Faunasphere shutting down on March 15th

"a game about cleaning up a pollution-riddled world while developing your personal animals"

How's that for a minority interest?

No wonder I'd never heard of the game!

Best of luck to the development team, as always in these circumstances.

Shame!

I didn't play Faunasphere much, but I enjoyed the few hours I spent there on and off. Definitely have to drop in again for a lst look before it disappears for good.

I feel like a broken record. I know in this case Massively HAS mentioned Faunasphere in the past. But 90% of the time when these small MMO's close, it's things no one has heard of, and the only reporting massively does is of the game closing. If Massively would report on some of these MMOs while they are still active it might help boost numbers. Instead we get 8 articles a week on TOR.

That shot reminds me of Congo Bongo.

This is a great game, with a very passionate community. It was one of my first real involvements with a Flash-based browser MMO, and it was so unique that it really was always going to have a smaller audience.

Still, it had daring design. I think the problem with smaller games is more about the common player not taking a chance on a unique game -- after all, there's always a Rift or a GW2 to talk about.

Fauna had some great ideas that worked really well. Here's hoping that indie design does not always stay in indie design.

Beau

Take that, Al Gore.

The hypocrisy of "saving the world" by playing a video game is amazing.

Then again, the people who want to do this in real life fly around the world in private jets holding conferences in resorts.

I might have played this game had I known it existed.

Shame. :(

I played this game a while back because I thought it was actually going to be tied in some way to teaching kids about reducing pollution and ways to prevent/deal with it. At least, that's what I thought the game was about. Instead, it felt like another micro-transaction ridden Facebook game where I needed to get 5 friends to "play." There really wasn't anything to Faunasphere except aimlessly clicking on map squares. It's a shame to see a game close down, but I'm not sure the game really had enough meat to it to begin with.

As one of the original Beta Testers for this game, I find that the fact that this game had little or no coverage through a site like this, during it's testing phase and when it went live, appalls me! I have, along with thousands of others around the world, found the world of Faunasphere to be a fun and interesting and totally engaging experience. Agreed that the typical demographic for most MMO games is 18-30, we, the caretakers of the fauna do not fit the typical boundaries of the demographic statistics. We are, without a doubt the most unusual grouping with ages ranging from 30-70+. Many of us, were unsure of what to expect when we started to Beta this game, but we found that along with game play, goals, different worlds with different requirements for entry, friendships that will last a life time. There is a community spirit that abounds and flourishes within this game, that I feel cannot be found anywhere else. Many of us are feeling real pain and sadness with the announcement of the closing, right along with this is anger and disappointment. So although many haven't heard about this game until the announcement of it's closing, does not mean that thousands didn't participate in the community and game play that Faunasphere entailed, Also let it be know that this community and the game and all involved will be missed by many!

FaunaSphere has a surprisingly engaging genetics system, a simple but versatile building system, and a basic virtual world within a browser. I think the sophistication and depth of many of the subsystems are at odds with the cartoonish art style, and exploration and combat never had the depth needed to expand beyond their niche.

It's a shame that the whole package never took off like it should have, but there are many aspects of the game that could be salvaged for other projects. For example, it'd be very interesting to see how it'd do as a 3D sandbox game (like MineCraft), with a more solid revenue model.

Best of luck to the team in their future endeavors.