[zeograd]

This post was an opportunity to discover that Rovio had much more employee than what I expected.

Angry bird looks so much like one of those flash games you can create with a single coder and a single designer I never imagined they had more than 800 people now. I would have guessed a small dozen max...

[dougk16]

I worked on a clone of Angry Birds a few years ago and you're right with one of your figures: about a dozen people were required to pull it off in about 9 months. Definitely not doable by a single coder and artist/designer though. There's a perhaps underappreciated but quite insane level of polish that went into Angry Birds, especially with the level design.

[angersock]

I like how they never even gave money to the guy that built the physics engine powering their whole schtick. He only asked for a shirt--when they finally sent him one, it wasn't the one he'd asked for. Stay classy Rovio!

[Kiro]

I didn't know you were supposed to pay for using free software. Regarding the color he didn't ask for anything, they just sent him a red one after which he said that he didn't like the color.

[angersock]

When you've made as much money as they did off of something that is largely a tech demo for somebody's free software project, I think it's only right to show your appreciation for that person--at least offering a well-paying job or fellowship or something. Otherwise, you're just being mooches.

[Kiro]

Definitely but I'm pretty sure the maker of Box2D has no problem finding jobs. Would you really give money if you were Rovio? How much? Genuine question. Would you do the same for every author of free software you were using? I'm guessing that would be thousands of people.

[Igglyboo]

Possibly, but the amount of polish needed to turn a simple flash game into a billion dollar flash game requires more than a single programmer.

[Kiro]

I don't know if I agree. The Angry Birds games are very polished with a lot of details.

[dirtyaura]

Rovio does much more than just games. Videos and content delivery platforms, both promotional deals (NASA, movies etc.) and merchandizing deals need business dev people to make them happen. 800 is still a lot, but the difference in operations is obvious compared to your standard game studio.