Funium Raises $1.8 Million, Plans To Expand ‘Family Village’ Genealogy Into More Robust Facebook App
Facebook game developer Funium has announced a $1.8 million funding round from Family Odyssey and several angel investors, money that will be used to increase the prominence of the company’s Facebook app called Family Village.
Family Village is a game that takes your family tree and turns it into a playable game. The August 7 funding for the platform will be used to create better avatars, better building options and to increase the social gaming networks historical documents.
The virtual world already allows users to build homes and businesses while creating avatars with the use of real photos and stories. Essentially the game brings the real life to the virtual system.
As users contribute more information about their families the game builds a better community around those stories, essentially allowing users to create their own story while advancing to new levels while completing various quests.
Family Village was started in 2011 thanks to $1.2 million in seed funding and the game is launching in beta as the social gaming sector suffers through a period of lost revenue.
Funium CEO Jeff Wells notes that unlike games that are “meaningless” to play the Family Village has social value because it relies on real world experiences and connections to people.
As the game continues to develop users will find more historical documents such as high school yearbook photos, census records, newspaper clippings and other information that could help a player learn more about their family history.
Family Village has partnered with such program as FamilyLink public domain sites to obtain historical information quickly and effectively.
Essentially Family Village allows social gamers to investigate their family history in a fun and unique way and so far they have my attention despite my hatred of social gaming.
It has been a busy day for Facebook apps, the company also announced “real cash” gambling via Facebook UK apps.
