Photo: itunes.apple.com
This is not an ordinary ranch. Faunia Rancher is a game that’ll take you on a journey full of fairies and monsters. But the gremlins are actually cute. You can even meet an Indonesian monster called Barong in its traditional Balinese house. For this mythological journey, Chowdown Games and Joyverter Entertainment worked together as ‘Art on Code’ and this weekend won the INAICTA 2012 awards in the games category.
The idea is simple: raise these adorable little monsters and take them on a journey to win crystals so that you can create more virtual gnarly creatures. But its story is what makes it interesting. As a rancher, you will have to raise a unique fantasy creature called “Faunia”.
The way you raise the Faunia makes it like a Tamagochi-style game. You will have to feed them, clean their habitat, participate in regular activities, and treat them when they’re sick. As the Faunia grows, it will give you eggs that can be sold. There are some fun “mini games” bundled in too.
Faunia Rancher was developed by Ronald Widjaja, Erick Theodorus, Burhan Dewantara, Robert Tan, Robin Tjungestu, and Felix Jingga. Even though it has Barong as its Indonesian mascot, this game was intended for the international market. Ronald explains:
We’re open to all kinds of monsters, from Barong to Frankenstein. We also have a collaborations for other characters, such as with Animonster [Indonesia’s anime and lifestyle magazine] and Vandaria [a card game from ZIGMA magazine]. In the future, maybe we can approach a local franchise like Garudayana to put their “Garu” monster in our game.
To keep the developers’ kitchen steaming, this iOS game has in-app purchases for every gimmick in the game. You can buy food, medicine, and even crystal shards to speed up the growth of new Faunias for around $1 to $5 each. Without major promotion, Faunia Rancher have 10,000 players in its first 3,5 months, and sells 5 different kinds of virtual coins every day.
To build the community, Faunia Rancher has its own actual merchandise. More than 2,000 gamers on the Faunia Rancher Facebook page have participated in a design competition for new characters and various kinds of fan art.
Grab the free Faunia Rancher game in the iTunes App Store.
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