ANGRY BIRDS

Discover how Rovio brought Angry Birds into the real world with Angry Birds Explore, an AR app filled with interactive games, animated content, and collectible experiences—bridging the gap between digital and physical play.

Get in touch

Client

Rovio

Role

AR, App

Year

2018-2022

The brief

We were asked by Rovio to come up with a fun and exciting way to bring the Angry Birds world to peoples' living rooms, through the magic of augmented reality.

This standalone app would become a way to help secure brand partnerships, bridging the gap between digital and physical licensed products, in addition to enabling elements of collectability and providing a way for consumers to get closer than ever to the Angry Birds characters.

The experience

Our answer to the brief was Angry Birds Explore, an AR app featuring a 3D island full of Angry Birds-themed attractions, with fun mini-games, face-filters, loads of animated content, and even AR episodic content. ‍

Some activities could only be unlocked by scanning BirdCodes, which could be found on official Angry Birds merchandise. Players could scan codes using their device's cameras, and reveal the content within.

The DESIGN

The app featured two key layers: a playful 2D UI for easy navigation and a vibrant 3D island inspired by The Angry Birds Movie, where players could explore mini-games and activities.

We designed the UI to be clear and fun, making it accessible for younger audiences. The island was packed with oversized landmarks, hidden surprises, and interactive spaces—like Red’s house, which players could decorate.

Staying true to the Angry Birds world, we carefully animated each character to capture their personalities and humour, ensuring fans got the authentic, high-energy experience they love.

THE TECH

Developed using Zapworks, Zappar’s XR platform, the experience was heavily optimised to run extremely well on as many mobile devices as possible.

Load times were a concern, given the amount of games and activities available to play, so we separated the content in a way the whole experience could be loaded and updated over-the-air, keeping it fresh and easy to maintain over time.

Our internal team developed several game mechanics for each of the different activations, from time-based farming for Worm Garden, to the tower-defence strategy employed in Pig Out!, slingshot physics for Pig Shy, and many more.

THE RESULTS

Angry Birds Explore was a major step forward for Rovio’s brand licensing strategy, using AR to seamlessly connect digital and physical products. By working closely with Rovio, we created an always-on digital ecosystem that gave fans new ways to engage with their favourite characters while unlocking exclusive content through BirdCodes. The experience not only added value for consumers but also opened up exciting opportunities for licensing partners to create immersive branded content. With millions of downloads and plays, Angry Birds Explore proved how AR can deepen fan engagement and bring iconic worlds to life in new and interactive ways.

Angry Birds Explore marks a key milestone for Rovio, bringing our vision of digitally enhanced licensed products to life. Working with Zappar, we’ve created an always-on AR ecosystem that bridges the physical and digital worlds of Angry Birds. It adds real value for consumers while offering exciting new opportunities for our licensing partners to deliver immersive brand experiences across multiple touchpoints.