Monday, June 18, 2018

My Parody of Angry Birds

ANGRY BIRDS

The game has been downloaded more nearly 4 billion times – almost enough to give half of humanity a download. The company behind the game, Finnish company Rovio, began like most. They launched one, two, three, four, ..twenty, …fifty... fifty-first, and all failed or were rejected by game developers. Facing bankruptcy, they conceived a new game for a new device, the iPhone. Game designer Jaakko Iisalo was home alone. Iisalo settled down to play with some game ideas, and, a strange idea began to brew. As he started visualization it, he turned on Photoshop and sketched out a bird with large eyebrows, no feet, and a somewhat disturbed appearance. He knew he had hit upon something and showed the bird to the management, the presentation turned into an “Aha” inspired moment for the whole company. Looking at the bird, even without knowing the point of the game, they already found it irresistible. They were hooked.

Rovio’s 52nd game was launched. The rest is history. Like the little angry birds who are persistent and determined, Jaakko Iisalo and Rovio persevered when others would have quit. The company went from the verge of bankruptcy to being worth 290 million Euros. The moral of the story: Never give up!!

My print is a parody of the game. It is also inspired by the game and my own experience of witnessing "angry birds' when I stumbled into a raven's roost. These birds were enraged and would throw themselves at me to beat me back. I decided my version would have realistic images of wild ravens and a ferule pig. My narrative is told by the Birds as they prepare to be catapulted at their enemy the pigs.