Keep in mind Flappy Hen? , that cellular sport that grew to become an in a single day sensation for its simple-yet-frustrating setup, and disappeared nearly as rapidly? I used to be by no means a fan, however I discovered myself fascinated by the unique creator’s obvious lack of concern over a doubtlessly profitable sport. Flappy Hen is again—however it’s not the identical.

Final week a trailer for Flappy Hen was posted to YouTube by “The Flappy Hen Basis.” The one-minute video is chock stuffed with ridiculously epic orchestral music over information footage and internet video masking the preliminary sensation, and the stunning choice by solo developer Dong Nguyen to de-list the profitable sport from cellular app shops.

The unique sport is being rebooted and re-released, full with all the trimmings of a slickly produced cellular sport a decade after the 2013 authentic. There will likely be a number of ranges. There will likely be cosmetics. There will likely be a Mario-style overworld.

Although it wasn’t indicated within the trailer, there’ll nearly actually be in-app purchases. The newly revamped sport is billed as “AN EPIC ADVENTURE,” and it’s not clear whether or not that’s ironic or fully honest in describing a title with a single one-tap sport mechanic.

In case it wasn’t apparent, the brand new Flappy Hen isn’t coming from the unique developer. However how and why that occurred is an extended story.

Nguyen famously ended his work on Flappy Hen in February of 2014 after its sudden breakout success, regardless of estimates of his cellular advert income totaling $50,000 US on daily basis. The sport reportedly took solely three days to create—its “faucet to make the chicken flap” idea nearly actually couldn’t be less complicated. So clones of the sport had been already rampant, however Flappy Hen imitations and forgeries grew to become widespread throughout the web and cellular shops nearly instantly.

Nguyen posted to Twitter in regards to the cancellation, writing “I can’t take this anymore.” He later advised Forbes that he was involved about creating addictive habits in Flappy Hen‘s gamers, with the easy answer being to easily take the sport down. In August of 2014, Nguyen launched a brand new sport, Flappy Birds Household, on the Amazon Appstore for Amazon’s Fireplace tablets and Fireplace TV applications. Its deal with multiplayer and TV experiences appeared to handle Nguyen’s issues on cellular sport dependancy.

However Flappy Hen rapidly fell out of the general public eye after Nguyen eliminated the unique sport, regardless of changing into such a phenomenon that it impressed a Google Doodle and even an easter egg included on tens of millions of Android telephones. He appears to have deserted each the sport and its excessive profile on social media, preferring to remain comparatively quiet and revel in his work as an indie sport developer. You must admire somebody who can ignore the siren tune of flash-in-the-pan fame, to not point out the fortune he might have made by leaning into it.

Nguyen’s documented work on the unique sport grants him an automated copyright on Flappy Hen within the US and plenty of different nations. However he apparently cared so little for Flappy Hen that he by no means took steps to formalize or defend it.

In January of this 12 months, an organization named Gametech Holdings efficiently filed to label the unique copyright as deserted and take over possession. Looking out via the USPTO database, it seems that the New York-based lawyer employed by Gametech focuses on discovering deserted however doubtlessly profitable copyrights.

Dong Nguyen was apparently alerted of this motion in November 2023, however by no means responded. Nguyen is a resident of Vietnam, so it’s attainable that within the 10 years because the authentic sport was taken down, he moved or was in any other case unable to reply the data despatched to his public tackle or cellphone quantity. However given his obvious lack of concern for cashing in on his creation, I’m inclined to suppose he merely didn’t care.

Gametech handed alongside the trademark to “The Flappy Hen Basis,” which can or might not be the identical individuals. (I genuinely don’t know what the connection is—Gametech may need deliberate an enormous re-release all alongside, or just grabbed a beneficial trademark and flipped it instantly.) Whoever they’re, they seem to have spent 2024 ramping up for an “epic” reboot. The brand new sport has a devoted web site describing its new sport modes and characters.

It’s precisely the type of flashy, attention-grabbing exploitation of IP that Nguyen by no means did. However it additionally contains one thing slightly extra regarding: a direct hyperlink to a Telegram tackle.

Telegram is an nameless messaging service that has almost a billion customers. However its quick access to methods that may obfuscate cellphone numbers and identities makes it a preferred alternative for criminals and scammers, together with these utilizing automated bots. Telegram was just lately in headlines as its CEO was arrested in France, on fees that embody being an adjunct to drug trafficking and the distribution of kid pornography.

So, yeah, a high-profile sport launch with its solely level of contact being a Telegram account is… uncommon. However as journalists and common internet customers dig into the promotional materials, extra unusual connections have been found. Safety researcher Varun Biniwale discovered extra pages on the location that aren’t instantly accessible from the touchdown web page, together with one that claims the sport will “fly greater than ever on Solana because it soars into Internet 3.0.”

https://flappybird.org

https://flappybird.org

https://flappybird.org

If you understand something about crypto, there are alarm bells blaring in your head proper now. Solana is a blockchain platform used to create cryptocurrencies. “Internet 3.0” is a buzzword encompassing crypto and NFT tech utilized to standard web sites and companies. There’s a lot to unpack right here, however suffice it to say, there have been a number of makes an attempt to mix cryptocurrency and NFTs with video video games.

At greatest they’ve been unimpressive flops. Extra typically, they’re apparent “rug pulls” designed to make a fast buck. At worst, they’ve devastated the economies of already-struggling communities in growing nations—and no, that’s not an exaggeration.

Perusing via extra pages within the WordPress-based FlappyBird.org website, Biniwale was capable of finding much more information, together with a playable web-based prototype of the sport itself. He was even capable of finding the cloud-based XML information that the video games are based mostly on. And poking round in that code, he discovered the crypto hook.

Taking part in these variations of the sport (which, once more, will not be publicly offered regardless that they’re accessible with slightly digging) prompts customers to attach Flappy Hen to numerous cryptocurrency wallets. Taking part in the sport seems to generate crypto cash, which presumably may be bought and traded. The infrastructure for the precise cryptocurrency part doesn’t seem like reside, or not less than it’s not operational but.

https://flappybird.org

https://flappybird.org

https://flappybird.org

The rabbit gap goes deeper. Biniwale discovered an API for the sport within the code, and following that lead found a leaderboard, presumably populated by individuals who’ve been enjoying the sport in a pre-release state. The leaderboard is crammed with names that reference cryptocurrency, and plenty of of them match “crypto influencers,” social media customers who unfold data on new cryptocurrencies.

Many crypto influencers have been accused, and generally convicted, of manipulating social media to “pump and dump” unregulated cryptocurrency and NFTs to reap huge monetary beneficial properties. The names and handles Binwale discovered will not be essentially the individuals linked to these names. One in all them is “Matthew Perry,” and it appears nearly inconceivable that the late Buddies actor is concerned.

However a number of of the related accounts observe the “official” Flappy Hen Twitter (X) account. The best rating on the uncovered leaderboard is called “Deez Nuts.” Whereas it’s attainable that this can be a coincidence — it’s a joke and a meme, in spite of everything — “Deez” is a time period related to many NFT collections. Two such collections are related to an organization that has closely promoted the brand new incarnation of Flappy Hen.

Since Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies successfully grew to become principally unregulated securities for holding and rising wealth quickly, the crypto house has been crammed with innumerable makes an attempt to make “the following huge factor” and a fast fortune. An affiliation with cryptocurrency doesn’t mechanically imply a challenge is suspicious. However it’s inarguable that the unregulated nature of crypto and NFTs has made it a magnet for scams, heightened by the utility of unregulated cryptocurrency as a method of hiding wealth or illicit exercise.

Even amongst those that nonetheless consider cryptocurrency is the way forward for economics, each new “coin” or NFT challenge now arrives with the specter of a possible rug pull hanging over it. A rug pull is a method whereby the overwhelming majority of a cryptocurrency or NFT — managed by the preliminary creators and their companions — is rapidly transformed into typical foreign money or different crypto. This leaves the preliminary traders outdoors of the controlling group with nugatory crypto property, their actual cash having vanished into the scheme.

Hypothetically, an effective way to get a ton of curiosity in a brand new cryptocurrency or NFT can be to affiliate it with a smash-hit cellular sport. If that sport had been roughly forgotten a decade later, and it had been attainable to legally purchase the trademark and launch a respectable reboot of the sport, it could be an nearly supreme vector for turning informal avid gamers into contributors in an NFT or crypto system. And the excessive profile would inevitably appeal to the curiosity of the bigger on-line crypto house, presumably spurring an enormous quantity of preliminary funding.

Once more, that is all hypothetical, based mostly on well-known rug pulls which have turn into a routine a part of the crypto world. None of it’s, in any manner, an accusation in the direction of any particular person or group. Considerations over rug pulls and different scams have solid a shadow over just about any new cryptocurrency or NFT challenge for years, making it troublesome for even respectable companies to enter the house with out large skepticism surrounding the choice.

The Flappy Hen Basis says the brand new sport will likely be accessible on the internet in October and on app shops in 2025. Aftermath experiences that authentic Flappy Hen developer Dong Nguyen tweeted for the primary time in seven years final weekend. “No, I’ve no associated [sic] with their sport,” he says. “I didn’t promote something. I additionally don’t assist crypto.”