El Nido is one of the destinations you can travel to on Running Organgs, a mobile application inspired by Philippine tourist destinations created by Makati-based company PurpleBug.
The game lets the user play as characters representing the human body traveling through different tourist destinations in the Philippines. Aside from El Nido, the app also features the Chocolate Hills, Mayon Volcano, and Luneta Park.
The app was created by Makati-based marketing technology company PurpleBug. According to an email interview with the company’s Junior Brands Specialist Jasmine Cargullo, the app was partly inspired by the long hours spent indoors, unable to travel because of strict public health protocols. It was also inspired by the various tourist destinations
“The pandemic forced people to stay in their homes, forced people to be isolated from their friends and family, and it also induced a considerable degree of fear and concern. With these in mind, we developed Running Organgs to help people cope with the setbacks brought by the COVID-pandemic. And as travelling (which we can’t do now, unfortunately) is one of the few activities that people do to ‘escape reality,’ we designed Running Organgs to help players travel and recall the feeling of visiting the most famous tourist spots in the Philippines, while staying safe from the COVID-19 virus,” Cargullo wrote.
“The game’s purpose is to not only entertain people, but to also showcase the beauty and exquisiteness of the Philippines. We are aiming for Running Organgs to take the world by storm, and hopefully join the roster of Philippines’ pride,” she added.
The characters of the game are various parts of the human body, each with their own names and special characteristics – Brainstein, the wisest among the Organgs; Amor, the bubbly member shaped as a human heart; Oliver the Liver, Lang-lang and Leng-leng the lungs; and Tammie the stomach. Each character also has an “arch-nemesis,” or what substances are most harmful to them. For example, Lang-lang and Leng-leng’s arch-nemeses are cigarettes, vapes, and the COVID-19 virus, while Oliver’s arch-nemesis is alcohol. The user has to jump over several obstacles to obtain points, and the obstacles are shaped as their arch-nemeses.
When asked about the creative process behind the app, Cargullo explained that it was teamwork that brought the entire project together. The company also hopes that the app will gain global recognition as a Philippine-made product.
“From coming up with ideas, conceptualization, researching, designing, to developing the game, we made sure that our team is doing a collaborative effort to achieve a common goal, that is to uphold creativity both at the beginning until the conclusion of the project. Teamwork and innovative ideas were the core factors that made Running Organgs successful,” she said.
