Krool Toys

Krool Toys is an American indie game studio founded by Tia Chinai and Stefan Cohen. Some of their clients include McDonald's, Warner Music Group, and SubwayCreatures.

History
Krool Toys was founded in 2020 by Stefan Cohen and Tia Chinai. Originally concentrating on music marketing campaigns by creating custom video games, toys and other collectables for musicians, they have expanded to working with multinational fast food retailers, fashion brands, as well as releasing their own collection of branded merchandise.

Grimace's Birthday
Following collaborations with Cactus Plant Flea Market, Travis Scott, BTS, and others, on June 12, 2023, McDonald's announced its latest campaign, the Grimace Shake, in celebration of Grimace's Birthday. McDonald's worked with Krool Toys to develop Grimace's Birthday, a platformer inspired by early 2000s-style browser games.

Tariq Hassan, chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald's, stated that "Grimace is the perfect lovable icon to have McDonald's meet our fans at the intersection of nostalgia and culture."

In Grimace's Birthday, the player controls Grimace as they skate through playplace tunnels, grind on handrails, balance on telephone wires, and float over the New York City skyline to find his pals Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, and the McNugget Buddies.

Its popularity led to people figuring out a way to put the game on physical hardware, making their own label and box art, sharing it with their friends and online communities, starting new Discord communities just surrounding the game, and porting the game to other consoles like the Nintendo DS, Steam Deck and PSP.