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Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

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Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#21

Post by benologist »

chrisbolt wrote: post #19
benologist wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's because Crush the Castle's origins are in Flash casual gaming which is an audience of 100s of millions of people that predates / exists somewhere parallel to iOS casual gaming.

Although Angry Birds has undoubtedly made more cold hard cash the CTC franchise (3 titles) would have plays in the 100s of millions by now.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#22

Post by pgbovine »

DrStalker wrote: post #15
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.

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.

as bits slam into other bits and people scream and die.

hmmm, perhaps this appeal isn't as strongly felt by the general public as cute birds slamming into pigs?

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#23

Post by karolisd »

Interface - Using your finger to use the slingshot is very intuitive and fun. This game was made for the iPhone. It wouldn't have been as successful if people had to use a mouse.

Character - You're not shooting rocks and bombs, they're birds! They are colorful and they squawk! And you're not shooting targets, you're shooting pigs! Pigs who smugly smile when you don't hit them.And there's fun music.

Puzzles - Some of the levels are difficult but overall the puzzles can be solved quickly. And there are plenty of them. A series of fun, quick puzzles: the perfect game for 5 minute breaks.

It's interactive and just fun to play. Move your finger, release, shoot the bird, it makes a sound, maybe touch again and the bird does an ability, then shit falls down. And it's you who's doing it. Who doesn't like to knock down dominos?

You're constantly touching the phone and the phone is reacting to you. There's sensory feedback and an addicting rhythm.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#25

Post by teyc »

I'd wasted enough time on Angry Birds to feel qualified enough to write about it.

1. The splash screen shows a high degree of polish compared to all other games. Every time I start it, it stands out heads and shoulders above other apps.

2. The whimsical characters mean that there are no scruples with killing real pigs.

3. The ability to advance to the next level quickly, but at the same time, there is a higher three star achievement for finishing a level with some finesse.

4. There is an element of luck and timing involved, and this makes for addictive gameplay. It is also very difficult to get the angles exactly the same each time on a small device. Every time you play, you think "this is going to be the perfect game".

5. The matter of waiting for 2-3 seconds makes for exasperating play, which again is pretty addictive.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#26

Post by bane »

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.

What I find interesting are how other, very polished and fun games, are almost never mentioned when people ask for lists of great Android games. Rocket Bunnies comes to mind.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#27

Post by muhfuhkuh »

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 was a hugely successful flash game. Just because that success didn't carry over to the iPhone doesn't mean its merits are nullified. It may just mean people said "meh, I already played that on the computer. Now there was one with birds that someone told me about..."

Anyway, Crush the Castle is itself a clone of Castle Clout, but had _far_ greater success than its predecessor, even though they were visually similar (nearly identical, actually).

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#28

Post by stingraycharles »

tuhin wrote: post #20
kaib wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But they could probably run the physics loops for a few seconds and store the map layout after it has stabilized, not?

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#29

Post by nodata »

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.

It's to show you that the house is an object which can be moved/destroyed.

Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?

#30

Post by alanfalcon »

benologist wrote: post #21
chrisbolt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's because Crush the Castle's origins are in Flash casual gaming which is an audience of 100s of millions of people that predates / exists somewhere parallel to iOS casual gaming. Although Angry Birds has undoubtedly made more cold hard cash the CTC franchise (3 titles) would have plays in the 100s of millions by now.

There's no denying that Angry Birds is a cultural phenomenon (I've lost track of Angry Birds references on Conan, for example,) while Crush the Castle is... not.

That transcends considerations like "times played" or even "money made".

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