While Flappy Bird may be gone from the App Store, it's far from forgotten. This week, indie developers around the world have banded together in a show of solidarity for the bug-eyed bird that was and its humble, overwhelmed creator, Dong Nguyen. Their virtual pat on the back comes in the form of Flappy Bird-inspired games designed specifically for #FlappyJam. Although FlappyJam was started by developer Ivano Palmentieri only a few days ago—with its first submission, Bouncy Pixel by Aaron Puente, going live February 9th—there are already 140 games available to play and more consistently pouring in. While many entries follow the basic fly-through-dangers premise of Flappy Bird, the themes, focal points, and even genres range from disembodied floating heads and arsonist Pikachus to text adventures. The one shared trait among every entry is difficulty, which is both stated on the FlappyJam page and has been reiterated by Palmentieri numerous times on Twitter: "I had to specify on the jam site that FLAPPY word or gameplay are NOT mandatory, only 'rule' is to make a hard game AND have fun."The goal of FlappyJam is to show support for Flappy Bird, Nguyen as a game designer, and the entire indie development scene, with the thoughtful mission statement that "indie game devs are friendly and supportive, envy and teasing should not belong to our community, nor be a cause of suffering." As Palmentieri reminded potential entrants yesterday: "Guys, just as a reminder: the point is not making Flappy Bird clones or anything, we are just trying to have fun and support each other." If you'd like to show your own support for the indie development community, all of the FlappyJam games can be viewed, and many played, here. We've called out ten of our favorites below.
Everyone likes to hear the tale of the indie developer who bucks the odds and turns into an overnight success.The story of Sneaky Games and its turn-based MOBA/tactical hybrid Arena of Heroes isn't one of those. It's more a saga of mild success followed by more hard work to try to shine a bigger spotlight on a product the studio truly believes in, all while financial uncertainty swirls around in the background. As such, it's probably a lot more typical of the indie experience than going from rags to riches in one fell swoop.Sneaky Games was known mainly for social games before it dreamed up Arena of Heroes. The game's high concept was a good one: take the framework of a MOBA, but make the action turn-based and put it on multiple platforms to expand the potential player base.Released last summer for iPad, PC and Mac, it attracted enough players to get some traction but didn't take off the way the studio hoped. Part of it was likely due to a bit of an identity crisis. Was the game a MOBA that just happened to be turn-based? Or was it a tactical game with some MOBA trappings?
Rovio has officially unveiled their next Angry Birds game today, to follow after the success of last year's Angry Birds Star Wars II. The latest spin-off will be called Angry Birds Stella, and looks to be a female-centric iteration of the popular physics-puzzle series. Stella the pink bird was first introduced in the "Back to School" update to Angry Birds Seasons, where her special power allowed players to encase certain objects in floating pink bubbles and lift them out of the playing field.The official tagline of the game is "Best friends forever… most of the time," and will see the titular Stella be joined by five other female birds throughout her adventures. And as it turns out, these adventures will seemingly have a more emotional impact this time around, with the official Rovio blog stating: "There will be plenty of fun and adventure, but the bunch of passionate pals will also have to deal with some serious issues in order to protect their friendship and the environment they live in.""As you might expect, Angry Birds Stella will also coincide with a number of new cartoons and tie-in toys, which we've been seeing more and more of lately with each new release. We can look forward to seeing more details leading up to the game's release at some point in 2014, but for now, you can take a look at the debut poster of the game as revealed on the official Angry Birds Stella blog.
In 2013, the OUYA seemed to be the micro-console that the press just loved to hate. But you know what? We didn't. In fact I still rock out with my OUYA on a regular basis. Despite all of the company's initial bungling, this little powerhouse delivers exactly what it promised - a living room portal for amazing indie games, with loads to discover.It's also become the defacto multiplayer gaming device in our house. Whenever friends come over, we're all too happy to break out Towerfall or Mrs. Dad vs. korv - and it's even easier to do when you realize that the OUYA supports additional controllers from other devices (we use PS3 controllers, for example).And with Toto Temple Deluxe coming soon, there's really no better time to pick one up.So what are the savings you'll be netting through the latest Gamezebo deal? The OUYA normally runs for $99, so you'll be saving $14 right off the bat. But we're also throwing in a $25 game credit that you can use on the OUYA Discover Store - so that's $39 in savings! And better yet, every game on the OUYA is free to try, so when you spend that game credit, you'll have done so wisely.If you've been thinking of picking one up, stop waiting. This thing has the Gamezebo Seal of Approval. I seriously love my OUYA. You will too. Click here to pick one up today.
Facebook has dropped two partners, HasOffers and Kontagent, from its mobile ad measurement program for holding onto user data too long, according to AdExchanger's blog. Yes, I know - it's not as sexy a news story as what's the latest happening with Flappy Bird. But this is news that is actually far-reaching, and affects any game developer who pays for installs to drive traffic to their games in an attempt to reach (and stay in) the Top 10 game charts. (e.g., everyone aside from developer of Flappy Bird).It is widely acknowledged that the best ad partner to drive installs for apps is Facebook. Only Facebook has the mobile reach through its news feed and targeting capability to really push the needle with game installs. It's not cheap, but it works (hence why Facebook earns $1.3 billion - more than half its revenues - through mobile today). When Facebook lifts a finger, the mobile game world shakes.
We're all pretty big fans of mobile games around these parts of the internet, and if you're here visiting Gamezebo, then it's a pretty safe bet that you are too. But even though you might play the occasional game or two on your smartphone or tablet, do you ever consider yourself to be a full-fledged "mobile gamer"? Well today we want to find out the answer to one very important question: how deep does your addiction to mobile gaming go?Maybe you dream about flinging birds out of slingshots every night? Maybe you have a Cut the Rope-themed iPhone case? Maybe you're like my Dad and have to check in every day to get a free power-up in Angry Birds Star Wars? Well whatever it may be, we've compiled a list of the 10 biggest red flags that let you know when you've been bitten by the mobile gaming bug. Doctors think they might never find a cure."What are some of the other ways you know that someone is a mobile gamer? Take a break from playing that game on your phone and let us know in the replies!
Oops, they did it again. Back in January, Candy Crush Saga maker King underwent a great deal of public scrutiny about the choices they've made in the world of IP protection. Initially it was about a trademark on the word CANDY, but as the week unfolded it turned into a battle over Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, and then even accusations of cloning. King CEO Riccardo Zacconi managed to quell the internet's furor with a seemingly heartfelt response on the issues that had been brought up.But now some new information has been brought to our attention that doesn't quite jive with what Zacconi was preaching.Lost in the shuffle of that January week was a little story about Albert Ransom, the creator of CandySwipe. As the creator of a match-3 game involving candy that pre-dated every incarnation of Candy Crush, Ransom had been fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark for months. And he told Gamezebo that he intended to fight their mark on the word CANDY, too.Now, only weeks after our initial article, King is fighting back.
There has been a lot of speculation about why Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store and Google Play by its creator on Sunday. At the time, we were left with some cryptic tweets that led many to believe the game's success had given him a nervous breakdown.But in his first interview since removing the game, Dong Nguyen reveals his true motivations for killing the Bird. It wasn't a mental health breakdown - it was a crisis of conscience."Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed," Nguyen told Forbes. "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever."In a world where most developers are trying to figure out how to make their games more addictive, Nguyen finds himself swimming upstream like a salmon. Whether you agree with his decision or not, you've got to be impressed by a man who lives by his principles to that degree.