Creators Of ‘Super Hexagon’ and ‘Canabalt’ Build Fantastic Tributes To Flappy Bird

I told myself I was done writing about Flappy Bird. Really. I’m sort of sick of hearing about it too.

But this… this is something special. The creators of Canabalt and Super Hexagon — two very loved games that helped pioneer the whole “simple yet absurdly difficult” category that Flappy Bird took to a whole new level of popularity — have each created entirely new games in tribute to Flappy Bird. These aren’t clones — these are homages.

Terry Cavanagh, best known for creating the oh-god-I’m-so-close-to-beating-this-give-me-five-more-minutes titles Super Hexagon and VVVVVV, calls his homage Maverick Bird. Take the graphic styling of Super Hexagon, add a blaring techno soundtrack, and add a new control element (dive) into the mix, and bam: Maverick Bird.

Adam Saltsman, the mind behind Canabalt (one of the first big forever runners), calls his tribute Flappybalt. Like Maverick Bird, it borrows the graphical stylings of its creator’s most popular game — but beyond that, it’s an entirely new experience. You’re a bird, bouncing back and forth across a screen like a ping-pong ball, doing your damnedest to avoid an ever-moving arrangement of spikes. flappybalt

Neither of the games are particularly complex, but that’s not the point. Both of these games were created as part of the Flappy Jam, a speed-development showcase meant entirely to show love for Dong Nguyen and his game, in the face of pressure/bullying/other circumstances that lead him to remove his game from the world. Or, as they put it, because “indie gamedevs are friendly and supportive, envy and teasing should not belong to our community, nor be a cause of suffering”.

This is like seeing your favorite artist paint in the style of the new guy on the scene, as a sign of respect. It’s really quite amazing to see these guys show some love like this.

You can find a ton of these tributes over at the Flappy Jam site.

[via The Verge]