''Family Guy Online'' was a

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

(MMORPG) based on the

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

'' Family Guy''. Developed in partnership between Canadian studio Roadhouse Interactive and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, ''Family Guy Online'' was a free-to-play game that used the

Unity game engine Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a var ...

. The game originally launched into public beta on April 17, 2012. On December 21, 2012 the developers announced that the game would not be developed beyond beta status and service was permanently terminated on January 18, 2013.

Gameplay

''Family Guy Online'' used

cel shaded Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic th ...

graphics. The game used typical MMORPG

character class In tabletop games and video games, a character class is a job or profession commonly used to differentiate the abilities of different game characters. In role-playing games (RPGs), character classes aggregate several abilities and aptitudes, ...

es such as having Stewie act as a

ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

as a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...

, and Lois as a healer. Players would create their own character using the Griffin family as a template. The actual characters from the show are reserved as

non-playable characters A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

(NPCs) in the game in order to give the player

quests A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ev ...

and advance the storyline ''(pictured)''. The NPCs in the game were voiced by the same voice actors in the show. The game used two types of

in-game currency A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter ...

: cash and

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s. Clams are earned by completing in-game objectives.

Development

''Family Guy Online'' was first revealed by 20th Century Fox through social media and through its official website on June 16, 2011, with initial plans to launch the game in autumn 2011. People wishing to join the beta phase for the game were invited to register on the website, although registration did not guarantee entrance into the beta. The game would use the

to run within a user's

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

. IGN's Nick Kolan said that the game's use of

graphics showed potential for the game, but worried that it "could also be a total no-effort cash-cow." Rather than licensing the rights to create a game based on the television series, ''Family Guy Online'' was developed directly by 20th Century Fox, in partnership with Roadhouse Interactive and Sleepy Giant Entertainment. The publisher of the game wanted it to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers, and to this end chose to make the game using the Unity engine instead of developing it as a game for

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

. The game was launched in 2012 and entered a public beta phase on April 17, 2012, but never moved out of beta. On December 21, 2012, an announcement posted on the ''Family Guy Online'' website stated that the game would be permanently closed on January 18, 2013. Real-money purchases that players had made within the 60 days prior to the announcement would be refunded to them.

References

External links

*
Archived
on December 25, 2012 {{Family Guy Browser games Massively multiplayer online games Inactive massively multiplayer online games Video games based on Family Guy 2012 video games Products and services discontinued in 2013 Free-to-play video games Video games developed in Canada Video games set in Rhode Island