Our First Look at Rovio’s Newest App The Croods – Now Available for iOS & Android

Rovio has launched its newest game, titled after and based on DreamWork’s movie “The Croods”. The game is currently available for iOS and Android via Google Play and the Amazon Appstore. We are not aware of whether the game will be released for other platforms.

About The Croods

The game revolves itself around the hunt and gather style of gameplay, not unlike popular games such as Farmville, Tap Zoo, and My Sea Park. That said, as with these types of games, the learning curve is low and the gameplay is pretty slow if you aren’t willing drop empty your wallet (we’ll say more about this below).

The game is what’s commonly called “Freemium”, meaning that it is free to download and install, but is loaded up with in-app purchases. (On iOS, you can restrict access to in-app purchases by going to iOS Settings > General > Restrictions > On, and turn off IAPs below. On Android devices, see our detailed listed here.) That said, even as far as IAPs go, the prices are quite hefty, starting at $4.99 and ranging to a whopping $59.99.

The purpose of the game is laid out at the get-go. Grug, the main character, wants to evolve the way humans (Neanderthals?) carry on their daily lives. From raising wild animals to making soup, Grug is an innovator of sorts. The player must level-up by performing certain chores from Gran, Grug’s mother-in-law. Building and upgrading costs either coins, food, or crystals (be aware that crystals are hard to come by and the main focus of the IAPs).

Cloud Saving via Your Rovio Account

One feature of The Croods that we’re really excited to see is cloud saving. By creating or signing in to your Rovio account your progress is saved to the cloud and can be retrieved on other devices. This also allows you to have a real-time backup of your progress in the event something happens to your device, upgrade, etc. We assume this feature is available on both iOS and Android, but would love a confirmation from an Android user (please leave a comment). It would also be interesting to know if you can sync progress across different devices (i.e. iOS to Android).

Final Thoughts

We absolutely encourage you to give the game a try, or at least check out our “First Look” video above. As we said, it’s free to try. While this style of gameplay isn’t for everyone, there are no doubt that some people truly enjoy it (if not, these style games wouldn’t be so popular).

Lost, Need Help, Have Tips?

Check out our, “The Croods Tips and Tricks” forum where you can ask questions, get help, and share your tips.

Note, The Croods style gameplay isn’t really conducive to a community format like ABN, so we will only be covering news related to updates.

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Comments (62)

Rank: Out of this World with 2890 points
By adam.np (@adam-nagypal)

I’m super excited about this Rovio Account thingy. I really, really hope that it will bring cloud saving into the Angry Birds mobile apps too. That feature was a big wish for me for a long time.

Rank: Champion with 3750 points
By Oobgular (@oobgular17)

Me too. Does anyone know if it cross-platform? That would be really cool.

Rank: Sling God with 32120 points
By AMslimfordy (@amslimfordy)

I believe so.

Rank: Gold Flinger with 9660 points
By Dr. Omega (@dr-omega)

I am hoping this is a beta test for the AB games to have a cloud save. I need to upgrade my phone soon and I desperately don’t want to lose my games..

If they could perfect the saving feature across devices and OS’s it would be amazing..

Rank: Boss Hog with 14280 points
By Josm (@josm)

Well, i think i’ll pass this game

Rank: Hardened with 730 points
By pirateriley1 (@pirateriley1)

Me too, this isn’t my type of “fun”

Rank: Master Slinger with 6850 points
By Coveleski (@coveleski)

Cloud saving is available on Android as well. But this feature on this stage of development has some serious problems, like total data loss due to server’s malfunction.

I have donwloaded this game two days ago and was playing a lot and made a really good progress, but today during game setion I got connection error (it’s strange because I had a strong fi-wi connection) and after reload my progress was totally erased. Unfortuneyly, my progress couldn’t be restored.

I think, that back-up to your device feature will be very useful in this case.

Rank: Sling God with 36930 points
By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Sorry to hear that @coveleski. Backing up locally is definitely sound advice. When cloud saving comes to Rovio’s other games players should not rely on it 100%. It’s always smart to have a local backup.

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

@covelaski same thing happened to me not only on android phone but also on iPad. I am experimenting on how cross platform sync works. Unfortunately I lost connection and lost progress so it seems that Rovio’s cloud isn ‘t reliable at all.
As for game itself it’s pretty cool for those people who are into these kind of games. I will give it try and see if I ould get involved inplaying, so far I am not,maybe my girls cold be helpfull.

Rank: Master Slinger with 6850 points
By Coveleski (@coveleski)

And one pro-tip: there is a special creature (Bear Owl) that doesn’t play role in food link and could be purcahsed only by crystals (building could be purchased, to be correct), but is very useful – it transforms rasberry into gold, not very fast, but still good.

Rank: Sling God with 36930 points
By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Thanks for the tip. Keep them coming!

Rank: Master Slinger with 6850 points
By Coveleski (@coveleski)

Here is another one. At the beginning of the game soups are really cheap and its parts include only one resource, but after you build your first Giralephant home, they will start to require two resources simultaneously, which will significantly slow your creatures upgrades. So prior to this change its better to upgrade your current creatures to the maximum 5th level and make as much soups (they will store in your cave) as possible for the future cheap upgrades.

Rank: Sling God with 36930 points
By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Great advice @Coveleski. It would be awesome if you could contribute to our Croods Tips and Tricks forum as well.

Rank: Master Slinger with 6760 points
By username12345 (@blahalb09)

This app requires a CAMERA???? For what reason?(sorry if this was mentioned in the video, I briefly watched it without sound)

Rank: Pig Leader with 12075 points
By kai92 (@kai92)

Too bad it was an online game, so I’ll just pass this one.

Rank: Out of this World with 2605 points
By mariokart.cruz (@mariokart-cruz)

The Croods was available today on the Amazon Appstore. Very slow process, but the game goes quick if you do the quests that are available from Gran and create soups from Ugga. I’m already on Level 4.

Rank: Sling God with 28590 points
By MVNLA2 (@mvnla2)

I think Slim’s review of the game was right on. I think it will mostly interest the age group that the movie is aimed at — young kids. @Coveleski‘s tips are great, unfortunately I just read them, and I am out of crystals. Is there a way to make gold into crystals?
Also, there is something that you get as a reward “XP” on a gold coin, but I don’t know how you use them unless they are something like pennies??? Does anyone know?

Rank: Master Slinger with 7400 points
By Angryguy (@angryperson)

@mvnla2 coins help you buy traps, homes, decorations, etc. XP is to level up and unlock, more features(homes, traps, decoration, etc), hope that answers your question

Rank: Sling God with 28590 points
By MVNLA2 (@mvnla2)

@angryperson — Thanks, but not entirely, how do you know how many “XP”s you have or how many you need?

Rank: Fling King with 4525 points
By Lisko (@lisko)

@mvnla2 I don’t think you can see it anywhere :/ Actually I was wondering exactly the same, and tried to find out if there’s a way to see it but couldn’t find anything. So far I think the easiest way to level up is to complete the chores by Gran. Of course you get XP while gathering stuff, but that way it’s ssoooooo slow.

Rank: Master Slinger with 7400 points
By Angryguy (@angryperson)

@mvnla2 the green bar on the top left corner show how much XP you have, you get more XP(and level upping) by doing Gran’s chores

Rank: Fling King with 4525 points
By Lisko (@lisko)

@Angryguy Yeah, it shows that but it doesn’t show how much more you exactly need to reach the next level, it shows only the xp -bar :)

Rank: Master Slinger with 7400 points
By Angryguy (@angryperson)

@lisko as in ‘number’ wise?

By Greeny356

I played the game,I like it..Try something new for once.

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

I just wonder what one can make when spend total of 120$ on crystals and coins?
What drives me crazy is losing progress each time I lost internet connection.

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

Continuing – I can confirm that cross platform sync is possible. I completed level 2 on phone, close application and open it on iPad, it asked me to update (update is available), and when it finished I was able to continue playing where I stoped in previous session. Just for test I purchased small bag of crystals and coins and it function no matter if purchase is made in Google Store or iTunes store as seller is same – Rovio Mobile Inc.

Rank: Out of this World with 2550 points
By Aman (@amandeep)

I see lack of interest here for THE CROODS as there are less comments for the new game BUT when Bad Piggies was launched, there was many more comments on that post :-)

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

@amandeen that is normal. Bad Piggie is better game than this one and totally different type of game. It’s physics game just like AB and it is logical that people who are already into physics games like AB shows interest in an other brand new physics game from the same developer. And BP, the BEST game ever.
This is RPG and most people even never tried playing them.

Rank: Out of this World with 2550 points
By Aman (@amandeep)

@cosmo2503 Okay but will it available for PC ever ?

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

@amandeep nobody knows so far.

Rank: Sling God with 26055 points
By sal9 (@sal9)

Probably not. IAP are not available on pc.
But I can easily see this game ported to Facebook, or simply as an online game.
Just speculation here ;)

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

Okay, I wish someone who is experienced in those kind of games could explain me what’s goal of game? What to do once you complete all quests?

Rank: Sling God with 36930 points
By Bird Leader (@birdleader)
Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

@birdleader, thanks. I will follow thread.

Rank: Fling King with 4525 points
By Lisko (@lisko)

@cosmo2503 It just never ends :D There will be new quests, seasonal or something else, but there is no end :D

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

@lisko then it sounds like reality show you hate it but once you start it’s addictive, you simply have to check what your creatures do, what they need. Not bad game at all but I highly doubt that I have soooooo much spare time to play endless game.

Rank: Fling King with 4525 points
By Lisko (@lisko)

I know the feeling @cosmo2503 :) I’ve decided that I’ll give it a try, but I really don’t think I will be playing it for so long. If there will be updates with new animals and stuff, then maybe :D

Rank: Boss Hog with 13330 points
By kathi17 (@kathi17)

I played for a while yesterday. It was okay, but not that great. I wish IAPs could be disabled only inside Croods like they an be in AB. I also found the music to be annoying after a while. I wish there were setting so I could turn it off rather than turning the volume all the way down.

I don’t like having to be connected all the time. Here in Maine, it means we can’t play while on a long car ride, which is probably when I would want to play this type of game because we don’t have enough cell phone towers.

I can only see myself playing this when I’m bored, which only seems to be on long car rides. The rest of the time I’d rather be doing other things.

Rank: Boss Hog with 13330 points
By kathi17 (@kathi17)

I just watched the video, and I see there is a way to turn sound off. Unfortunately I watched on my PC and have a defective sound card so I couldn’t hear it. I guess I’m just not interested enough to really explore the game.

Rank: Debriefed with 1275 points
By Iguana (@murre)

I’ve got pretty hooked to this little game. I’ve tried some of the games in this genre and I’ve always become bored with them really fast. Only time will tell if The Croods will be able to maintain its charm in the long run. Nevertheless, very good job by Rovio once again. The only negative thing is that this doesn’t run on my first generation iPad. :( Time for an update I guess…

Rank: Avian Overlord with 18470 points
By cosmo2503 (@cosmo2503)

OMG, now I understand why people are so hooked up to these kind of games, I can’t put it down. I didn’t play any single level of AB…

By Bob

Same, had homework and had to rush it at the last moment.

Rank: Sling God with 28590 points
By MVNLA2 (@mvnla2)

I tried this yesterday, but ran out of crystals, and couldn’t figure out how to get more (I was also low on coins). Started over today with objective of only using crystals where absolutely necessary. So far OK, if painfully slow. Can you believe that it takes 1 hr 45 miin to build a home for the owl-thing? Not to mention that I’m beginning to think that they don’t accurately count time. Seems to me that it’s taken more like 1 hr to go from 1hr 45 min to 1 hr 30 min? Could be impatience, I guess.

Rank: Master Slinger with 5530 points
By teogeo (@teogeo)

My recommendation for crystals: Use them only to improve the capacity of your berry tree (I have it to 24 now) and or to buy traps for coin-generating animals. But still you have too few of them to begin with. And just cutting trees or leveling up gives you so few crystals every time.

Rank: Sling God with 36930 points
By Bird Leader (@birdleader)

Good advice @teogeo! Wish my son and I would have done that to begin with. Been keeping eye on these comments and our forum thread for some helpful tips.

Rank: Explosive with 2100 points
By maeflower81 (@maeflower81)

I am not sure if this was mentioned in previous comments but something that I really liked about the cloud sign in is that I can sign out of my account on my Kindle Fire then sign into my son’s account so he can pay his own game! I immediately thought if only that had been available for Angry Birds games! As for the games itself my son loves it. U know u will not get into it much as it is game you need to keep up with to some degree and u always end up losing interest. I do however find it enjoyable to play.

By RawData

Oh, great! A new game from Rovio? Perhaps they’re given up using the old “luck factor” trick to make games appear more difficult than they actually are. I’ve gotta try this…

The initial enthusiasm carried a long way, but at the end of experiment the impossible task was a step too much

First annoyance was the forced online status. Not only because I have currently a bit of problems with my internet connection(s), but for some reason the game whined every now and then how it needed to be online. Not only you may lose the progress you’ve made, but imagine seeing all those chrystals disappearing into thin air. Not fun!

While the game started being interesting, I quickly realized I was in for a long haul. First the game appeared slow and steady with its progress, but instead of pacing up, it slowed to the point wehere one could almost take a nap every now and then.

Leveling up may sound like a progress in the game, but it ends up being as equalizer. Level up too soon and things get really expensive and slow.

Also, some items in the game seems to have no purpose, other than being object for tasks given to you. That is, they only waste resources. Now that being said, where are the instructions like “what will certain item do for me IF I decide to get it”?. That would be a good thing to know before you actually waste your resources to get the thing.

I finally got enough, when levelling up to #11 I was given new set of tasks. All three were impossible and greyed out, without any hint how to go from there. At that point I was so tired and bored, I saw no point to continue.

One question still remains. What is the main goal in the game? I mean, other than getting stupid people to waste their money for in-game purchases of “free game”? Nowadays games just don’t cut it. Perhaps it’s just my impatience and general crankiness or maybe I’m just getting too old. But then again, it could be the games. After all, I still play every now and the certain old resource gathering game via DOS emulator. Namely “Dune II”, if someone still remebers it.

“Spelling errors? They are deliberately made to make you focus and read the whole text to catch them all!”

By RawData

A bit more, as a friend came to visit and asked about the game. Strangely (at least here in Finland), he does not have data plan. That means, either he gets one or forgets the game. For now, it seems he’ll get the data plan. At least he has been sitting on the chair here deaf and mute, playing via my WLAN for “some” time.

However, as I had forgotten to uninstall the game, it was easy to show him a bits of it. To my surprise, my progress was still there. I thought it was saved only if you had Rovio account?

Another thing is, if you go to next area, will you loose all access to first one? That is, should you trash and sell everything or will they still produce? These “try what happens” choices (Read: No instruction manual) are downsides of the game.

Still, I have to admit. The game tends to hook you.

Rank: Boss Hog with 13330 points
By kathi17 (@kathi17)

Those were some of my complaints too. I wasn’t really sure how to play. I just did what they told me without really knowing what I was supposed to be doing.

I wish they would make a game more like the original Legend of Zelda. That one was fun without being too difficult, and you didn’t have to use real money for power ups and things.

This one is still boring.

By RawData

After rebooting the phone the “impossible task” (for trapping crocopup) was not impossible any more. Luckily I had not “deforesting” the second area, as after reboot my few precious chrystals were gone again. Looks like there still are bugs in the game.

The waiting times in the game are seriously hampering the fun factor! Hour(s) to complete something is ridic… ok, not so fun.

It looks like the game is heavily built for IAP users. Others must have heavenly patience.

@kathi17,
LoZ would be nice, but I think I’ll play this a bit more first.

Rank: Out of this World with 2550 points
By Aman (@amandeep)

Just one problem for this game for me, is still internet connection is required.(I don,t have unlimited data plan on my Android). After watched the video, I think the game is nice. I hope now an offline version of The Croods :-)

By burbudon

Check out the FAQ: http://www.rovio.com/en/our-work/games/view/52/the-croods/faq/. According to the last item, both iOS and Android support online backup, but it’s not cross-platform (separate state per platform).

Rank: Sling God with 32120 points
By AMslimfordy (@amslimfordy)

We have reports as to otherwise.

Rank: Out of this World with 2890 points
By Spacer (@spacer)

1) Will this be available for PC users to play?
2) Is this an online game?

Rank: Sling God with 26055 points
By sal9 (@sal9)

It is only available on mobile devices due to IAPs.
We haven’t heard of any news about an online version.

Rank: Flinger with 70 points
By wildolive (@wildolive46)

I have a problem with this game as i have it on my kindle fire and it works great however when i try to sign in on my android phone it gives me a different game even though i use the same addy address. What am i doing wrong?

Rank: Sling God with 32120 points
By AMslimfordy (@amslimfordy)

It could be that the synced data is not up-to-date. I’m not really sure. You may be best off contacting Rovio support directly.

By wildolive

Thanks

By Sanny

I started playing on Android and now I’m trying to play on iOS as well but I couldn’t sync them. I’ve login Rovio account on both devices.

The ios starts off as new even after sign in.

After logging in on iOS, the android signed out. Thankfully it’s saved so my previous play was retrieved.

By fookie

What does Chunky the Death Cat do in the Croods game…Grug said something about security….

Rank: Sling God with 32120 points
By AMslimfordy (@amslimfordy)

Hi fookie, we have a heavy-traffic forum that would likely answer such questions better than us. Happy hunting!

By Patricia

Im was on level 21 on the croods game on cell went it went to level to 22 it went back to the beginner now went im try to get into the croods game on cell its reads connection error. This game requires an internet connect. Im have agood

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