Sad story of how Flappy Bird ruined millionaire creator’s life
It’s been 10 years since we all stopped flapping about. We stopped trying to get a little bird past some tubes. We could no longer spend mindless hours tapping our screen to move those little wings.
On 8 February 2014, the world lost Flappy Bird.
One of the most iconic mobile games of all time, it’s gone but certainly not forgotten. And it turns out there’s a sad story behind its loss and how it ruined the millionaire creator’s life.
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Nguyen Ha Dong is the quite programmer behind the fun little game that took over people’s lives.
After a slow start in 2013, Flappy Bird became a worldwide hit and at one point was making him over $50,000 (£39,608) a day in advertising revenue, as reported by Rolling Stone.
Dong loved the success at first, buying a new Mac and taking his friends out to celebrate but he told students at Hanoi University of Science and Technology how he soon ended up miserable.
The game was subject to criticism with accusations that it ripped off Super Mario, and Dong himself was also accused of writing fake reviews to help boost its initial popularity.
Dong ended up an unlikely celebrity because of Flappy Bird and was stalked by paparazzi, who showed up at his house and refused to leave.
All of this upset the programmer, but arguably the worst thing to happen to him were the incessant tweets from users of the game, who found themselves addicted to it.
Some of the messages he received included a tweet that read: "FLAPPY BIRD HAS RUINED MY LIFE! I'VE BEEN PLAYING IT FOR 8 HOURS STRAIGHT AND I SWEAR MY EYES ARE BLEEDING!"
This clearly upset the creator, who replied: "It's just a game. Take care of yourself first. I don't make game to ruin people's lives [sic]."
Teachers and parents also complained about Flappy Bird, arguing that it was detrimentally affecting their children's lives.
This eventually culminated in Dong concluding that he had personally hurt people with the game, with some people even claiming that they lost their jobs because they became so addicted.
How that's quite his fault is anyone's guess.
Others complained that it had caused them to break their mobile phones, with its simple premise: hit the bird to avoid being squashed by the moving pillars and falling to the ground.
The programmer eventually tweeted in 2014: "I can call 'Flappy Bird' is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it."
Dong eventually ended up hating Flappy Bird so much that he pulled the game down.
As reported by Vietnamnet, the programmer now choses to largely stay out of the spotlight, although he does have a Twitter profile, and he said he is working on a new game with never-before-seen technology.
However, he admits that nothing he will create in the future will ever have the success of Flappy Bird and put the odds of a repeat at 0.1%.
Jess Battison