Bouncy Bird
A fast, one-tap 2D casual game inspired by Flappy Bird, built in Unity with crisp HD sprites and smooth physics. Players choose from four birds, flap to stay aloft, weave through moving pipes, collect coins, and chase a high score as speed and difficulty scale over time.
Unity
C#
2D Casual Game
Solo Designer & Developer
Challenge
I had just started learning Unity, and this was my first project, so the challenge was to recreate the core feel of Flappy Bird while modernizing its presentation and systems. I aimed to deliver responsive one-tap controls, HD visuals, dynamic level generation that conserves memory, and simple but satisfying feedback loops through scoring, animation, and clear game states.
Results
The project successfully recreated the classic Flappy Bird experience while showcasing my ability to work with Unity for the first time. I implemented smooth controls, dynamic obstacle generation, and polished visuals that delivered engaging gameplay. This project gave me a solid foundation in Unity and confidence to build more advanced systems in later projects.
Process
Feel tuning and controls: Defined the target feel as snappy and fair. Tuned gravity scale, drag, and tap impulse. Read input in Update and applied force in FixedUpdate for consistent physics.
Procedural spawning and layout: Used a forward Pivot to spawn backgrounds, plus separate spawners for pipes and coins with x/y variance to prevent overlap and keep patterns readable but challenging.
Cleanup and performance: Advanced a behind-camera Destroy Point to remove off-screen backgrounds, pipes, and coins. Kept the scene lean and memory efficient.
Difficulty, scoring, and game flow: Increased forward speed gradually for smooth difficulty. Tracked pipe clears and coin pickups with HUD feedback. Implemented Home → Play → Pause → Game Over → Restart/Home, including a four-bird selection.
Visuals, feedback, and testing: Added HD bird sprites with idle/fly/hit animations and 360° coin spin. Built clear UI prompts. Iterated on spawn ranges, gap sizes, and speed curves through playtesting to balance challenge and fairness.
Conclusion
Bouncy Bird demonstrates my end-to-end game development workflow, designing a tight core mechanic, implementing performant systems (procedural spawning and memory-safe cleanup), and polishing UX/feedback. It’s a focused learning project that showcases my gameplay feel, Unity physics know-how, and ability to ship a small but complete experience.