Crazy Chicken

Within the mainline series, the concept of which is derived from the Glorious Twelfth, the main objective of the game usually is to attain a high score by shooting the titular Crazy Chickens within the framework of the single-screen shooting gallery genre. Players usually have 90 seconds and infinite ammunition to do so. Starting with Crazy Chicken 2, each game also contained a variety of puzzles and hidden secrets activated by shooting certain objects on screen in a particular order and/or with certain timing (netting a far higher score than the regular Crazy Chickens), which encouraged more competition and discussion concerning the games. Later entries would also go on to add elements such as a wider variety of enemies, bonus games after a successful round, multiple levels, etc...

Prominent spin-off series include the Mario Kart-inspired Crazy Chicken Kart series, the point-and-click Crazy Chicken Adventure series, the 2D-platforming Crazy Chicken Jump'n Run series, the Crazy Chicken Sports series, as well as several genre outliers making use of the franchise's settings and characters.

The original Crazy Chicken game (now distributed as The Original Crazy Chicken Hunt) was commissioned by Bochum-based Art Department advertising agency - known for their advergames - and developed by Dutch Witan Studios as an advertisement for Johnnie Walker whisky in 1998. The concept of using a video game to promote the Johnnie Walker brand was originally thought up by another advertising agency, Hamburg-based Vorwerk & Buchholz, in 1997. A prototype of the game that would later be turned into The Original Crazy Chicken Hunt was shown off by Witan Studios at the Bizarre 98 demo party in summer of 1998 as KippenSchieten.

It was originally made available in October 1998 to play on laptops in select bars, with promoters dressed up as fowlers. While never intended for sale or further distribution, it seems to have been illicitly copied, and became widely available for download on private websites. The publisher's initial irritation at this subsided after the game received favorable mentions in popular media and demand for it grew. From the beginning of 1999 onwards, the game was officially made available for download by Art Department. It became wildly popular in German-speaking Europe, to the point of being described by various media outlets as a threat to the bottom line of businesses, on account of the number of hours wasted by employees playing the game due its ease of accessibility and shareability (the original game only had a file size of approximately 2 MB, meaning it could be sent via email).

Despite mass interest in the franchise originally being caused by the distribution of its early titles as free software via the internet, it managed to retain some relevancy even after the so-called "Moorhuhn-Boom" period in the early 2000s. For example, as of 2013, paid video games using the "Moorhuhn" branding have accumulated over 15 million sold copies, while free demo versions have been downloaded approximately 80 million times from official sources alone. At the same time, the series has struggled with proper monetisation of its games since its inception. For example, while the official PC release of Crazy Chicken 2 (retailing at a MSRP of 20 Mark) has sold over 300,000 copies, on launch day, a free version was reportedly downloaded 180,000 times per hour; a rate high enough to completely crash some of Germany's main IXPs in Frankfurt and Hamburg.

In terms of the original game's purpose as marketing for Johnnie Walker whisky, a 2003 study by the University of Mannheim found that test subjects who had already played the game perceived the Johnnie Walker brand as more modern and trendy. Despite coming to the conclusion that the game had no significant impact on general awareness of the brand or customer's purchasing intent, the study noted that the establishment of the Crazy Chicken as a new brand image was far quicker than similar efforts undertaken via traditional mass media.

Today, the Crazy Chicken series is seen as an early example of viral marketing, as well as one of the first video game Internet phenomena in general. The franchise's popularity even caused Germany's authoritative Duden dictionary to include the word "Moorhuhnjagd". By the early 2000s, Crazy Chicken was found to be the most popular video game franchise with children in Germany; ahead of Pokémon, Tomb Raider and The Settlers.

Art Department and its successor company Phenomedia were also notable for being one of the earliest publishers to embrace the internet as a means of encouraging fan interaction and fan labor. Examples of this include the purchase and continuation of the Moorhuhn World forums in 2001 by Phenomedia, as well using the franchise's official website for the collection and publication of high scores and fan art (for which there would also be contests with giveaways). The company would also ask players to submit ideas for new games in the franchise. Furthermore, Phenomedia encouraged modding of their games by occasionally holding competitions, awarding things like high-end PC's or digital cameras to fans who submitted the best add-ins for certain Crazy Chicken games; these could be created via official add-in programs distributed by Phenomedia's partners.