Angry Birds: Rovio's 52nd Game
Abstract
Before Angry Birds, the Finnish studio Rovio had made 51 games in six years, a mix of work for hire, publishing deals and its own releases, none of them a breakthrough, and by 2009 it was short of money. Angry Birds (December 2009) was its 52nd game. It reached No. 1 on Apple’s paid-app chart about six months later and passed a billion downloads across all platforms in May 2012. Its success came from fitting the game to the touchscreen: satisfying physics, immediate feedback, short levels.
Rovio’s Near-Death
Rovio (originally Relude, later renamed Rovio Mobile) was founded in January 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen, and Kim Dikert, after their game King of the Cabbage World won a mobile game competition sponsored by Nokia and HP at the Assembly demo party. The company spent six years making 51 games for mobile platforms, many of them commissioned by other companies, mostly for Nokia handsets and later the iPhone. None broke through, and by 2009 Rovio was short of money and looking for a hit of its own.
Jaakko Iisalo, a senior game designer, created a concept involving flightless birds attacking structures defended by pigs, reportedly inspired by a sketched image of angry-looking birds he had created without a specific game in mind. The concept became Angry Birds.
The Design
Angry Birds combined several mechanics that suited a touchscreen phone:
Touch-to-aim: Pulling back the slingshot using a finger was intuitive on a touchscreen in a way it would not have been with buttons. The gesture matched the game action (pulling a slingshot) physically.
Physics simulation: The Box2D physics engine (created by Erin Catto) produced satisfying destruction: blocks fell realistically, pigs bounced and tumbled, structures collapsed in patterns that felt both surprising and natural.
Short session design: Each level took 30 seconds to 2 minutes. This fit mobile play sessions precisely, the game was completable in transit, in a queue, during a short break.
“One more level” structure: Difficulty increased gradually but the player could always see the next level was achievable. The three-star rating system gave perfectionist players replay motivation.
The Cultural Moment
Angry Birds launched on the App Store in December 2009 at a price of $0.99. After a slow start it was promoted by its publisher Chillingo and by Apple, and about six months after release it reached No. 1 on the App Store’s paid-app chart. Rovio announced a billion downloads across all platforms in May 2012 and two billion in January 2014.
The game spawned merchandise, animated films, theme parks, and a brand that had effectively nothing to do with the original game mechanics. It became a standard example of the App Store era, in which a small studio could reach a global market.