Caravan Crush
- Brand
- Top Gear
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Monks
Objective
Top Gear goes on hiatus between seasons, and BBC Worldwide needed a way to keep fans engaged on their phones in the gap. The answer was to hand them the show's most recognisable running joke — flattening a caravan — as something they could actually do, any time, for free. As a BBC Worldwide release it also had to earn its keep as a free-to-play product, not just a brand exercise.
Solution
You tap to launch: your car floors it down the Top Gear runway, hits a swinging ramp, and takes off over an endless field of caravans. While airborne you tap and time your moves to smash through as many caravans as possible, racking up distance and a wreckage count before you land or crash out. Between runs you switch cars — the roster runs from a Peel P50 up to a Bugatti Veyron, a Pagani Zonda, and even a tank — and bolt on Top Gear-flavoured gear like an anchor, a spring, or a jet engine to change how the next flight handles. The Stig shows up between rounds to hand out challenges that push you toward a longer run or a bigger pile of flattened caravans, and each session just resets you back at the top of the runway for another go.
Results
The game passed 500,000 downloads on Google Play, holding a 4-star average across more than 18,000 reviews.
- 1
Top Gear: Caravan Crush is a free arcade game licensed from the BBC's Top Gear, styled after the show's dry destructive humor, with The Stig appearing as a guide.
- 2
In the garage the player picks a car from a roster of Top Gear-famous vehicles (from a Peel P50 up to a Bugatti Veyron and even a tank) and equips a bolt-on gadget — starting with an anchor and unlocking more exotic options like a jet engine — that changes how the car handles mid-air.
- 3
On the runway the player pulls the car back to build a running start, then releases it to launch onto an oscillating ramp; the timing of the ramp hit determines how high the car is launched.
- 4
While airborne, the player taps the screen to trigger the equipped device — anchoring into a caravan and rebounding upward, springing higher, or boosting speed with a jet engine.
- 5
Caravans hit along the way vary the flight: ordinary ones shatter and add a small burst of momentum, nitro and TNT caravans explode and launch the car sharply higher, balloon-suspended caravans push it forward instead of up, and some caravans hide money or other random effects that help or hinder the run.
- 6
The run ends once the car comes to a stop, and the player sees the distance traveled and the number of caravans destroyed.
- 7
Distance earns coins, with extra coins awarded for completing challenges, one of which involves The Stig.
- 8
Coins are spent back in the garage to upgrade the current car's stats or buy a new one from the show's lineup for longer flights.
- 9
A premium currency purchasable with real money unlocks exclusive items, while the free version displays ads.
- 10
The player repeats the launch-ramp-flight-upgrade cycle, chasing two separate records: farthest distance and most caravans destroyed.
