Are you one of millions of people infuriated and frustrated thanks to the incredibly simple, yet incredibly difficult number one app on the planet, Flappy Bird? You are obviously not alone. In addition to the other enraged and obsessed TAP TAPpers out there, the app’s creator, Dong Nguyen, is also being driven crazy by Flappy Bird — so much so in fact that he shared a tweet yesterday announcing he would be removing Flappy Bird from the app stores today!
Here’s Dong’s tweet:
I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
He later clarified some of the confusion after some speculated his frustration was over legal issues or perhaps the possible sale of the free app to another company:
It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
I also don't sell 'Flappy Bird', please don't ask.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
If you’ll notice, it has been a little more than 22 hours since Dong’s frustrated message, but I just checked the Apple App Store and Flappy Bird is still available for download — for now at least.
So what has Dong so Flappy flustered? It seems the overnight explosion of popularity for the app at the beginning of this year (after it had been around for months without much hubbub at all) has garnered the game creator a LOT of attention — too much in fact. And Dong apparently values his identity as an indie game programmer more than the revenue being generated by Flappy Bird, which is an estimated $50,000 a day courtesy of those little ads.
Dong’s public frustration with the huge “success” of his app is nothing new. Last week the game developer shared these tweets in response to the publicity surrounding Flappy Bird:
Press people are overrating the success of my games. It is something I never want. Please give me peace.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 4, 2014
@joekloc Hi Joe, I think press should give my game some peace. Its success is really overrate! I'm sorry, I refuse to answer questions.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 4, 2014
And earlier yesterday Dong foreshadowed his Flappy Bird doomsday message when he tweeted, “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”
On fan responded by writing, “You should hire a PR agency for the media work. Maybe you already did.” Dong answered that with a tweet that seems to reveal a little bit about what is at the core of the problem: “I won’t. The PR will make me not an indie game maker anymore.”
Dong also had a Twitter conversation with another follower (@misterlukeherb) that has similar sentiments:
MLH: Are you tired of all the accusations from @Kotaku who believe you stole sprites from Mario games?
DONG: Ah, I didn’t directly stole something. It is quite an art to doing that 🙂
DONG: Sorry for the typos 🙂 Too tired to take care of.
MLH: No problem, but you hate the success of Flappy Bird?
DONG: Not because of them but because how people use my game. They are overusing it.
MLH: Do you believe that it is not expressing you’re true potential as a game developer and you are being misjudged?
DONG: I always believe I am a game developer. I don’t mind to be misjudged.
MLH: Are you planning on working on anything new to escape Flappy Birds?
DONG: Sure, I am now.
It is unclear if Dong still plans on following through with making Flappy Birds unavailable, but if you’re looking to get in on the life-ruining fun you should probably download it while you still can! The app will reportedly continue to work even if it is removed from the app stores.
UPDATE – It appears as though Dong has followed through with his announcement as Flappy Bird is no longer available for download. 🙁
