Angry Birds

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Angry Birds.

Development Timeline#

To do: This section is a heavy WIP. There's still a lot more to cite and document for this section.

2009#

• April - Development for the game began started around Summer.
• December 1st - The In-game Trailer for Angry Birds is posted on YouTube, showcasing game play of the game.
• December 11th - The game is initially released worldwide for iPhone and Nokia N900 devices as versions 1.0 and 1.1.0 respectively.

2010#

• February 3rd - A cinematic trailer for the game is posted on YouTube.
• February 12th - The first update to the game, Version 1.2.0, is released, which adds the second episode "Mighty Hoax".
• February 13th - Angry Birds Lite, a demo version of the game is released for iOS, which features 6 levels included in the full game and 6 exclusive ones.
• April 1st - The HD version of Angry Birds is released two days before the iPad came out in version 1.2.2.
• April 2nd - Version 1.2.1 is released, with the introduction of Golden Eggs to the game.
• April 3rd - The iPad was released, officially listing Angry Birds HD on the App Store.
• April 23rd - Version 1.3.0 is released, adding the boomerang bird Hal and the third episode, "Danger Above", which initially consisted of 15 levels.
• April 30th - Angry Birds becomes the #1 paid app in 49 countries. Version 1.3.2 is released, adding the second pack of levels of the Danger Above episode to the game and changing the Poached Eggs episode clear messages as they were outdated.
• July 16th - Version 1.4.0 is released, adding Big Brother Bird (later known as Terence) and the fourth episode, "The Big Setup".
• September 3rd - Angry Birds lands on Android but as "Angry Birds Lite Beta".
• October 15th - The full version of Angry Birds lands on Android in version 1.3.5 (outdated by iOS standards since the game version on iOS was 1.4.4 but featured gimmicks that would remain in future versions such as the background being based on the last level played)
• October 21st - The first spinoff to the game, "Angry Birds Halloween", was released to iOS devices.
• December 23rd - Version 1.5.0 is released for iOS, adding the Mighty Eagle and the fifth episode, "Ham 'Em High".

2011#

• January 4th - The PC version was released
• January 5th - The game was ported to PSP and PS3 and Angry Birds Free was released that same day
• March 18th - Angry Birds Rio was released

2019#

• April - Angry Birds was unlisted
• May 8th - The final version, version 8.0.3 was released. Angry Birds came back. Updates subsequently stopped.
• July - Angry Birds was unlisted again.

Rovio Classics#

• June 22nd, 2021 - Rovio announced that the game will come back, with an update in November revealing that it would be rebuilt in Unity.
• March 31st, 2022 - Rovio Classics: Angry Birds was released.
• February 23rd, 2023 - Not even a year later, the game was delisted from the Google Play store and the App Store app received a new name titled, "Red's First Flight".

Early Gameplay Ideas#

According to an interview with Mikael and Niklas Hed in a April 2011 issue of Wired magazine, the original gameplay concepts of the game were extremely different from what the game is now. Originally, each colored bird matched a colored block. If the player tapped a block, the corresponding bird would fly up to it and destroy it. This idea seems to match the original concept art that Jaakko Iisalo made for the game.

At the time, the idea of the birds having abilities didn't exist yet, so there were collectible eggs that acted as power-ups instead. The player would also have to upgrade and strengthen their flock in a similar manner to the evolving mechanic prominently seen in Pokémon.

The idea for flinging the birds across the screen came later in the game's development. Initially, there was the idea of making the birds fling themselves by having the player swipe their finger in the direction of the structures, instead of using the slingshot seen in the final game.

Early Story#

According to Jaakko Iisalo, one of the initial ideas for the game's opening involved a "tiny bird" (presumably Blue) landing on a pig, getting mad when the pig sneezes on him, and going to tell his friends that the pig teased him. This lines up with the unused animations.lua script.

Early Music#

Title Theme#

On Ari Pulkkinen's YouTube and Soundcloud pages, there is a different rendition of the game's iconic title theme that has an extended intro segment that isn't present in the in-game track. The other rendition of the title theme was heard in the info commercial for the Angry Birds Knock on Wood playset, though it's unknown if it was an originally unused version.¹

Concept Art#

Gameplay Mockups#

Two of the very first pieces of concept art for the game, created by Jaakko Iisalo.

The Flock#

A few early sketches for some hypothetical bird designs created by Tuomas Erikoinen. According to the official Angry Birds Facebook account, these designs were conceived before abilities for the birds were considered.

Concept art of some early designs for the birds created by Tuomas Erikoinen. While Red and the Blues look close to their final designs, the other characters have vastly different designs from their in-game counterparts.

• Chuck and Bomb have designs that are much closer to Red's in appearance.
• The green bird on the far left is presumably an early version of Matilda, as her sprites in the game are labeled as "BIRD_GREEN".
• The violet bird is completely absent from the game aside from their feathers being leftover in the files. This might've been an early version of Terence as the concept art above shows a purple bird similar to Terence.

Some concept art of Hal created by Tuomas Erikoinen which features some... interesting early designs for the character.

It seems they were originally tossing around the idea of making Hal look more like a boomerang in shape before they settled on the more Toucan-like appearance seen in the final game.

The Bad Piggies#

One of the first pieces of concept art for the pigs, created by Jaakko Iisalo. The Minion Pig's design here doesn't look all that different from how it originally looked in the game, before their designs were later revised in future updates to the game.

More concept art for the pigs, now showing the others: King Pig, Foreman Pig, and Corporal Pig. King Pig's early design appears in older versions of the level select and ending cutscenes. The first image came from this Russia 2 news report, and the second image came from this interview at NEXT Conference.

Splash Screen#

Early draft	1.4.0

An early draft of the game's original splash screen, created by Kimmo Lemetti. According to Lemetti, Rovio told him to "tone it down" for the final game. Differences are:

• Red had a different design.
• The castle's design is different.
• The logo is thicker.
• Clouds and background is much simpler.
• The slingshot was moved far away.
• The Blue is positioned differently.

Other#

The original sketches for Danger Above 8-3, of which were created by a five year old named Ethan and later emailed to Rovio by his mother in April 2010. In-game, Ethan is credited in the level itself through some floating static blocks that spell out his name, which can be seen if the player zooms out in the level.

Concept designs for some pig accessories seen in the episode "Short Fuse", as well as a concept for some sort of explosive potion that didn't make the cut, created by Jessica Sundell.

Various concepts for the "Red's Mighty Feathers" and "Short Fuse" episodes, also created by Jessica Sundell. Interestingly, there are also some designs for Chuck wearing a hachimaki alongside some pigs in ninja and sumo outfits, which could imply that Chuck was planned to get a Japan-themed episode centered around him, presumably with an upgraded ability much like Red and Bomb.

Early 2010 logo and font designs#

Before the final 2010 Angry Birds logo was made, there were concepts released by John Roshell in 2015, for the next game, Angry Birds Seasons. Interestingly, there is a number two on it, indicating of a version number or a sequel. There's also concepts for the in-game font.

Early draft	Original Design	1.4.0

There is the original version of the v1.4.0 splash screen design. Differences are:

• The shading and lightning is different.
• Red appears to have positioned differently.
• Foreman Pig is positioned differently, along with Coporal Pig.
• Bomb, Matilda and the Blue had original renders for the title screen, but then they were changed to more detailed versions of the in-game sprites.
• The logo resembles the one used in the early draft.

Possible 1.0_RC3 Build Screenshots#

As seen in a Facebook photo album from February 19, 2010, there are screenshots of a build featuring early versions of Poached Eggs and Mighty Hoax levels. These screenshots are presumably from a early build of 1.0 referred to as "1.0_RC3" (RC3 being short for Release Candidate 3), as it is mentioned in some of the game's version strings.

Unknown Mac OS X Build Screenshots#

When Angry Birds was initially released for Mac OS X in 2011, several screenshots were put up on the game's Mac App Store page that show an unknown build that has several visual differences not seen in the final game. Differences include:

• The score text being in a variant of the "AngryBirds" font. While later versions of the game would go on to use the "AngryBirds" font, versions released in 2010 use the "OnomatoShark" font instead.
• The 5000 score pop-up that appears when you pop a pig seems to spin into view.
• And most notably, the textures for the glass, wood and stone blocks are unique, as they are shown to have realistic-looking textures overlaid on a few of them and are in slighty different shades of color.
  • Interestingly, one of the wood block textures seems to be an early version of the wood block textures used in Angry Birds Rio.

In-game trailer#

The In-game Trailer is very similar to the final but has some differences that are mostly sound related. The differences are listed below. Watch on YouTube

• Early sounds of the birds' idle squawking and chirping can be heard briefly throughout the trailer.
• The slingshot launch sound appears to be an earlier, less harsh-violent sounding version (possibly the "bird-shot" sound that was commented out in 1.6.2's gamelogic).
• The collision sounds for the glass blocks sound more like the collision sound for the wood blocks.
• The elastic band jiggling on the slingshot when a bird is launched is slightly more intense.
• The Blues correctly use the ability sound "special group.wav".
• Bomb uses a completely different select and flying sound. Funnily enough, the old sound seen here ended up replacing the current version in later versions of the game.
• Bomb also makes a squeak sound when he explodes.
• Matilda uses her unused ability sound "bird pushing egg out.wav".
• The pause button is fully opaque instead of semi-transparent like in the final. Making it an earlier build than the one above.

Early 7-3 level#

References#