harmanjit_kaur
Waheguru Waheguru
NEW DELHI: Angry, angry birds. As the world spends 200 million minutes a day fighting for these wingless cacklers, a small Finnish company has taken flight.
It took Rovio Mobile more than 25 games to hit upon the idea of catapulting birds on grunting pigs. Eight months of work and an investment of $100,000 later, Angry Birds has put it on an unprecedented trajectory.
Last checked, the sling fest has 10 million Android users of the free ad-supported version and 13 million paid downloads on Apple iOS. Put together, the ticker shows 50 million downloads on different platforms -- the highest ever for any mobile game.
Every tech entrepreneur now craves an Angry Birds in his portfolio. An app that outsmarted 3 lakh others to become your daily entertainment snack. A game enjoyed across countries, by six-and 60-year-olds alike. So addictive, that instead of using it to kill time, users find time for it.
"It is a perfect blend of unique and engaging back story, memorable characters and simple but surprising game play. The direct touchscreen interactions, the accessible mechanics, a lot of things make it an appealing game," says Ville Heijari, Rovio's 'bird whisperer'. The exciting part is that you can be a tech nobody, and still make an Angry Birds. Before the mega-hit, Rovio didn't rank high on the radar of innovative companies. It did not invest millions in creating the product. Nor did it spend on a marketing blitzkrieg. The game created the buzz, catching on by word of mouth.
What makes the game so compelling?
May be its unique protagonists: the scowling birds. Rovio's team was so in love with them, they decided to cast the birds as heroes in a new game. It was the time when swine flu had become pandemic. This gave the game its villains -- pigs, sickly-green, egg-stealing creatures protected by rickety structures. You put the revengeful birds in a sling shot, aim, and hit the pigs
Thinking out of box critical
"The short learning curve, good graphics and excellent music are keys to its phenomenal success," says Rohit Singal, Founder and CEO of Sourcebits, a software development company which boasts of Robokill, a game that cracked the top 10 apps of iPhone and the iPad last year.
Thinking out of the box is also critical. Angry Birds gave the world a new, bestselling gaming console: the smartphone. By not being restricted to a PSP or Wii, it reaches casual gamers of all income brackets, notching up envious numbers. Enthusiasts insist there is no match to the experience on an iPad, but the college-goer can spend hours playing the game on a Nokia handset.
Angry Birds can teach the tech biggies a thing or two as well. To Apple, the merits of tech-openness, to Google, that paid content sells and to Facebook, that advertisements are no reason to blush. In fact, had Rovio the hang ups of Google and Facebook, the world's best-selling mobile game would make little money. Currently, paid versions of Angry Birds start at 99 cents a pop on iPad and $4.99 on newly opened Mac store. No one is telling what the ingame ad rates are, but safe to say, they are through the roof. Do the math: the birds are breaking Rovio's piggy bank -- estimates range from $1-2 million a month.
But the biggest lesson remains that in tech content, size doesn't matter. App developers across the world have a shot at glory, a la Rovio, provided their content is unique. Do Indian entrepreneurs have a chance? "The ecosystem exists. Many Indian app developers are building high-quality games. It is definitely possible that the next Angry Birds comes from India," says Singal.
It took Rovio Mobile more than 25 games to hit upon the idea of catapulting birds on grunting pigs. Eight months of work and an investment of $100,000 later, Angry Birds has put it on an unprecedented trajectory.
Last checked, the sling fest has 10 million Android users of the free ad-supported version and 13 million paid downloads on Apple iOS. Put together, the ticker shows 50 million downloads on different platforms -- the highest ever for any mobile game.
Every tech entrepreneur now craves an Angry Birds in his portfolio. An app that outsmarted 3 lakh others to become your daily entertainment snack. A game enjoyed across countries, by six-and 60-year-olds alike. So addictive, that instead of using it to kill time, users find time for it.
"It is a perfect blend of unique and engaging back story, memorable characters and simple but surprising game play. The direct touchscreen interactions, the accessible mechanics, a lot of things make it an appealing game," says Ville Heijari, Rovio's 'bird whisperer'. The exciting part is that you can be a tech nobody, and still make an Angry Birds. Before the mega-hit, Rovio didn't rank high on the radar of innovative companies. It did not invest millions in creating the product. Nor did it spend on a marketing blitzkrieg. The game created the buzz, catching on by word of mouth.
What makes the game so compelling?
May be its unique protagonists: the scowling birds. Rovio's team was so in love with them, they decided to cast the birds as heroes in a new game. It was the time when swine flu had become pandemic. This gave the game its villains -- pigs, sickly-green, egg-stealing creatures protected by rickety structures. You put the revengeful birds in a sling shot, aim, and hit the pigs
Thinking out of box critical
"The short learning curve, good graphics and excellent music are keys to its phenomenal success," says Rohit Singal, Founder and CEO of Sourcebits, a software development company which boasts of Robokill, a game that cracked the top 10 apps of iPhone and the iPad last year.
Thinking out of the box is also critical. Angry Birds gave the world a new, bestselling gaming console: the smartphone. By not being restricted to a PSP or Wii, it reaches casual gamers of all income brackets, notching up envious numbers. Enthusiasts insist there is no match to the experience on an iPad, but the college-goer can spend hours playing the game on a Nokia handset.
Angry Birds can teach the tech biggies a thing or two as well. To Apple, the merits of tech-openness, to Google, that paid content sells and to Facebook, that advertisements are no reason to blush. In fact, had Rovio the hang ups of Google and Facebook, the world's best-selling mobile game would make little money. Currently, paid versions of Angry Birds start at 99 cents a pop on iPad and $4.99 on newly opened Mac store. No one is telling what the ingame ad rates are, but safe to say, they are through the roof. Do the math: the birds are breaking Rovio's piggy bank -- estimates range from $1-2 million a month.
But the biggest lesson remains that in tech content, size doesn't matter. App developers across the world have a shot at glory, a la Rovio, provided their content is unique. Do Indian entrepreneurs have a chance? "The ecosystem exists. Many Indian app developers are building high-quality games. It is definitely possible that the next Angry Birds comes from India," says Singal.
