Dong Nguyen of Vietnam created the mobile game Flappy Bird in 2013. The addictive gameplay and easy principles contributed to its rapid popularity, but the game’s complexity and frustration levels also garnered attention and controversy.

Flappy Bird is a platformer in which players guide a tiny bird through a maze of interconnected pipes. It takes a lot of planning and time to go through the holes unscathed by the pipes or the floor. You want to get the maximum score possible, so you’ll need to pass through gaps successfully.

Flappy Bird’s high difficulty is one of its defining features. The gameplay is notoriously harsh, and players frequently find themselves trying to keep the bird airborne while dodging hazards. As a result, a large number of players became hooked, always challenging themselves and others to higher scores and boasting about their accomplishments on various social media platforms.

Another reason Flappy Bird became famous was its simplistic visual style, which evoked a sense of nostalgia because to its pixel art and basic movements. Dong Nguyen, the game’s inventor, took Flappy Bird down from app stores in 2014 after he admitted the game was harmful to his life due to its addictive nature. The popularity and legacy of the game, though, inspired a plethora of sequels and clones made by different studios.