That's been investigated by journalists the world over. As far as anyone can see, Flappy Bird's rise was organic and legit.
I don't think that a developer need real money to make a good game, most of the iPhone game dev lacks of gaming passion and just want to hunt money "only" so they fall deeper and deeper in that space. Seeing that some mini games like Flappy Bird, Tiny Wings, Doodle Jumps touch people sense and staying in the top chart for REAL long (mean they stay there even Apple stops featuring them). What a dev need to make their own success is loving creating something great + a little bit luck then they can ready for hunting a success. I don't think Flappy Bird is a winning lottery either. Please remember 2 things: 1- People do enjoy the game very much. They feel the challenge of Flappy Bird as their fun (not their frustration). People feel their score after each of the tap on their finger. 2- Before the media jumps in and making the strong push, Flappy Bird was already in the Top 1 without his marketing budget. For me, Flappy Bird is a great game. I've learned tons of things from that success. You should see why I don't agree with you on that as well. Honestly, don't call those jerks as game developer. They don't "develop" anything. They have no idea on how to create a true game, they're the bad side of the society. I have good games and bad games in my porfolio, but being telling eveyone that a bad game is great; that's weird... And in my point of view, that's biting Dong in his future works. A dev has the right to tell the other devs their feeling if they truly care about that dev so far. "This is crap!" was flying from my mouth after seeing the gameplay video and few hours later, I did try the game on my fingers and I know that I wasn't wrong. I think Dong is deserve to know that. Lastly, I believe you won't be a bitter also even when you're not doing great in the App Store, rite? That's why, I don't care if anybody want to tell me that I'm ehhh ehhh ehhh "jealous", bad game is bad game the hype can't stay long after Apple stops featuring it. That's the true fact that I know it very clear. I do hope for a better game from Dong, but I skipped this one for sure. PS: For me, the thread is turning to something weird... when it's supposed to mention only about this "Swing Copters"
And one another thing about me that everyone should know about. I'm a Vietnam game developer like Dong. I mostly have no time to care about other bad games but the devs around me. Why? Everyday, I see many blatant clones, illegal contents that are coming from Vietnam developers like a cancer. People here knows about creating game as cloning & making money. I want to have my current studio and some other devs like Dong could help changing that bad image. That's why, I'm sorry but I will be very very strickly on any single game that is coming from a Vietnam dev. I guess you know me now.
Just reading the end of this thread and wanted to chip in. Especially on the 'jealous devs' thing. I've played the hell out of flappy, enjoyed it. But I don't think SC has recaptured that magic, or built on it. For me, it's not a good game. (*not* then by definition a bad one, by the way.) What I do find a bit wrong, is that now SC walks into a "Best New Games" feature slot on the the App Store, almost certainly not on merit, but because of who it was made by. This is something that does annoy many developers who work their socks off to make good games and never get noticed. Does it deserve that slot at the expense of something else, when it's going to get publicity elsewhere anyway? I don't really think it does.
I think you're right that it's a safe bet that if Swing Copters had been submitted by an unknown developer, that Apple wouldn't have featured it under "Best New Games." But it probably would have gotten many downloads even without an Apple feature push. Google for "Swing Copters" - it's mentioned in countless places.
