1. Story of a bird
It’s Flappy Bird
Nguyen Ha Dong
.GEARS, Game Developer
RovioCon , Helsinki, 2017
2. Who am I?
• Engineer
• Make arcade games (mobile phones)
• Planning/Designing
• Programming
• Graphics
3. Back then, in 2013…
• On the iOS App Store, talking about games…
• Class of Clans
• Candy Crush Saga
• Angry Birds
• LINE games
4. Back then, in 2013…
• Popular mobile games are supposed to…
• Be a long-term entertainment service
• Have lots of content
• Building around META games
5. Back then, in 2013…
• My limitation
• Time (make game at night)
• Skill (planning, operating)
• Determination (to finish a project)
• Zero budget (no money)
6. Back then, in 2013…
• Decided to make bit-sized games those are…
• Cute !
• Easy to start !
• One minute !
• Free + Ads !
7. Back then, in 2013…
• I expect .GEARS games to be…
• Hilarious
• Highly competitive (100% skill, 0% luck)
• Kid-friendly
8. Back then, in 2013…
• Delivered 3 titles in 2013
• Shuriken Block (3.2013)
• Tap to block shurikens
• Flappy Bird (5.2013)
• Tap to lift the bird
• Super Ball Juggling (6.2013)
• Tap to kick
9. Flappy Bird, how?
• Character, how it should look?
• Brave & determined (ready for challenges)
• Rounded & Chubby (cute and friendly)
10. Flappy Bird, how?
• The control, it should be highly accessible
• Low latency (Console >100ms, FB <17ms)
• SFX for each tap
• Portrait handle
• Big buttons
11. Flappy Bird, how?
• Programming side, I did these…
• C/C++, completely natively
• 30fps for rendering
• 60fps for input
• 144x256 screen size
• 32x32 sprites
These are all outdated by today standards!
12. In 2014: Flappy Bird
• Suddenly, Flappy Bird became a very popular
mobile game…
• Played 20 billions times in Feb 2014.
• Downloaded over 90 millions times.