🎮 How to Play
- Click the canvas (or press Space) to flap.
- Each flap pushes the bird up. Gravity pulls it down.
- Pass between green pipes - don't touch them or the floor.
- Score +1 per pipe passed.
About this tool
Flappy Bird: 2013 mobile game by Dong Nguyen. Tap to flap, avoid pipes. Brutally hard, but addictive. The original was removed from app stores in 2014 by its creator due to overwhelming popularity.
About this flappy bird
This is an enhanced browser tribute to Dong Nguyen's original Flappy Bird, released in May 2013 and pulled from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014 at the peak of its popularity. The core loop is unchanged: tap, space, or click to flap your bird upward; gravity pulls you down; clear the gaps between green pipes; one collision ends the run. This version adds coloured capsules behind golden pipes, a day-night cycle every 25 points, gap shrink with score, and three special pipe types (golden, narrow red, moving purple) so the difficulty curve scales as you improve.
Flappy Bird is a deceptively simple physics game. The only input is timing. The only state is altitude and velocity. The challenge comes from the fact that each tap delivers a fixed impulse to a parabolic flight path, so the optimal moment to tap is always slightly before you think you need to. That gap between intuition and physics is the whole game.
How the physics works
// Each animation frame: vy += gravity // gravity = 0.38 px/frame (1.35 with fast) by += vy // bird falls or rises pipe.x -= scroll // scroll = 1.35 px/frame gap = 160 - min(60, score * 0.5) // gap shrinks with score // On flap input: vy = -6.5 // instant upward impulse (overrides gravity for ~16 frames)
The bird's vertical velocity is a single scalar updated every frame. Gravity always adds a small positive amount; flapping resets velocity to a fixed negative impulse. The result is a series of overlapping parabolic arcs. Pipe gaps start at 160 pixels and shrink by half a pixel for every score point, bottoming out at 100 pixels around score 120. The slow capsule halves gravity for 6 seconds. The fast capsule increases scroll speed by 50 percent for 5 seconds.
Capsule reference table
Capsules spawn behind golden pipes from score 3 onward. Pick up the good ones, dodge the bad ones.
| Capsule | Effect | Duration | Good or bad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shield (blue) | Absorbs one pipe collision | Until used | Good |
| Slow (green) | Halves world speed | 6 seconds | Good |
| Mini (cyan) | Shrinks bird (radius 7 vs 12) | 8 seconds | Good |
| Life (red) | Adds one extra life | Permanent | Good |
| Coin (yellow) | Plus five coins | Instant | Good |
| Big (dark red) | Doubles bird radius (18 px) | 5 seconds | Bad |
| Fast (orange) | Plus 50 percent scroll speed | 5 seconds | Bad |
Common pitfalls
- Over-flapping. Each tap delivers a strong impulse. Mash the screen and the bird ceiling-bumps into pipe tops. Aim for one or two taps per gap.
- Staring at the bird. Look at the next gap centre, not your character. Your peripheral vision will handle altitude correction.
- Grabbing unknown capsules. Big and fast capsules can end runs that were otherwise heading for a personal best. Note the colour before chasing it.
- Hesitating on moving pipes. Moving purple pipes oscillate vertically. Time your flap to enter the gap when the pipe pair is at its midpoint, not the extreme.
- Playing on a poor screen. Below 60 Hz refresh, the parabola jitters and timing becomes unfair. Use a desktop or modern smartphone.
Frequently asked questions
How do I score higher in flappy bird?
The single most effective change is to flap less. Each tap delivers a strong upward impulse, so new players over-flap, rise too fast, and crash into the top of the next pipe. Aim to tap roughly twice per pipe pair: once to gain altitude approaching the gap and once to hold height as you pass through. Watch your trajectory, not the bird. Look at the upcoming gap centre and the bird's tendency will line itself up.
What do the coloured capsules in this version do?
This build adds mystery capsules that appear behind golden pipes. Shield (blue) absorbs one hit. Slow (green) halves world speed for 6 seconds. Mini (cyan) shrinks your bird for 8 seconds so it fits through narrower gaps. Heart (red) grants an extra life. Coin (yellow) adds 5 to your coin counter. Big (dark red) and fast (orange) are hazards: bigger bird means harder collisions, faster scroll means less reaction time.
Why does the difficulty increase as I score?
Gap size shrinks linearly with score (160 pixels down to roughly 100 at score 120), and special pipes appear: narrow red pipes (gap 130) starting at score 5, moving purple pipes starting at score 10, and golden capsule pipes from score 3 onward. The day-night cycle every 25 points is cosmetic and does not affect gameplay.
Is the original flappy bird available?
No. Dong Nguyen pulled the original Flappy Bird from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014, citing concerns about how addictive it had become. At the time it was earning a reported 50,000 US dollars per day in advertising. Recreations and tributes (like this browser build) remain widely available, but the official 2013 app is no longer downloadable.
Are my high scores saved?
Your best score is stored in your browser's localStorage under the key fb_best_v2 and survives reloads. Coins and current-game state are session-only and reset between games. Clearing site data or using a private window resets your best.