Rising Popularity

It had been a little over a month since Inigo set up his high-performance game development workstation, and in that short span of time, Flappy Bird had gone from being just another mobile game to a global sensation.

Sitting in his newly furnished workspace, Inigo sipped on a steaming cup of coffee as he booted up his Dell UltraSharp U2711 monitor. The glow from the screen illuminated his face as he navigated to Google AdMob's real-time statistics.

His heart pounded as the numbers loaded.

Flappy Bird – Current Global Statistics (December 12, 2010)

Total Downloads: 57,238,100

Active Players: 41,904,700

Daily Active Users (DAU): 5,879,000

Google Ad Revenue (Last 24 Hours): $217,840.23

Total Ad Revenue Since Launch: $7,892,000 (~₱357 million pesos)

Inigo's grip on his coffee cup tightened.

"This is insane…" he muttered under his breath.

He refreshed the page, almost as if he expected the numbers to drop. They didn't.

Instead, they climbed even higher.

Over the past few weeks, Flappy Bird had been climbing the charts at an unprecedented rate.

#1 in the iOS App Store (US, UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, and 30+ other countries)

#1 in the Google Play Store worldwide

Millions of new users downloading every single day

The game was everywhere.

Kids at school played it during recess. Office workers sneakily played it on their lunch breaks. College students competed with each other to see who could get the highest score. Even celebrities had started tweeting about it.

Social media was filled with posts:

@JakeStevens21: "Been stuck at a score of 12 for an hour. I hate this game… but I can't stop playing. #FlappyBird"

@GamerGirlTiff: "Who else has thrown their phone because of Flappy Bird? I NEED HELP."

@ChrisEvans: "Tried Flappy Bird. Lasted 10 seconds. My ego is shattered."

People were obsessed with it.

The simplicity of the game, combined with its frustratingly difficult mechanics, had turned it into a viral hit. Everyone wanted to beat their friends' high scores. Everyone wanted to prove they could do better.

And with millions of players opening the app every day, his ad revenue was skyrocketing.

But with popularity comes the people wanting to know who is behind it.

Gaming forums, tech blogs, and even major news outlets had started discussing the mystery developer behind the game.

"How can a game so simple be this addictive? And more importantly, who made it?" — IGN Forums

"There's no official website, no social media presence, nothing. This might be the most mysterious game developer in history." — Kotaku

"We checked the Google Play Store, and the publisher is listed as… ButtDestroyer. What kind of name is that?" — Reddit

The internet exploded when people found the developer name on the app store.

Meme pages started circulating images:

"Who is ButtDestroyer? We must find him."

"I swear, if the creator of Flappy Bird turns out to be a 12-year-old kid, I will lose it."

The name alone made people assume the developer was a troll or just someone who never expected the game to become this big.

There were theories everywhere:

Some believed it was an underground indie developer testing a new viral game formula.

Others were convinced it was a hidden project by a big company."

And yet, nobody had any concrete evidence.

There was no website. No interviews. No LinkedIn profile. No marketing campaign.

The only trace of the developer was a dummy Google account with a ridiculous name.

Sitting in front of his monitor, Inigo smirked.

"This is exactly what I expected."

He had studied gaming history. He knew that mystery fueled hype.

If he came forward now, the media frenzy would shift to him instead of the game. People would analyze him, criticize him, dig into his personal life, and worst of all…

The magic of the mystery would disappear.

Players loved speculating. They projected their own image of the creator—some saw him as a genius indie developer, others imagined a young college kid who accidentally struck gold.

By staying anonymous, he kept everyone engaged.

"I need to control the narrative," he murmured.

Then, he got an idea.

Instead of revealing his real identity, Inigo would create a persona.

Something iconic, mysterious, and untraceable.

Opening Photoshop, he started working on an image—a plain white mask, similar to the Jabbawockeez masks.

It was simple. No facial details. No expression. Just a blank canvas.

Underneath, he wrote one line:

"Flappy Bird Dev"

And then, he uploaded it as his new Google account profile picture.

Within hours, the gaming community lost its mind.

"BUTTDESTROYER UPDATED HIS PROFILE?! WHO IS THIS MASKED DEV?" — Twitter

"Guys, this could be a marketing stunt… or a genius way to stay anonymous." — Reddit

"This mask is going to be iconic. Watch." — YouTube comment section

Some people even started wearing white masks in YouTube videos, pretending to be the Flappy Bird developer for fun.

The mystery only deepened.

And Inigo?

He sat back in his chair, grinning.

He had successfully turned the hype into something bigger than himself.

By staying hidden, he had made himself larger than life.

And this was just the beginning.