A Japanese mobile-game named Travel Frog has captured hearts of millions of Chinese mobile users.
Travel Frog, developed by Japanese game company Hit-Point Co., Ltd., has become the most downloaded free app in the simulation game section of the Apple store. Tips of the game have even soared to the list of most popular search items on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.
The game features a frog, which the player needs to prep for a journey. If the player preps the frog well, it will return with treats for the player.
Using clovers that you grow or collect as in-game currency, players can buy necessary food and items to equip the frog for its journey. Though the frog leaves on a trip, it may send back a snapchat of where it is. When getting home, the frog can bring back local delicacies.
Players actually play a limited role in this game, largely nothing apart from preparing food and patiently waiting for their frog to start a journey or return home.
"Although what I can do is limited, the game makes me feel a sense of tranquility," said Yang Pei, a white-collar worker based in Beijing.
This game is said to reflect the Buddhist lifestyle and its spirit of "whatever will be, will be," since it is not predetermined whether you see the frog having returned home, when you open the app.
Many players say the game makes them feel like an old parent waiting for their children to come home, and that it is lots of fun without too much commitment.
"I am eager to open the app, hoping my frog is coming home. It is something like a mother anxiously waiting for her child," says Zhao Wenqi, a student from the Communication University of China.
