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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

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.

rbreve 16y ago
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.
- train_robber 16y ago
  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.
  - patio11 16y ago
    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.
    - train_robber 16y ago
      Agree that having an idea is worth nothing if its not implemented well. But I still find it strange that it never came up in any discussion about Angry Birds. And nobody protested, especially during this season of patent trolls.
- DrStalker 16y ago
  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.
  - pgbovine 16y ago
    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?
    - DrStalker 16y ago
      I think the market has once again made it clear that my opinions differ from most people. I can rant about how terrible modern popular books, TV shows and movies are for a while if you'd like. :-)
      - wallflower 16y ago
        what books, movies do you currently find interesting? If you don't mind me asking.thanks
tomkarlo 16y ago
There's a snowball effect that's been demonstrated in lab tests for popularity of items within a social group - something that gets a little moment early on will be come massively popular because the popularity itself breeds more popularity. It's also been demonstrated that if you take the same group of options to multiple similar pools of people, which ones become most popular will largely be driven by the somewhat random actions of the first few people to interact with them. Quality helps of course but a lot it is just being in the right place at the right time.
benologist 16y ago
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.
- chrisbolt 16y ago
  I own Angry Birds, but I've never even heard of Crush the Castle.
  - benologist 16y ago
    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.
    - alanfalcon 16y ago
      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".
      - benologist 16y ago
        I agree completely, I only disagree that the CTC franchise failed!
    - whatusername 16y ago
      Plays in the 100s of millions sure. Unique users in the 100s of millions? I'm doubtful.
bane 16y ago
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.
muhfuhkuh 16y ago
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).
tuhin 16y ago
The snowball effect!
eli 16y ago
Luck

rbreve 16y ago

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.

train_robber 16y ago
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.
- patio11 16y ago
  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.
  - train_robber 16y ago
    Agree that having an idea is worth nothing if its not implemented well. But I still find it strange that it never came up in any discussion about Angry Birds. And nobody protested, especially during this season of patent trolls.
DrStalker 16y ago
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.
- pgbovine 16y ago
  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?
  - DrStalker 16y ago
    I think the market has once again made it clear that my opinions differ from most people. I can rant about how terrible modern popular books, TV shows and movies are for a while if you'd like. :-)
    - wallflower 16y ago
      what books, movies do you currently find interesting? If you don't mind me asking.thanks

tomkarlo 16y ago

There's a snowball effect that's been demonstrated in lab tests for popularity of items within a social group - something that gets a little moment early on will be come massively popular because the popularity itself breeds more popularity. It's also been demonstrated that if you take the same group of options to multiple similar pools of people, which ones become most popular will largely be driven by the somewhat random actions of the first few people to interact with them. Quality helps of course but a lot it is just being in the right place at the right time.

benologist 16y ago

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.

chrisbolt 16y ago
I own Angry Birds, but I've never even heard of Crush the Castle.
- benologist 16y ago
  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.
  - alanfalcon 16y ago
    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".
    - benologist 16y ago
      I agree completely, I only disagree that the CTC franchise failed!
  - whatusername 16y ago
    Plays in the 100s of millions sure. Unique users in the 100s of millions? I'm doubtful.

bane 16y ago

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.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago

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).

tuhin 16y ago

The snowball effect!

eli 16y ago

Luck