Flappy Bird’s Influence On The App Stores Too Great To Ignore, Creator Contemplating A Comeback

The Flappy Bird phenomenon that engulfed the mobile community is still very large to fathom. However, the game’s influence and allure is so near impossible to resist that the creator is contemplating re-listing Flappy Bird on the App Stores.

Flappy Bird became an instant hit with mobile gamers worldwide. The game was officially available on the iOS App Store as well as Google’s Play Store all of 9 days last month, but its popularity and downloads shot through the roof. The game ruled the charts even after being taken down by the creator Dong Nguyen. Mere 9 days were enough for the game to continue in the top 10 games list for the rest of the month.

Despite Flappy Bird’s immense popularity, Nguyen pulled it down citing “immense pressure”. He was quoted as saying “Flappy Bird has unexpected effects” by USA Today.

“It causes addiction (in) people. I think it is an unexpected problem … and I have to remove it,” he mourned.

The game had an excessively simple gameplay which required the player to keep a flapping bird afloat by repeatedly tapping the screen to increase or decrease the elevation of the bird in order to dodge pipes. Despite sounding ridiculously easy to play, the game was notoriously difficult as there were no check–points and the player was required to start from scratch if the bird ‘died’ after hitting any of the obstacles, which were simple vertical pipes with strategically placed gaps. Moreover, players had to play the game in ‘Portrait’ mode only.

At its peak, Nguyen reportedly received death threats over Social Media portals. Still, he has hinted via a reply Tweet at bringing Flappy Bird back “soon”.

Apart from thousands of dollars in daily earnings, it is unclear why Nguyen is re-listing the game. One of the reasons could be the fact that despite his attempts at bringing back peace and sanity to harried players by eliminating the root cause, the App Stores quickly filled with Flappy Bird clones.

The phenomenon was so bad that App Stores reportedly denied permission to any games that had the words ‘flappy’ or ‘bird’ in them. No wonder, Splashy Fish from redBit games was the most successful clone, ending up as the second most downloaded game in February, just behind Flappy Bird, reports Gamasutra.

Dong Nguyen’s Flappy Bird has certainly proven the potency of ultra–simplistic games that can become addictive despite their crude graphics and elementary gameplay devoid of cutting-edge & immersive imagery. Though Nguyen and his development company Gears Studios is busy churning out more games, evidently Flappy Bird will make a comeback. However, it will be a challenge though, now that the name has been snapped-up by someone else.

[Image Credit: Hollywood Life]