Travelling frog has millions of young people in China hooked

A screen shot from the game Travel Frog. [Photo: ChinaPlus]

A mobile game about a wandering cartoon frog has become a surprise hit in China, clocking up millions of downloads since its release late last year.

Earlier, its developer shared her insights into the design philosophy and her thoughts on why the game has gone viral in China.

CRI's Li Yi has more

The Japanese game Tabikaeru, which translates as "travel frog", has attracted a massive audience of young players eager to watch over a little green frog that spends much of its time gallivanting around Japan.

There are only two locations in the game, inside a loft home, in and a courtyard where users can collect clover leaves to buy food and travel supplies for their frog.

The frog's travel adventures happen off-screen and out of sight of the players. The frog can disappear for hours and sometimes even days at a time.

The souvenirs and photos that players receive after the frog's trips are the game's main hook, and have been shared widely on Chinese social media.

Mayuko Uemura is the project leader of Travel Frog at Nagoya-based gaming company Hit-Point. She said the game is designed to help players enjoy Japanese culture while also having fun.

"I hope players can relax as they follow the frog's journeys. In the game they can find a lot of Japan's popular tourist attractions, as well as enjoy the beautiful scenery. In this way, players may become interested in Japanese culture."

A woman in Beijing shows a scene from "Tabikaeru" (Travel Frog), a Japanese game app, on Jan. 30, 2018. [Photo: IC]

Travel Frog has racked up over 35 million downloads on Apple's App Store and Google Play since its launch last November. 90 percent of downloads were by players in China.

Despite there being no Chinese language version of the game, it has become a "super topic" on Weibo, with users searching for posts about the game almost 2 billion times.

"In China, social media apps such as WeChat and Weibo are very popular among young people, who are major players of Travel Frog. The game has become well-known by being shared and recommended on these apps. What's more, more people are attracted to role-playing games. The pronunciation of the second character of frog is similar to "kid" in Chinese. I've heard many reasons why the game has become popular. Maybe all of them are true," Uemura said.

A screen shot from the game Travel Frog. [Photo: ChinaPlus]

Travel Frog has also apparently sparked interest in real-life travel, with China's largest online travel agency Ctrip reporting a boost in bookings to Japanese cities over the last couple of months.

However, not everyone is a fan for the game. Some players are complaining the game is boring and not attractive enough to keep them playing.

The developer said her company is now considering producing a Chinese version of Travel Frog to better attract local audiences.

"Every game will face its ups and downs, and its popularity will fade. As the developer of Travel Frog, we hope loyal fans will maintain their love for the game when it is less of a fad. This also depends on whether our team is capable enough to use content updates that keep players' interest."

Experts say the rise of Travel Frog will encourage Chinese game producers to tap into the potential in the local market.

China is currently the world's biggest mobile gaming market, with a total value of over 200 billion yuan, or about 30 billion U.S. dollars last year.

For CRI, this is Li Yi.