About Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird is a 2013 mobile game developed in Hanoi by Vietnam-based developer Nguyễn Hà Đông (Dong Nguyen) and published by .GEARS Studios, a small, independent game developer also based in Vietnam. The game, which was released on May 24, 2013, was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play by its creator on February 10, 2014.

Gameplay

Flappy Bird is a side-scrolling mobile game featuring 2D retro style graphics. The objective is to direct a flying bird, which moves continuously to the right, between each oncoming set of pipes without colliding with them, which otherwise ends the game. The bird briefly flaps upward each time the player taps the screen, and the player is scored on the number of pipe sets the bird successfully passes through.

Development

Flappy Bird was created and developed by Dong Nguyen in the span of two to three days. The character was originally designed in 2012 for a cancelled platform game. Nguyen claims that no part of any of his games was designed to be impossible.

Release

Flappy Bird was originally released on May 24, 2013 with support for the iPhone 5. The game was subsequently updated for iOS 7 in September 2013. In January 2014, it topped the Free Apps chart in the US and Chinese App Stores,and later on that month topped the same section of the UK App Store where it was touted as "the new Angry Birds." It ended January as the most downloaded App on the App Store.The Android version of Flappy Bird was released to the Google Play store on January 30, 2014. In early 2014, The Verge reported that the game was earning around $50,000 a day in revenue through its in-game advertising.

Discontinuation

On February 8, 2014, Nguyen announced on Twitter that the game was to be removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play, writing at 11am UTC: "I am sorry Flappy Bird users, 22 hours from now, I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore." He went on to say that taking down the game has "nothing to do with legal issues". On February 9, 2014, almost exactly 22 hours after this announcement, the game was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play. Following the removal, many media outlets reported that several merchants oneBay were offering phones that had the app pre-installed for up to US$900 or more.

The removal also spawned fan-made remakes and parodies of the game, such as the web-based Flappy Doge, a variation based on the Doge internet meme.

In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Dong Nguyen blamed the game's addictive nature to its cancellation. Nguyen stated that "Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever." Nguyen also revealed that he lost much sleep after the game's remarkable success which he wished to end.

Critical reception

Flappy Bird received generally mixed reviews from critics, with a Metacritic score of 54% based on six reviews. The app was berated by the Huffington Post, which addressed it as "insanely irritating, difficult and frustrating game which combines a super-steep difficulty curve with bad, boring graphics and jerky movement". Vince Ingenito of IGN awarded Flappy Birds a score of 5.4 out of 10, stating that while the game is addictive and has a fair and exacting challenge, it lacks "ambition or creativity" and is "relentlessly repetitive." He ultimately stated that "Flappy Bird isn't a good video game. It's arguably not even a fun one." However, a more positive review came from Jenifer Whiteside of Amongtech.com, who suggested that it could eclipse Candy Crush Saga as the most popular mobile game of 2014 due to its addictiveness, Candy Crush's age, and the hype surrounding it.

The game's difficulty has been a source of ire for many users, with one user stating that it took him half an hour to achieve a score of five points. It is slightly easier on Android than on iOS,according to its creator. In addition, the game has been called the "Drug of the App Store".

Online marketer Carter Thomas suspected that the developer has used bots to cause its sudden rise in popularity at the start of 2014. When questioned on this by The Daily Telegraph, Nguyen said: "I respect all other people [sic] opinions. I won't give any comment to this article. I'd like to make my games in peace."However when Newsweek inquired about the matter Nguyen tweeted "It doesn’t matter. Don’t you think?...If I did fake it, should Apple let it live for months." 

The game was also criticized by Kotaku for its open use of Mario artifacts, referring to it as "ripped-off art". However, it has since published a correction, stating that "Flappy Bird's pipe is a new albeit unoriginal drawing".

Theo: wikipedia