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Flappy Bird creator's new game is vertically challenging
Apparently solving the equation "Flappy Bird + Y axis," creator Dong Nguyen has unveiled the follow-up to his mobile phenomenon, and it's Swing Copters. As Touch Arcade reports, Swing Copters features the same visual style as Flappy Bird, but this time the idea is to move vertically rather than horizontally. You control another little critter, this time with a rotary wing attached to his helmet, and the aim is to float up into the skies. A tap sends your beady-eyed chopper left or right so you can avoid the girders and swinging hammers, and a single hit results in game over. If it sounds familiar, check out Touch Arcade's gameplay video below the break. Curiously, Swing Copters doesn't look like the "next game" Nguyen teased a few months ago, though he did say in March he had three different projects in the pipeline, so to speak. When Swing Copters launches on iOS and Android this Thursday, August 21, it'll be a free download with a sole in-app purchase of 99 cents to remove the ads. Whether or not it'll beat the clones to the chase remains to be seen.
Flappy Bird brings the whole family as it returns to Amazon
Like a phoenix from the ashes, viral sensation Flappy Bird has risen anew, just as the prophet (and game creator) Dong Nguyen foretold back in May of this year. The beast slumbered for a time, but has once again come to wreak havok on our productivity under the new title, "Flappy Birds Family." Actually, if we're using mythical beast analogies, the multi-headed hydra would be a more fitting creature to compare Flappy Bird Family to, as this new form features multiple flapping birds thanks to the addition of multiplayer. Yes. Flappy Birds Family, now available on the Amazon Appstore for Android - but curiously absent from iTunes and Google Play - is a cross between a phoenix and a hydra. A hydrenix (or phoendra), if you will. If you've got access to the Amazon Appstore, you can capture it free of charge.
Flappy Bird creator offers first glimpse of his next game
After removing his smash iOS hit Flappy Bird from the App Store, developer Dong Nguyen has remained largely quiet, though he recently broke his silence to offer his Twitter followers an image of a new game he's currently developing. "I am making a new game," Nguyen tweeted, alongside the image found in the gallery below. "So people can forget about Flappy Bird for a while." Nguyen offered no further explanation of the image, nor any information on the game itself. It appears that this new project shares a similar color palette to Flappy Bird, though any further conclusions we might draw are purely conjecture. Given that Flappy Bird was one of the biggest iOS hits in recent memory, why would Nguyen want people to forget the game? His full motivations still seem a bit murky, but according to the scant commentary Nguyen has offered the public, Flappy Bird was pulled because it had grown too addictive. Too many people were spending their time tapping on a crudely-animated bird, and this apparently bothered Nguyen. "I think it has become a problem," Nguyen told Forbes earlier this year. "To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever." Of course, in the gaming industry, "forever" rarely means "forever," and Nguyen has recently announced plans to revive Flappy Bird with new multiplayer game modes. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for May 15, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Report: Multiplayer Flappy Bird swooping, crashing in August
Dong Nguyen, the creator of viral sensation Flappy Bird, has reportedly told CNBC's Kelly Evans that the game will make a return in August, with new multiplayer-centric features. Evans tweeted the news earlier today, as did CNBC's social media team. Nguyen took Flappy Bird down earlier this year, claiming it was addictive. How the addition of multiplayer would help solve that is anybody's guess, but this isn't the first time Nguyen has considered reviving his flappy phenomenon. Back in March, when it was reported that 60 Flappy Bird clones were hitting the mobile market every day - that's 2.5 every hour, or one every 24 minutes - Nguyen said he would consider making the game available again, albeit with a warning that cautioned players to take a break from playing. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
Flappy Bird may return with a warning, dev has three games in the works
Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen said he is considering bringing his hit mobile game back to the market. While he's not actively working on a new version, it would come with a warning that asks players to take a break from the game. Nguyen said as much in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, one the first the indie developer conducted since he pulled Flappy Bird from Google Play and the iOS App Store last month, justifying the decision by deeming it too addictive. Nguyen said that messages he received from players accusing him of "distracting the children of the world" and that the game was "addicting like crack" reminded him too much of his own struggles in high school with Counter-Strike. Nguyen isn't done making games, however. He described three he's working on simultaneously, each with retro-style visuals and simple controls: a cowboy-themed shooter, a vertical flier named Kitty Jetpack as well as an "action chess game" called Checkonaut. The developer plans to launch one of the three games this month. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for March 11, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Flappy Bird creator wasn't sued, threatened or murdered, you just played too much of his game
Enigmatic developer of App Store hit Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, has fallen out of the limelight in the days since he pulled his most famous creation from mobile marketplaces, and that's exactly why he did it. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 28-year-old developer explains his motives for pulling the game, as well as the effect it has had on his life. Despite the ridiculous rumors that suffocated social media in the days following Nguyen's pulling of Flappy Bird -- which ranged from a Nintendo lawsuit to theories that Nguyen had taken his own life -- he is indeed alive and well. Nguyen explains the two main reasons he decided to take down the app: The media circus that had descended upon his "simple life," and the outcry from people who claimed the game was actually making their lives worse. Perhaps the most surprising revelation is that Nguyen hasn't ruled out a Flappy Bird return, though if he ever decides to make it happen he'll include a warning for people who might become addicted.
Report: App Store averaged a new Flappy Bird clone every 24 minutes
Flappy Bird clones reportedly rolled in to the App Store at a rate of 60 games per day over the course of four days, according to numbers crunched by Pocket Gamer. The data comes from an investigation into 300 games that were deemed rip-offs of Dong Nguyen's former tap-to-flap mobile arcade game, averaging out to 2.5 clones arriving on the App Store per hour, or one per 24 minutes. The data was pulled from games submitted between February 28 and March 3, and due to Apple's staggered release schedule, as many as 14 "Flappy" games arrived in the span of an hour at points. Pocket Gamer defined its use of the term "clone" in this case as "any game in which you guide some character through an obstacle course of pipes (or similar objects) hanging from the ceiling and sticking out of the ground." To be sure, Flappy Bird itself wasn't a particularly novel concept, but the rise in games that mimicked its exact style appeared to be unmistakable to the data gatherers. Nguyen announced plans to pull Flappy Bird from the Google Play and App Stores on February 8, and later rationalized the decision by deeming it an "addictive product." After Nguyen pulled the game, indie developers participated in a "Flappy Jam" development challenge, which included entries from the likes of Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh as well as punk band Fall Out Boy. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
Flappy Bird meets Minecraft: the inevitable made into a gif
You can build just about anything in Minecraft, so why not a working version of Flappy Bird? We love it when the internet takes care of the inevitable.
Flappy Bird creator says game had to go because it was too addictive
Calling a game "addictive" is typically thought of as a compliment. Not so for Dong Nguyen, creator of recently-pulled mobile hit, Flappy Bird. Nguyen told Forbes in a recent interview that the game was too addictive, and that guilt motivated him to remove the game from the iTunes and Google Play stores. "I think it has become a problem," Nguyen told Forbes. "To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever." Those pining for the good ol' days of birds flapping freely in the pipe-laden lands of iOS and Android may be out of luck, but Nguyen told Forbes he plans to continue developing games. He'll also leave his previously-developed titles like Super Ball Juggling and Shuriken Block up for purchase, as he considers them "harmless." [Image: Dong Nguyen]
Flappy Bird's creator says he pulled the app for your own good
If you were hoping Flappy Bird would find its wings and fly back onto the App Store or Google Play, its creator has some tough news for you. Less than 48 hours after he pulled the explosively popular game, developer Dong Nguyen briefly emerged from his self-imposed exile to talk to Forbes about why that little bird will flap no more. According to Nguyen, the game was designed to help people relax, let players blow off some steam when they had a spare few minutes. Instead, Flappy Bird became an "addictive product" that was causing him, and its players, issues. Nguyen became the subject of intense media scrutiny, while players became enraged by their tragically low scores. "To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever," he told Forbes, shortly after he'd had an impromptu sit down with Vietnam's deputy prime minister. Since it disappeared, owners of the app have put their phones and tablets up for bidding on eBay, with prices reaching $1,000 for an iPhone with the app pre-installed. Despite its popularity, and reports that Flappy Bird was reportedly making $50,000 a day in ad revenue, Nguyen says he has no regrets: "I don't think it's a mistake," he said. "I have thought it through." If you didn't manage to grab the app before it was pulled, there's no shortage of Flappy clones on the App Store or Google Play -- just in case you need a Flappy Angry Bird fix.
Nintendo denies objections to de-listed iOS hit Flappy Bird
Though allegations that Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen copied art assets from Nintendo have run rampant since its debut, the Japanese gaming giant claims to have had no role in this weekend's removal of the smash-hit iOS game. "While we usually do not comment on the rumors and speculations, we have already denied the speculation," a Nintendo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. Nguyen has remained relatively silent on his motivations for removing Flappy Bird, though in his tweet announcing the game's de-listing, Nguyen states, "I cannot take this anymore." It's unclear what exactly Nguyen is referencing there, though a Twitter search for the phrase "Flappy Bird" returns thousands of harassing tweets alongside numerous articles decrying the independent developer for intellectual property theft. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
Take out your Flappy Bird frustration with Squishy Bird
Flappy Bird, the came-out-of-nowhere flyaway hit on Android and iOS, has you guiding a little bird through a gauntlet of horrible pipes. If it's driving you up the wall, you might prefer Squishy Bird, a free-to-play online game where you control the pipes instead, and attempt to squash as many of the floppy fowl as possible. Like the game it parodies, Squishy Bird is simple and free-to-play. Creator Dong Nguyen revealed to The Verge that Flappy Bird is raking in $50,000 a day on in-app ad revenue. Flappy Bird is currently the top app on iTunes and the Google Play store, and has been downloaded more than 50 million times. [Image: Squishy Bird]
