VietNamNet Bridge – Face Dance Challenge, a Vietnamese-made game that helps players express emotions on their faces, has raised waves on the internet and is expected to become the second Flappy Bird.
‘Face Dance Challenge’ YouTube clips made by players all over the world have received 5 million views.
Face Dance Challenge was developed by Diffcat, a studio in HCM City founded by Giang Nguyen.
Hai Viet Ho, the founder of Triip.me, a startup known throughout the world, believes that Face Dance Challenge has a recognition level equal to 60 percent of Flappy Bird, a game also developed by a Vietnamese – Nguyen Ha Dong.
According to Mashable, the game tops the list in the number of downloads on Apple App Store in Hong Kong and Thailand. It once was in the fifth position in the US in all categories (games and apps).
According to the developer, by August 19, Face Dance Challenge had ranked No 1 in all categories in seven countries, No 1 in game category in 11 countries, and No 1 in music category in 39 countries.
The founder born in 1987 said Face Dance Challenge has received 3 million downloads.
To play the game, users need to open the front camera of smartphone and then imitate the facial expressions that appear on the screen. The faces help people to relax.
The better they can imitate, the higher scores they will get.
Before reaping success with Face Dance Challenge, Giang Nguyen developed many games but the games were little known. To cover expenses and continue developing games, he had to sell his house. A part of the money was paid for his travel and another for starting business.
Giang said that after returning from a trip – Type A Retreat – he changed the view about how to build up a game firm. He decided to bring fun, connection and motivation to his games.
Face Dance Challenge has little application of AI and face recognition technology through cameras. When opening the game for the first time, the game will “learn” the lines and expressions on players’ faces so as to mark players’ dances.
Successful Flappy Bird and Face Dance Challenge give Vietnamese reasons to put high hopes on Vietnam’s game industry development. A game named Politaire developed by Pine Entertainment was listed among the 10 most interesting games on Apple Store earlier this year.
Vietnam’s mobile game market poised to explode
Vietnamese game market enriches foreign gaming firms
Mai Chi