Original Flappy Bird creator not involved with new one

Four days ago you may have heard something along the lines of: “Flappy Bird, the iconic mobile gaming classic, will return in expanded form across multiple platforms, with the first versions launching this Q3 2024, and iOS and Android versions planned for 2025.” I was surprised to get that email because I find mobile games generally horrid and insipid at their core, but also I thought we were done seeing Flappy Bird. Technically we have, at least from the original creator Dong Nguyen.

The press release we were sent late last week is quick to note: “Often imitated but never duplicated, Flappy Bird’s return is spearheaded by the Flappy Bird Foundation, a new team of passionate fans committed to sharing the game with the world.” Going especially hard on the sell by noting, “The Flappy Bird Foundation Group and affiliates have acquired the official Flappy Bird trademark rights from Gametech Holdings LLC, along with the rights for the original game and character Piou Piou vs. Cactus, the mobile title that has long been credited as originally inspiring the iconic bird.“

That’s interesting because of all the people to pipe up on Sunday, Dong Nguyen, creator of the original Flappy Bird… often imitated, cloned, and destroyed by chancers, took to Twitter to clear the air. Dong noted: “No, I have no relat[ion] with their game. I did not sell anything. I also don’t support crypto.” Oh, how spicey.

No, I have no related with their game. I did not sell anything.
I also don’t support crypto.

— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) September 15, 2024

Where does the crypto come in though? Well, the press release we were sent a few days ago has a few words from “spokesperson for the Flappy Bird Foundation” and “chief creative behind Flappy Bird‘s return” Michael Roberts. Based in Hawaii, Roberts is heavily involved with NFTs and other crypto stuff as he’s the founder of crypto firm 1208 Productions. You don’t have to scroll far down Michael’s Twitter to find lots of tweets about NFTs, bitcoin, the blockchain, and so on. With a rather interesting tweet about Chat-GPT scraping the internet for material.

Between generative AI scraping and stuff like this, this really has become the age of petty scumbag art thievery from legitimate creatives in order to generate unearned profit.

It’s a gross time to be a real artist, but a great time to be morally void human-shaped viruses.

— Tommy Millar (@TotoMimoTweets) September 15, 2024

In response to Nguyen’s tweet on Sunday, Halfway House lead animator, Tommy Millar, replied with a similarly interesting suggestion: “Between generative AI scraping and stuff like this, this really has become the age of petty scumbag art thievery from legitimate creatives in order to generate unearned profit.“

Before anyone wants to jump down my throat for not drawing the same conclusion on Kek’s Piou Piou and Nguyen’s Flappy Bird, I agree there is a similarity but not 99% likeness. According to Kek in 2014, thanks Pocket Gamer, Nguyen didn’t know about Piou Piou when making Flappy Bird. However, the comparison in this case isn’t about similar-looking games with different names. What we’re talking about here is a developer claiming to own the rights to something (including the name and art) that the original creator didn’t sell.

The press release and Robert’s crypto firm website both claim ownership of the IP: “Official Flappy Bird IP has been acquired and the anticipated relaunch is coming 2024!” Intellectual property that hasn’t been sold by the creator, as we understand it. Robert’s firm 1208 Productions noted “Flappy Bird: Mobile and Web3 Game,” which the press release forgoes noting (I assume) to avoid the negative press that such announcements generate initially. Sneaky, but that’s why I avoided this news until now.

Whether there is some grudge somewhere for someone or not, I think there is something at the very least questionable about this announcement. Be it the legal IP issues or the simple case of being a crypto game without announcing it as such, the entire thing is (to quote another part of Millar’s tweet), “gross.”