Happy Holidays!

The year is coming to an end, and what better way to celebrate it than with festive content inside and outside the game, gifts, and seasonal greetings from the game team 📝

Throughout the year we’ve had a blast slinging birds and creating havoc for the pigs together with all of you Angry Birds Friends. The ride this year has been filled with fun and creativity, but it has also included some changes and bumpy roads.

One of the biggest, and also most time consuming, changes was the work and implementation of the new game server (you can read more here). While it may sound simple on the surface, this was something that required the dedicated work of most of our game programmers and other colleagues, almost full time for the majority of the year.

So why did we do it, and why did it require so much time? 🤔 To try to answer that question better, we need to look a bit back into the history of the Angry Birds Friends game. The game is roughly 12 years old, and it was initially created for Facebook alone. With time, the game grew more popular, and it was further developed for other platforms as well. As time goes by, technology changes and improves, team members change, player wants and needs change, the industry changes, and thus the game also went through various changes throughout the years.

It became clear that in order to do the things that need to be done, and also to have the option to do more for many years to come, we needed a new game server that would allow us to do so.

This is how the new server project started 🛠️ The planning took a long time, and the actual work even longer. Mainly because you will never truly know what will come up along the way until you are facing it. Things progressed one thing at a time, and with the long history of the game, there were various surprises in the process that required more time or work to be spent figuring things out. During this journey, the team also focused on trying to improve certain elements of the game code to be better, and easier to work with in the future.
In mid-2024 we were finally at a stage where the majority of the work on the new server was ready, and we started the process of moving players from the old server to the new server (different countries at a time). This required careful planning, monitoring, adjustments and fixes along the way, as we wanted to ensure as few problems as possible for players during the migration phase. While some smaller and a few more severe issues did occur, we were for the most part able to fix them within a few hours (thank you for your patience during these times 🙏).

At this stage (late December, 2024), the majority of the work for the new server and moving our players to the new server is almost complete. We still have some outstanding player-facing and not player-facing issues that require some work, but with the new server in place, we can really start focusing on those properly now. Most importantly, we can finally start looking into older issues, potential changes, and new content to create for the game. Things that you, the players, can also see and enjoy in the game. To quote our game team’s Lead Producer:

“Friends still represents the classic side of Angry Birds, and we want to continue this journey together with our players. The classic side of ABF is something we still want to keep alive for the future to come, and want to have available for players to come back to at any time. We do understand the long history of our players and fans, and want to honor that in the future of ABF as well. Along the way, we also don’t want to forget the new players that we hope will jump on this journey together with us, for all the years ahead.”

With 2025 approaching, some of our next steps will be focusing on the quality of the game. We want players to have the possibility to play in a stable and high-quality environment. Most importantly, we want to start looking at the game together with all of you, and create something to be enjoyed by the many. Today, tomorrow, and hopefully long into the future 🤝

On a final note (for now), we want to express our deepest appreciation for your patience during this time. You have been heard, and you have not been forgotten. While we may not have been able to act on a lot of things due to the ongoing work, we do believe this soon-to-be-closed chapter on the new server will allow for a lot of interesting things to happen. Thank you (!) for being here with us and for allowing us to continue working on this game ❤️

Now to the more important things – holiday content! Check below what will be happening and when ⬇️

How the Pigs Stole Christmas Tournament! 🎅

It’s time to help the birds save Christmas! Gather your holiday cheer and jingle all the way to victory!

While you are at it, take the very merry Wingman with you into battle. He might be able to shed some light and destruction during the rescue.

The tournament is live from 23rd of December 7:00AM UTC until the 30th of December 7:00AM UTC.

PS. Remember to take your Jingle Sling 🎄 with you. It doesn’t just set the mood; it also helps further decorate the levels with wreckage 💥

PPS. Remember to check your Piggy Mail later in the week for a little special something to get you further into the holiday spirit 🎁

Hammy New Year Tournament! 🎆

New year may mean new beginnings, but it seems the pigs are still up to their old tricks. Join the tournament to uncover their mischievous plans and start the year with a BANG!

If you want to make sure to send the pigs to the right year, enlist the help of the party ready Wingman.

The tournament is live from 30th of December 7:00AM UTC until the 6th of January 7:00AM UTC.

The team will be on a Holiday break for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and thank you for the year 2024. We wish you the happiest of Holidays and hope to see you around in 2025 ❤️