Fear the Flappy Bird

[Dan Willis]

This latest waste of time is exploding across the world. Its hyper addictive style is looking to leave you chained to the sidewalk.

AVOID FLAPPY BIRD AT ALL COSTS!

 

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[Blueskies4me]

My son is at 22 on that game...I refuse to participate...ok I hit the first pipe and quit

Funny story though, my mom called me one day in a panic. Now mind you she's 70 years old and still has a flip phone. So she calls and says, "You need to check on your sister in law." I said, "Why?" My husband's sister rarely even talks to my mom so it seemed unusual that my mom would be so alarmed. She said, "I think there's something wrong." So I asked her what made her think there's some horrible crisis with my sister in law, I mean surely I would know about it. "Her farm on Farmville is dying. Animals are walking around...nothing's been harvested...I'm really concerned." Ugh... yeah... Turns out my sister in law was finishing her Master's Degree in Education and studying for her state boards. Crisis averted.

 

[paqman]

$50k per day in ad revenue for the creator of that app. Boo ya!

 

[dknise]

Once again, like angry birds, and extremely old and tired out game rebranded to become a top hit.

Flappy Bird
Angry Birds
Words With Friends
Scramble With Friends
Farmville

etc

 

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[Dan Willis]

My son is at 22 on that game...I refuse to participate...ok I hit the first pipe and quit

Funny story though, my mom called me one day in a panic. Now mind you she's 70 years old and still has a flip phone. So she calls and says, "You need to check on your sister in law." I said, "Why?" My husband's sister rarely even talks to my mom so it seemed unusual that my mom would be so alarmed. She said, "I think there's something wrong." So I asked her what made her think there's some horrible crisis with my sister in law, I mean surely I would know about it. "Her farm on Farmville is dying. Animals are walking around...nothing's been harvested...I'm really concerned." Ugh... yeah... Turns out my sister in law was finishing her Master's Degree in Education and studying for her state boards. Crisis averted.

This is exactly it. These addictive fillers consume people to the point where it becomes their lives.

 

[dknise]

This is exactly it. These addictive fillers consume people to the point where it becomes their lives.

You're seeing a waste of time.

I'm seeing an opportunity for business.

 

[davedev]

50k a day? Gee wiz.

Lotta money in helping people kill time.

 

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[cautiouscapy]

My partner's sister, and his brother's wife, were telling me how much time they spend on Candy Crush.

Appalled, I looked into how it was monetized...£400,000/day for the creator...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...g-Candy-Crush-addictive-online-game-ever.html

 

[Blueskies4me]

Exactly... Enable but don't be enabled. I think that was Dan's point here... stick to the fastlane.

 

[redshep]

Can't wait for "Candy Ninja Birds Without Water Kill Zombies On a Rope With Friends"

 

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[davedev]

Can't wait for "Candy Ninja Birds Without Water Kill Zombies On a Rope With Friends"

Kill Zombies With Friends

Lol.

 

[Dan Willis]

Exactly... Enable but don't be enabled. I think that was Dan's point here... stick to the fastlane.

This is exactly it. Develop the fodder and you are in the fast lane. Consume the Flappy Bird and you are littering sitting on the sidewalk.

 

[100k]

You're seeing a waste of time.

I'm seeing an opportunity for business.

Do a copy cat...

Obama ....Debt Ceiling.... Creditors..... and obama needs to fly between the two xD

 

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[Determined2012]

This is the EXACT reason why I took my TV out of my room, and barely, rarely watch it... These days I only turn it on to watch Shark Tank, or if I am cleaning my kitchen I turn it on while I'm in there.

I used to be OBSESSED with MANY reality TV shows... The drama, the fashion, food, and travel... These days I don't give TWO SHITS about how those people are living. I'm laser focused on getting my own reality in my real life to what I want it to be.

I have been able to focus on goals, routines, and check lists so much more and easily. I get so many things done. I feel I have so much time. I feel much better about myself and what I am doing now.

The distraction that TV and other things like these games cause for many and majority of my peers and family is staggering. My big sister was like: "You reading ANOTHER book?! I don't read books. I have too many episodes of General Hospital and American Idol to catch up on with the DVR."

I just swiped my iPad and turned the page and continued reading.
It all makes me feel sad actually. Because I just read Choose Yourself and I believe a lot of what James Altchuer wrote is true about jobs and robots...

So many of the people I love and care about are not going to be prepared to face things when this happens.

I usually feel so overwhelmingly obligated to always help my friends and family when needed. But going through what I am going through trying to succeed at something so different and so hard makes me not want to bail anyone out because they all had choices to make same as me--- I chose to be prepared, they chose to watch Idol.

It makes me sad- and I just wonder how close we are to the times that James Altchuer spoke about.

 

[Enki]

It makes me sad- and I just wonder how close we are to the times that James Altchuer spoke about.

Thanks! I'm adding that book to my wish list.

The distraction that TV and other things like these games cause for many and majority of my peers and family is staggering. My big sister was like: "You reading ANOTHER book?! I don't read books. I have too many episodes of General Hospital and American Idol to catch up on with the DVR."

I get that from so called friends & family as well.

I had to go to the ER because I broke a back tooth and the nerve was exposed. I was sitting there reading from my kindle touch (None of the other features, just plain old reading). This lady asked me "what is that", I told here. She was like "You can't play no games or watch videos?". I was like "nope, Just read". She gave me the craziest look ever than whipped out her Ipad and zombied off into candy crush.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm proud to say that I'd don't have a clue what you guys are talking about.

I'm gonna guess it's some stupid game that people have allowed to steal their life away without them even knowing it.

 

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[decaobr]

I bet it took less than a Week, for the guy to build that game, and now he is making 50k per day, and his revenue must be going up everyday.

 

[Enki]

I'm proud to say that I'd don't have a clue what you guys are talking about.

I'm gonna guess it's some stupid game that people have allowed to steal their life away without them even knowing it.

Thats the difference between you and must of us. You rarely come in contact with people who waste your's or even their own time.

I think in the future as I transition to more value of my own time, I will slowly surround myself by people who value their own time too.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm gonna guess it's some stupid game that people have allowed to steal their life away without them even knowing it.

I bet it took less than a Week, for the guy to build that game, and now he is making 50k per day, and his revenue must be going up everyday.

Hence it might actually belong in the "Fastlane" category? Amazing how ONE topic can have two distinct conversations depending on which side of the equation you sit.

 

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[Dan Willis]

Hence it might actually belong in the "Fastlane" category? Amazing how ONE topic can have two distinct conversations depending on which side of the equation you sit.

I started it in the slow lane as a warning but definitely see where it could be shifted also to fast lane as an opportunity. Anyone developing Angry Flappy Birds?

 

[Blueskies4me]

I'm gonna guess it's some stupid game that people have allowed to steal their life away without them even knowing it.

My daughter's "addiction" is Vine this is where she saw a bunch of videos about it...one was a kid showing grandma his phone and saying "you wanna play flappy bird". She says "I don't wanna play no flappy bird"... that is how it was triggered in our house.

I'm not as concerned about kids playing a little while and getting bored with it as much as I am about colleagues sitting at lunch, in their offices, playing Candy Crush instead of holding a conversation. That's a little disturbing. And yeah...I had this thread going through my mind yesterday thinking, what is the social construct going to look like if everyone has some level of smart phone addiction. Opportunity. Definitely for gaming but for Education to compete. There's money on both sides.

 

[Vespasian]

As an entrepreneur, do you really think that the newest craze and trend is 'slowlane' and should be laughed upon? Should we be proud when we say that we don't have a clue what our potential customers are spending their time with?

I think we as producers should brainstorm ideas how to improve the revenue streams, diversify risks and ride the momentum to expand the developers business... and how to profit on a crazy like this.

IAP: 50 million downloads so far, imagine how much money is to be made with in-app-purchases. New bird skins, new level skins, probably some boosters (might destroy the balancing of the game tho) or an ad-don that lets you allow to record your tries. Only 1% of the active players purchasing an in-game item would result in 750k USD in pure profit (1.99 USD IAP minus iTunes / Playstore fees). Taking into account how many people actually purchase virtual stuff with their hard earned money, the conversion rate will be most likely higher than 1 in a 100.

Optimization: the developer of Flappy Birds is a small team based in Vietnam and they are completely overwhelmed with the popularity of their game. The monetization is complete shit and I doubt that they invested any time in split-testing placements or working on deals that allow them to sell their data to other companies. Also, they don't have a system in place which allows them to recapture the customer once he drops Flappy Bird. Imagine having an email list of 20 million players that you can blast when your new game is launching. Instant money machine. Instant top 10 in Appstore and Playstore.

Merchandise: Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, is doing between 70-85 million USD in merchandise and licensing deals with their Angry Birds brand. I doubt that Flappy Bird will get as popular as Angry Birds due to the simplicity and limited gameplay, but even there is no doubt that they can make tons of money in the offline world as well.​

Flappy Birds wasn't an over night hit btw. The game has been around for almost a year and only gained popularity in the last few weeks. I really wonder what made it so popular all of a sudden.

Now the interesting thing is, how can YOU make money? It's not fast-lane and I wouldn't dabble with it personally, but there are a lot of people around here that have limited funds and no real clue what to do or where to start.

Youtube videos: collect the best Flappy Bird rage videos and put them in compilations and upload them to YT. Good example: get a cheap Samsung phone and copy what works (destroying things and acting like a retard - have a look at the video views and subscribers) and create a ripoff like this. Youtube eCPMs are not what they used to be but you can bet that the ROI of this video is pretty high. Plus you could ride the wave of momentum here as well by doing different videos around the same topic. It's retarded and I don't find this funny at all but my opinion and feelings mean shit as long as it makes money.

Create guides and ebooks (paid or unpaid): people are addicted and they want to beat their friends. They want to have an advantage so they're looking for guides, cheats and hacks. Bang out a guide and drop affiliate links in it to merchandise or other related products. There is no monetary investment needed, you just have be a little bit creative and put in a good amount of work.

Hustle eBay / Amazon: have a designer create a vector version of the bird for $20 and have some shirts printed that you will sell on eBay or Amazon. $10-13 product cost, $20-25 revenue. This works? Great, now offer phone cases, stickers and whatever you can come up with. Combine this with the two other points I mentioned above and you have free traffic! This is not really legit due to possible copyright infringement but the chance of getting sued at this time should be really low and the consequences minimal (at least when you don't mention the brand name on the products). I'm not endorsing this, just bouncing some ideas.​

All those ideas are no foundation for a long-term business, but I don't see why a smart guy couldn't bank 100k+ in profits and fund his fastlane biz with this.

Every time people go crazy for something and get all emotional it's our chance as producers to bang something out and give it to them. Every new craze opens a plethora of new opportunities which only a few people see and even less take. I find this really frustrating.

I hate TV and most of the trends out there and I can't stand the mindset of 98% of people who are out there but there is no way that I could completely plug myself out of their world. They're my customers, they pay me. As an entrepreneur, I have to understand what's going on in their lives, what the love, what they hate - what emotions they experience. Only that way I can come up with new ideas and create useless stuff they love to buy from me.

'Throw away your television' is a good song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, but as a business owner I would be very careful living this mindset. For those of you who didn't read the 48 Laws of Power - buy it now, for all others try to recall Law 18 - isolation is dangerous.

 

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[Darius]

Surprised Nintendo has sued them because of the pipes & background image. It looks like they took straight from Mario or something.

Good money machine though. Fun while you're doing good.

 

[davedev]

Brilliant post @Vespasian

Rep Given +

 

[Dan Willis]

As an entrepreneur, do you really think that the newest craze and trend is 'slowlane' and should be laughed upon? Should we be proud when we say that we don't have a clue what our potential customers are spending their time with?

I think we as producers should brainstorm ideas how to improve the revenue streams, diversify risks and ride the momentum to expand the developers business... and how to profit on a crazy like this.

IAP: 50 million downloads so far, imagine how much money is to be made with in-app-purchases. New bird skins, new level skins, probably some boosters (might destroy the balancing of the game tho) or an ad-don that lets you allow to record your tries. Only 1% of the active players purchasing an in-game item would result in 750k USD in pure profit (1.99 USD IAP minus iTunes / Playstore fees). Taking into account how many people actually purchase virtual stuff with their hard earned money, the conversion rate will be most likely higher than 1 in a 100.

Optimization: the developer of Flappy Birds is a small team based in Vietnam and they are completely overwhelmed with the popularity of their game. The monetization is complete shit and I doubt that they invested any time in split-testing placements or working on deals that allow them to sell their data to other companies. Also, they don't have a system in place which allows them to recapture the customer once he drops Flappy Bird. Imagine having an email list of 20 million players that you can blast when your new game is launching. Instant money machine. Instant top 10 in Appstore and Playstore.

Merchandise: Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, is doing between 70-85 million USD in merchandise and licensing deals with their Angry Birds brand. I doubt that Flappy Bird will get as popular as Angry Birds due to the simplicity and limited gameplay, but even there is no doubt that they can make tons of money in the offline world as well.​

Flappy Birds wasn't an over night hit btw. The game has been around for almost a year and only gained popularity in the last few weeks. I really wonder what made it so popular all of a sudden.

Now the interesting thing is, how can YOU make money? It's not fast-lane and I wouldn't dabble with it personally, but there are a lot of people around here that have limited funds and no real clue what to do or where to start.

Youtube videos: collect the best Flappy Bird rage videos and put them in compilations and upload them to YT. Good example: get a cheap Samsung phone and copy what works (destroying things and acting like a retard - have a look at the video views and subscribers) and create a ripoff like this. Youtube eCPMs are not what they used to be but you can bet that the ROI of this video is pretty high. Plus you could ride the wave of momentum here as well by doing different videos around the same topic. It's retarded and I don't find this funny at all but my opinion and feelings mean shit as long as it makes money.

Create guides and ebooks (paid or unpaid): people are addicted and they want to beat their friends. They want to have an advantage so they're looking for guides, cheats and hacks. Bang out a guide and drop affiliate links in it to merchandise or other related products. There is no monetary investment needed, you just have be a little bit creative and put in a good amount of work.

Hustle eBay / Amazon: have a designer create a vector version of the bird for $20 and have some shirts printed that you will sell on eBay or Amazon. $10-13 product cost, $20-25 revenue. This works? Great, now offer phone cases, stickers and whatever you can come up with. Combine this with the two other points I mentioned above and you have free traffic! This is not really legit due to possible copyright infringement but the chance of getting sued at this time should be really low and the consequences minimal (at least when you don't mention the brand name on the products). I'm not endorsing this, just bouncing some ideas.​

All those ideas are no foundation for a long-term business, but I don't see why a smart guy couldn't bank 100k+ in profits and fund his fastlane biz with this.

Every time people go crazy for something and get all emotional it's our chance as producers to bang something out and give it to them. Every new craze opens a plethora of new opportunities which only a few people see and even less take. I find this really frustrating.

I hate TV and most of the trends out there and I can't stand the mindset of 98% of people who are out there but there is no way that I could completely plug myself out of their world. They're my customers, they pay me. As an entrepreneur, I have to understand what's going on in their lives, what the love, what they hate - what emotions they experience. Only that way I can come up with new ideas and create useless stuff they love to buy from me.

'Throw away your television' is a good song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, but as a business owner I would be very careful living this mindset. For those of you who didn't read the 48 Laws of Power - buy it now, for all others try to recall Law 18 - isolation is dangerous.

It's posts like this that make me wish their was a favorite option so I could review them easily in the future.

 

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[Ryllban]

I checked out this game yesterday after I browsed on the appstore toplist (trying to find what make the top games so popular) and alos because I saw a bunch of posts on instagram about this flappy bird.

Omfg....This game look like crap in graphic (not blaming or shit talking on the owners at all. I actually thinks its amazing) and still gets this many downloads and players. Just got me really to think that F*cking anything is possible. You don't need the best graphic and most advanced game to become a top seller. A simple idea and people will waste their day to day life in it.

I mean, look at candy crush like many talked about in this thread. Its a pretty simple game, and the game format isnt even new(Correct me if I'm wrong, but inst candy crush like 4 in a row?). Its just reinvented in a much cooler style.

Hmm, there is so much money for us to be made out there. Lets grab it from the zombie sidewalkers !

 

[MJ DeMarco]

It's posts like this that make me wish their was a favorite option so I could review them easily in the future.

Bookmarking is coming so you can catalog all your favorite posts ... however, it will be a feature only available to INSIDERS.

 

[Ryan Oshe]

I checked out this game yesterday after I browsed on the appstore toplist (trying to find what make the top games so popular) and alos because I saw a bunch of posts on instagram about this flappy bird.

Omfg....This game look like crap in graphic (not blaming or shit talking on the owners at all. I actually thinks its amazing) and still gets this many downloads and players. Just got me really to think that F*cking anything is possible. You don't need the best graphic and most advanced game to become a top seller. A simple idea and people will waste their day to day life in it.

I mean, look at candy crush like many talked about in this thread. Its a pretty simple game, and the game format isnt even new(Correct me if I'm wrong, but inst candy crush like 4 in a row?). Its just reinvented in a much cooler style.

Hmm, there is so much money for us to be made out there. Lets grab it from the zombie sidewalkers !

The video game industry right now has a lot of growth in "indie" games that don't have the best graphics and such, but are fun and/or simple. The "big" games are still out there and doing well.

Two examples

Case A: "Call of Duty"
Release a new game every November with some of the most up to date graphics to be run on great hardware and sold for $60 a pop. They do billions of dollars in sales, BUT, to make those billions of sales they have a staff of thousands working on the game, they have large distribution chains that need to be managed, retailer cuts, etc, etc, etc.

Case B: "Minecraft"
Release one game with a team of less than 20. They sold the game in "Alpha", which is a stage of development far before the end product, often used to gauge interest and/or generate hype, for 10 euros (Developers are Swedish) which translated at the time to about $13. They sold millions of copies before the game even made it to "beta" which is still not the full product, but is basically pretty close to the full release. By the time the game was finally actually released the head of the project made millions and is still making money from game sales and other licensing opportunities (plushies of game characters and stuff sold at retailers). He is supposedly working on other projects now, but he is basically retired from this one success.

I don't know about you guys, but I would rather be Case B. Much more separated from time.

There is also a netflix documentary called "Indie game: the movie" about various other extremely small teams (one or two people) who made millions in sales just at launch of their games.

 

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