Angry Birds (video game) was being played, the staff liked the characters, and the team elected to design a game around them. In early 2009, physics games, such as "Crush the Castle", were popular flash-based web games, so the Rovio team was inspired by these games. During the development of "Angry Birds", the staff realized the birds needed an enemy. At the time, the "swine flu" epidemic was in the news, so the staff made the birds' enemies pigs. Angry Birds was the studio's 52nd produced game and on its initial release, the game did not sell many copies. After Angry Birds was a
Angry Birds first Angry Birds themed park in the UK, was created in Sundown Adventureland, an attraction in the Nottinghamshire countryside. Most recently it was announced that UK theme park Thorpe Park would open their own Angry Birds Land themed area within the park in May 2014. The new area consists of the reinstatement of the 4D Cinema with a 10-minute-long Angry Birds film with 4D effects, a new addition of themed Angry Birds Dodgems and a slight re-theme of existing drop tower ride Detonator. Rovio also opened "Activity Parks" of the game. The first one was opened in Lightwater Valley that