Epic Releases Flappy Bird Clone 'Tappy Chicken' Based On Unreal Engine For Android And iOS

Sure, on some levels, it's arguably sacrilegious to use a popular and powerful 3D game engine to create a Flappy Bird clone. But then again, Flappy Bird was netting its developer $50,000 per day through in-game ads before he did addicted gamers a solid by removing the app (it's coming back this summer, by the way). Besides, there's a bigger reason why Epic -- yes, Epic, the same company that developed Unreal Tournament and Infinity Blade -- built Tappy Chicken.

"Tappy Chicken is the perfect showcase for the ease of use and flexibility of Unreal Engine 4," Epic explains. "While it may not flex the full graphical muscle of the engine, it shows how almost anyone can make a fun and pretty game fit for mobile devices and web browsers."

Tappy Chicken

And so there you have it -- Tappy Chicken, which was built by a single person, is a plug for Unreal Engine 4. Epic made its Unreal Engine 4 available to anyone and everyone this past March for $19 per month plus 5 percent of gross revenue resulting from sales of games to users.

As intended, Tappy Chicken shows that you don't need ambitions of developing blockbuster AAA titles to pony up for a subscription (though that's possible as well). Like Flappy Bird, you simply tap on a touchscreen display to keep your character airborne as you try and dodge obstacles. It's one of many Flappy Bird clones, but the only one built using Unreal Engine 4.