Online game from Vietnam goes viral
Programmed by just one man, 29-year-old Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, the online game Flappy Bird has become one of today’s most popular games for mobile devices ever. Sitting at the top of the Apple iOS and Google Play stores, the game is currently being downloaded by an estimated two to three million people per day.
Flappy Bird is a very simple game for smartphones where the player taps on the screen to make their bird avatar pop slightly higher into the air. Tap rapidly and the bird will begin to climb quickly, but stop tapping and the bird will plummet like a rock. Once this mechanic is mastered the only task is to fly the bird through narrow gaps in an endless series of pipes.
The success of the game has come as a surprise to many people, most of all Nguyen himself and his one-man company .Gears. The game doesn’t seem like something that would capture the hearts and fingers of millions of gamers, as it has no marketing, no story, no established IP, no viral hooks, no levels, no candy, no visual sophistication, no cross promotion and no achievements.
Nguyen’s work is heavily influenced by retro pixelated games in its golden age. Everything is pure, extremely hard and quite fun to play. There are four more mobile games on .Gears’ website.
However, Nguyen seems not too happy with his sudden popularity. “Press people are overrating the success of my games. It is something I never want. Please give me peace,” Nguyen said on his Twitter account @dongatory.
UPDATE: As of February 10, Flappy Bird was no longer listed at the top spot on Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, said in a series of tweets that the attention he had received was overwhelming, but he doesn’t want the app longer to be available despite he reportedly made more than $50,000 in ad revenue daily with it.
Programmed by just one man, 29-year-old Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, the online game Flappy Bird has become one of today's most popular games for mobile devices ever. Sitting at the top of the Apple iOS and Google Play stores, the game is currently being downloaded by an estimated two to three million people per day. Flappy Bird is a very simple game for smartphones where the player taps on the screen to make their bird avatar pop slightly higher into the air. Tap rapidly and the bird will begin to climb quickly, but stop tapping and the bird will plummet...
Programmed by just one man, 29-year-old Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, the online game Flappy Bird has become one of today’s most popular games for mobile devices ever. Sitting at the top of the Apple iOS and Google Play stores, the game is currently being downloaded by an estimated two to three million people per day.
Flappy Bird is a very simple game for smartphones where the player taps on the screen to make their bird avatar pop slightly higher into the air. Tap rapidly and the bird will begin to climb quickly, but stop tapping and the bird will plummet like a rock. Once this mechanic is mastered the only task is to fly the bird through narrow gaps in an endless series of pipes.
The success of the game has come as a surprise to many people, most of all Nguyen himself and his one-man company .Gears. The game doesn’t seem like something that would capture the hearts and fingers of millions of gamers, as it has no marketing, no story, no established IP, no viral hooks, no levels, no candy, no visual sophistication, no cross promotion and no achievements.
Nguyen’s work is heavily influenced by retro pixelated games in its golden age. Everything is pure, extremely hard and quite fun to play. There are four more mobile games on .Gears’ website.
However, Nguyen seems not too happy with his sudden popularity. “Press people are overrating the success of my games. It is something I never want. Please give me peace,” Nguyen said on his Twitter account @dongatory.
UPDATE: As of February 10, Flappy Bird was no longer listed at the top spot on Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, said in a series of tweets that the attention he had received was overwhelming, but he doesn’t want the app longer to be available despite he reportedly made more than $50,000 in ad revenue daily with it.
