The following announcement was written by Funium:
First social game tied to real-world family history is now available
Provo, UT - April 19, 2011 - Funium announced today the immediate public availability of its free Facebook game, Family Village. Family Village is the first Facebook game to help players explore their real family trees while building an online community. As players enjoy building fortunes, houses, businesses, immigrating family members and assigning jobs, Family Village matches inputted data with relevant real-world documents about the users' living and deceased relatives. These include census records, newspaper articles, and other documents. Players can then examine the records, print them, or store them in their personal game library.
"Family Village is ready for players to immigrate real ancestors into their own personalized virtual village," Funium CEO Jeff Wells said. "The game is easy to learn thanks to thousands of volunteer game testers already having fun and building on to their villages daily."
More than 8,000 Facebook-game and family-history enthusiasts provided feedback during game testing. Their suggestions accelerated upgrades to the game, including an easy-to-follow tutorial, an enhanced family tree viewer, in-game challenges (or "quests"), a comprehensive villager appearance editor and improved interaction with Facebook friends.
"I think Family Village makes family history more personal and up-to-date," said Sandra Gwilliam, a grandmother playing Family Village with her children and grandchildren. "If people can play the game with their ancestors, it makes the ancestors seem more real."
Family Village integrates FamilyLink's Facebook application, We're Related, a top-300 social application. FamilyLink's database provides Family Village players with access to billions of online historical records for a unique family discovery experience. Family Village will continue to integrate with other services in coming months.
In the coming weeks, to celebrate the availability, players can win fun prizes including a Kindle, ZAGG products, Family Village cash and gift certificates. Watch the official Facebook page (Facebook.com/FamilyVillage) or Twitter account (@familyvillage) for details.
About Family Village
Family Village is the premier online offering from entertainment company Funium. Family Village is the first Facebook game that enables players to participate in family discovery about their relatives. Users can explore their own family tree while building an online game community connecting real families. Integrated with wildly popular FamilyLink applications, the game enables families to connect with billions of records and people using the Facebook platform.
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