Flappy Bird May Fly Again
Flappy Bird is gone but he's not forgotten, and creator Dong Nguyen says he might even fly again someday.
Flappy Bird was a silly, derivative exercise in mindless screen-poking that somehow became the digital equivalent of crack cocaine. Yet as popular as it was, its simplistic play and graphics assets that were basically lifted wholesale from Super Mario Bros. caused a backlash so ugly that Dong Nguyen, the man who made the game, pulled it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132119-Update-Flappy-Bird-Creator-Is-Removing-The-Game-From-Stores] from the App Store and Google Play despite reportedly earning as much as $50,000 per day on the thing.
He's still making money on it thanks to the millions of people who downloaded and apparently continue to play it, and as Rolling Stone points out, there's been a "reappraisal" of Flappy Bird in the wake of its disappearance. He's hasn't given up on making games, either, and currently has three separate projects on the go, including one, an "action chess game" called Checkonaut that he expects to release later this month.
Walking away from Flappy Bird was a "relief," he said, adding, "I can't go back to my life before, but I'm good now." But that doesn't mean he won't revisit the game at some point in the future: He's rebuffed all offers to buy the property and is "considering" releasing it again at some point.
Will it fly as well as the original? I'm inclined to doubt it - lightning in a bottle and all that - but it's such an oddball situation that there might still be some bounce in it. Either way, he also said that any future release of Flappy Bird will come with a warning: "Please take a break."
Source: Rolling Stone [http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-flight-of-the-birdman-flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-20140311?page=3]
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Flappy Bird is gone but he's not forgotten, and creator Dong Nguyen says he might even fly again someday.
Flappy Bird was a silly, derivative exercise in mindless screen-poking that somehow became the digital equivalent of crack cocaine. Yet as popular as it was, its simplistic play and graphics assets that were basically lifted wholesale from Super Mario Bros. caused a backlash so ugly that Dong Nguyen, the man who made the game, pulled it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132119-Update-Flappy-Bird-Creator-Is-Removing-The-Game-From-Stores] from the App Store and Google Play despite reportedly earning as much as $50,000 per day on the thing.
He's still making money on it thanks to the millions of people who downloaded and apparently continue to play it, and as Rolling Stone points out, there's been a "reappraisal" of Flappy Bird in the wake of its disappearance. He's hasn't given up on making games, either, and currently has three separate projects on the go, including one, an "action chess game" called Checkonaut that he expects to release later this month.
Walking away from Flappy Bird was a "relief," he said, adding, "I can't go back to my life before, but I'm good now." But that doesn't mean he won't revisit the game at some point in the future: He's rebuffed all offers to buy the property and is "considering" releasing it again at some point.
Will it fly as well as the original? I'm inclined to doubt it - lightning in a bottle and all that - but it's such an oddball situation that there might still be some bounce in it. Either way, he also said that any future release of Flappy Bird will come with a warning: "Please take a break."
Source: Rolling Stone [http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-flight-of-the-birdman-flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-20140311?page=3]
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