-in-a-lifetime sales bundles, offered from October 10th through October 20th.
Providing moments of joy is our mission, and we couldn’t do that without you. We are so grateful to all of you in the Hippo-verse who play our games, interact with our content, share your opinions, and shape our communities.
We can’t wait to head into the next decade with you.
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