SEATTLE – August 12, 2009 – Big Fish Games™ (www.bigfishgames.com), the world’s leading online destination for games and interactive entertainment, announces the launch of Faunasphere. In this browser-based CMO (Casual Multiplayer Online) game, players adopt and care for cute and quirky creatures known as Fauna and collaborate to build and explore beautiful virtual worlds. From the creator and lead designer of Asheron’s Call, Faunasphere engages a broad casual gamer audience through non-violent game play, rich social networking elements, and an immersive storyline. The game is free to play, and features micro-transactions and premium membership to enhance the game play experience.

The age of the CMO is upon us, and the Casual Multiplayer Online experience has branched out into a new game
on Big Fish Games’ portal called, Faunasphere. Don’t let the “Casual” in CMO fool you, though. This game comes from the same mind that brought gamers Asheron’s Call.

Toby Ragaini, the original designer of Asheron’s Call, designed Faunasphere as a browser-based game for players to “adopt quirky creatures and collaborate to create and explore shared virtual worlds.”

The game features 12 basic species that can be uncovered, hatched and trained. The game has a unique visual look to it for it to be a browser-based game. The cartoon-effect and easy-on-the-eyes aesthetic should easily appeal to most gamers.

You can check out a few of the features below or visit the Official Website to start playing for free. For more gaming news, info, updates and insight, be sure to stay tuned in with Blend Games.

About the Game

* Fauna lay eggs as they level up. Eggs can be hatched to create new Fauna or traded between players.

* 12 Fauna breeds to adopt and care for, with an endless array of visual variations to explore. Players can try to breed Fauna for specific traits, or can purchase special items to transform them.

* Players can customize their own corner of the world by designing a Faunasphere to shelter their Fauna. Items to decorate and improve a player’s Faunasphere can be collected via game play, traded between players, or purchased.

* Players advance through the world via unique, non-violent game play. Fauna clean up pollution and complete tasks to earn game currency and level up.

* The game can be played as a no-commitment diversion, but offers deeper involvement for committed players.

Players Reactions

* “I’m sooo addicted!!! I gotta say….it’s taken such a hold of me!!!! It is totally addictive once you get in there and start finding out all the things you can do!!!! People helping other people on here just lights up my world!!! I want to do the same thing for the newer people coming in!!! AND….I’ll be telling everyone I know about this new virtual world!!!!”

* “Well done on a super game, and keep up the good work!” Absolutely love the game – already addicted.”

* “I’m having the best time with this game!  I decided to play for an hour and the next thing I know several hours have passed!”

* “I’m always saying, ‘Just one more set of arms and then I’ll stop…ok just one more complete set of artifacts and then I’ll stop…ok I can’t keep my eyes open so I’ll stop, ok I can’t stop.’”