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Social Sharing Sends 'Flappy Bird' Developer to Top of the iOS App Store

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Indie developer Dong Nguyen has achieved an App Store first -- he has three apps in Apple's Top Free Apps list including the viral hit Flappy Bird [Direct Link], the now #2 Super Ball Juggling [Direct Link] and the #8 Shuriken Block [Direct Link]. Dong is unable to explain his recent success, chalking it up to luck and not any particular effort on his part. As a result, it likely wasn't Dong's activity but the power of the social Internet that propelled his games to the upper echelon of the App Store.

flappy-bird.jpg
Dong notes in an interview with Elaine Heney of Chocolate Lab Apps (via TechCrunch) that he did zero promotion for Flappy Bird and claims he doesn't even own the social network accounts for the app.
"I didn't use any promotion methods. All accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram about Flappy Bird are not mine. The popularity could be my luck."
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What Heney did notice about Flappy Birds was a viral campaign to write the best review for the game. As a result of this challenge, the app now has over 47,000 reviews and almost a half a million ratings. These statistics put Flappy Bird on par with powerhouse apps like Evernote and Gmail.

Flappy Bird launched in May 2013 and only recently topped the iOS App Store charts. The app challenges players to keep a flying bird from running into pipes by tapping the screen. Its 8-bit graphics give the appearance of simplicity, but it is a deceptively difficult game that is so hard to master that most people score in the single digits and brag about their failure. Dong's other two hits are equally basic and are likely receiving attention due to the popularity of Flappy Bird.


Article Link: Social Sharing Sends 'Flappy Bird' Developer to Top of the iOS App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/03/social-sharing-flappy-bird/
I got 5 points. It took many sleepless nights and calling in sick to work. But I did it, I DID IT!
 
PewDiePie on you tube has been playing it - and with his millions of subscribers.........
 
rctlr said:
PewDiePie on you tube has been playing it - and with his millions of subscribers.........
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Wikipedia: "His channel is one of the fastest growing YouTube channels, having grown from 3.5 million subscribers to 18 million in the space of 2013 alone, and as of January 2014 has over 21 million subscribers. Since August 2013, PewDiePie's channel has been the most subscribed channel on YouTube, being surpassed briefly in November and December 2013, by YouTube's Spotlight channel."
 
Hit detection seems just slightly off, but I still managed 23. Can't say it's fun, but it certainly is addictive.
 
When I read the reviews I decided not to get it.

In essence they all say, "this game really pisses me off, but I have to keep playing it."

It made me afraid, very afraid.
 
i got 29 at one point and it drives me craaaaaazy to be below 30 and i hate myself for it cuz the game literally has no point
 
The game is much easier on an Android device and for some reason has smoother graphics.

That being said, I've been playing it on my iPhone for about a week now thanks to hearing about it on twitter and I got 88! :cool:
 
1 - Rip off another popular franchise gameplay concept (Tiny Wings)
2 - Rip off Super Mario World graphics
3 - ?
4 - Profit
 
appleguy123 said:
I have wasted so much time on this game. I hate it. My high score is 22.
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Apparently one of the ways it is attractive is how the players all hate it, and loudly proclaim how much they hate it, and keep writing reviews that try to top others in how they hate it and how it affected their lives... :D
 
attila said:
I really don't understand how this game got so popular. It's an unplayable version of Copter and doesn't even have retina graphics.

Get Jetpack Joyride instead.
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Last week, Someone posted an hilarious review of this game on Reddit, which made the front page. From that day forward, popularity seemingly exploded. Now there's articles here, at cnet, and even the main US networks had articles on their news pages about this game.
 
NightFox said:
Except the gameplay is nothing like Tiny Wings
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Ok then I stand corrected. For some reason I thought it was, maybe I was not the only one who was confused? This kind of confusion certainly helped sell more copies.

The ripping off Super Mario World graphics part still stands though.
 
street.cory said:
The game is much easier on an Android device and for some reason has smoother graphics.

That being said, I've been playing it on my iPhone for about a week now thanks to hearing about it on twitter and I got 88! :cool:
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really? i just tried it on my nexus and i cant even get it to fly LOL its either up way too high in the sky or crashes on the ground. also wheb i double tap too quickly it zooms my whole screen. back to the iPhone ^^
 
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bushido said:
really? i just tried it on my nexus and i cant even get it to fly LOL its either up way too high in the sky or crashes on the ground. back to the iPhone ^^
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I'm using a Dell Venue 7 tablet but primarily play on my iPhone 5S because I don't use my android tablet much, but for me it's much easier on the Android tablet.

The only reason I broke out the tablet was because the dev said it was easier via twitter.

https://twitter.com/dongatory/status/428363898920529920
 
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