Now Ganesha, Hanuman on Facebook!

New Delhi, Aug 4: Now meet popular gods Lakshmi, Ganesha and Hanuman on Facebook!

Imagine the world in chaos and you are given a chance to create a better world. After travelling by boat for days you are washed ashore on an island paradise. You are greeted by your god-guide Ganesha, who welcomes you and helps in understanding the multiple tasks ahead. Then one gets to meet Hanuman and Lakshmi also.

This is what is Karma Kingdom, a quest-oriented community building game that allows users to ''create their better world''. Developed by a worldwide team of designers and programmers the game pushes the boundaries of game design and themes.

"We wanted to build something that straddled the eastern and western cultures with emphasis on Indian mythology. We wanted to popularise Indian cultural and mythological tales," says Ashok Desai, CEO and founder of Avasthaa, the company behind the game.

"Our main target audience is the Asian community and to intrigue other people of the world as well," the US-based Desai, who describes his team as storytellers across various platforms, told PTI.

Karma Kingdom rewards players for building a happy community based on health and knowledge and are given opportunities to give to real-world charities through the game.

"Players earn goodwill and karma points. A unique feature of the game is that it allows players to donate points earned by them to charities. Technologically, we have put in several other unique features as well. There is a day-night cycle in the game unlike any other game. Out aim is to raise the bar when it comes to social games," he says.

Aaron Mathew, who has played a major role in developing the game, says users can gradually send their feedback and suggestions about the game.

"This way, we will be able to know how users find our game and in the process we can develop our game and make it smoother," he says.

According to Desai, there wouldn't have been a better platform than Facebook to launch Karma Kingdom.

"There are 25 million Indians on Facebook today. And then there's the Indian diaspora that is part of the 750 million people who are using Facebook today. The size of the gaming market (excluding hardware) exceeded $15 billion in 2010, according to data."

Avasthaa's next frontier will be the mobile platform.

"Mobile access has become very important nowadays. Two hundred and fifty million netizens use Facebook through mobile phones," he says.

PTI