Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird creator drops addictive new iOS game

By

Flappy
Get ready for Ninja Spinki Challenges!!
Photo: Dong Nguyen

Remember Dong Nguyen, developer of wildly popular mobile game Flappy Bird, who reportedly made $50,000 per day before pulling his creation from the App Store? Well, he’s back with a brand new game called Ninja Spinki Challenges!!

While it’s unlikely to match the success of his earlier title, the new game certainly shares Flappy Bird’s frustratingly hard, simplistic and addictive DNA.

Apple ramps up efforts to remove old apps from the App Store

By

You can remove stock apps in iOS 10, but you can't swap them.
Bad apps are getting booted from the App Store.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The great App Store purge is finally underway.

Apple warned developers in September that it plans to remove apps from its store that don’t meet quality standards of being “functional and up-to-date.” According to a new report, the deadline to meet those standards has passed and thousands of crummy apps are now being removed.

Jump Legends is a wildly difficult side-scroller with a twist [Reviews]

By

jump-legends - 3
Yes, another frustrating game that'll keep you coming back.
Photo: Fabled Realm

Jump Legends is a new adventure game for iOS with something very interesting going for it. Your character is an adventurer that’s traveling and jumping through various obstacles to collect different rewards and treasures.

Ultimately, your only responsibility in the entire game is to simply tap so your character jumps as needed. In Jump Legends, this proves extremely challenging because your journey changes every single time you lose.

5 Apple Watch apps that are best left unmade

By

Netflix Watch
Don't look for Netflix on your Apple Watch any time soon. You'd go blind.
Photo: Netflix (via YouTube)

The Apple Watch has been out for a few months now, and it’s given us plenty of time to decide what we do and don’t want from the wearable. It’s a versatile device, to be sure, but that doesn’t mean that we expect it to do everything for us. In fact, a lot of the apps that we use all the time on our iPhones and iPads would be ill-suited, if not impossible for that plucky little screen.

Here are some Apple Watch apps that wouldn’t break our hearts if nobody ever got around to making them.

Hacked Apple Watch runs Flappy Bird as native app

By

Flappy Bird will have you tapping your wrist as if you're late for a meeting.
Flappy Bird will have you tapping your wrist as if you're late for a meeting.
Photo: Hamza Sood/Gizmodo

Remember Flappy Bird, the insanely-addictive iPhone game which spawned a million clones, despite being pulled from the App Store by its creator? Well, it’s back — as a native app for the Apple Watch.

Created by U.K. developer Hamza Sood, the Apple Watch app was created following the release of watchOS 2 at WWDC, giving the opportunity for developers to create native apps for Apple’s wearable device as opposed to the iPhone extensions that are currently doing the rounds.

Check out a video below.

How Crossy Road developers made $10 million in 90 days

By

Who (and what) will make it across Crossy Road? Photo: Hipster Whale
Who (and what) will make it across Crossy Road? Photo: Hipster Whale

SAN FRANCISCO — Crossy Road developers Andy Sum and Matt Hall never set out to rake in a pile of cash. They did, however, want to create a popular game.

“We wanted to make the next Flappy Bird,” said Sum at the duo’s Game Developers Conference session here Tuesday.

“But our goal wasn’t to make money,” added Hall.

And yet make money they did. While Crossy Road hasn’t hit Flappy Bird levels of success (or notoriety), it pulled in 50 million downloads — on iOS, Android and Amazon — during the game’s first 90 days. It also generated $10 million for Hipster Whale, Sum and Hall’s development company.

Not bad for a game that was originally named Roadkill Simulator 2014.

Are you ready for the Flappy Bird arcade game?

By

post-308778-image-a91d8739ca967c53ffc9626a987cd705-jpg

What’s worse than an infuriating free game that munches up your patience and your spare time in equal measures? An infuriating game that you have to pay for, of course.

Having swept mobile gaming in 2014 (and inspired everything from Apple II mods and Pebble versions to Street Fighter II mashups in the process) Flappy Bird is reportedly making its way to arcades — courtesy of Bay Tek Games, which plans to blow the tap-to-fly mobile game to fill a 42-inch display.

This addictive iOS game is made entirely of emoji

By

What it says on the tin. Photo: Ivan Grachyov
What it says on the tin. Photo: Ivan Grachyov

Many would-be game designers never make their games a reality because they don’t possess the artistic chops to create the graphics their game depends upon. But not being able to draw didn’t stop Ivan Grachyov, a computer science student at Moscow State University, and the resulting game might just be the next Flappy Bird.

The Russian designer’s creation? Emoji Cosmos, a game made of nothing but emoji!

Flappy Bird creator tweaks Swing Copters so it’s actually playable

By

appdiction2

Dong Ngyugen’s highly anticipated follow-up to Flappy Bird finally landed on iOS last week, but after months of waiting for an addictive new 8-bit game, fans found Swing Copters to be Ngyugen’s most impossible game yet.

To make Swing Copters slightly less impossible and a few degrees more enjoyable, Ngyugen released an update this morning, tweaking the gameplay so that your little copter is able to make a few more corrections before flying through the diabolical maze of swinging hammers and propeller-annihilating green steel bars.

In today’s Cult of Mac TV video we go hands-on with the Swing Copters update that certainly doesn’t make the game easy, but does manage to put the gameplay on par with Flappy Bird’s addictiveness.

Check out the Cult of Mac TV hands-on review below:

Flappy Bird creator previews ridiculously addictive new game

By

swingcopter

Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen has a new game coming out this Thursday, and it looks to be as brutally difficult and addictive as his original viral hit.

According to Eli Hodapp over at TouchArcade, Swing Copters contains the same one-tap gameplay as Flappy Bird, only this time you’re guiding a little character up through platforms that have swinging hammers on them, rather than horizontally through Mario-esque pipes.

Here’s a video to give you an idea:

Flappy Bird is back, but only on Amazon Fire TV

By

post-289699-image-f3133762154f63cde5034cda84cf576e-jpg

Dong Nguyen’s runaway viral hit mobile game, Flappy Bird, is back in a new form, but this time it’s only on Fire TV, Amazon’s answer to the Roku and Apple TV devices.

The new game, titled Flappy Birds: Family, is available now on the Amazon App Store, and seems to only work on the Fire TV as of this moment.

The game seems to have the same basic gameplay as the original (tap or click a button to flap the bird’s wings and avoid pipes), but adds ghosts as a new obstacle and a new multi-player feature.

“Flappy Birds now are on Amazon Fire TV,” says the app description, “with incredible new features: Person vs Person mode, more obstacles, more fun and still very hard. Enjoy playing the game at home (not breaking your TV) with your family and friends.”

Flappy Bird is now playable on the Apple II

By

post-287595-image-f7f0eaf0dd8bd1fc484b17b45ad5f81d-jpg

The Flappy Bird phenomenon will never die. Although the game has been pulled from the App Store, the addictive little Bird has spawned a million clones, and been ported to all manner of devices, including Android and Windows Phone smartphones, as well as the Mac.

But what you’re about to see might just be the ultimate Flappy Bird port. It’s Flappy Bird running on a vintage Apple IIc, at an astonishing 60 frames per second.

Controversial weed-growing iOS game pulled from App Store after hitting No. 1 spot

By

weedfirm

Controversial cannabis-growing game Weed Firm has been booted out of the App Store.

Essentially Farmville for stoners, the app put you in the role of a marijuana dealer, as you try to grow your business (literally)  and stay one step ahead of “thugs and cops.” Somehow making it past Apple’s usually stringent guidelines for adult content, the app had made it to the top of the App Store’s Top Free iPhone games prior to its expulsion.

Flappy Bird dev gives tantalizing peek at his next addictive game

By

flappydong

Dong Nguygen struck App Store gold when Flappy Bird became the viral video game hit of the year in early 2014, but after seeing the addicting affects of flapping it first hand, Nguyen says he’s working on a new game that doesn’t involve feathery friends, green pipes or repetitive deaths.

Nguygen took to Twitter this afternoon to give fans a preview of his next his next addicting game by posting a screenshot showing a small helmeted man jumping between two buildings; simple, clean, and probably just as addictive as his original hit.

Why the Mac App Store is Shangri-La for developers

By

Mac App Store
Coding for the Mac App Store could be your ticket to professional bliss.

The iOS App Store gold rush might be played out for all but the luckiest developers, but there’s another part of the Apple empire where coders can find breakout success: the Mac App Store.

“Compared to iOS, it’s definitely easier to have a hit in the Mac App Store,” says Andreas Hegenberg, the creator of successful gesture-based Mac app BetterTouchTool. “I think it’s still pretty easy to develop a Mac App Store app that can feed you very well. But it all depends on how you define a ‘big hit.'”

While games rule the increasingly cluttered roost in the iOS store — with many unimaginative developers looking to get rich quick with yet another Flappy Bird clone — the Mac App Store is home to more pedestrian offerings like accounting software and productivity tools.

The Mac App Store might not mint a new millionaire each day, but the developers we spoke with said writing this type of bread-and-butter software can provide a reliable source of income. Here’s why.

Endless runner gives you highs, lows and a fat guy jumping bombs

By

Hill Runner

When you first start playing Hill Runner, it seems impossible. And then after a few dozen dismal failures, you have a really good run and restore your faith in yourself. And then you’ll mess up the next try immediately.

Hill Runner by Stephen Brown
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Price: Free

It’s a glass case of emotion, this game.

But it’s very simple, and it’s free, and it’ll offer some distraction and charm for a few minutes if that’s all you’re looking for.

This Week in Weird: 4 bizarre ripoffs of popular games

By

Weird games header
Photo courtesy of Meghan Stratman

Hundreds of new games come out every week in the App Store. A select few are the next must-play title that everyone will be talking about for the foreseeable future. Most of them are perfectly decent but may not receive the attention they deserve. And then you have the third group: games so odd, bizarre, and head-scratching that you’re not sure what to make of or do with them.

They aren’t necessarily bad; they’re just confusing and weird. And worst of all, people may never know that they exist. But that’s why we’re here.

Here are some of the strangest games to drop into the App Store this week, and they’re all weirdo versions of other titles. What you do with this information is between you and your iPhone.

Spinning Bird Kick! Street Flapper Mashes Up Flappy Bird And Street Fighter II

By

flappy_fighter

Quick, think of two classic game franchises that make perfect sense as a mash-up! Give up? How about Street Fighter II and Flappy Bird? Not convinced of the brilliance of this idea? Well too bad — someone’s done it anyway.

Joining the plethora of Flappy Bird clones to arrive in the App Store since Dong Nguyen’s hit original, Street Flapper lets you take your favorite Street Fighter characters and guide them through an “endurance training” setup composed of the stretchy arms and legs of character Dhalsim.

The Game Developer Bundle: Everything You Need To Create Mobile And Desktop Games [Deals]

By

original_gamedev_bundle_mf

If you’ve ever dreamed of designing that killer mobile or desktop game, Cult of Mac Deals has exactly what you’re looking for.

The Game Developer Bundle features 7 courses and over 30 hours of training that will give you everything you need to create the games you’ve always wanted to make. No matter the platform, no matter the genre of game you want to build, this bundle has you covered. And right now Cult of Mac Deals has The Game Developer Bundle available for 95% off the regular price…only $49!

The Million-Dollar Question: How Do You Make The Next Flappy Bird?

By

Flapping for success.
What made Flappy Bird such a success?

Note: This article was originally published in Cult of Mac Magazine, available on the App Store.

Flappy Bird came onto the scene with a bang, ruffling feathers from Hanoi to Hannover. Dong Nguyen, the developer of this seemingly overnight sensation, was as taken aback as the rest of us, evident from his shocking decision to stop offering the game for download as well as his recent decision to bring it back.

Game developers and publishers can only hope to reproduce this kind of crazy success. And each and every one of the people we talked to at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was eager to share opinions on how Flappy Bird happened, how it might happen again, and why it was such a runaway hit to begin with.

Super Stickman Golf + Flappy Bird = Flappy Golf!

By

flappygolf

Here at Cult of Mac, we’re a big fan of Noodlecake Games’ Super Stickman Golf series. Also? We love Flappy Bird (and it’s better clones).

For us, then, Noodlecake’s new game, Flappy Golf, is just chocolate melting over delicious peanut butter. It’s like Super Stickman Golf except with a flappy golf ball, which you need to get in the hole with as few flaps as possible. Even better? All thirty levels of the game are completely free. Oh, Noodlecake, we love you so.

Flappy Golf
Via: Touch Arcade

New Arcade Game “Microtrip” Adds Science Into Fun Gameplay [Video Review]

By

post-270739-image-a8a34735ab2a168e81afe13c52ed6e49-jpg

The science of the human body is something complicated, yet truly amazing. While the world leaves bodies prone to sickness, white blood cells can help to fight them. In the physics arcade game Microtrip players must help a blob trek its way through a strange body collecting white cells to stay alive. Do you think you can avoid all monsters standing in your way?

Take a look at Microtrip and find out what you think.

This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the iOS application Microtrip brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”