Flappy Bird: What lessons can be learned?

February 17th, 2014, 21:57 Posted By: wraggster

We ask a number of developers about the game's success and what they can learn from Nguyen's reaction
Just last week, Vietnamese games developer Dong Nguyen pulled his mobile sensation Flappy Bird from both Android and iOS stores. While Nguyen later said he was worried about how addictive his game had become, he clearly had had enough of the vitriol and abuse being thrown his way from gamers around the world. The fame was ruining his life and he was overwhelmed. Flappy Bird likely hadn't even reached the height of its popularity yet, and the game was already banking $50,000 a day on ad revenues. Even so, you can't put a price on sanity, asJeff Vogel points out.
In light of Nguyen's decision to remove Flappy Bird and seeing how he and other developers in the past have been crushed by a toxic internet environment, GamesIndustry International polled a number of mobile devs about the game's rise to fame and what they could learn from the whole situation. Here's how the panel responded...
GI: Considering how unremarkable a game Flappy Bird is, why do you think it became such a smash hit?
"I would argue that the experience of playing a game can be far better or worse than a list of features would suggest. Just because on paper the game is unremarkable doesn't mean that users don't find the experience remarkable. Simply put it's incredibly addictive in a way that can't be explained on paper but has to be experienced to understand." - Jeremy Rossmann, CEO, MakeGamesWithUs
"It's a great example of a viral breakout. Once it reached critical mass, everyone had to play it, because everyone else was playing it. It's also insanely difficult, which 1) differentiates from typical mainstream entertainment and 2) makes you more likely to share your achievements when you reach a good score." - Petri Järvilehto, co-founder and CCO, Seriously
"I think having people around you, that support what you do is important. They can talk you down from that emotional ledge"
Dustin Hendricks

"In our opinion, the features of the game that support this are 1) under 3MB download - the game downloads instantly even over crappy networks; 2) You are playing 3 seconds from clicking the icon - the game starts immediately and no matter how little time you have, you have enough to play a round or two; 3) Even a super successful session is only a few minutes long; 4) It seems that you should be able to play much better, which leads you to try again and again and again; 5) One number tells how epic you are - just say you got 200 in Flappy Bird and everyone knows that it's impressive. From the game discovery side, Twitter seem to have played a strong role in Flappy's viral rise with people suddenly competing to complain how the game had ruined their life. Even the App Store reviews seemed to spawn a competition in creating the longest, most verbal rant about how awful their life has become with Flappy Bird addiction. The rants always ended up giving the game a 5-star review." - Teemu Mäki-Patola, COO/CMO, Frogmind
"There's no formula for what makes games into hits. Imagine if we did: every game would be the same - how tragic! That being said: there was probably a better way to handle his 'too addictive' problem than pull the game entirely. This sort of 'parenting' seems a bit melodramatic. It's either the worst decision of his life, or the best marketing campaign ever. Think about it: when a parent takes candy away from a baby, what does the baby want even more?" - Stephen Varga, COO and co-founder, ByteSized Studios

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...can-be-learned

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