The business and science of Angry Birds

Before there was Cut the Rope (just released this past week), the most addictive iOS game featuring cute little creatures has been Angry Birds developed by Rovio.

Casualgaming.biz has an excellent post-mortem and analysis on the development of Angry Birds and why it’s successful. They offer a variety of reasons: the low price point, the addictive game play, loads and loads of new levels posted all the time, and Rovio’s years of experience as a mobile game developer for Nokia. In the words of Will Freeman of Casualgaming.biz, it’s not rocket science why Angry Birds is a hit.

Or maybe it is rocket science. Over at Wired, they have posted a scientific analysis of the physics behind the game play of Angry Birds, including videos and actual mathematical formulas (I kid you not).

If you are an Angry Birds fan, a physicist, or have a kid that hates science but loves to play games, this is an article worth reading (or sharing with your kid).

Joel Brodie