Big Fish Games launches MyTribe on Facebook

MyTribe // Screenshot credit: Tami B.

Big Fish Games have just released their second Facebook game, and it's a refreshing one.  MyTribe is a brand new virtual "play god" style game, where every player is in charge of an island and its inhabitants.  The main objective of the game is to grow a tribe, construct a village, earn money and experience and level up the island and your tribe members.  It is similar in concept to the popular iPhone game Virtual Villagers.

When a player starts out in MyTribe, they are started out with a tutorial disguised as quests.  These are simple to complete, and the game really helps players out with each objective with helpful on-screen cues and highlighting.  The entire tutorial takes an hour or so, but it doesn't feel as if the player is learning the game.  It is an engaging and fun experience.

MyTribe // Screenshot credit: Tami B.

My Tribe is actually a very complex game with many elements and mechanics to it.  Each tribe member or island inhabitant has a name, age, gender, hair color, skill, strength levels, and skill levels in various skills.  Some of these skills include fishing, construction, science, and rock gathering.  These skills are essential for the tribe's growth, and the higher the skill the quicker it will be to take part in certain actions.  Each tribe member has clothing that can be changed, and their own level XP bar that goes up as certain actions are done on the island.  Each character can be managed by clicking on them as they move around.  Tribe members can also have children by matching up two adult villagers of opposite sex.  Only adults can harvest or build.

Building objects is also fairly easy to do.  Supplies are collected through harvesting, such as wood, rocks, and other supplies.  Once a player has the required amount of supplies, they can then build the various buildings and objects.  Building requires not only the supplies, but also a laborer to do the job, which are assigned jobs by being dragged onto the construction site.  Buildings take time to build, but the more people you assign to the job the faster it will go.  Some buildings are required prerequisites for doing other activities, such as a science building required to do any research.  

MyTribe // Screenshot credit: Tami B.

There is plenty of other things to do on the island.  Players can collect stardust and moondust, shells, mushrooms, and other items from both their island and their friend's islands.  There is a mini farming game where seeds are planted and harvested.  There are mysteries on the islands to solve, and additional islands to move to.  There is also decorative items, and a paid shop with these items available.

MyTribe was originally a standalone downloadable PC game released in 2008.  It is readily apparent in that there doesn't seem to be many social features built into the game just yet; things are mostly tacked on such as sharing to your wall when you level up.  However, because this game is a breath of fresh air, is more complex than most games but in an understandable way, is absolutely beautiful to look at and whimsical to play.  It will be interesting to see this game evolve and grow on Facebook, as it may have an appeal to traditional gamers as well as social/casual Facebook gamers.   Looking for neighbors in MyTribe?  Comment on this article with your Facebook name!

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