Logo: University of Southern California

GamePipe Lab Student Startup Releases — and then Updates - iTunes App Game

In 'fowlplay' humans are targets for "rain of terror" from mischievous overhead bombardier pigeons

April 03, 2010 —

Happynin Games, Inc., a startup created by USC Viterbi School GamePipe Laboratory graduates has announced the release of its first title, fowlplay, available on the Apple® iTunesFowlplay 2 App Store for download.

Subsequently, an updated "eggsciting Easter Special" 1.2 version appeared on iTunes.

In the game, players take to the skies in the form of pigeons flying over a park, carrying on a "rain of terror" against the humans below.

Players earn points and combos for dodging trees and successfully hitting the targets below. Power-ups can be collected to give the pigeon new powers such as ‘fire’ and ‘invincibility’ for a limited time. But the better the player does, the faster the pigeon flies!

The game includes a feature, OpenFeintTM integrated, allowing players to easily share their high scores and challenge their friends and families around the world.

The newly formed startup, Happynin Games, was founded by 12 graduates of the USC GamePipe Laboratory program, and fowlplay is the company's first title.

“The development team on this has done an outstanding effort and produced one of the best 3D games on the iPhone to date”, said Michael Zyda, CEO of Happynin and Director of the USC GamePipe Laboratory. fowlplay was based on a PC game built for the CS-491A Final Game Projects course and its PC version demo is here.

The iPhone version of fowlplay offers simple controls, stylized 3D graphics, and has a host of new content planned for updates.. The game is now available worldwide on the App Store for download. For more information, including downloadable media assets, visit www.happynin.com.

CREDITS

Design
Andrea Tseng, BS Industrial & Systems Engineering, 09, USC
Henry Liu, BA Interactive Entertainment, 09 USC
Engineering
Keyur Bhulani, MS Computer Science, 09 USC
Tony Hsieh, MS Computer Science (Game Development), 09 USC
Greg Chen, MS in Computer Science, 09 USC
Raymond Xiang, MS in Computer Science, 09 USC
Ki Tae Bae, MS in Computer Science, 09 USC
Art
Mio del Rosario, Art Institute of California, Orange County, BS in Game Art and Design 09
Mike Fabay, Art Institute of California, Orange County, BS in Game Art and Design 09
Jeff Chuang, BA Fine Arts, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena 07
Noorussaad Armar, MS in Computer Science, 09 USC
Theodore Wright IV, BA Media Arts & Animation, Art Institute of Orange County, 09
Music & Sound
Andrea Chang, BA Music Composition, Music Education, '08 (UCLA);  Graduate Certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television, '09 (USC)
Production
Hersh Choksi, BS Business Administration (Cinematic Arts), 09 USC
Michael Zyda
Christopher Zyda
Web
Mukul Abdagiri, MS Computer Science, 09 USC
Special Thanks
Michael Jenson, BA Cinematic Arts, 05 USC