The Hottest App on Earth!

GCD meets the creators of Angry Birds!

To say that the Angry Birds iPhone app has been killing it would be a drastic understatement: The mobile-phone game is the top-selling paid-for game in Apple App Stores in the U.S., U.K. and pretty much every other free country on Earth right now, having generated nearly 2.5 million downloads since its launch last December.

The game—in which birds are catapulted into castles so that they can exact revenge on egg-stealing green pigs—was developed by a Finland-based company called Rovio. Their location, however, wasn't about to stop us from sending our L.A.-based GCD app expert on a 5,600-mile flight to meet game developers Mikael Hed (the taller of the guys pictured here) and his cousin Niklas Hed...

Which is the angriest of the angry birds?
Mikael Hed The angriest of the Angry Birds must be the black bird. It has some serious difficulties controlling its temper, and has a tendency to get so mad that it explodes.

What the hell is up with level 3-5?
Mikael Hed Level 3-5 is a special treat for all those who thought the levels before it were a little bit too easy.

Are there Beavis & Butt-Head sounds mixed into the game? Who were the voices recorded to use on the game?
Niklas Hed No, although we are great fans of the work of Mike Judge, the game contains only original sound effects. The sounds were recorded on a Friday evening at the Rovio office, under the skilled guidance of the sound designer, Ari Pulkkinen. The sounds were made by a group of brave "volunteers" from among the Angry Birds team, who were kindly asked to squeal like a pig (no, not in a Deliverance kind of way, mind you!)

Will the pigs seek revenge in a future title?
Mikael Hed The pigs tend to forget about revenge as soon as they see those delicious eggs. Besides, the pigs know that they have built some really solid defenses against the birds, so there really will not be any need for revenge.

Do the birds have names?
Niklas Hed The only bird ever to have had a name was George, a distant relative of the current red bird, back in the day when Angry Birds was still in the concept stage. The bird names were dropped early on, since we wanted to let the players themselves author the story around the birds and about the bird characters.

Will the birds do a world tour?
Niklas Hed Yes, the birds always get their pig, even if they have to travel across the globe to get them. In upcoming updates there are some famous landmarks, you should check them out and see if you can recognize all of them.

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