My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Developer Dong Nguyen takes down US$50000 a day Flappy Bird App - Unwanted Media Attention leaves DotGears Game as the first In-App Advertising Gaming App

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Developer Dong Nguyen takes down US$50000 a day Flappy Bird App - Unwanted Media Attention leaves DotGears Game as the first In-App Advertising Gaming App

It’s now official folks!

The free App based Game, Flappy Bird just got the axe from its creator Dong Nguyen as reported in the article “Bye Bye Flappy Bird -- popular Game grounded by its creator”, published February 9, 2014 10:16 AM PST by Steven Musil, CNET News

However, for lovers of Flappy Bird don’t despair; there already a clone of Flappy Bird called Ironpants.

Ironpants is on both the Google Play Store as well as the Apple iTunes and has now taken the No. 1 position on Apple iTunes Charts now that Flappy Bird died reported in “'Flappy Bird' Gone, But 'Ironpants' Takes Its Spot”, published 2/09/2014 @ 12:43PM by Dave Thier, Forbes.

Here’s the screenshot taken Sunday February 9th 2014 at 6:02 pm EST

Despite the No. 1 success of the free Flappy Bird App, which up until Saturday February 8th 2014 clocked 50 million downloads strong and made US$50,000 per month as per my blog article entitled “Flappy Birds is No. 1 Free Game on Apple iTunes and No. 2 on Google Play Store - Flappy Birds is Wonder Woman's Nemesis Ares Armour fuelled by Rage which only Meditation avails”, the unwanted attention was getting to the humble Vietnamese Developer Dong Nguyen and his Developer Studio DotGears.

Being famous isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and based on his tweets, Dong Nguyen wasn’t taking kindly to his newfound fame based on his tweets on his Twitter account on Saturday February 8th 2014 as reported in “Flappy Bird to be grounded by its creator?”, published February 8, 2014 1:40 PM PST by CNET News Staff.

He must have been getting flamed i.e. persons spamming his Social Media accounts as well as his email with “hater” mail, negative jealous commentary regarding the success of what was a rather silly Game.

Whatever man! His strategy to make money, pop up ads in the Game that distracted you while guiding the bird, meant that he made money, approximately US$50,000 per day just from click ads every time you played…..and played…and played…multiplied by 50,000,000 frustrated American players!

This is the image now at the Flappy Bird for Apple iTunes Website

Apple iTunes keeps sending me to the Apple Store to download Apple iTunes, which I obliged, as I do use it and it was in need of updating.

The story is the same at the Flappy Bird on Google Play, albeit the Software Engineers at Google aren’t as aesthetically pleasing, leaving this haunting image on the Google Play Store instead of re-routing queries for the link to another download page.

IronPants is Iron Man as a Bird – Best Clone thus far of Flappy Birds that’s just as annoying

So it’s gone. Send in the Clones, thousands of which have popped up. To their credit, Ironpants actually popped up on the Apple iTunes Charts on Monday January 27th 2014, a clear 10 days after Flappy Bird first reached the No. 1 spot and 2 weeks before Flappy Bird was removed. 

Ironpants has already taken the No. 1 spot by default, suggesting that probably even more annoying with even more pop-up distracting Ads as stated in “Flappy Bird Is Gone From The App Store”, published Sunday February 9th 2014 by Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch.

So what are we to make of this?

First things first, Dong Nguyen, head of DotGears Game Development Studio, still plans to make Games but pointed out that Flappy Bird wasn't going on the auction block. One such Game was an endless running Game based on Jetpack Joyride, a design sure to make many waste even more endless hours trying to fly through obstacles! 


In the meantime, for those of you with sore thumbs that you want to get worked up in a frenzy, I recommend Ironpants, which is intriguingly similar, save it’s not a bird but a pixilated flying superhero you must guide through obstacles in a city to save the damsel in distress….obviously.

That’s basically where the similarities between Flappy Bird and Ironpants start and end, as Ironpants is clearly geared at making even more money from annoying Game pop up ads.

This is clearly a more annoying Game….or a more ingenious version of a Freemium Game Model as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Smartphones and Apps – Freemium Games are No. 1”. Instead of in-App purchases, you “pay” to play via clicking on annoying pop up ads, effectively a new Gaming model which I’ll call In-App Advertising.

Developed and Discovered thanks to Dong Nguyen and his Developer Studio DotGears with his game Flappy Bird!

The characters might just as well be falling droplets with advertisements that you click on or catch in a side scrolling bucket, with the highest score attained by clicking on or catching the higher value brands in a certain order.

Somewhat similar to the Boom Shaka Boooom App which wasn’t very well received but still a valiant effort by Developer Toucan Limited, which has offices in Jamaica and Mumbai, India as noted in “Toucan cracks Jamaican market”, published Wednesday, September 19, 2012 BY SHAMILLE SCOTT Business reporter, The Jamaica Observer.

Guess I need to start working on my Video Game App with this #GeniusIdea of falling droplets, as truth be told, making Video Games is a seriously big moneymaker as I’d pointed out in my blog article entitled “Animation after Kingstoon - How to make a Video Game for PC, Smartphone and Tablet”.

Folks, later…..I’ve gone off to copyright this concept as of tomorrow and assemble a team to build it.

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