Flappy Bird's Unofficial Clone is Open-Source: Here's How to Try

A 100 KB sized open-source Flappy Bird clone. What else do you need in 2024?

September 24, 2024 . 5:24 PM

2 min read

I remember back in the day, when Flappy Bird first came into my circle of friends, how painful it was to score even a single point. I used to try going ahead but would inevitably bump into one of the pipes, only to see one of my friends do it like a pro.

That's enough talk about my past shenanigans. Now, there is some news for fans of Flappy Bird which might make them revisit the game.

What's Happening: Thanks to the work of Vadim Boev, there is now a C-based, free, and open-source version of Flappy Bird, that doesn't annoy you with crypto or bombard you with ads.

Currently, the Flappy Bird clone doesn't feature a license of any kind, and that's probably because the Flappy Bird Foundation owns the trademark for it (who are not related to the original creator). But, you can view the code freely if you'd like.

I sincerely hope the lead developer changes its branding so that it is more accessible via app stores like F-Droid and the Play Store. As of now, there is only a signed APK.

What To Expect: A clone of the original Flappy Bird game, of course. I tested it on an Android 12 smartphone, and it worked really well. It was just that the hitbox for the bird was rather too big, resulting in me inadvertently hitting those pesky pipes.

I managed to get a very high score of 3! I am happy with that. 😏

How To Get: The lead developer (and the only one, from what I can see) has been consistently pushing updates to this FOSS version of Flappy Bird. You can grab the latest release (signed APK) from the project's GitHub repo, which comes in under a minuscule 100 KB.

Flappy Bird (FOSS)

If you are interested in learning what made Vadim develop this and how they were able to achieve it, then you should give the project's README a read.

💬 I never expected Flappy Bird to make a comeback like this (the crypto-riddled remake doesn't count). What about you? Will you try this out?