Ha Dong Nguyen is a 35-year-old video game artist and game developer from Vietnam. He graduated as an engineer in Information Technology. Hanoi University of Technology is a prestigious school that taught many Vietnamese talented engineers. However, Nguyen never had a vision as a world-famous game programmer when he grew up in Van Phuc, a rural village outside of Hanoi known for silk making. While his father owned a hardware store and his mother worked for the government, his family could not afford Game Boys for him or his younger brother. But finally, they were able to buy a Nintendo, which was only available in the cloned form, like most electronic devices at that time in Vietnam. Nguyen was enchanted at the power to control the character and spent his time playing Super Mario Bros obsessively. Nguyen had learned to code a computer chess game of his own by 16. Three years later, He was among the top 20 of a programming competition and had an internship in one of the only game companies in Hanoi at the time, Punch Entertainment, which made mainly mobile games.
Nguyen was quickly getting tired of pumping out the company’s sports games. Later, he became intrigued with the possibilities of the touch screen when he got his hands on an iPhone. In 2012, He found dotGears Studios and started developing arcade games for the iPhone operating system. His studio created nearly 30 games but perhaps the most popular games they had created is Flappy Bird. The game is a side-scroller where a bird is controlled by the player, trying to fly through the green pipe without touching them. In 3 days, Nguyen developed the game, using a bird protagonist that he had crafted for a canceled game in 2012.
This game captured the simple beauty but powerful influence of the Nintendo games of his youth. When answered the Thanh Nien Online paper, he said: “ My style is more minimalistic… I don’t like the graphic [of Angry Birds]. I always thought Angry Birds was too busy.” Dong Nguyen wanted to make games for people like him: “busy, harried and always on the move.” The game’s success perhaps due to this “deceitfully” simplicity. The gameplay was inspired by the act of bouncing a ping pong ball on a paddle for as long as possible. The game’s previous version was significantly easier than but Nguyen said he found this version to be boring. However, Dong Nguyen argues that contemporary Western games are overly complex. dotGears defined their games as “heavily influenced by retro pixelated games in its golden age. Everything is pure, extremely hard, and incredibly fun to play”.
The game is a huge success with more than 50 million downloads until it was removed from App Store and Google Play in February 2014. But quickly after that, Flappy Bird met with critical reviews, alleged plagiarism in graphics and game mechanics. When questioned by The Daily Telegraph, Nguyen said he valued other people’s views but didn’t want to comment: “I’d like to make my games in peace.” Lawyers in Vietnam also denied allegations that Nguyen had to remove the game due to violating new laws on internet use in the country. It’s most likely the creator of Flappy Bird removed it forever due to its addictive nature. In an interview with Forbes, he states: “Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed. 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.” Although Flabby Bird’s success didn’t last for long, its legacy proves that a game doesn’t always need over-complicated storytelling or mechanics. This setback didn’t discourage Dong Nguyen, he continues to challenge himself with different genre mobile games.
Cites
Kushner, David. “Exclusive: Flappy Bird Creator Speaks.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/the-flight-of-the-birdman-flappy-bird-creator-dong-nguyen-speaks-out-112457/.
Nguyen, Phan Huy Thai. “Nhân Vật Nguyễn Hà Đông: Từ Flappy Bird Đến Giấc Mơ Việt Nam.” Thegioididong.com, 12 Aug. 2015, www.thegioididong.com/tin-tuc/nhan-vat-nguyen-ha-dong-tu-flappy-bird-den-giac-mo-viet-nam-671068?fbclid=IwAR2v89Xst4reWcf3s5TmlmIyKVLdrPxZTPhNYw4nhjMnM84BPrvyAX6ij4s.
Ha, Dan. “Chàng Trai Viết Game Flappy Bird Gây Sốt Toàn Cầu.” Báo Thanh Niên, Báo Thanh Niên, 6 Feb. 2014, thanhnien.vn/cong-nghe/chang-trai-viet-game-flappy-bird-gay-sot-toan-cau-87904.html?fbclid=IwAR36QvHDLeH0QS8IJH6Y8UdHwvW5S0VeBsd6H5KDd0u66u41LIyULRayvhQ.
Hooton, Christopher (February 10, 2014). “Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen receives death threats on Twitter”. The Independent. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
Nguyen, Lan Anh. “Exclusive: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Says App ‘Gone Forever’ Because It Was ‘An Addictive Product'”. Forbes. Archived from the original on November 20, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
Finally, I can know something about this game’s creator. Thank you for sharing.
I actually have played this game several times! Thank you for letting me know the background of Flappy Bird and Dong Nguyen!
Oh wow! I totally forgot about Flappy Bird. I remember when everyone used to be addicted to it in high school. It’s really interesting to learn about Dong’s backstory.