Where Do Games Like 'Flappy Bird' Come From?

If you were to look on the app store its a mess, even trying to find games you know the name of can be hard at times. It's not enough to make a 'good' game, release it and expect people to just find it, love it and pass it along. So were do games like Flappy Bird come from and how do they bubble up to the top?

Flappy Bird launched in September last year on iOS and last month on Android. I've only really heard about it in the last 2 weeks, I don't have an Android phone but there seems to some correlation there. Is it being released on Android really the key to it getting so big? It being opened up to, what I imagine is, a wider market which just got more people to play and talk about it?

• Pewdiepie did a video on it and its been on the homepage of YouTube with some 3 million+ views, last I saw.

• I've seen countless Polygon articles about Flappy Bird and how well it's doing, '$50K a day in ad revenue.'

• And IGN have even made a video review for it, giving it a 5.4 but talking up the 'addictive precise' nature of the gameplay and exposes more people to the game.

It's literally like everywhere I go now everyone is talking about it, even friends on Facebook who don't even really play games are posting their high scores. It's not like other games haven't 'got big' on the internet before - QWOP, Happy Wheels, Cookie Clicker,Candy Box, the list goes on. These games do all seem to have one thing in common though, a unique gimmick. Weird controls, difficulty, a sense of 'WTF?' But this seems like something else, its crossed over. I don't think it can sustain itself if it doesn't release new content in the long run but for now it's pretty dang big from what seems like nowhere.

I've always only heard of these games through word of mouth, bubbling up on the internet through the whispered hallows until it turns out everyone is talking about them. From what a gleam they have little to no marketing and are usually made by 1 - 2 people. So how do we all end up hearing about them? Do they pester YouTubers and Journo's behind the scenes to cover them? I know there's dedicated game 'portals' (wow, that feels like an old man word) like Newgrounds, Kongregate, Miniclip etc but are the 'gems' getting filtered out from the dedicated communities over there and then rising to the top? Passed along forums until someone with a high enough audience covers it and boom?

This is kind've rambling and its waaay too late but man, it's just been on my mind. It's almost seemed like an overnight success.

(Sorry if someones already made a topic about Flappy Bird that talks about this, I couldn't search the forums as search is down at the mo.)

I'm curious, too. But I honestly come to phone games late all the time. Temple Run, Jetpack Joyride, all that stuff I find months later.

Really, how the hell did this happen?

Youtube is awash in titles like "HOW TO BEAT FLAPPY BIRD" and it's just a guy playing it for the first time. The internet is a strange place.

Is it made by Rovio?

hmmmm, you know, Patrick mentioned interviewing Adult Swim how they find their games they release..... I guess we might find out from that interview.

But I do think there's an wonderful sense of just discovering a game. Like I found out about Octodad about the time Modern Warfare 2 was released. But it's also been hit or miss when it comes to word of mouth, you need to really videos to see people just explain what's so great about this weird flash game, or this text based clicking game..... Because I still don't get frog fractions or even Bubsey 3d.

I just want to know how hard it is to make a game like this, and how much time it takes.

A game like this isn't very hard to make at all. Depending on your motivation you could churn it out over the course of a weekend.

This one guy made it and is now claiming he will take it off the app store

how it got to the top I will never know

@gorillamopena: yeah I saw some other tweets about how the game is ruining is life or something.

Manatees.

That's really bizarre.

That dirty factory on the corner where they manufacture VLTs.

What a twist.

I think the phrase is "going viral".

Seriously though, who could give up $50K a day? Just learn to turn off Twitter if the press are bothering you. The cynic in me is saying 'well tell people not to download it and you'll get people wanting it more, how convenient.' He doesn't seem like that type of guy though, either way it's working out for him, with all the tech sites now covering it with a 'quick, download it before its gone' message.

He's taking it down? What? Why?

"It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore."

So it's not a legal issue, but he can't keep it anymore? Some users in the comments on Kotaku (yeah, I know KOTAKU, but it was the first site that popped up), claimed that it was because he got a cease and desist letter from Nintendo or something. Interesting, I'm kind of curious to know the details.

Just realized T-shirts are coming out now. Meme T-shirts, man... by the time they arrive the craze is over.

I was discussing this with my friend last night. We were both convinced it seemed that way. Then we tried to come up with game we could rip off and make $50,000 a day.

Pew die pie is a WMD - Weapon of Mass Deliverence

PEw die sucks but the kids are his acolytes. If some small time game dev wants to make it, first you target the kids...... Then you call Mr. Pie.

how long until a 'rise and fall of flappy bird' article hits every major gaming news outlet?