Slashdot Mirror
Angry Birds and Parabolic Instinct In Humans
Frankie70 writes "Matt Ridley writes about Angry Birds, an iPhone game (later ported to other platforms) which has sold more than 12 million copies. The spectacular trajectory of the game, from obscure Finnish iPhone app to global ubiquity — there are board games, maybe even movies in the works — is probably inexplicable. Ridley wonders if there is an evolutionary aspect to its allure. There is something much more satisfactory about an object tracing a parabolic ballistic trajectory through space towards its target than either following a straight line or propelling itself."
a rhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Wars
Anyone who played the ancient cannon game would resonate with this. Two cannon, placed on opposite sides of the screen, take turns firing shots where the angle and velocity is variable. Very satisfying for such a simple game.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
An "Angry Birds" movie? Look, I love the game, I really do. But a movie? Please no.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Can't anything just be fun anymore?
When I was a kid, I had a dog that could follow a parabolic trajectory. By throwing the ball at an angle to roll along the angled roof of our house, its trajectory would follow the arc and drop down at a point further down the yard.
The dog learned to anticipate where the ball would fall from the roof, even though she couldn't see the ball from her vantage point on the ground.
John
..don't they fix the parabolic action (or lack thereof) of the "bomber" birds' payload egg? I had gotten so used to the extremely satisfying physics of the game that when that one came along and didn't describe a curved trajectory upon release, it totally threw me off and still does to today.
Blog,Twitter
...but is it anything like that Cheerleader tossing game on the web?
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/games/play/80505395/
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
For me the game seems attractive due to a mix of simple, but challenging game play, simple but cute graphics and the whole audio choice which makes it feel like some sort of crazy mad house. Maybe people like crazy?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
The parabolic path of the birds, sure. Or maybe just breaking things. Glass, wood, rocks, pumpkins. Who doesn't like smashing a pumpkin? A simple puzzle game. That's the allure. Let's try not to over-analyze.
The snow in the Christmas version kinda didn't behave correctly. It made me angry.
Golf isn't too far off from the same basic concept, either.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
The physics is fun but the birds have character because of the sounds and I like that most - they're not precisely cute either which is also nice because soppy cuteness can be revolting :-) Other games often lack this kind of appeal as it's harder to describe than fps and explosions. If I was going to rant it would be about how brain dead and boring multi-million dollar games seem to be *because* the money drives out the personality.
This is all just my personal opinion.
I remember playing with this code as a kid. I made nuclear bananas. Good times.
What's with all the talk about this Angry Birds game everywhere?
It is the result of the way the AppStore and basically the whole Internet works. Some stuff gets to the top and then, by being on the top it enters a feedback loop: more people see it, thus more people buy and thus more people report about it, which in turn means more people will see it and buy it. This feedback loop then turns a decent game into such a blockbuster success. All those random flash games out there never entered into such a feedback loop and thus never got that popular.
This is one of those depressing things with modern technology. You have access to basically everything, which should mean more variety, but due to the self enforcing feedback everybody gets exposed to basically the same stuff and the result is less variety.
The coolest version of this game was "Football" played on a cafeteria tabletop with a folded up sheet of paper. You would score by flicking the paper with your middle finger through a set of "uprights" consisting of your opponent holding up two "L's" with his thumbs and index fingers.
Had it all. Parabolic, wind resistance, thrust, what a physics game that was.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'm not sure what the GP said (apart from the bit you quoted), nor do I know if anyone else said something more insightful than you did. But your post is +4, and I almost moderated it up to +5.
Then I decided to break the feedback loop and not mod you up. Viva variety! You're welcome.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
You could use the same argument to say that men and women are virtually identical.
Not "virtually identical", we were talking about "unoriginal", which is true of the design of women, because God basically used the same blueprint and only made enough changes for Eve to serve as a companion creature to Adam.
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
It is quite correct that physics-based games that involve targeting of parabolic trajectories are very old, dating back almost to the earliest days of computer gaming. Yet over all this time, such games have been at best mildly popular. So how is it that Angry Birds is a mega-hit when nearly everybody has played a game that is sort of like it?
I attribute its success to these factors:
1. Excellent puzzle design and progression. Key to a puzzle game is that the player must always feel challenged, but never frustrated enough to give up. In Angry Birds, it is possible to pass a level without a perfect score, reducing frustration, while still returning it to try to improve performance, maintaining replay value.
2. Excellent user interface. Touch control makes a big difference for games of this sort is a big asset to games of this sort. The use of a slingshot, as opposed to a cannon or catapult also makes the game more intuitive, as most everybody understands the dynamics, and the rubber band provides a visual cue to the trajectory. A dotted line shows you last trajectory for comparison. (For comparison, I took a look at Scorched Earth, a game identified by others--correctly--as similar, and after 5 minutes I still hadn't figured out how to control my trebuchet.
3. Engaging graphics. Puzzle games go well with bright, cartoony characters. The simple, cute characters and backgrounds amuse the player without distracting too much from the puzzles.
So basically, what we have is a triumph of execution--a classic concept finally done well.
Dude, you pinch to zoom in and out.
Who did you say was a retard, again?