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.
The snowball effect!
Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
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Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#42What about the story ? As already stated in the comments, Angry Birds is almost identical to "Crush the Castle", another game, of which Flash versions were quite successful but mobile versions weren't. (It involves destroying castles with a trebuchet -- play it here: http://armorgames.com/play/3614/crush-the-castle ). It would have made for a more interesting article to compare Angry Birds and Crush the Castle (CTC)…
"Crush the Castle" is associated whith old, slow and boring games with bad graphics. When you see "Angry birds" you wonder "Why are they angry ??!?" and from this point you really want to know.
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#43I can't understand it either! but I have seen thing like that alot! do you remember orkut? why do you think facebook is so popular while that time orkut was way better!!
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#44I must point out that these types of non-predictive analysis can be misleading. One can always point out different merits of a very successful product, but we cannot prove or disprove that these merits has actually led to the success. It could be any point that is missing from the list, and no one can prove or disprove that without extensive comparison analysis. So, please do take caution.
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#45What about the story ? As already stated in the comments, Angry Birds is almost identical to "Crush the Castle", another game, of which Flash versions were quite successful but mobile versions weren't. (It involves destroying castles with a trebuchet -- play it here: http://armorgames.com/play/3614/crush-the-castle ). It would have made for a more interesting article to compare Angry Birds and Crush the Castle (CTC)…
A huge difference is the controls. In CTC you aim by timing the release during the swing of the trebuchet. This is tricky, especially since you can't see the target. In Angry Birds you aim by pointing in the direction you want to launch the bird.
A slight error in the timing of the trebuchet launch easily turns your shot into a complete miss.
Angry Birds does introduce timing later, with the various types of birds whose behavior changes with a tap while in flight, but that generally occurs when the bird is close to the target where a slight error usually doesn't completely waste the bird.
The net result is that in Angry Birds I feel like I'm spending most of my effort concentrating on how best to attack the puzzle of understanding the physics of the level so as to efficiently get through it. In CTC I'm concentrating on the reflex game of clicking at the right point in the trebuchet swing. The former is simply a much more engaging game.
PS: I disagree that CTC is not about killing the people. There are levels with people outside the castle. Take down the castle but leave some of those people alive, and the level is not over. Killing the people is the victory condition, so I'd say the game is about killing the people.
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Not only that, but there is no reason that the physics loop would have to be run in real-time. They could just as easily run the physics loop for a few frames as fast as the hardware would let them with fixed deltas of average frame length (probably 1/30th of a sec). Chances are they could run half a second of simulation in just a few milliseconds without the need to render.
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#47I'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…
I agree
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#48I hazard that its not so much the game itself but the climate within which it was launched and advertised. Saying that, i imagine there were probably enough similar if not identical games that would have failed miserably, in which case Angry Birds set it self apart with simple gameplay, story line and characters.
I do find it depressing that this is the only thing people can bloody go on about though.
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#49What about the story ? As already stated in the comments, Angry Birds is almost identical to "Crush the Castle", another game, of which Flash versions were quite successful but mobile versions weren't. (It involves destroying castles with a trebuchet -- play it here: http://armorgames.com/play/3614/crush-the-castle ). It would have made for a more interesting article to compare Angry Birds and Crush the Castle (CTC)…
A huge difference is the controls. In CTC you aim by timing the release during the swing of the trebuchet. This is tricky, especially since you can't see the target. In Angry Birds you aim by pointing in the direction you want to launch the bird. A slight error in the timing of the trebuchet launch easily turns your shot into a complete miss. Angry Birds does introduce timing later, with the various types of birds wh…
> Killing the people is the victory condition
True, but do you really want to kill those people? They don't even behave like people -- more like "statues that bleed".
> A huge difference is the controls. In CTC you aim by timing the release during the swing of the trebuchet. This is tricky
I'm not so sure. I find operating the trebuchet more intuitive / simple than pulling the sling in the right direction with the right amount of force to send the birds in the air.
BTW, birds fly; they don't need a sling to be airborne... Those "angry birds" are in fact chickens.
Chickens vs. pigs: a simple farm image that speaks to everyone and draws on childhood memories?
Re: Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular?
#50For me, it resembles Microsoft's Basic Gorillas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_(video_game) and Worms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms_(series) .
Both used the same simple and addictive formula.