How Angry Birds really took off: 200m minutes a day spent playing it | Hacker News Reader

How Angry Birds really took off: 200m minutes a day spent playing it

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33 pointskschua13 comments

I kind of wonder how that guy who made Crush The Castle feels about the success of Angry Birds. Provided my timeframe isn't off, CtC was out and got a lot of play and downloads (on the iPhone) a good year and a half before angry birds even showed up.

The only MAJOR difference was the primary game mechanic; the projectile. CtC used a two tap mechanism where you launched balls from a trebuchet, it was all about timing. One tap to drop the weight, a second tap to release the ball. Progress through the game, you get three balls (yellow birds). Progress further, get bombs (black birds).

Suddenly, this Angry Birds game comes out, and the most noticeable difference is that it's cuter, and uses a slingshot instead of a trebuchet. A quick google search of the two brings up "Crush the Castle, Angry Birds set in midevil times".

Artillery games go back a long, long way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game

Anyone who grew up with DOS probably remembers Gorillas.BAS and Scorched Earth. These new games aren't much different.

In fact, aiming a projectile at a target is probably the oldest game in human history:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870377970457607...

Crush The Castle and Angry Birds are distinctive from those games, and similar to each other, in that the structure to be destroyed is governed by physics, which affects gameplay through domino-like knock-on effects.

However, I think there are several apart from Crush the Castle, particularly as flash games, predating the iPhone. Physics-based games have become commonplace.

It would be interesting to know why Angry Birds won though. I would guess it's mostly the characters and presentation. i.e. design. Counts for a lot, perhaps especially considering that it's a consumer product, and for the iPhone. The gamplay mechanic slingshot vs. two-tap may have had an effect, by being simpler, and, as always marketing, timing (more iPhones had been sold) and luck. It would be interesting to know, but I can't see how you'd know.

Reminds me of 'The Incredible Machine'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine_%28game%...

Angry Birds used an input based gesture that was unlike the mouse, and really took advantage of the touchscreen gesture capabilities of the device AND intuition of its user.

Crush The Castle was a popular flash game before it hit the iPhone too.

I don't think they'd be jealous - Armor Games are ridiculously in tune with fun, nobody makes more hits than them.

Angry Birds might have them beat on the iPhone but 200 million minutes a day is probably a lot less than people spend on the Armor Games website, Flash and iPhone games - I track tens of millions of minutes a day spent on just some of the games they've produced.

I didn't hear of CTC until you mentioned it. Got a chance to try the free version so here is my take on it 1) Angry Birds is easier to play than CTC. Start AB and you are ready to go. For CTC, you need to go through several clicks 2) For AB, it was pull back and let go, for CTC, it took a while to get used to launching the balls from the trebuchet.

My 3 year old daughter could easily understand how to start and playAB, but she couldn't even start CTC when I left it to her to play by herself.

She enjoys the cute sound AB makes as compared to the sound effects of CTC.

I guess the simplicity is the key here

It's fascinating to see the balance the game's origin finds between inspiration, perspiration and calculation. It seems, to many I'm sure, that the game was a happy fluke that some company stumbled upon like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Rovio made a strong calculated and risky move with the game which has payed off 100 fold (more than that most likely.)

It is inspiring to see how masterfully the plan and move was made, like watching a perfect move in Chess, or a well timed play in any sport.

Great read.

What is so compelling about Angry Birds, you think? I completed the levels in the Lite version, and then switched to other games like Demolish or Cat Physics. I just don't get it why someone would play AB again and again... doesn't it get boring after some time?

1 -- It's perfect for casual play. I have a long commute that involves a subway, a high speed train, and a taxi. I can play it for 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. As a counterexample, another favorite game of mine is 'Tilt To Live', but I can't just play it any time, anywhere, because I need a 10 minute block of time before I start the level (technically I could pause it mid game and come back later, but realistically I unpause and die). But with Angry Birds, I can.

2 -- The 3-star system. You can beat the level trivially, but depending on the level it is somewhere between moderately challenging to kick me in the pants hard to get 3 stars on a level.

3 -- It's funny. the birds, the pigs, the sounds they make, the way stuff crashes. I still snicker after countless hours played.

tl;dr - it's a near perfect combination of casual-play, challenge, and hilarity

I don't know. I am not hooked on AB, but my 3 year old daughter enjoys it (enjoys, but is not hooked yet). I got bored with it after a while as well, but it goes to show, what I think doesn't really matter, people are willing to pay for what I find boring

Let the 95 year reign of Angry Birds begin!

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