Angry Birds in space | Hacker News Reader

Angry Birds in space

space.angrybirds.com

141 pointspshken39 comments

Something about this doesn't sit right with me. I feel like the kind of people I would ordinarily consider role models are selling out to a video game.

It feels like the other way around too me -- in order to reach out and inspire a new generation, NASA willingly collaborated with Rovio to show people that (an abstraction of) space can be all sorts of fun. Its relevant physics puzzles in much more palatable form!

'Sides, at least it's a game about space where, for once the aliens are not exterminating humans and blowing up everything.

Oh wait on the blowing stuff up part. :)

I came away with a different feeling. He never really said anything about going and buying anything. Lots of kids already play Angry Birds, they know this and want to reach out to kids. So they're making a little pro-science advertisement "hey if you like this kind of stuff you better study science so you can become an astronaut".

What he forgot to mention was the part where probably most Physics graduates do not find work in their field and a very small fraction go on to become astronauts.

I don't see how this is selling out. Something kids care about is being used to promote math and science (and perhaps even help them understand it, in the case of gravity). He even says, quite directly, "learn math and science and get a neat job, like me" (or something to that effect). I can't help but see this as a good thing.

Especially when this is a physics based videogame where you learn to explore different solutions, test and refine your hypothesis, assess the stability of structures ... Not too bad in itself.

Also, he seems to have a really stuffy nose. Is that a zero gravity thing?

Here's the thing. My 3.5 year old is going to understand something about gravity. I think I was probably 8 before it was presented in 'science' class...and that was just 'newton had an apple fall on his head. things fall.'

I think this is pretty cool and the game looks fun too.

If your 3.5 year old had been born 10 years ago, he would have still understood something about gravity at 3.5 with the help of Spaced Penguins. A simple Java or Flash game (can't recall which) about shooting a penguin into orbit around planets.

This is neat, and good for Rovio but it's not anything more than neat.

Talk about priceless press... the Rovio marketing team were probably salivating when they heard about this

Surely they paid for it? If so, is the the first use of private advertising on the ISS?

It seems like that would be really, really expensive unless NASA actually wanted to help them out. I think it's mutually beneficial NASA is trying to reach a younger generation as they struggle to stay relevant given that they don't even have a human launch platform ATM.

My guess is NASA is trying to reach younger crowds & they did this as joint marketing campaign. More kids get excited about NASA & space while Rovio gets even more press and coverage for their new game. Everybody wins.

NASA's putting quite a bit of effort into educating the public, or at least, more than they were a few years ago. I'm hoping things like this and the Lego sets they built will get us interested in space again.

The physics system looks a lot like that of Mario Galaxy, where each planet has its own localized gravity field of constant magnitude that just ends abruptly at a specific altitude. Although here the gravity fields can overlap.

Angry Birds in Space, a win for popularizing understanding physics, but a loss for understanding biology.

Can you explain how that is?

I think he/she meant that birds can't survive in space. The pigs at least seem to have some sort of bowl around their head.

I think creating a game for the sole reason of inculcating the simple concept of gravitation into the kids is kind of inappropriate. It costs them more time to be wasted on the game that that takes for them to simply learn it from the textbook. If additional features like the extent of effect of gravitation in relation to the mass of the planet and the travelling speed of the bird are added, again, that will make the game complicated and less interesting to play.

> It costs them more time to be wasted on the game that that takes for them to simply learn it from the textbook.

Maybe, just maybe playing with physics could actually spark their interest into actually reading the text-book and learn about the real thing.

Right, you expect children to be more interested in learning about gravity from a textbook over a game they might have fun playing? Most of the best learning tools I've seen are presented as games with a solve problem get reward mechanic.

Awesome! This feels like, hey, an astronaut isn't an isolated individual living far away from us anymore. It feels more like he got a call from Rovio if he could do a video for advertising and said "Well why not? I put it in my Dropbox"

Have you noticed that scientific organisations participating in the ISS project are promoting a game in which sounds in audible in vacuum? Apparently the heritage of Star Wars et al. is still preventing the industry from marketing space-based games not making physicists laugh. Surely, it won't change soon.

I hope this is a joke. A silent space game would not be fun.

I think that we can bow to the needs of dramatic effect. Even in "in space, nobody can hear you scream" Alien they had space ship sounds.

For the purists, allow me to recommend adjusting the volume controls on your phone.

> preventing the industry from marketing space-based games not making physicists laugh

I don't hear anyone laughing.

:-D

Yes, let's care about sound in space. Because the rest of Star Wars et al is completely true to the laws of physics.

I'm guessing to celebrate they'll be releasing another weather balloon into space to drop angry birds paraphernalia.

I wonder how much it cost NASA to put that Angry Bird Plushie into space? Doesn't it cost like $10,000 per pound?

So about $5k then? That is an incredibly cheap ad buy.

I wonder if you or me would want to advertise this way, NASA would agree. I, for a second, though: hmmm.. what if he shoot it and somehow, some way it will gently put firmly enough hit some precious spacecraft component..

I find it very depressing that the US space program now has come down to have to produce ads like this...

Wouldn't be the first space physics game, but cool nonetheless.

Why is this on Hacker News? Isn't this spam?

In that case, isn't almost everything?

Space Jam

Do US taxpayers get a free copy of the game?

Man, NASA is so desperate for money. Good to see the private sector paying the public for once.

Angry Birds Space looks like a total rip off of this neat flash game where you put a golf ball through a ring located on a distant planet while taking into account the mass of the bodies in space.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/FunkyPear/gravitee?acomplete...

Angry Birds itself was a rip-off of Crush The Castle. Just having the game design doesn't sell; you have to find the right dressing.

If I was the Crush The Castle guys, I'd be crying into my corn flakes every morning.

one was stolen from another, agreed. but you have to admit to "replace" warriors with crazy looking animals and do it as a major project of a games company needs some balls involved. And it worked out. For that reason and the difference in anything else than "crushing elements" between those two games, I dont think they cry in their cereals.

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