What do I need to know about Flappy Bird if I am clueless but want to sound smart?
This question originally appeared on Quora.
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Answer by Kartik Ayyar, founder and CTO of a startup that will be launching in 2014, previously the CTO of Cityville at Zynga
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This question originally appeared on Quora.
Answer by Kartik Ayyar, founder and CTO of a startup that will be launching in 2014, previously the CTO of Cityville at Zynga
- Flappy Bird is a very basic but an extremely hard game to play.
- There is only 1 control - you tap the screen to make your bird flap.
- There is only one objective - keep your bird from hitting obstacles or falling on the floor.
- There is only one kind of obstacle - green pipes that look like they were stolen from Mario.
- Despite the simple description above, it is a really, really hard game.
- It has become hugely popular overnight.
- It was built by one author, and it's estimated he was pulling in 50K+$ per day through the in game ads.
- If you get a score in the double digits, you are doing well. Many people can't even score 1.
- The single best article about it isn't about the game itself, but the story around how such a game could be so successful.
- It wasn't an elaborate production, and despite its simplicity, it's not really designed for the casual gamer. See: Flappy Bird is proof that no one knows what the audience wants
- A huge part of why it seems to have become popular is people talking about how hard it is.
- It was taken down due to mysterious circumstances, potentially due to the author botting for reviews.
- Some Phones with Flappy Bird are now fetching bids in the 5 digits on Ebay, e.g.: Apple iPhone 5s - 32GB - with Flappy Bird installed
- The tweet announcing the takedown has been favorited 40K+ times and retweeted 135K+ times: dongatory: I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, ...
- Did I mention it was hard?
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