The history of game development in Vietnam: from pixel bird to NFT game

"Flappy Bird" is a side-scrolling mobile game in which players need to control the bird to shuttle between green water pipes to avoid collisions. Nguyen Ha Dong developed the game in April 2013 and it exploded overnight. It was reported that by February of the following year, "Pixel Birds" had become the number one downloaded mobile game on Apple and Google stores in more than 100 countries, with a total download of more than 50 million. At the time, Nguyen was earning $50,000 a day.

But the developers themselves were not used to the story of overnight fame, and finally decided to take the game offline. Pixel Bird has only been on the app store for less than a year, and its success is both a role model and a cautionary tale for many Vietnamese publishers.

As a game development center in Southeast Asia, there are many well-known game studios rooted in Vietnam, including French video game publishers Gameloft and Ubisoft, as well as local game and entertainment unicorn company VNG.

Over time, Vietnam's gaming industry is also experiencing growing pains. The talent shortage has led to increased competition and investors are pressuring game publishers to release new games quickly, causing many developers to worry that the quality of their games will decline as a result.

"Pixel Bird" game record on the App Store video site

Game Development Center in Southeast Asia - Vietnam

About 20% of game publishers headquartered in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia originated in Vietnam, according to App Annie.

Vietnam has more than 4 million gamers, two-thirds of whom are between the ages of 18-30. According to research firm Dezan Shira & Associates, engineers in Vietnam are paid less than in developed markets.

"While most of them are making casual games with relatively simple quality, graphics and user interface, there are also examples of Vietnamese games going overseas, such as Caravan War and Tiles Hop: EDM Rush!" the report said.

Vietnam's mobile-dominated culture has contributed to the creation of many successful mobile games. Amanotes is one of the leading game publishers in Vietnam, co-founded in 2014 by Nguyen Tuan Cuong and Vo Tuan Binh. Amanotes' music games Magic Tiles 3, Tiles Hop and Dancing Road have accumulated 2 billion downloads by August 2021. According to App Annie, Amanotes also ranks among the top app publishers in Southeast Asia in terms of global downloads.

Amanotes is not the only Vietnamese game developer with international recognition. Sky Mavis made a name for himself by developing Axie Infinity, a game that makes money while playing. Playing the game and trading in-game digital assets purportedly generates real income.

Axie Infinity, an NFT game developed by the app store Sky Mavis

In November 2021, Sky Mavis completed a $152 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $3 billion.

The success of Axie Infinity has led to a lot of investment in other NFT game developers in Vietnam, including Faraland, which received a $2.4 million financing in May last year, and Sipher, which received a $6.8 million seed round in October last year.

Despite the booming game development industry, game startups in Vietnam still face many problems.

Capital pours in, and developers quickly produce new games

Ell Tee is the founder of Ho Chi Minh City-based game studio Topebox and the man behind hits like My DeFi Pet, Pocket Army, and Sky Dancer: Free Falling.

"In 2012, there were no schools to train game development. Game studios like ours had to train their own talent," Tee told KrASIA. He said that many of Vietnam's most experienced game designers were nurtured by Topebox over the past decade.