The phenomenal Flappy Bird might have been shot down by its own creator but it lives on as inspiration for aspiring coders and mobile application designers.
Non-profit organization Code.org hopes to inspire and teach future mobile game makers how to create an application that people will love, by learning how to code. While it might not be in the true sense of creating one's own game, the group wants people to create their own version of the famous game.
Code.org has launched Wednesday the easy-to-use platform that will allow even very young kids to create a clone of Flappy birds in just a few minutes. The announcement coincided with the first anniversary of the organization and its celebration of the one billion lines of computer code written by individuals learning to code on its website.
"Flappy Bird is a simple game, and using the basics of computer science, any student can create their own version with endless possibilities. You can make your own rules, and make your flappy game as easy or as hard as you want. You can even reverse the scoring or make it change randomly as you play," wrote Code.org co-founder Hadi Partovi.
"...we built a new drag-and-drop tutorial that lets you build your own Flappy game - whether it's Flappy Bird, or Flappy Easter Bunny, Flappy Santa, Flappy Shark with Lasers, Flappy Fairy or Flappy Underwater Unicorn," he added.
Code.org made an eight-step tutorial that is very easy to understand. The process involves learning how to connect the blocks of code together, add sounds when the bird flaps its wings, add actions when it hits obstacles, putting a scoreboard, and instruction when the character hits the obstacles or the ground. One can breeze through the puzzles and have a game ready in less than 10 minutes.
The organization also made it more fun for kids or newbie coders as they can change the main character from a Flappy Bird to Santa Claus, Batman, a fairy, ship, or even a shark. This is also true for the speed of the game and appearance of all the other elements of the game.
For those who are tired of the early Flappy Bird alternatives and those who might be cringing because 32 percent of the newest iOS games submitted are clones of the said game, Code.org's approach is so far the best.
Learn to code and there might just be hope that no one will be crazy enough to buy a $10,000 Flappy Bird shirt or create another petition to urge the president to bring the game back to life.
By the way, Code.org did not include an instant dont-frustrate-the-player code.
