Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird needs no introduction. It is the game that defined the "hyper-casual" genre and caused a global phenomenon due to its brutal difficulty. The premise is deceptively simple: tap the screen to flap your wings and rise; let go to fall. Your goal is to navigate through gaps in green pipes. Most players fail to pass the first pipe.

📉 The Physics of Gravity

The difficulty lies in the gravity curve. The bird doesn't float; it drops like a stone the moment you stop tapping.

• The Climb: A tap gives you a sudden upward jolt.
• The Drop: The downward acceleration is heavy. You must establish a rhythm. It is not about reacting visually to the pipe; it is about maintaining a heartbeat-like tapping cadence.
• The Arc: You generally want to "dive" into the gap. It is easier to fall through the pipe opening than to flap up into it, because flapping up risks hitting the top pipe with your head.

📐 The Hitbox Truth

Why is it so hard? The hitbox.

The bird's hitbox (the invisible collision area) is a square that rotates with the bird. When the bird noses down, the hitbox rotates, sometimes clipping a pipe that visually looked safe. To survive, you must keep the bird relatively level when passing through tight gaps.

😡 The Psychology of Rage

Flappy Bird is a "micro-game." Loops last 2 to 10 seconds. This creates an addictive "instants restart" cycle. There is no loading screen. You die, you tap, you are playing again immediately. This lack of friction is what keeps players trapped for hours.

📜 A Piece of Internet History

Originally removed from app stores by its creator for being "too addictive," the web version preserves this piece of gaming history. It serves as a benchmark for frustration tolerance. A score of 10 is considered respectable; a score of 100 is god-like.