Snowman mobile game tops 1m downloads

The Snowman and the Snowdog game for mobiles has been downloaded over one million times in the UK between its launch on December 9th and the end of 2012.

The game, which was developed to celebrate the new sequel to Channel 4’s Christmas classic The Snowman, also topped some of app store charts over Christmas, including reaching number one in all free iPad and iPhone games. It was also released on Android.

The Snowman and The Snowdog game was created for Channel 4 by East Midlands based developer Crash Lab, which was founded by the industry veterans involved in creating TimeSplitters at Free Radical Design and Goldeneye 007 and Jet Force Gemini at Rare.

“We set out to make a game that both kids and adults would enjoy, and we got our first inkling that we may have succeeded when we heard that Raymond Briggs himself had played and enjoyed it. But for the game to go on to hit this milestone in the UK alone is just incredible,” said Crash Lab managing director Steve Ellis.

Channel 4’s commissioning editor for games Colin Macdonald added: “We wanted a beautiful game to accompany a beautiful film and I’m absolutely delighted so many people have enjoyed the experience of both. I’ve been genuinely moved by many of the 6,000+ reviews players have posted of the game in app stores.”

Developed with the broad appeal of The Snowman and the Snowdog in mind, the game was set in the distinctive hand-drawn environments of the television short.

Players have so far collected over 400 million snowflakes between them, with the most active among them having clocked up more than 24 hours of game time each.

Over 11 million viewers watched The Snowman and the Snowdog over the festive period across Channel 4, E4 and 4Seven.