The creator of Flappy Bird shocked fans when he mysteriously yanked the game, and since then, Dong Nguyen has been difficult to pin down. But Rolling Stone managed to catch up with him in his hometown of Hanoi, where he agreed to an in-depth chat. Perhaps the most important question: Will Flappy Bird ever return? "I'm considering it," he says, though he notes it'll be packaged with a warning to "please take a break."
Nguyen, 28, was a big Super Mario Bros. fan as a kid and went on to become a talented programmer at a Hanoi cellphone-game firm. When it came to making games on his own, "I pictured how people play," he said, with "one hand holding the train strap." That led to the simple, tap-based Flappy Bird. When it eventually took off, he began getting disturbing messages, some of which he's saved. One complained that he was "distracting the children of the world"; another called the game "addicting like crack." People said they'd lost their jobs or stopped speaking to their kids over the game. Nguyen couldn't stand it, and he took it down, leading to "relief. I can't go back to my life before, but I'm good now." Click for the whole piece. (More Flappy Bird stories.)
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