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Flappy Bird: The Game That Ruined Its Developer’s Life

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In 2014 a little mobile game called Flappy Bird took the world by storm, becoming a viral sensation of sorts.

The game was so popular, at one point it was reportedly bringing in 50 thousand dollars a day in ad revenue. Just as this game was at its peak, it was mysteriously pulled from all app stores and never returned. This left many with unanswered questions. Today I tell the story of flappy bird and its enigmatic creator, Dong Nguyen.

What was Nguyen’s response to the negative attention and pressure surrounding Flappy Bird?

Flappy Bird: The Game That Ruined Its Developer’s Life

Flappy Bird, the mobile game that took the world by storm in 2014, became a phenomenon for its simplicity and addictiveness. However, the game’s developer, Dong Nguyen, soon became overwhelmed by the game’s success and the controversy that followed its massive popularity, leading to his decision to remove the game from app stores and retire from the industry.

Flappy Bird’s gameplay was straightforward: the player controlled a bird by tapping the screen, navigating through pipes to score points. Despite its simple premise, the game quickly became a sensation, with players spending hours trying to outdo each other’s high scores. It became one of the most downloaded games on the Apple App Store and Google Play, earning $50,000 per day in in-app advertisements.

However, the game’s popularity also brought about a dark side. Critics labeled Flappy Bird as excessively addictive and criticized the game for its ripped-off graphics from Nintendo’s Mario franchise. Soon, the game’s difficulty and simplicity made it a symbol of frustration and anger for many players, leading to numerous social media posts expressing the extent of their frustration.

Soon, as the criticism intensified, Nguyen himself began to feel the impact of the game’s overwhelming popularity. He was bombarded with messages from players pleading for updates and changes to the game. During interviews, he expressed his discomfort with the attention, admitting that he had developed the game as a hobby and had never expected it to become so popular.

The pressure eventually took its toll on Nguyen, who withdrew the game from app stores and deactivated his social media accounts. In February 2014, he tweeted, “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”

Nguyen’s decision to remove the game was met with outrage from some fans, who felt that they were entitled to the game’s simple and addictive gameplay. Many accused Nguyen of being greedy for pulling the game after it had already been downloaded over 50 million times.

In the years since, Nguyen has focused on creating simpler, less addictive games, stating that he wants to make games that people can play for a few minutes and then go back to what they were doing. Meanwhile, Flappy Bird has become a legendary product of the mobile app industry, inspiring countless clones and imitators.

In conclusion, Flappy Bird’s overwhelming popularity was both a blessing and a curse for its developer, Dong Nguyen. While the game brought him immense wealth and fame, it also brought with it an overwhelming amount of pressure and criticism that eventually led Nguyen to retire from game development entirely. The game’s legacy, however, endures, demonstrating the power of mobile games to capture the public’s attention and take over our lives.