Pugo: Beyond ‘kwek-kwek’

After Hanoi-based Vietnamese game developer Dong Nguyen took down Flappy Bird from the Apple App Store and Google Play, a bunch of boggling things happened.

Devotees to the game were disappointed. Haters rejoiced. Clever monkeys turned to eBay to sell their phones (with the game installed) for thousands of US dollars.

Flappy Bird clones came flocking online, too! The Guardian reported on Feb. 27 that nearly one-third of the new games that went live in the Apple App Store were Flappy Bird clones.

Since then, Apple has taken measures to take down clones (those that sound like Flappy Bird, at least) attempting to “leverage a popular app,” which of course is Dong’s “bird.”

But if there’s an app that successfully made it to the Apple Store after all of the Flappy Bird whirlwind, it’s that of another bird created by Manila-based designers Patrick and Camy Cabral. It doesn’t have the word “flappy” in its name. Instead, it’s given a Filipino identity: Pugo.

THIS FLAPPY bird is very Pinoy.

Within just a few days after the game surfaced in the Philippine Apple App Store on Feb. 26, Pugo became a chart-topper, captivating the hearts of mobile gamers who once fell for Flappy Bird.

And it’s easy to see why.

Taking cue from the simplicity of the one-touch gameplay of Flappy Bird, Pugo ups the ante with its cuteness and a happy vibe that feels uniquely Filipino.

The Pinoy bird, clad in feathers of pink, fuchsia, purple and white, happily explores a forest with a jolly background music. The small quail can go the mile in dodging obstacles, too, if it picks up Philippine flags along the way; this helps the bird acquire extra lives, avoiding chances of a premature “game over,” as gamers experienced in Flappy Bird.

Pugo is still on version 1.0, so the graphics don’t exactly flow smoothly just yet. And the audio loops in the background are choppy.

But as with Flappy Bird, it’s the simplicity of the content that is central to the game. There’s a bird traveling in constant speed and there are obstacles it should dodge. Pugo bears the same formula (although not exactly perfect just yet) that made Flappy Bird addictive and got everyone with a smartphone from around the world tapping touch screens like crazy.

In this interview, game developer couple Patrick and Camy Cabral talk about Pugo, how they made it, and what’s there to look forward to.

Tell us about the process of creating your first game app.

We got married last October and my husband took the risk of making this game with the money that was supposed to be spent for our honeymoon. He used it to download tutorials and take online classes, while I went on with my 9-to-5 job as an art director for a game development company.

When that company closed, we almost abandoned the dream of shifting to game development. But while we were looking for a new job, my husband and I spent time playing around with different concepts, until we came across Flappy Bird. We both thought that it would be great to improve the game in our own creative and artistic perspectives, but we weren’t so sure then if we wanted to release it. It was just an idea.

Two days after our little experiment, the news about Flappy Bird being taken down from the App Store surfaced. We thought that was the perfect time and a sign that we really should do it. Thus, Pugo was born.

Where did the name “Pugo” come from?

We loved to eat kwek-kwek and we wanted to extend it beyond its reputation as a mere local delicacy. Also, we thought it represented our view to a concept of “a low-flying bird with an ambition to go far.”

For four months we also wrestled with different concepts for an original game. But all had longer production time frames, and we didn’t have the money to fund a long-term project. So we decided to release a simple game that would help us learn the market and the process of submitting an app to both Apple and Google stores.

It was supposed to be an experiment because we had zero knowledge on how to get into the Apple Store. It was, after all, our first game. We were like babies in the game development industry. We just wanted to get our foot in the door just so we know what to do with our next game.

What other developments and improvements in the game do you hope to include soon?

We just fixed the lag issue and are currently awaiting the update’s approval from Apple. The fix would hopefully improve the game—make it more smooth in transition. We can also expand the story of Pugo in the future.

How will the game stand out, considering it was inspired by Flappy Bird?

We do admit that we were heavily inspired by Flappy Bird, whose concept and gameplay itself was [a product of a] genius. But we wanted to try and do something that we thought Flappy Bird could have been. We added a feature which I believe makes the game more exciting—extra lives. These came in the form of the Philippine Flags.

One flag is equal to one extra life that can extend the gameplay. It is that promise of an extra life that the user will strive to exert extra effort.

The design and overall look of the game is also another feature. While the gameplay is the same (tapping the bird to avoid the obstacles made of bushes and trees), the look is different. We combined our love of typography and textured style in graphics to create our vision of what Flappy Bird could have been.

We tried and experimented as much as we could with the skills that we had. In the end, we love the result.

What’s your highest score in Pugo?

Camy: I was able to reach 75 points, and my husband’s score was 84. But, of course, we delete our personal records in the leaderboard, so the players will build their stats organically.

(Pugo is available in the Apple App Store for free. Android users can download the game from Google Play soon.)

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