14-Year-Old Whiz Kid Knocks Angry Birds Off Its Roost
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
- Start date
When I was 14, all I did was listen to music, hang around in town and whine about not being old enough to watch any good films.
This was 2008. Iron Man, a pretty damn epic film, came out that year and was a 12.
So not only was I a waster at the age of 14, I was a thick one. Screw this kid.
I jest, of course. Good for him.
This was 2008. Iron Man, a pretty damn epic film, came out that year and was a 12.
So not only was I a waster at the age of 14, I was a thick one. Screw this kid.
I jest, of course. Good for him.
Thats how you succeed on a platform like iphone. Find a game material that has been done already, whether on consoles pcs or even flash. Create your own version of this game on iphone. ???. Profit.Ickorus said:
Angry Birds weren't exactly original either. Artillery genre is 20 years old.
oh i just "love" seeing these kinds of stories and thinking "what the hell!? im in college learning to create games and this little kid already has a top selling game!?"
and before you say anything, yes, i am jealous...very jealous
but anyway, it is good work. i do hope this kid gets into game design
and before you say anything, yes, i am jealous...very jealous
but anyway, it is good work. i do hope this kid gets into game design
Wow. So many thoughts on this are running through my head.
First and foremost, I congratulate Robert and his encouraging and tech-savvy mother on their amazing accomplishment. Attempting Objective-C? Evaluating multiple third-party dev kits to pick the one best suited to the project? Four thousand lines in a new language? Sticking with a project until it's done and shipped? Those are all laudable.
Second, the journalism on this story has been poor as it spreads through the media. Different stories conflict on how much help Robert got from his mother. One report even switches back and forth between saying they worked together and calling the game a "solo effort"...in the same article. But the biggest problem is the title claim. Bubble Ball didn't unseat Angry Birds, it unseated a stripped-down Christmas-themed trial version, Angry Birds Seasons Free. Apple's free app market is volatile, and the Angry Birds suite has not been dominating it. The full, paid version of Angry Birds is still king of its hill -- #1 from spring to October of 2010, according to Wikipedia, and also #1 steadily for at least the last two and a half months. But two other free games climbed ahead of ABSF within three days of Bubble Ball doing so. And ABSF had only been there four days to begin with (source: the App Store and fingergaming.com [http://fingergaming.com/2011/01/17/top-iphone-game-apps-eas-the-game-of-life-returns-to-charts/]). Yet Angry Birds Free (no "Seasons") was released at the same time and has yet to break the top 10, and Angry Birds Lite, still another stripped-down trial version, has been around since April. I don't know its full history, but it oscillated between 7th and 9th from December to early January, yet is 67th as I write this one week later.
Finally, I worry that most of Robert's success is not because he made a really good game but because the company that makes the development toolkit he used promoted his app and because the media went into a frenzy. Look at the timeline:
Dec. 29: launch
Jan. 7: 0.3M downloads
Jan. 9: picked as App of the Week
Jan. 14: 1.5M downloads, reached #1 free spot
Jan. 18: 3.0M downloads
Marketing, not game design or production values, coincides with the big surges. The initial 300k in nine days, though... That's the part I wish I had a better handle on. More importantly, Robert and his mom need a good handle on it. If they don't know how they succeeded this time, it'll be harder to do again. Worse, Robert may let it go to his head and be mislead for years about how good he really is. (To be blunt, that's very good any way you slice it, but regardless, it's healthier and more advantageous for him to have an accurate self-assessment.)
First and foremost, I congratulate Robert and his encouraging and tech-savvy mother on their amazing accomplishment. Attempting Objective-C? Evaluating multiple third-party dev kits to pick the one best suited to the project? Four thousand lines in a new language? Sticking with a project until it's done and shipped? Those are all laudable.
Second, the journalism on this story has been poor as it spreads through the media. Different stories conflict on how much help Robert got from his mother. One report even switches back and forth between saying they worked together and calling the game a "solo effort"...in the same article. But the biggest problem is the title claim. Bubble Ball didn't unseat Angry Birds, it unseated a stripped-down Christmas-themed trial version, Angry Birds Seasons Free. Apple's free app market is volatile, and the Angry Birds suite has not been dominating it. The full, paid version of Angry Birds is still king of its hill -- #1 from spring to October of 2010, according to Wikipedia, and also #1 steadily for at least the last two and a half months. But two other free games climbed ahead of ABSF within three days of Bubble Ball doing so. And ABSF had only been there four days to begin with (source: the App Store and fingergaming.com [http://fingergaming.com/2011/01/17/top-iphone-game-apps-eas-the-game-of-life-returns-to-charts/]). Yet Angry Birds Free (no "Seasons") was released at the same time and has yet to break the top 10, and Angry Birds Lite, still another stripped-down trial version, has been around since April. I don't know its full history, but it oscillated between 7th and 9th from December to early January, yet is 67th as I write this one week later.
Finally, I worry that most of Robert's success is not because he made a really good game but because the company that makes the development toolkit he used promoted his app and because the media went into a frenzy. Look at the timeline:
Dec. 29: launch
Jan. 7: 0.3M downloads
Jan. 9: picked as App of the Week
Jan. 14: 1.5M downloads, reached #1 free spot
Jan. 18: 3.0M downloads
Marketing, not game design or production values, coincides with the big surges. The initial 300k in nine days, though... That's the part I wish I had a better handle on. More importantly, Robert and his mom need a good handle on it. If they don't know how they succeeded this time, it'll be harder to do again. Worse, Robert may let it go to his head and be mislead for years about how good he really is. (To be blunt, that's very good any way you slice it, but regardless, it's healthier and more advantageous for him to have an accurate self-assessment.)
well, we can't all be game designers...
I'll just be the guy who taxes him to oblivion. muahaaha.
I'll just be the guy who taxes him to oblivion. muahaaha.
Well done, I reallllly want to go into game design, and i know it's hard, so well done. I still think infinity blade should be in the top 10
Sadly I have to agree with a few others on here. It's fantastic he made his own game, props to him, but very unoriginal. I could never do it mind you, I don't have the technological skills. I will praise him for being able to place something on the market and having the skills, but I can't wait to see him place out an original idea. :3
I even played flash games that had the same gameplay as Angry Birds way before AB even existed, so the gameplay itself is not really new. But they had a good idea to mix that with the polished cartoon characters and good marketing, plus the free updates and endorsment of many celebraties on Twitter and such certainly helped it go viral.Echer123 said: