Foldy Bird Flaps Onto Foldables, Turning the Hinge Into a Joystick

The Game That Only Works When You Bend Your Phone

BARCELONA—On a sticky July afternoon, developer Raúl Ortega pulled a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 from his pocket, folded it halfway, and began tapping the hinge like a drum. Each tap sent a pixelated bird skyward on the right screen while the left screen scrolled obstacles. Within seconds a small crowd had gathered, smartphones raised, all asking the same question: “What is that?”

From Flappy Bird to Foldy Bird

Ortega’s answer is Foldy Bird, a free arcade title that turns the foldable’s hinge into the game’s only control. Bend the device inward and the bird climbs; relax the hinge and gravity pulls it down. The closer you get to a full 180-degree flat position, the faster the descent. “It’s basically Flappy Bird with origami,” Ortega laughs.

“We wanted to build something impossible on a candy-bar phone,” Ortega says. “The hinge is no longer a compromise—it’s the star.”

Why Foldables Need a Killer App

Samsung, Google and Huawei have spent five years trying to convince consumers that foldables are more than vanity gadgets. Global shipments still sit at 18 million units—roughly 1.4 % of the smartphone market—according to Counterpoint Research. Analysts blame high prices and a software catalog that mostly stretches, rather than re-imagines, the extra pixels.

Foldy Bird is the first mainstream title to treat the crease as a gameplay mechanic. Early adopters on Reddit’s r/GalaxyFold have already posted scores above 1,000; the current record holder, user “CreasedCrusader,” claims 3,847. “My thumb hurts, but my inner child is thrilled,” the post reads.

How It Works

• The app reads the hinge angle 120 times per second using Android’s new Jetpack WindowManager APIs.
• A machine-learning model trained on 50,000 bends filters out tremors so the bird doesn’t jitter in your pocket.
• If the phone is opened flat, the game pauses—preventing accidental inputs when you’re reading the news on the subway.

Monetization Without Ads

Instead of banners, Ortega sells cosmetic “skins” that change the bird into retro Nokia-style snakes or 8-bit Game Boy sprites. A $2.99 “no-death” mode lets casual players practice without crashing. Revenue after 30 days: $48,000 on 160,000 downloads—an eye-watering $0.30 average per install, triple the industry median for hyper-casual games.

What’s Next

Ortega’s three-person studio, Crease Studios, is prototyping a two-player mode: bend your half of the phone to steer, while your opponent spams obstacles on the outer cover screen. A holiday update will add leaderboard integration with Google Play Games, and the team is talking with Motorola about a clamshell version for the Razr+.

For now, Foldy Bird remains a charming oddity—proof that the weirdest control scheme since the Nintendo Power Glove can still make strangers on the metro ask, “Where did you download that?”