“An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” — O. W. Kenobi

I am aware that it is the year 2021, and that talking about Angry Birds now might look as anachronistic. Yet I still believe that these characters, especially their original incarnation, offer some very important lessons relevant for Character Designs and Branding.

Full disclosure: my first job in the gaming industry was at Rovio. I had a good fortune to be hired by them in 2012 when they were arguably at their peak. Back then I was just a novice game designer there without much say in how this franchise was treated. I did work on a couple of titles that were part of the Angry Birds franchise and made a series of prototypes, none of which ever saw the light of day. My time at Rovio ended after they shuttered their studio in Tampere, Finland. Therefore, my observations are just a tad bit different than the observations of an outsider.

I have to admit also that I still have a soft spot for these birds. The original Angry Birds game was one of the first breakthrough hits on, at that time, a brand new platform of mobile touch devices. For many people, especially the non-gamers, they remain one of the most iconic video game characters on par with Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

The focus on the simplicity of these characters offers some very valuable insights into character design. These lessons are often taken for granted and ignored!

The origins

Rovio as a company was founded by a group of friends and relatives in Finland, sometime in 2003. They had launched several games prior to hitting it big with the original Angry Birds game in 2009.

I am not quite certain who was responsible for the original design of the characters. To the best of my knowledge, Jaakko Iisalo, the design lead at the project, made the initial sketch of the birds. I am not sure, but I think that the graphics designer Tuomas Erikoinen created the version that ended up in the product.

The original franchise hit the peak of its popularity somewhere in the period between 2011 and 2014 when the company launched a series of spin-off games, an animated series, and a bunch of crossover collaborations with numerous partners ranging from NASA to National Geographic. Most noticeably, Rovio created a sprawling network of merchandising partnerships and Angry Birds characters were adorning all sorts of products from plush toys and clothing to soap and cosmetics.

During this period, Rovio greatly expanded the original cast of birds by adding Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, and Stella characters.

Sometime around 2015 to 2020, the original character set underwent a fundamental visual redesign, abandoning many of the characteristics that made it stand out early on. Most noticeably, the birds got arms and legs and more anthropomorphic bodies. This change was spurred by The Angry Birds' movie project.

In this text, I will focus on the original 2009 character design.

In my opinion, there are the three main components that made the Angry Birds so universally accepted characters, and these are:

• Shape,
• Color,
• Emotion.

The shape

Many of the most recognizable characters can be reduced to very simple shapes. Notice for example how Mickey Mouse, arguably the most famous of all cartoon characters, can easily be represented as a combination of three overlapping circles. Likewise, the head of Hello Kitty, another universally beloved character, can be reduced to an ellipse and two tiny triangles.

This same principle is applied to other areas of the design, from logo design to architecture.

The Angry Birds make use of some of the most simple shapes: circles, ovals, and triangles. Their silhouettes are instantly recognizable and readable even without any other graphical elements. The variations in size and combination of shapes can be used to create a variety of characters.

The shape of the characters is used to highlight their behavior, i.e. the function that they have in the game. Chuck’s Pointy shape implies speed and piercing ability. The Blues act as a cluster missile, which is indicated by the shape repetition. Terrence is the biggest of the birds. His bulk indicates heaviness, inertia, and destructive power.

The color

The original flock of characters makes use of bright primary colors, red, yellow, blue, green, black, etc.

There is no subtle confusion of maroon or fuschia, etc. There is no ambiguity in identifying the characters by their color. These colors are eye-catching and easy to remember. Their names are a part of the vocabulary even of a three years old child. Furthermore, these colors are a part of even the most basic set of crayons.

This combination of simple shapes and primary colors creates characters that are instantly recognizable! Every child can reproduce his favorite characters, deepening the emotional connection and promoting the brand further!

In terms of their main function within the game, this choice of color is perfectly suited for the task. The saturated colors of characters allow good separation from the more pastel backgrounds, allowing the player to at a glance grasp what parts of the scene are active gameplay elements at which to focus versus the scenery. Surprisingly, this is something that so many game artists seem to forget very often!

The emotion

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” — L. Tolstoy

Why is this bird so angry? — It’s angry because the Bad Piggies have stolen its eggs. This is the basic premise of the Angry Birds story. This is a perfect game intro. The question pops to mind instantly, upon hearing the name of the game. The answer is the start of the story, and the story is the beginning of the adventure.

Emotions are what make us human. Empathy is our ability to understand and reflect on the emotions of others. This is something that is inherent to the most profound levels of human communication. This communication is the start of the emotional bond.

Anger is an emotion that everyone can relate to. Everyone is angry sometimes.

This simple singular emotion sets the narrative framework from which the whole world is extrapolated. The premise is absurd, but it has all the needed elements for a compelling story. It sets up the motives of the participants of the story.

This is a setup for a conflict and it is this conflict that drives forward both the story and the gameplay. By taking on the control of the birds, the player himself becomes involved in this conflict, investing himself emotionally.

Establishing this type of emotional connection is one of the most important tasks of the first time user experience.

Contrast this with the relative emotional blandness of characters in the other casual games. These characters quite often serve less as actual drivers of the narrative and more as mere visual décor. There is very little characterization and consequently no emotional connection.

Key takeaways

• Angry Birds possess the three important properties that have made them some of the most iconic video game characters.
• Basic shapes that any child can draw, and which create unique easily recognizable silhouettes.
• Colors, bright and primary that make them stand out in the game and also easy to describe and replicate by most basic tools.
• Emotion creates a psychological connection with the player and acts as a seed for the narrative.
• The combination of these three elements was key to the success of the original Angry Birds.
• The abandonment of some of these elements, namely the shape, probably contributed to the deterioration of the franchise.

Of course, there are plenty of examples of successful characters that do not follow this pattern. Arguably, Super Mario’s silhouette is very far from an instantly recognizable set of the basic shapes. This is not a foolproof recipe guaranteeing success, it is rather something worth keeping in mind!

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