Thursday, March 20, 2014

Flabby Baller?


This must be a sign telling us we really don't need another Flabby spin-off...

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Flabby and its Flappy Friends


We've fed a few of Flabby's non-flying friends some red energy drink, thus giving them flappy wings!  Get acquainted with each of them today!

Flappy Rabbit [DOWNLOAD]
This is not the original Rody Horse toy.
It's a rabbit.
Sure, it's chubby like Rody.
Yep, it's got long ears like Rody.
Absolutely, it requires balance and coordination to play like Rody.
But it's a rabbit, and that's that.
Expect to see Rod... I mean Rabbit come Easter!

Flappy Cat [DOWNLOAD]
"How fine you look when dressed in rage."
"Only the insane equate pain with success."
"The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die."
"Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do - some... don't ever want to."
Just a few quotes by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland which sound insanely appropriate for this type of game.
Unlock the Flabby Cheshire by getting over 100 points!
Or perish trying...

Flappy Dog [DOWNLOAD]
Ever wondered how evolution *really* works?
Like... How humans evolved from... germs?
Or how Charmeleon evolves into Charizard?
It's simple!
As illustrated in beautiful pixel art here, said species merely need to pass through a certain number of highly deadly chocolate bars to evolve into a new breed!
Can you unlock the secrets of evolution?

Flappy AJ1 [DOWNLOAD]
What do you get when you spill a red energy drink onto a pair of Jordan 1's?
Mad at first, and then you'll also get:
FLAPPY AJ1
One of the most iconic and sought after sneakers must stay clean and clear from the towering chocolate bars of unwashable stains!
Can you unlock all 4 colorways?

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Happy White Valentines!

Some of our fans have asked for a classic version of Flabby Bird, and we here at realGameDev love to give the people what they want!

You may recall that we released a limited edition Valentines Day edition of Flabby Bird back in February.  On White Valentines' (ホワイトデー), we present to you a Flabby classic as a stand-alone app so you can enjoy the original without the awesome (-ly annoying?) in-app purchase.  [DOWNLOAD]

Brand New Flabby Bird Tips To Improve Your Score

Unnecessary censorship?
What was your high score on Flappy Bird?  7?  15?  46?  How would you like to score in the hundreds!  After playing so many different clones, I’ve arrived at a deeper understanding of how to get high scores on the unflappable original.  With the rumored return of Flappy Bird, perhaps you can beat that old, embarrassing high score of yours with the following brand new tips:

Fear no gravel
You’re a bird for crying out loud!  Don’t be afraid of gravity and tap only when necessary.  Falling is no big deal.  Trust in your flabby wings and tap only when necessary and in a controlled manner.  Hug the bottom of the obstacles and stay low.

Play against friends on the same device
This creates an interesting dynamic because clearly you want to own the high score on your phone, while your friends want to leave their mark too!  I found that this really made us improve at a startling rate.  Competition is a strong, if not the best, motivator of getting better.

Keep calm and flap on
Ever notice that the closer you get to your previous high score, the more nervous you become?  In fact, there is absolutely no reason to fret.  Understand that this game is 100% consistent.  The speed, the space between pipes, the size of Flappy, gravity, everything is constant.  How far you go is entirely up to you.

Play clones
This probably sounds blasphemous but with the plethora of clones out there, it’s in your best interest to play them and find one you like!  After you’ve mastered that, come back to Flappy Bird and you’ll be surprised and how much better you do.  Below are some of the best clones to train in:

Flappy Wings: iPhone & iPad | Android

Flabby Bird: iPhone & iPad | Android


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Almost Famous

We were sort of featured on an article that kinda applauded us for cloning Flappy Bird but not really?

Read it here!

The article talks about how there are hundreds of different Flappy Bird clones:
With the game gone, it wasn't a surprise that others rushed to clone it and make a quick buck. Flabby Bird HD has the following description on the App Store: "Want to know the real reason why the original flapping sensation retired from aviation? Because it's become FATTY and FLABBY from eating too much CHOCOLATE! And overfed, overweight and overconfident rendition of the popular aviator returns!"
See!!  We're almost famous!!  Unfortunately the author left out any screenshots or links to our game.  Why Mr. Gopal Sathe, why??? :'(

Regardless, thanks for the shout-out.  Much appreciated!

Meet the Flabbys

Very update!  So challenge!  Much friends!

Our latest update is jam-packed with features and improvements!

> Better (?) sound!
> Exit with back button!
> 7 brand new Flabby friends!
> Extended play with continues!

Can you unlock all 8 Flabby and friends?





Thursday, March 6, 2014

Making of Flabby Part 3: Dirt Devil in the Details

In the previous post, I mentioned how our initial concept art had a fundamental problem.  Unfortunately, we had to scrap a lot of the beautiful details in the design to refocus the player's attention on the core task at hand:  Avoiding the chocolate pillars of doom! 

Color-coordinated swatches were used to make a beautiful composition
In fact, even this was too busy.  If Flabby were to fly low on the screen, it will be lost in the chocolate peaks and caramel valleys.  We had to restrict the eye candy (ha!) to a maximum of 30% of the screen and settled on this:


The biggest take-away from this is that oftentimes, design has to take a backseat to gameplay.  We are fortunate that our designer understands our priorities and is willing to take it as a design challenge, rather than criticism of her work.  realGameDev is blessed to have her on our team :)

I realize that this was a very design-centric "Making of..." so the next one will be a more development oriented one.  I will most likely do a double post on Gamasutra as well.  Post-mortems they like to call it.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Making of Flabby Part 2: Sugar Flabby

After settling on the chocolate pillars, our designer set out to design a sweeping backdrop where Flabby would traverse effortlessly accompanied by landscape where players would eat up (it?) continuously.  Our design references included sweet classics like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the classic board game "Candy Land".



After a few sketches, our designer came up with something very delicious: Ice cream topped mountains, lollipop trees and candy cane branches, the stage was set for some sugary soaring.  However, the initial design didn't work out for us.  Do you see what's wrong?

Besides giving players tooth decay just from looking at it, the design was too busy. Consider the Flabby Birds in the top right.  Once they start flapping, surely they will be difficult to see and be lost in the background, distracting players and giving them a hard time to achieve high scores.

Find out what we did to rectify this in the exciting conclusion of: Making of Flabby!

**SPOILER**

Download the game to find out LOL

Making of Flabby Part 1: Ain't no mountain high enough!

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's... Actually, it is a bird, but Flabby is certainly no butterfly!! 


Alright, alright, I lied.  That was just the background drawing.  Notice how everything is traveling towards the left?  I wonder if that'll make it easier for left-handed players...

Anyways, here're some of the obstacles that we thought could stop Flabby:


I really liked the traffic light idea, except it made no sense... Not like pipes from Mario made any sense for Flappy to avoid but we settled on chocolate, because over consumption would definitely lead to flabbiness.