Popular mobile game Flappy Bird is set to return after its reluctant creator Dong Nguyen reversed his decision to withdraw it from app stores last month.
@painfullpacman Yes. But not soon.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) March 19, 2014
On Twitter, a fan had asked if he was going to put the game back in the app store.
“Yes. But not soon,” Nguyen replied, later adding: “I don’t work by plan. I will release it when it is done.”
Nguyen removed the popular game in February, saying its popularity had ruined his “simple life”.
Launched in May 2013, the ad-funded game was free to download and required players to tap the screen to keep the bird in flight.
The game did not initially make a huge dent in the download charts. But it became known for its difficulty and the number of players began to rocket at the beginning of 2014- further boosted by a review on popular YouTube channel Pew Pew Die and its launch on the Androind platform.
With its booming popularity, however, Nguyen began receiving abusive messages from users who had become haunted by its trickiness. In one of the game’s more light-hearted reviews, he was called an ‘evil genius’ for devising such a devilish game. Other messages were sent with an angrier tone as players became increasingly frustrated.
In a previous tweet, Nguyen said: “I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.”