Flappy Bird | |
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Flappy Bird icon
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Developer(s) | dotGEARS |
Publisher(s) | dotGEARS |
Designer(s) | Dong Nguyen |
Platform(s) | Android, iOS |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Arcade |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Aggregate scores | |
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Aggregator | Score |
GameRankings | 48.17% |
Metacritic | 52/100 |
Review score | |
Publication | Score |
IGN | 5.4/10 |
Flappy Bird is a mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen, under his game development company dotGEARS. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, attempting to fly between rows of green pipes without hitting them. The developer created the game over several days, using a bird protagonist which he had designed for a cancelled game in 2012.
The game was released in May 2013 but received a sudden rise in popularity in early 2014. It was criticized for its level of difficulty, plagiarism in graphics and game mechanics, while other reviewers found it addictive. At the end of January 2014, it was the most downloaded free game in the iOS App Store. During this period, its developer said that Flappy Bird was earning $50,000 a day from in-app advertisements as well as sales.
Flappy Bird was removed from both the App Store and Google Play by its creator on February 10, 2014, due to guilt over what he considered to be its addictive nature and overuse. The game's popularity and sudden removal caused phones with it pre-installed to be put up for sale for high prices over the Internet.Games similar to Flappy Bird became popular on the iTunes App Store in the wake of its removal, and both Apple and Google have removed games from their app stores for being too similar to the original. The game has also been distributed through unofficial channels on multiple platforms.
In August 2014, a revised version of Flappy Bird, called Flappy Birds Family, was released exclusively for the Amazon Fire TV. Bay Tek Games also released a licensed coin-operated Flappy Bird arcade game.
Flappy Bird was a side-scrolling mobile game featuring 2D retro style graphics. The objective was to direct a flying bird, named "Faby", who moves continuously to the right, between sets of Mario-like pipes. If the player touches the pipes, they lose. Faby briefly flaps upward each time that the player taps the screen; if the screen is not tapped, Faby falls because of gravity; each pair of pipes that he navigates between earns the player a single point, with medals awarded for the score at the end of the game. No medal is awarded to scores less than ten. A bronze medal is given to scores between ten and twenty. In order to receive the silver medal, the player must reach 20 points. The gold medal is given to those who score higher than thirty points. Players who achieve a score of forty or higher receive a platinum medal. Android devices enabled the access of world leaderboards, through Google Play.