The game (now distributed as Die Original Moorhuhn Jagd) was developed by the Dutch Witan studios and the Art Department advertising agency as an advertisement for Johnnie Walker whisky in 1999. Imitating the Glorious Twelfth, the game's objective was to shoot down, through a point-and-click interface, as many cartoonish "swamp chickens" (German: Moorhühner; literally "moorhens", i.e. willow grouses) as possible in 90 seconds.

The game was originally not intended for distribution, but was made available to play on laptops in bars by promoters dressed up as hunters. It was soon illicitly copied, however, 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 2000 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 denounced in the media as a threat to the bottom line of businesses, on account of the number of hours wasted by employees playing the game.

The game's success spawned a great deal of merchandise, a comic book series, an animated TV series, several motion picture scripts (although no movie was ever made) and a BMG-produced single (Gimme more Huhn by comedian Wigald Boning). It also caused Germany's authoritative Duden dictionary to include the word "Moorhuhn".