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Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

mauronewmedia.com

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Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#11

Post by wiredfool »

trout wrote: post #7

I realized it while playing the game, and to a greater extent after reading the article, but it's a very meticulous game. The amount of detail and thought into all the aspects of the game are top notch. I really respected the architecture of some of the more complicated levels in regards to all the little angles, small blocks scattered, combination of material types, etc. In my opinion it's what the game is centered…

Angry birds reminds me a lot of the gameplay and level design of Lode Runner for the Apple IIe. Simple concept, artistic levels that were pictures or boats or houses, and totally addictive gameplay.

Now all we need is a level editor for angry birds...

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#12

Post by joe_the_user »

"This question pops up when products become massively successful based on their user experience design – think iPhone, iPad, Google Instant Search, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Kinect."

Google Instant Search?

While I'm working on an app with vague similarities to Google instant and I like the idea of it being a wild success, I can't see evidence that it's anything like a "run-away success" given that it was simply a make-over of an already successful interface. Google had most of the market before and after so what could you say about this. I don't remember it getting good review either.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#13

Post by Dylanlacey »

A very interesting analysis, that still seems to be a bit off the mark. I felt like it was pointing at one media and saying "See! This works in all cases!"

It feels a little like when, working in a large supermarket, they force-shoved the "FISH!" video down our throats, even though the business model didn't have any flexibility in it. We couldn't apply the principles but they management team hoped that simply being exposed to it would work.

Most of the experience I've had with enterprise product design has demonstrated that "Being engaging" is very VERY low on the product design list, because corporate companies don't care how engaged their staff are.

Developers, however, are loud and wonderfully obnoxious (No, really, I love it) about their tools, so I see a lot more room for engaging behavior, BUT I imagine a developer will also be a lot more annoyed at any perceived duplication of effort (No matter how clever you 'wipe' their short term memory).

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#14

Post by patio11 »

train_robber wrote: post #10
rbreve wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crush the castle doesn't look fun to play, graphics are very boring. It's way more fun to drop birds at pigs, than rocks at small statues.

Agreed to that and tomkarlo's comment. But I wonder why no one's taking credit for the original idea. With so much publicity for Angry Birds that seems really weird. Almost all of the news posts about Angry Birds praise the team and seems to ignore the fact that it was not an original idea at all.

seems to ignore the fact that it was not an original idea at all

Is this contrary to expectations? This is what we mean when we say, over and over again, that "ideas" don't matter a hill of beans. To misquote the best line of the movie: if they had had the idea for Angry Birds then they would have developed Angry Birds.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#15

Post by DrStalker »

rbreve wrote: post #8
train_robber wrote: post #6

What I don't understand is how Angry Birds became so popular, but other similar (almost exactly the same) games failed (eg: Crush the Castle). Those games also tackles most of the issues that's talked about in the post.

Crush the castle doesn't look fun to play, graphics are very boring. It's way more fun to drop birds at pigs, than rocks at small statues.

I personally found Crush the Castle a lot more fun than Angry birds; you don't get stuck in a linear progression, and it feels a lot more "tactile" to me as bits slam into other bits and people scream and die.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#16

Post by benologist »

train_robber wrote: post #6

What I don't understand is how Angry Birds became so popular, but other similar (almost exactly the same) games failed (eg: Crush the Castle). Those games also tackles most of the issues that's talked about in the post.

Crush the Castle didn't fail - I'm pretty sure more people have played it than Angry Birds, although obviously most people didn't pay to play CTC / CTC level pack / CTC2. I know for a fact that CTC2 is immensely popular - it's one of the most popular games using Playtomic.

The reason I think that AB is more popular is it fits a more general audience, the graphics/story/etc are all neutralized so they're covering every demographic while CTC is more male-oriented.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#17

Post by kaib »

pfedor wrote: post #3

Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? I assumed that it's because the initial positions of the objects in the game are slightly off the equilibrium state, so when the physics is switched on they slump a little bit.

Probably true, but it would be trivial to run the physics loop a few times before rendering the first frame to remove the jitter. A neophyte developer would know how to do this and the folks at Rovio are pretty experienced. My vote is with conscious decision.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#18

Post by martinkallstrom »

I think there is something else going on as well. The characters in the game cheer, snicker and scream, but are otherwise incapable of volontary movement. As players we have to carry out all their actions for them. This deeply rekindles with how we play/played with toys as kids, but we dont have to act out all aspects of the game like the physics and voices of the characters.

It is much more the perfect play, rather than the perfect game.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#19

Post by chrisbolt »

benologist wrote: post #16
train_robber wrote: post #6

What I don't understand is how Angry Birds became so popular, but other similar (almost exactly the same) games failed (eg: Crush the Castle). Those games also tackles most of the issues that's talked about in the post.

Crush the Castle didn't fail - I'm pretty sure more people have played it than Angry Birds, although obviously most people didn't pay to play CTC / CTC level pack / CTC2. I know for a fact that CTC2 is immensely popular - it's one of the most popular games using Playtomic. The reason I think that AB is more popular is it fits a more general audience, the graphics/story/etc are all neutralized so they're covering ever…

I own Angry Birds, but I've never even heard of Crush the Castle.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#20

Post by tuhin »

kaib wrote: post #17
pfedor wrote: post #3

Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? I assumed that it's because the initial positions of the objects in the game are slightly off the equilibrium state, so when the physics is switched on they slump a little bit.

Probably true, but it would be trivial to run the physics loop a few times before rendering the first frame to remove the jitter. A neophyte developer would know how to do this and the folks at Rovio are pretty experienced. My vote is with conscious decision.

The idea must have been to avoid that extra second of wait. As long as I see the screen a second earlier I don't care if the pigs jittered a bit.
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