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I think the most interesting part of this is what the author points out: this is a story about a normal developer riding one hell of a roller-coaster. On top o

I think the most interesting part of this is what the author points out: this is a story about a normal developer riding one hell of a roller-coaster. On top of that, let's face it: the game ain't that much. It's not like there was some special secret sauce he put in there. I can guarantee you that there are another 1000+ games out there just as simple and playable as flappy bird out there. So this story, aside from the marketing moves (which I would love to find out about as long as my best 40K other HN friends do not at the same time), is just about winning the lottery. Guy writes app, wins the lottery. This kind of lottery keeps poor schmucks writing apps for walled garden playstores. You get ten thousand people slaving away over little apps, each one hoping to be this guy. He's the guy in the casino who hits on the slots. The casino definitely wants to make sure all the rubes see the pile of money he gets.

waterlesscloud 13y ago
"I can guarantee you that there are another 1000+ games out there just as simple and playable as flappy bird out there." I don't know that this is true. Or maybe it's true for "simple and playable", but maybe they're missing the "fun and addictive" qualities that made Flappy Bird work. There's a lot of subtle things that made Flappy Bird a game people enjoyed- the exact responses of the control, the timing and spacing of the obstacles, the quickness of the games, the ease of restarting, and so on. If any of that had been slightly off, it might not have made it. I'm not at all sure he got all that right intentionally, it might well be he just got the balances right through accident. But I do think the precise qualities of the game did matter, and I don't think there's a huge number of games out there that could have done just as well.
- DanielBMarkham 13y ago
  It's a mistake to cast these things in absolutes. Hopefully I didn't do that. Of course, all those things you mention are important. Critical, even. But appstores are not meritocracies, no more than the music industry is. You've got to be working at the top of your game, getting all the details right, and even then 1) you've got a small chance of making it big, and 2) somebody with less skill and execution might do much better than you do. These aren't reasons to give up, just to understand the risks involved. This market exists to extract the maximum amount of developer work for the minimum amount of money. That way the consumers love their little gadgets more -- and will buy even more. It does not exist to make really great developers a decent living. (Although that's certainly possible)

waterlesscloud 13y ago

"I can guarantee you that there are another 1000+ games out there just as simple and playable as flappy bird out there." I don't know that this is true. Or maybe it's true for "simple and playable", but maybe they're missing the "fun and addictive" qualities that made Flappy Bird work. There's a lot of subtle things that made Flappy Bird a game people enjoyed- the exact responses of the control, the timing and spacing of the obstacles, the quickness of the games, the ease of restarting, and so on. If any of that had been slightly off, it might not have made it. I'm not at all sure he got all that right intentionally, it might well be he just got the balances right through accident. But I do think the precise qualities of the game did matter, and I don't think there's a huge number of games out there that could have done just as well.

DanielBMarkham 13y ago
It's a mistake to cast these things in absolutes. Hopefully I didn't do that. Of course, all those things you mention are important. Critical, even. But appstores are not meritocracies, no more than the music industry is. You've got to be working at the top of your game, getting all the details right, and even then 1) you've got a small chance of making it big, and 2) somebody with less skill and execution might do much better than you do. These aren't reasons to give up, just to understand the risks involved. This market exists to extract the maximum amount of developer work for the minimum amount of money. That way the consumers love their little gadgets more -- and will buy even more. It does not exist to make really great developers a decent living. (Although that's certainly possible)