I feel for the guy. He made something a while ago, put on the market without much fanfare and then out of the blue his game suddenly shot to the top and raked in 50 million downloads. If you're not expecting it and you don't have the right people around you, all this publicity (a lot of which is quite negative, despite the game's popularity) can be pretty hard to take for some people. Remember Susan Boyle's breakdown post her win on Britain's Got Talent?
Having said that, I've spent a couple of hours playing it since the first posts on HN showed up (yesterday) and got myself a top score of 50. I feel the appeal is in its simplicity.
I hope the creator takes some time out and gets the support he needs.
I have toiled for projects for many years which raked in far less than that annually.
I have seen people toil for many years for absolutely no return.
In both instances, subjected to "the internet is mean" behavior.
I will trade you making very little or making nothing and getting the worst of the internet in exchange for getting $50k/day for it, until the ride ends. In fact, for $50k/day, you can have my direct phone number. In fact, you can come to my house and piss on my carpet and blow smoke in my face all day long, for as long as the $50k keeps coming in.
Unless there is some sort of mental instability involved, I can not understand any developer - no matter how random or unexpected - saying "oh, the internet is so mean, I'm taking my stuff down and you can keep your $2,200/hr".
Also, can we dispense with qualifying everything with "the internet is mean"? this has been the case for decades. We don't need to preface every comment with it and qualify everything we ever say with a comment about how the internet is going to be mean to you for what you're going to say. We all know the internet. We've been here with it for a very long time. It is getting almost as obnoxious as when people begin every sentence with "to be honest", only it makes people come across even more insecure.
(I know this was a bit of a rant, but I've been realizing in recent months that a whole percentage of every podcast or article or show I ever watch that has anything to do with the internet can be attributed to the people on it whining about the mean internet or prepending forthcoming statements with how the internet is going to be mean to them for saying something.
Are we still going to be doing this in another twenty years or are we going to be over it?
Remember Susan Boyle's breakdown post her win on Britain's Got Talent?
The media story around Boyle wasn't "she has got an amazing voice", it was "wow, such a nice voice coming out of something so ugly". Even Futurama got in on the deal by literally depicting her as an ugly arse-wart. Boyle wasn't contending with the normal 'surprise fame' story.
This is actually quite common behavior. You see this a lot in any sort of craft where you get sudden and unexpected success, they end up resenting their creation or feel some disconnect between the effort they put in and the result.
As a side note, Dong has doubled his Twitter followers in one hour from 7000 to what now is nearly 16000. Whatever was his real intentions, he is receiving media attention which will most likely last even after he pulls out the game.
You could speculate that he is trying to make a name for himself, so that the upcoming games would make him a stable income. As an indie developer he should know the fact that Flappy Bird won't last long - for example, Rovio is making over half of its income from other physical brand items. I'm not saying you will see Flappy Bird soda next year, but the games Dong releases later will most likely gain more attention thanks to Flappy Bird and Twitter is a way to make sure that the fans will notice it.
"You could speculate that he is trying to make a name for himself, so that the upcoming games would make him a stable income."
$50k a day ... even if it only runs a couple weeks ... is beyond "stable" for Vietnam. As a reference-point, the average monthly income in that country is under $200.
My teenager students will be devastated by this. They really liked the game. We also had a good class discussion about adverts, the amount of money you can get from adverts, and the cost of living in Hanoi.
The main thing is that they worked out that there is a human being who lives somewhere and who has a name sitting down at a computer and hacking away at this game so they can play it.
Cost of living in Hanoi is so high because of strict building codes. They have these towers, you see, and they constantly have to move them a floor at a time across the city, and the larger floors have to sit below the smaller floors, with a severely constrained workforce. It's a logistics nightmare.
Incidentally, Hanoi is a really nice town, and unlike most neighbouring jurisdictions Vietnam doesn't tax imported food and wine products to oblivion. Internet there's a lot better than in neighbouring China or Laos, and they don't have a Cambodia/Sweden style history of randomly exfiltrating hackers without due legal process.
And in about a month or two Flappy Bird fever will wear off and folks will move onto something else.
Don't turn down millions of dollars because people are doing what people do! Someone remind him of all the folks who have downloaded his game and stopped playing nearly immediately...,
I understand that he is probably wanting to get away from all the press coverage but I'm pretty sure this is not the right way to go about it. This might actually have the opposite effect. I had no intention of downloading it but knowing it is about to be removed, I'm going to download it.
He's really a PR genius. When he restores Flappy Bird to the app store next week, after a week of the media writing about how it was taken down abruptly, It'll blow up even more.
This video has good comic component, but in reality I find bunch of other games way more frustrating. Getting all 3 stars in original Angry Birds is much more frustrating experience for me.
My theory is that is has to do with the goal - in Angry Birds you do bunch of actions and then learn the result, with the aim of completing very specific objective. Sometimes in the middle of the action sequence you already know that it's no good and you have to restart. In Flappy Birds it's simple, just keep doing it, failed, not a big deal, restart, you know you'll fail again.
I was playing it and thinking about zen-like qualities of the game and realized that this game would be completely genius if pipe layout would always be the same. Then zen experience would be complete.
He seems to be a normal guy, not a PR genius. But, yeah, "The game with 50,000,000 downloads will be taken off the app stores in the next 22 hours" is brilliant.
I'm an app developer and have been approached about doing deals to make it to the top where they would take a share of the revenue (and/or) charge an upfront fee.
So he could be taking it down because he doesn't want to keep paying 10-50% of his profits to some other company, when he realizes he can probably get another app to the top with his existing fame and userbase.
Would make a lot more sense than his claimed reasons.
If this is because of harassment then I feel really bad for him. The game may be super simple and silly but it shouldn't be ridiculed by those who are jealous of its luck and success.
My personal score is 102 and I appreciate the game for what it is.
There was a Polygon article on HN recently about how the audience has no idea what it wants. It used Flappy Bird as the example, mentioning how it was an overnight success, but repeatedly slammed it:
"Not only is the visual language of Flappy Bird almost entirely re-appropriated from early NES games, but it seems to be engineered and designed by someone still learning how to create games. There are frequent slowdowns and animation glitches in the Android version but, more importantly, Flappy Bird has absolutely no sense of what indie game developers call "feel."
The hitboxes are ridiculously large, which is the source of much of the game’s difficulty. The flapping mechanic, while serviceable, is entirely ordinary. It looks and feels like a game design student's first project in their intro to programming class."
In other words: "Well, this product is a turd, but it look how many idiots are buying it!" If that was your pet project, how would you feel? Imagine if every news article covering your game did so by giving you backhand compliments. It would crush you very, very quickly.
There are lessons to be learned from this phenomenon in all fields (marketing, game dev, PR, etc...)
One thing I can empathize, and suspect is the root of this, is that as a young developer I'm sure he's scared out of his mind of legal repercussions. It's not easy scraping pennies one day, and then the next day checking your bank account and seeing money in there that you feel you didnt work for.
It doesnt feel legal.
At the very least, I'm sure that weighs heavy on his mind.
See, it is not like that. Even if he was selling the game he would have to wait for at least a month for Apple to pay. And since this is advertising, it can take a lot longer. Also, he can have problems getting the money into Vietnam or wherever he is. He may get a large US cheque, which will be a huge pain to cash.
You fail so many times that it shows so much ads, I don't know how ad payment work, but it must be profitable. Does not make sense to shut down because of some haters.
Polygon reported the game to make $50'000/day from those ads. The developer seems to have a mental breakdown and should probably go offline for a day or two.
It's hard to imagine a reason to even think about taking it down and seeing its poor command of the language it looks like we'll never know. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because he's a lone developer, too much to handle for one guy.
Accidental product success, followed by accidental PR success. Half of HN would kill for this kind of luck, and this poor guy doesn't want it... Which makes it even more interesting!
I dont think its a PR tactic or anything. They guy just doesnt care for money or popularity it seems, for whatever reason. Just let him be and move on internet...
Maybe he's more brilliant than we've given him credit for. Possible scenario is that he's received take downs for prior art, name infringement or whatever. Instead of fighting it and waiting for Apple and Google to do it he says he's taking it down, driving popularity while doubling or tripling his ad impressions for a couple days
If he really couldn't take it anymore, and really wanted out of the game, he would have taken it down without any fanfare and gone off the grid completely.
By announcing it, though, he's drawing an incredible amount of attention to the game which leads me to believe this was the intended effect. Heck, it made me download it as I've never played it before.
that's probably the thing. Just think about what it is like to suddenly find yourself as a public known non-government guy in a socialist, underdeveloped country obviously owning a million bucks. D'oh. I bet he's been stalked a lot last days.
[+] [-] qrybam|12 years ago|reply
Having said that, I've spent a couple of hours playing it since the first posts on HN showed up (yesterday) and got myself a top score of 50. I feel the appeal is in its simplicity.
I hope the creator takes some time out and gets the support he needs.
[+] [-] pstack|12 years ago|reply
I have seen people toil for many years for absolutely no return.
In both instances, subjected to "the internet is mean" behavior.
I will trade you making very little or making nothing and getting the worst of the internet in exchange for getting $50k/day for it, until the ride ends. In fact, for $50k/day, you can have my direct phone number. In fact, you can come to my house and piss on my carpet and blow smoke in my face all day long, for as long as the $50k keeps coming in.
Unless there is some sort of mental instability involved, I can not understand any developer - no matter how random or unexpected - saying "oh, the internet is so mean, I'm taking my stuff down and you can keep your $2,200/hr".
Also, can we dispense with qualifying everything with "the internet is mean"? this has been the case for decades. We don't need to preface every comment with it and qualify everything we ever say with a comment about how the internet is going to be mean to you for what you're going to say. We all know the internet. We've been here with it for a very long time. It is getting almost as obnoxious as when people begin every sentence with "to be honest", only it makes people come across even more insecure.
(I know this was a bit of a rant, but I've been realizing in recent months that a whole percentage of every podcast or article or show I ever watch that has anything to do with the internet can be attributed to the people on it whining about the mean internet or prepending forthcoming statements with how the internet is going to be mean to them for saying something.
Are we still going to be doing this in another twenty years or are we going to be over it?
[+] [-] vacri|12 years ago|reply
The media story around Boyle wasn't "she has got an amazing voice", it was "wow, such a nice voice coming out of something so ugly". Even Futurama got in on the deal by literally depicting her as an ugly arse-wart. Boyle wasn't contending with the normal 'surprise fame' story.
[+] [-] freyrs3|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jhsto|12 years ago|reply
You could speculate that he is trying to make a name for himself, so that the upcoming games would make him a stable income. As an indie developer he should know the fact that Flappy Bird won't last long - for example, Rovio is making over half of its income from other physical brand items. I'm not saying you will see Flappy Bird soda next year, but the games Dong releases later will most likely gain more attention thanks to Flappy Bird and Twitter is a way to make sure that the fans will notice it.
[+] [-] uptown|12 years ago|reply
$50k a day ... even if it only runs a couple weeks ... is beyond "stable" for Vietnam. As a reference-point, the average monthly income in that country is under $200.
[+] [-] cfinke|12 years ago|reply
Are you speculating that, or are you suggesting that others should speculate that?
[+] [-] keithpeter|12 years ago|reply
The main thing is that they worked out that there is a human being who lives somewhere and who has a name sitting down at a computer and hacking away at this game so they can play it.
[+] [-] sgustard|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] manmal|12 years ago|reply
other guy: "No problem, but you hate the success of Flappy Bird?"
Dong: "Not because of them but because how people use my game. They are overusing it."
[+] [-] Aqueous|12 years ago|reply
Don't turn down millions of dollars because people are doing what people do! Someone remind him of all the folks who have downloaded his game and stopped playing nearly immediately...,
[+] [-] kjhughes|12 years ago|reply
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/5/5383708/flappy-bird-revenue...
[+] [-] alexeisadeski3|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusben1369|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] sillysaurus2|12 years ago|reply
I know it's a joke, but on the other hand, it's only funny because a lot of people identify with the sentiment.
[+] [-] vl|12 years ago|reply
My theory is that is has to do with the goal - in Angry Birds you do bunch of actions and then learn the result, with the aim of completing very specific objective. Sometimes in the middle of the action sequence you already know that it's no good and you have to restart. In Flappy Birds it's simple, just keep doing it, failed, not a big deal, restart, you know you'll fail again.
I was playing it and thinking about zen-like qualities of the game and realized that this game would be completely genius if pipe layout would always be the same. Then zen experience would be complete.
[+] [-] ultramancool|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamnemecek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dasil003|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NigelTufnel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] calroc|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fnayr|12 years ago|reply
I'm an app developer and have been approached about doing deals to make it to the top where they would take a share of the revenue (and/or) charge an upfront fee.
So he could be taking it down because he doesn't want to keep paying 10-50% of his profits to some other company, when he realizes he can probably get another app to the top with his existing fame and userbase.
Would make a lot more sense than his claimed reasons.
[+] [-] fnayr|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kin|12 years ago|reply
My personal score is 102 and I appreciate the game for what it is.
[+] [-] joshvm|12 years ago|reply
"Not only is the visual language of Flappy Bird almost entirely re-appropriated from early NES games, but it seems to be engineered and designed by someone still learning how to create games. There are frequent slowdowns and animation glitches in the Android version but, more importantly, Flappy Bird has absolutely no sense of what indie game developers call "feel."
The hitboxes are ridiculously large, which is the source of much of the game’s difficulty. The flapping mechanic, while serviceable, is entirely ordinary. It looks and feels like a game design student's first project in their intro to programming class."
In other words: "Well, this product is a turd, but it look how many idiots are buying it!" If that was your pet project, how would you feel? Imagine if every news article covering your game did so by giving you backhand compliments. It would crush you very, very quickly.
[+] [-] canbrianExp|12 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/dongatory/status/432095426854912000
[+] [-] tantalor|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Ryel|12 years ago|reply
One thing I can empathize, and suspect is the root of this, is that as a young developer I'm sure he's scared out of his mind of legal repercussions. It's not easy scraping pennies one day, and then the next day checking your bank account and seeing money in there that you feel you didnt work for. It doesnt feel legal.
At the very least, I'm sure that weighs heavy on his mind.
[+] [-] megablast|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Jhsto|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] dcpdx|12 years ago|reply
By announcing it, though, he's drawing an incredible amount of attention to the game which leads me to believe this was the intended effect. Heck, it made me download it as I've never played it before.
Genius move.
[+] [-] buckyball|12 years ago|reply