Disciple role-playing game debuts Facebook version

Disciple, a fantasy role-playing Web game, now has a Facebook version where players can communicate and fight with players in the original web version of the game.

The Disciple Facebook application stands out because it offers a richer graphical experience than most Facebook games, according to San Francisco-based Resistor Productions, which owns Disciple.

The bloody fantasy game launched on May 12 and now has 35,000 active users. That’s not much by World of Warcraft standards (WoW has around 13 million subscribers, as long as they transition to a new operator in China). But at least the Disciple game is growing its player base. The game had 12,000 players on May 12.

Web-based Disciple players can challenge Facebook friends to battles, post victories on their news feeds, and chat with friends across the platforms in the Disciple world.

Disciple is free-to-play, meaning players can start playing for free but can buy virtual goods in the game with real money to upgrade their playing experience. Players also have the option of paying via subscription fee or filling out surveys via Offerpal.

The company was founded in 2008 with a seed investment from Sanjay Reddy. Later on, the company plans to launch an iPhone version of Disciple. Resistor got its start making an iPhone app, iGirl, a popular title which helped fund the investment in Disciple.

Competitors include Duels.com, World of Warcraft and Dark Orbit. There’s a lot of competition in the free-to-play online game market, but the company is at least adding new ways to get gamers. It will have to do that in order to survive in this fray.