Furcadia (Game)

Furcadia

GAME » on December 16, 1996

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A massively multiplayer text-based game centered around anthropomorphic animal characters and furry culture.

Overview

Furcadia is a massively multiplayer online social game centered around anthropomorphic animals, and more loosely the furry culture. The game features an avatar creator with several animal species (collectively referred to as furres), after which they can explore locations from an isometric-perspective, socializing or roleplaying with other users. Furcadia encourages user-made content, with many official areas linking directly to user made "dream" areas. Some maps allow mature content, although this content can optionally be blocked outright.

Characters

By default, players can have at most 10 characters at any given time. These characters are designed from a base species, with gender, fur color, clothing color, and accessories chosen by the player, generating a character model and portrait. By default, Furcadia offers 11 species to free players, however additional official and user-made species can be bought as well, and users can pay to upload custom character portraits.

The 11 default species are as follows:

Many types of furres in one place

Worlds

In Furcadia there are several different hub worlds for players to warp to at any moment. Each Hub world is designed to built around harboring specific types of dream, however players still have a choice of where to put their dreams, within limits.

'''''Vinca Nexus, the central hub connecting the other main maps, as well as the place players are sent if ejected from another area.
Naia Green, intended to be Furcadia's community center. Many Beekin volunteers gather here to help answer user questions.
Challenge Resort, a game-oriented area that includes boards for chess, checkers, "pillow wars," and others.
Acropolis, an area for out-of-character socializing and dream uploads.
Allegria Island, a hub for browsing user-made Dream locations.
Meovanni Village, an area intended for lighthearted persona play (a form of simplified roleplay).
Imaginarium, an area intended for deeper roleplay. Most roleplay-oriented dreams are uploaded here.
The Wylde, a roleplay map designed for ferians - four-legged species separate from regular furres.
Hawthorn (formerly Haven), a mature (16+) environment meant for somewhat violent roleplay.
Furrabian Nights, an adult (18+) environment for roleplay and hosting mature Dream locations.
Olde Town, a map intended for adult players to socialize without typical mature content.

Secondary Worlds

Secondary worlds are official maps only accessible through finding entrances in other maps.

The following is an incomplete list of these worlds:

Welcome Map, a tutorial area where new players learn about the game.
Beekins' Aerie, a map designed for training of/meetings for Beekin volunteer staff;
Theriopolis, a roleplaying map set in a mostly non-magical environment.
Goldwyn, a roleplaying map set in a more heavily magical environment.
Dusk 2 Dawn, a dark, mature (16+) map themed around a bar.
Town Meeting, a temporary dream where an annual "Town Meeting" is held, accessible only to Silver Sponsors.
Silver Sponsorship Showcase, a scenic map where Silver Sponsors can upload on special portals, but anyone can visit
Zephiroth, a flying island-themed map that only winged players or those summoned by winged players can visit.
The five annual festival dreams: Jujinka's Spring Festival, M'Rill's Festival of the Sun, Jemmion's Rameen Festival, Wolf Howl, and Danival's Winter Festival.

Dreams

Roleplaying in a Western style Dream.

Furcadia's desktop client several different programs for users to create custom areas with, including a mapping tool, a sprite editor, and several programming tools. These tools allow the user to build environments with complex scripting, reskin the game's default sprites, introduce new items to the game, add custom audio files, and more.

Most advanced scripting for dreams is done through a custom programming language called DragonSpeak.

Once created, a user can upload their dream to the game, making it accessible to other players. The uploading user can also specify what audience their environment is intended for, from a selection of standards: Everyone, Teen+, M16+, Adults Only Clean, Adult 18+, and Adults Only.

The content of dream locations vary wildly. The most common type of dream is themed roleplay environments and socialization areas centered on specific topics, often with bar or café theming. However, many other dreams are designed for hosting detailed areas made in the game, facilitating user-to-user trading, and building full games within Furcadia.

Development

In 1991, David Shapiro (Person) (also known as Dr. Cat), most well known for his work on the Ultima (Franchise) series, founded Dragon's Eye Productions alongside an artist known as Talzhemir. The two initially developed DragonSpires, a game conceptually similar to Furcadia, released in 1994. The next year, the two began overhauling the game, turning it into Furcadia.

In the following years, the pair expanded the game with new species and features, and adding two additional members to the team: producer Katie Bazor (known as Emerald Flame), who created the Beekin volunteer staff project, and programmer Aleksi Asikainen (known as sanctimonious), who created the game's editors and assisted in programming the client.

Bazor eventually also founded Catnip Studios, a partner studio to Dragon's Eye focused around community content for Furcadia.

In 2010, Dragon's Eye introduced a paid iOS port of the game. In 2012, a Kickstarter campaign was formed to generate funding for Furcadia, the main purpose being to allow development of a browser-based client for the game, handled by a third-party development team. The campaign was successful, yielding ~$100,000 USD in funding.

Business model

Furcadia is free-to-play, with Dragon's Eye stating that no fees for playing will ever be introduced. Instead, the game is monetized via "digos", items which cover character enhancements, items, new playable species, and more. These items cost different amounts depending on how long they last, ranging from a day to a lifetime.

Digos are bought directly with cash, or using dragonscales, premium currency which can be traded between users. Additionally, players can purchase "silver sponsorships", non-renewing monthly subscriptions which give the user a number of additional features, 10 additional character slots, and an amount of silver dragonscales.

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