Irish Dev Terry Cavanagh on Flappy Bird

Image via: terrycavanaghgames.com

Irish indie developer Terry Cavanagh has made his Flappy Bird tribute, Maverick Bird, available for free on his website.

The two-button, PC-only game is built using the same tools as Cavanagh's 2012 hit - Super Hexagon. It expands on Flappy Bird's simplistic game play by allowing players to fly down as well as up to avoid obstacles.

Flappy Bird was a mobile game on iOS and Android developed by Vietmanese developer Dong Nguyen. The game was releasde last summer but rose to prominance in recent weeks. The developer has since pulled the game from the App Store and Google Play saying that its success, and the backlash from gamers, was negatively impacting on his life.

I can call 'Flappy Bird' is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014

Terry Cavanagh, on his twitter account, said that his game is intended as a tribute and not a clone. He is resisting calls to release the game for mobile devices.

Getting asked this lots, so here's an answer: I'm sorry, I'm not porting Maverick Bird to iOS or making a Super version. It's a fan game!
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014

I'm glad people like it, but understand why I made it. I didn't want the only response to Flappy Bird to be anger and jealousy.
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014

For a while, in my feed at least, that was the only voice I was hearing. I wanted to express something else. I wanted to celebrate it.
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014