FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Will Flappy Bird Live to Flap Another Day?

Let's hope so. Or maybe not.
Image: Flappy Bird

Nothing is set in stone in the digital age. So if you weren't one of the desperate people bidding tens of thousands of dollars for a smartphone or tablet that had Flappy Bird installed in it, fear not: you could still get a chance to drive yourself up the wall with 2014's most intriguing sleeper hit.

About a month ago, Dong Nguyen, Flappy Bird's now (in)famous creator, pulled the game from the iOS app store. The reasons he gave were mysterious to many in the game industry who would kill for the position he'd attained. With a shoestring budget and no marketing campaign to speak of, Nguyen had created a legitimate rival to heavyweights like Candy Crush. He was apparently raking in $50,000 a day from the thing, all while still living at home with his parents in Hanoi, Vietnam. But as he explained to the media that was relentlessly hounding him, all the attention was making him uncomfortable. Plus, he'd become concerned with just how addictive his creation was proving to be for part of its audience.

Advertisement

Nguyen had flapped too close to the Sun, it seemed. But thankfully, he still has an extra life.

Writing for Rolling Stone, David Kushner managed to find Nguyen at a friend's house where he's been holed up ever since he decided he'd had enough of the game. According to Kushner's report, Nguyen is still reeling from the Flappy Bird experience. But he's also gotten some much-needed perspective:

Since taking Flappy Bird down, he says he’s felt “relief. I can’t go back to my life before, but I’m good now.” As for the future of his flapper, he’s still turning down offers to purchase the game. Nguyen refuses to compromise his independence. But will Flappy Bird ever fly again? “I’m considering it,” Nguyen says. He’s not working on a new version, but if he ever releases one it will come with a “warning,” he says: “Please take a break.”

For all the talk about how "mysterious" Nguyen is as a game developer, here he conveys a sense of empathy for his own players that's all too rare in the world of free-to-play mobile gaming. It's a world in which most developers publicly obsess over how to keep squeezing money out of users, and how to keep them coming back begging for more.

Nguyen told Rolling Stone that he based Flappy Bird off paddleball, what he considers "one of the most masocore analog creations ever." Anyone who's felt the urge to crack one of those paddles in two can appreciate his Dr. Frankenstein-like concern over what he brought into the world.

That being said, I still find it strange that even Nguyen himself seems hesitant to think that Flappy Bird created anything of value for its untold millions of fans. It's a bite-sized game, sure. But all you have to do is glance at fellow travelers on the New York City subway to see how happy it's made some people. Since the game was first released (and then taken down), I've seen groups of children and even entire families swapping a single iPad back and forth, all taking turns to see who could flap the farthest.

Can a scene so heartwarming be rooted in pure evil? Addiction by design is one thing. Compulsion that stems from pleasure is another. A game like Flappy Bird can leave you feeling like a frustrated smoker, fiending for another hit of nicotine. But as The Atlantic argued in a beautiful essay about the game, it can also help you stave off "existential despair." There should be more people like Nguyen working in mobile games, talented artists who focus on the latter.