Game Design &
Flappy Birds
F L A PPY B IR DS – T HE S TO R Y A ND D E VE LO PMENT
Creator
• Dong Nguyen
About Vietnam and the Games Industry
The Success of Flappy Birds!
• The minimalist pipe-avoidance video
game that scorched to the top of the
iPhone free game rankings earlier this
year was created in a few days by its
creator.
• It was earning a reported $50,000 a day
• The idea is quite simple – Press Spacebar
or touch the screen to get the bird to flap
and avoid pipes that keep flying past!
About the Creator of Flappy Birds
• Dong Nguyen (Nguyễn Hà Đông, born 1985) is a Vietnamese video game
developer.
• His most successful game is FLAPPY BIRD which was one of the top free games
in Apple and Android platform.
• After the game’s huge success, he announced on Twitter that he was “shutting
down” the game as he "couldn't come up with its popularity".
• He has also made many other games that are not as popular as Flappy Bird.
Excerpts from an Interview
Excerpts from Articles
• Over the last 6-12 months, indie developers have been complaining
that trying to get to the top of the app store – without the
development and marketing budgets of the large game companies –
can seem nearly impossible.
• Not so – meet Dong Nguyen.
• Dong is the developer of a little game called Flappy Bird which is the
#1 top free app and #1 top free game in the app store right now.
• He’s also the #2 free app & #2 top free game with Super Ball
Juggling.
The Mechanics of Flappy Bird
• Flappy Bird is based around a simple interaction: press
screen
to flap wings.
But it is clear that Nguyen has spent time working out the exact vertical
lift achieved by this single input; just as he has got the gap between
pipes exactly right.
So how was Flappy Birds Created?
Understanding How game design works is the key to creating an app
like Flappy Birds.
All Games (or most games these days) include Graphics. (Background
graphics as well as characters – main characters and potentially
enemies)
Then comes the programming – the clever bits – that make the
characters move and interact with each other.
Could you create Flappy Birds?
Creating Flappy Birds in Scratch
A good way to introduce yourself to Programming is to use SCRATCH.
Scratch was created by MIIT to get young people (as young as five
years old!) interested in the concept of programming and how logic
sequences can get sprites to do clever things.
Can Flappy Birds be created in Scratch ? Yes!
Have a look at the next slide for a website that shows a screenshot of
how it has already been made!
This shows some
of the Sprites and
backgrounds that
have been used
This is the logic
and the
sequences used to
get the program
to work!
To start with, make a sprite and do this:
Have a look at the below website to get
started
• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/16743509/#editor
But how are apps produced and then put on
the Apple or Android Stores?
• Here’s a website that goes through some of the best free
development tools
• http://indiestatik.com/2013/11/04/game-dev-tools/
ActionScript 3.0
• Jumping
• http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/1086/1/Jumping-inVideo-Games/Page1.html
Step by Step
http://www.flashgametuts.com/tutorials/advanced/how-to-create-aplatform-game-in-as3-part-1/