Rolling Stone magazine often runs articles on famous people like political figures, music and sports stars and the appearance in the prestigious magazine is generally considered a great honour for many people.  

David Kushner is the writer who flew from the US to Vietnam to conduct the interview with Dong Nguyen. In the exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, Dong said that he spent his free time playing Nitendo’s Super Mario Bros when he was young.

He revealed that he wanted to make games for people like himself: busy, harried and always on the move.

Flappy Bird went live on the iOS App Store on May 24, 2013. Instead of charging for Flappy Bird, Dong made it available for free, and hoped to get a few hundred dollars a month from in-game ads.

However, eight months later, the game went viral. By February 2014, it was topping the charts in more than 100 countries and had been downloaded more than 50 million times. Dong was earning an estimated US$50,000 a day.

However, under the pressure of the press, bloggers, and Vietnam’s technology community, he decided to take the game down. Explaining the reason why he did it, Dong says “I am master of my own fate, and independent thinker”.

In the interview, Dong unveiled that millions of people who downloaded Flappy Bird are now still generating tens of thousands of dollars for him. He plans to buy a Mini Cooper and an apartment. He has just got his first passport. And he is still busy doing what he loves most: making games. He also revealed his new games named Kitty Jetpack and Checkonaut which are due to release this month.

Dong said he felt relief since taking Flappy Bird. He still refused offers to purchase the game and to compromise his independence.

The whole story about Dong will be run in Rolling Stone magazine on March 27, 2014.