Bloons

Bloons games are video games where players use monkeys, armed with various weapons, to pop as many "bloons" (balloons) as possible. They include the Bloons series, the Bloons Tower Defense series, and several other spinoffs. Most Bloons games are browser-based games that use Adobe Flash Player, although some are available on other platforms.

Development

The first Bloons game was developed by Stephen and Chris Harris, two brothers from New Zealand. Prior to working on Bloons, the pair had released Cash Sprint - a successful racing game that incorporated weekly prizes. After the success of Cash Sprint, they developed their own web portal for flash games, but failed to gain the necessary traffic. Instead they decided to focus on their own games, and launched a website – Ninjakiwi.com – with five of their own games. The site was a success, and this led to their work on Bloons.

The basic concept for Bloons came from Stephen's wife. When Stephen asked her what would be fun in a new game, she brought up carnival games with darts and balloons. The first version was developed quickly, and the game was released in April 2007. It proved popular, especially after being picked up by Digg, and soon reaching approximately 100,000 players per day. By 2011 the game had been played over 3 billion times.