Flappy Bird Developer: I made the game in 3-4 days

The main game of January-February was Flappy Bird. Everyone is discussing it. Some try to explain the success, others try to repeat it. But now, after deleting the application, it’s time to take stock. Forbes journalist Lan An Nguyen did it best. 

The mysterious developer of the free hit, who turned into a celebrity during the last weekend, decided to remove his product from the store, gave her an interview and told her about the death of Flappy Bird.

“Flappy Bird was developed so that you could play in a relaxed state for a couple of minutes,” says Dong Nguyen after he removed the game from sale. “However, my project has become too addictive. And this is already a problem. To solve it, it was best to remove Flappy Bird from sale. That’s it–she’s gone.”

Killing Flappy Bird for altruistic reasons, Nguyen leaves after hitting the jackpot. The Verge article states that the developer earned $50 thousand a day on the advertising shown in the game. The specialist himself does not comment on this information, claiming that he did not conduct a specific calculation of income.

Perhaps Flappy Bird is a cultural phenomenonAll the events related to the interview, which, by the way, was conducted in Vietnamese, are in no way inferior to the soap opera played out with the murder of Flappy Bird.

The interview with Forbes took place at a hotel in Hanoi. The magazine was given a condition not to publish a photo of the developer’s face in any case. The meeting was postponed for several hours after it became clear that Nguyen had been invited by the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Vu Duc Dam. An amazing takeoff for a man that no one knew about a week ago. Nguyen says that his parents didn’t even know that Flappy Bird existed, and they didn’t even know about his role in creating the project. Then, however, the journalists unearthed everything.

A 29-year-old developer with short-cropped hair, came to the interview tired and nervous. During the 45 minutes that the conversation lasted, he smoked several cigarettes and drew monkey heads on a piece of paper.

Flappy Bird was released on May 24, 2013 on iOS. The project was released by a Vietnamese company without much fan support .GEARS. According to the developer, he made the game in two or three days. The mechanics are simple, but the game itself turned out to be annoyingly complex. By tapping a finger on the screen, players had to guide a pixelated bird through a series of green obstacles, similar to the pipes we saw in Nintendo Super Mario Bros. (Nguyen says it’s just a coincidence.) He denied rumors that he was threatened by Nintendo, and because of this, he allegedly got rid of the application. If in the game you collided with any object on the level, the bird died. The further you advanced, the greater the risks of death became.

Nguyen has made several other popular mobile games, including Super Ball Juggling and Shuriken Block, which occupy the #6 and #18 position in iOS. According to the developer, he is not going to remove these games, which, in his opinion, are absolutely harmless. If he found out that gamers were too addicted to his products, he would immediately remove them from sale.

Flappy Bird already has hundreds of clones in storesNguyen killed Flappy Bird for two reasons.

Firstly, he was tormented by guilt, and secondly, fame made life uncomfortable. “I couldn’t sleep,” the specialist admits. He adds that he literally had a stone off his shoulders after deleting the game. Now he spends less time on the Internet and has plenty of rest.

“I don‘t think it’s a mistake,” he says. “I have considered my decision well.”

We’ll hear more about Nguyen. He will continue to develop games. “After the success of Flappy Bird, I feel more confident and free to do whatever I want,” says Nguyen.

Fans of Flappy Bird have nothing to worry about, as there are many clones of this game in the world. The App store is full of games like Flappy Plane, Flappy Whale, Flappy Penguin and Flappy Angry Bird. Nguyen is not going to pursue plagiarists. “I played Ironpants,” he adds, “A good game.”

When asked if he would like to say something to disappointed users of authentic Flappy Bird, Nguyen replied briefly: “Thank you for playing.”