Big Fish Games has quietly introduced a new online virtual world called Faunasphere, an immersive and colorful place where game players can choose to adopt and nurture characters with names such as Scooter, Sniffer and Hoofer. Private invitations were sent out today for the game, which represents a significant departure from Big Fish's traditional line up of easy-to-learn puzzle, card and arcade games.

"It is not Webkinz. It is not Neopets. It is not a virtual world," said Chief Executive Jeremy Lewis in an interview. "It really takes the most unique and compelling elements of all of those."

Faunasphere is the result of more than a year's worth of work from Toby Ragaini's Thinglefin, which Big Fish acquired in November 2007. Not much has been known of the stealthy project since that acquisition, but details are starting to emerge.

An official launch of the game -- which will be free to play but feature micropayments and paid membership levels -- has not been set. It marks the first browser-based multiplayer virtual world for Big Fish, which was founded in 2002 by former RealNetworks manager Paul Thelen.

Faunasphere features cute dogs, horses and other species of fauna, but Lewis said there is absolutely no age limit. The game fits with the company's mission to build interactive entertainment products that are "accessible by everyone and reprehensible by no one," Lewis said.

The gaming experience will be far different than other virtual worlds such as Second Life or Club Penguin, said Lewis. It plans to combine elements of social networking and user-generated content into the game play, allowing participants to interact with the characters of other players as they move through forest, arctic and swamp zones.

"You not only care for and nurture your fauna, but you can create virtual worlds of your own," said Lewis, adding that different characters also can breed. Game players also can earn points that they cash in for virtual goods, though Lewis declined to say what those are.

Faunasphere -- which Lewis describes as "social gaming" -- will  be one of two new products that Big Fish launches in the coming months. He declined to offer details on the other project.

The company actually is in a fairly strong position from which to expand having raised $83 million in funding just before the stock market tanked. It also has a fast-growing customer base, with more than 1.5 million games downloaded from the site each day.

Virtual worlds have become a hot business in the past three years, especially after The Walt Disney Co. purchased Club Penguin for $700 million in 2007. But the dollars are decreasing, with Virtual Worlds Management finding that $594 million was invested in 63 virtual world companies last year. Among those was Seattle's FlowPlay, which raised $3.7 million from Intel Capital and others last winter.

Big Fish has an inherent advantage over some of the upstart virtual worlds in that it already has a large base of traffic from which to draw. Lewis also thinks it will catch on because it is different from other concepts on the market. "It is so cool," he said.