A Cognitive Teardown of Angry Birds

Hugh Pickens writes "The 50 million individuals who have downloaded 'Angry Birds' play roughly 200 million minutes of the game a day, which translates into 1.2 billion hours a year, more than ten times the 100 million hours spent creating Wikipedia over the entire life span of the online encyclopedia. Why is this seemly simple game so massively compelling? Charles L. Mauro performs a cognitive teardown of the user experience of Angry Birds and concludes that the game is engaging, in fact addictive, due to the carefully scripted expansion of the user's mental model of the strategy component and incremental increases in problem/solution methodology. The birds are packed with clever behaviors that expand the user's mental model at just the point when game-level complexity is increased ... For example, why are tiny bananas suddenly strewn about in some play sequences and not in others? Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? Why is the game's play space showing a cross section of underground rocks and dirt? One can spend a lot of time processing these little clues, consciously or subconsciously. 'Creating truly engaging software experiences is far more complex than one might assume, even in the simplest of computer games,' writes Mauro. 'You go Birds! Your success certainly makes others Angry and envious.'"

Comments

Snake

[supersloshy]

Can we just agree that Angry Birds is the new "Snake" and move on?

Re:Snake

[PaladinAlpha]

OT, but I owe almost my entire programming career to Gorillas; it was just complex enough for an 8-year-old to make 'cool' modifications to.

The first 'development cycle' of my life was changing the explosion radius of the bananas (nuclear bananas, yeah!) and encountering dissatisfaction with the result -- the game drew a series of concentric, colored ellipses to represent the explosion, and then the same series with background color to erase them (and the damaged terrain). The ellipse-drawing library function in QBasic (understandably) has aliasing problems such that drawing radius 1, then 2, then 3, and so forth would miss some pixels which fell between the lines of the ellipses, leaving unsightly floating particles. I can't remember how I fixed it, but I think it was drawing horizontally-bounded background-colored lines down the vertical axis of the largest ellipse.

Anyway, that was the most fun I'd ever had, at the time. Now I think about that old, silly program and... want to go write a Gorillas clone *grin*. It wouldn't be the same with modern tools, though -- there was a lot of charm in that old, slow VESA pixel-juggling.

because?

[sammyF70]

"Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? " because box2D or whatever engine Angry Birds uses needs to stabilize the simulation? Meh .. maybe I'm just too prosaic.

Re:because?

[nepka]

It's exactly for that reason. It's always funny when people try to find some deeper reason in simple things, over-analyzing things.

Re:because?

[grub]

Very rarely parts of some houses will just fall on their own after the initial shake.
Presumably we're to read into that that the developers had poor toilet training and had sexual fantasies about their mothers and cat.

Re:because?

[Forbman]

But from a cognition standpoint, those little bits of motion attract our attention, and make us go "Hmm...I wonder...". Sure, many of us in this particular audience realize the structure sometimes needing a few moments to stabilize is a consequence of the dynamic behavior of the physics engine, but we're not the rest of everyone else who gets sucked into it. That was the point of the article.

And it is some or all of those little other things, intended to do so by the developers or not, that suck more of us in to this version of a game archetype compared to other versions.

Also, read up on the design of casinos... there's a reason why they all basically look, feel, smell and sound alike. Or grocery or department store layouts...

Re:because?

[shadowrat]

It's still a valid observation and worth noting. The author may or may not know that the shaking is due to the physics engine equalizing. His point is that it's interesting to users. Most people who play the game are not game developers. they have no experience with physics engines. They see random behavior and their brain churns it over and over again and again trying to correlate it with something. Consequently they are engaged in the game. Its technically a bug or a glitch, but it's a serendipitous one.

Re:because?

[brainzach]

It could be an accidental discovery, but keeping the shake in the beginning of the levels is a conscious design decision by Rovio. The game could have easily implemented the engine without the initial shake, but they decided that it added to the look and feel of the game.

Angry Birds isn't successful because of a big profound idea. It is the attention detail and little things that add up to make a highly polished and interactive experience.

Downtime

[Tuan121]

It takes no thought and works for clearing my head during a commute when I don't have the energy to think about work. Just like every other iphone game, nothing specific about angry birds here. It was just one of the first good ones.

Angry Birds a real killer

[Spazmania]

If a waking lifetime is around 450,000 hours then at 1,200,000,000 hours Angry Birds consumes nearly 2,700 lifetimes per year.

Re:Angry Birds a real killer

[sexconker]

If a waking lifetime is around 450,000 hours then at 1,200,000,000 hours Angry Birds consumes nearly 2,700 lifetimes per year.

Tetris was a Soviet plot to undermine American productivity (and has consumed orders of magnitude more time and money than any other game).
The Swedes just stole a free flash game and drew some pigs and birds.

Re:Angry Birds a real killer

[icebraining]

Define "better".

Re:Angry Birds a real killer

[FingerDemon]

I think you are on to something there. As a unit of measure, each 30 minutes of wasted time should be referred to as a "Kardashian". The same length of time as their show.

In other words,

[Baloroth]

It's a pretty well made game. Lots of visual clues, depth of strategy, and a smooth learning curve. Really, while hard to do, it's not that hard to analyze. "Mental model of the strategy component"? I'm thinking your just trying to justify a degree there.

Now, if you can take that and make a good game, I'd be impressed. Just saying in long, complex sentences with technical words what any decent game reviewer can tell you already is not impressive. Or news.

Oh, and the crappy plays on words are definitely not making me like this story any better.

Re:In other words,

[nepka]

After playing for 20 minutes I was bored. Really, how does this compare to a truly great game? The fact that it is fun and caught on is about as important as Tetris. You aren't a world-minded guru because you do it better than someone else. And jealousy generated from my corner of the room is zilch.

It's not made to compete with traditional PC or console games. It's made for mobile phones, and for those it's an excellent game. You can launch it quickly, the levels don't really take that long to play (great for quickly playing with phone when you're waiting for something) and the physics make it fun. I can't really think of other mobile phone games which would be more fun and suiting. Maybe some tower defense games, but those aren't as quick to play as levels take a long time. You basically need to pause the game and later continue from where you left.

Re:In other words,

[blahplusplus]

"It's a pretty well made game."

Angry birds is a clone of flash games that had been around for ages, the thing that angry birds got right was just sheer aesthetics that launched it into the statosphere. It has nothing to do with 'well made game' has everything to do with the bird aesthetic.

Check out crush the castle (the games angry bird copied) below:

http://armorgames.com/play/3614/crush-the-castle

Re:wikipedia

[slapout]

Citation needed

Well, that certainly makes it unique

[elrous0]

The birds are packed with clever behaviors that expand the user's mental model at just the point when game-level complexity is increased ...

Translation: The game gets harder as you go along.

Re:Well, that certainly makes it unique

[syousef]

The birds are packed with clever behaviors that expand the user's mental model at just the point when game-level complexity is increased ...

Translation: The game gets harder as you go along.

I think a better translation is: The game offers you more tools for solving problems as it gets harder. Still not earth-shattering, since many games do this, but you oversimplified.

I think this is over-complicating things frankly. More tools unlocked required as you proceed through harder levels of the game is as standard as it gets.

This game is ballistics with cute birds and pigs (and later versions other animals).

- The guys get it because its' basically 1 player scorched earth with a limited number of shots. Firing missiles and using slingshots appeals to boys and men.

- Girls get it because they like the cute little birds and pigs. Then you add seasons and it brings the whole social aspect in and she's thinking of christmas and valentines day

- Kids get it because the graphics are simple. Pigs and birds are easy for even a 2 year old to comprehend.

and then it took off as a meme. Something else just as good could have but by pure chance this did. Once it has momentum the meme feeds itself until it burns out and becomes old. Picking Angry Birds as being the standout ahead of time would have been impressive but this retrospective analysis is not.

There is NOTHING new here.

How does this make the dev managers feel?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

You know the standard console games, the dedicated gamers, people who plunk down $2000 on a cool looking case for the PC, constantly looking for more graphics card performance, immersive gaming experience ... And these dev managers kept giving them what they want. Then Wii shows up with rudimentary graphics, trivial gaming strategies, but with a new user interface. Rocks the world and kicks the pants off the traditional gaming platform. Then this angry birds. Seemingly trivial game that a self-described "gamer" would not even deign to take a second look at, and it is played by more people than the population of China! Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can explain it. You deconstruct it. You can do Monday morning quarterbacking and make a cogent theory that describes it well, may be even accurately. But, there were professional software development managers. Working for XBox, and Sony Playstations, constantly looking for new ideas, new games, new strategies, new ways to expand their marketplace... All of them flunked. They did not see Wii coming. They did not see the Angry Birds coming. Why?

Re:How does this make the dev managers feel?

[jellomizer]

Well they target different markets. iPhone games or the Wii are best for casual gamer. Who want a quick fix then get on with their lives.

Re:How does this make the dev managers feel?

[Quiet_Desperation]

I thought there'd be more good JRPGs on the Wii. Well, there *are*, but Nintendo refuses to bring them to the US despite there already being English translations for the UK market and despite a vocal market who would like to see them.

[rarity]See if *I* buy a Wii U. Hmpfff![/rarity]

Re:wikipedia

[canajin56]

No original research.

learn anything through games

[Twillerror]

Their is some value in understanding just how powerful iterative learning tied with reward is.

Of course this is way easier to apply to a game then to real life subjects, but we could try.

Imagine a computer programming tutorial game. Problems are thrown at your to solve by writing a function, class, whatever. Successful unit tests bring rewards and so on.

Functions written in the early parts of the game could be used in subsequent challenges if not required. Use of them brings bonuses, achievements, etc. The faster your code runs the better...so replay would include rewriting older versions of your functions as to improve performance.

There are plenty of games out there for children around school subjects, etc, but I rarely see them marketed at adults. Could modern warfare 3 not actually teach something as the game play goes....seems like language would be a good fit. You have to interact with characters in the game with more and more complicated version of some language to proceed. Start with having to say hi to a guard in whatever language, end the game having to convince him your not a spy.

I guess the real point is creating a better sense of achievement and combining entertainment to overcome the usual tediousness associated with learning. I liked learning how to code because every time the compiler reported no errors it was like completing a level of angry birds. I can't say the same for economics and for many I'm sure they got no pleasure from cracking a calculus problem.

Re:learn anything through games

[romiz]

This is the idea behiind Ribbon Hero, a game designed to learn to use the ribbon interface of Microsoft Office.

Re:I had a wikipedia page...

[larry bagina]

Makes you wonder... how long until somebody start mass murdering or worse in an effort to be notable enough for Wikipedia?

Re:Redirect of effort

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

If you stir pots of rice, you're cooking it wrong.

Re:Redirect of effort

[sexconker]

It would be fantastic if all of that time (100M hrs?!?!) was recaptured into some meaningful or valuable effort. Even if it was a stupid game maybe having that effort stored into stirring pots of rice for hungry children in the 3rd world would be a good use of time.

99% of that time is spent multitasking anyway.
How much more productive can you be while taking a dump?

Here's how it goes:
Sit on the shitter.
Grab phone out of pants pocket.
Check email.
Read all tweets/social media bullshit updates.
Play all turns on Wordfeud (or Words with Friends, if you like buggy, inferior shit).
Load up Angry Birds because there's nothing else to do.
Play until you're done shitting, AND you've gotten 3 stars on the current level.

This.

[Slutticus]

"seconds are consumed as the pigs teeter, slide and roll off planks or are crushed under slow falling debris. "

This, this and this. There is something very satisfying about watching a structure teeter at the brink and then fall over in a spectacle of smashing debris.
Also, the other day i figured out that i could topple a tower by timing a bird strike to correspond with the pendular motion of the structure after an initial strike. It blew my shit away....that realization.....the satisfaction of that......the simplicity of it.... It's a good simple game, can't we just enjoy it?

Or...

[Swanktastic]

While it is interesting to see a UI expert dissect a piece of software, this piece reminds me a bit of folks who do analysis of lottery ticket numbers and then try to convince us that the winners are geniuses. We all know of a bazillion games that are similar shoot-projectile-random-result games (golf, bowling, Bloons, Peggle, Darts) and why they are addictive. Angry Birds is good, but the amazing success probably has more to do with social mania than UI design. OH, and hitching your corporate bandwagon to the iOS.

Re:Redirect of effort

[Quiet_Desperation]

The iPad has revolutionized my poop time.

There's a sentence I didn't expect to type today. Or ever.

Simple, Yet Challenging

[CycleFreak]

I installed on my Android tablet (Acer Iconia, btw). I have not played games since Quake II - yeah, I'm old(er). But I thought I'd try it out just to see what all the hype was about.

Here's why I keep playing it: Learning the game was fast and the controls are intuitive. I can fire it up in seconds, play a few levels and be done. I don't feel like I need to invest hours in it just to get good at it. But the game itself is actually enjoyable and satisfying to play. Look, after a day of stress at work, I don't really want to "work" at playing a game. I want to relax and have some fun. The graphics are well done and the sounds made by the birds and pigs are humorous. Even after playing it for weeks, I still giggle a little at the sound effects.

But really, the biggest thing is that the game is good for time-fill rather than time-suck. Also, let's face it: There are millions (billions?) more people who are not "gamers" than there are "gamers". (Too many quotes? Possibly.)

Lit Crit for Games

[Digital Vomit]

Cool. It's literary criticism for games, where anything can mean anything.

Re:Redirect of effort

[cayenne8]

You absolutely should stir a pot of rice.

Well, maybe right after you put the rice in the pot of boiling water..but not after??

Rice: 2:1 ration water to rice, I like to add in some salt or a chicken bullion cube.

Boil water

Once water is boiling...add rice...stir...once water starts to boil again, put on lid, cut heat down to low so that just a little steam keeps coming out from the lid.

Leave this alone with lid on for about 20-22 minutes...then, remove from heat, open lid and fluff with a fork.

Unless you're doing risotto...where is all this stirring of rice you're talking about?

What I listed above is pretty much the universal basic boiled rice....

XKCD

[Kamiza Ikioi]

"For example, why are tiny bananas suddenly strewn about in some play sequences and not in others? Why do the houses containing pigs shake ever so slightly at the beginning of each game play sequence? Why is the game's play space showing a cross section of underground rocks and dirt?"

Add another proof to the Connoisseur conjecture - http://xkcd.com/915/

They're missing the real reason

[Chelloveck]

They're missing the real reason for the success of Angry Birds: The music is a hypnotic ear-worm with mind-control properties. That, and you get to smash things. No one is safe from such a devious combination!