March 15th, 2011 10:21 PM ET
One of the most popular attractions at the South by Southwest Interactive festival this week in Austin, Texas, has been a real-life recreation of the hit mobile game "Angry Birds."
Hundreds of attendees lined up to re-enact the game's virtual thrills in a hotel lounge, using an actual slingshot to fling stuffed birds at stuffed pigs atop stacks of boxes. (Yes, it sounds weird, but if you play the game you'd understand.)
Given the wild popularity of the digital game - it's been downloaded more than 100 million times - organizers expected a crowd. But they were still impressed by the dedication of a Dallas schoolteacher who heard about the SXSW "Angry Birds" lounge on Facebook and journeyed to Austin to play.
According to several staffers who spoke to her, the woman got a flat tire in Waco, which turned her three-hour drive into a seven-hour ordeal.
When she finally showed up at the door at mid-afternoon Monday, event organizers turned her away because she wasn't wearing an official SXSW badge. Deflated, the woman left and was halfway out of the building when staffers, noticing her disappointment, ran after her and invited her back. She ended up staying an hour, playing the game and winning a large stuffed "Angry Bird" as a prize.
"When I gave it to her, she got all teary-eyed," said Laura Merling, spokeswoman for Alcatel-Lucent, the communications company that sponsored the lounge. "She was super excited." Efforts by CNN to identify the woman were unsuccessful.
The SXSW event marked the first time that Rovio, the Finland-based creators of "Angry Birds," had collaborated on a live-action version of the game, said Rovio CEO Peter Vesterbacka, whose company title lists him as "Mighty Eagle."
"We're going to do more of this, because it was very popular," said Vesterbacka, who proudly showed off a preview of the upcoming "Angry Birds: Rio" game on his iPad. He also admitted that he wasn't great at the live-action game, and there's pressure that comes with being an "Angry Birds" creator.
"People always expect us to get three stars on every level," he said.
Post by: CNN Tech producer Brandon Griggs
Filed under: Scene • Tech
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
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