The Man who Hatched Angry Birds Helps Boost F72

The man who created the concept behind Angry Birds, the world’s biggest-selling mobile phone game, has pledged his Rochdale company’s support for the Midshire F72 fundraising campaign.

After smashing the record for the world’s longest football match (72 hours of continuous play, equivalent to 48 standard games played back to back), organiser, Midshire’s Nick Rose, called on the creator of Castle Clout (the forerunner to Angry Birds) to help with the final push for the fundraising campaign as it culminates in a glittering gala dinner.

Since Stockport-based Midshire won the contract to handle The Business Depot’s printing and scanning requirements, the companies have been working together to share ideas and business leads. Given this relationship, Liam Bowmer, now a director of The Business Depot, was more than happy to contribute towards the Midshire F72 charity event.

The Midshire F72 match – which was played in early May with a score just breaking the 1,000 goal barrier – has now raised around £40k, a sum described by Liam as “an incredible achievement.” The Business Depot’s sponsorship of the gala dinner at The National Football Museum, Urbis, was an important contributing factor to the overall success of the initiative – conceived to support Francis House Children’s Hospice.

Angry Bird Man

When Liam Bowmer created a free-to-play online game in 2008, he could not have predicted that his creation would have become the blueprint for one of the world’s best-selling games – Angry Birds.

His creation, called Castle Clout, is credited as the forerunner to the all-consuming mobile phone app – but for Liam, who was studying law at the time, it was more about filling a gap in the online gaming world.

After watching Lord of the Rings in his student digs, Liam set to work creating a game that involved hurling various forms of medieval ammunition at an enemy castle until it is reduced to rubble.

Even at that stage, Castle Clout was winning fans. As new and improved versions of the game were launched, the Castle Clout fan base quickly surpassed the 20 million game play mark within just a few months of launch.

“At the time, my game was completely unique. The only real difference between Castle Clout and the Angry Birds format is that mine used a trebuchet (medieval device usually used for launching boulders at city walls) and Angry Birds uses a slingshot.”

Now 26, the brain behind the birds has moved his career away from law, and instead used Castle Clout’s success to fast-track a successful career in IT – with one of the key software products being developed is an application aimed at helping businesses understand and manage the data surrounding their finances.

In a way, Liam’s software is every bit as compelling as his gaming debut. The software is a simple online portal, specifically designed to work across multiple platforms (including smartphone and tablet), which condenses account management information into interactive bite-size chunks.

The Business Depot expects to launch the portal, already being market tested by a handful of businesses, in early 2014.