I first heard of Igpaw from a status post by a blockmate of mine that said, “here’s a game that I helped design” [non-verbatim]. I was intrigued, of course, for several reasons. First, a peer of mine helped design it. So of course I had to play it, if only to give him some constructive criticism regarding game design. I’m obviously less knowledgeable on the technical details, but hey, I’m a player, so my feedback counts, right? Second, Igpaw was produced by Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS), which means it was probably made by people I know. And third, well, it looked interesting. So aside from having to write a Wildcard article about it, I had many other reasons to play the game and learn about its production details.

Preview of the credits

Production Details

Igpaw: Intramuros is an Android game released on July 30th of this year by the Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS), spearheaded by Dr. Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo. It is an augmented reality game intended to be an educational tool for local and foreign students alike, by showcasing the rich history seen in different sites around Intramuros.

“Igpaw” is a Filipino word that means “to jump over an obstacle”. The game is aptly named as such because it aims to “overcome the obstacle of learning motivation” when it comes to learning about Philippine history, a subject that tends to be underwhelming for most students. This is mostly due to the lack of stimulating and interactive educational materials for it. However, the game is only intended to be a non-formal and non-traditional means of education and as such, cannot be used as a replacement for formal classroom instruction.

Gaming Experience

In this augmented reality game, the player has to go to Intramuros in order to play the game. (Well, it is supposed to show you around the place.) So I went with a few friends and together, we embarked on a journey to save Magical Intramuros.

This is Daligmata. He’s the first character you’ll meet in the game and he’ll teach you how to interact with people and objects in Magical Intramuros (which is the dimension inside the game). He’ll tell you about the evil presence, the darkness that looms over Magical Intramuros that steals historical artifacts and deceives people to plunge their world into chaos and ultimately, destroy our own history. To stop the evil from spreading, you must fix the history in Magical Intramuros by traveling to different locations in the Intramuros of our world and talking to the people you meet. Daligmata is your guide during the first chapter.

The game is divided into three chapters, corresponding to three focal locations within Intramuros. While the game isn’t really strict about the order you play the chapters in, I suggest you follow this order: Victoria Street, Manila Cathedral, and then Ateneo Municipal de Manila. Why? Because of the nature of the plot progression. The Victoria Street chapter will have Daligmata continuing the tutorial, and the Ateneo Municipal de Manila chapter will give you your first glimpse of the evil presence, which, in retrospect, does not make sense since with the other two chapters, the presence will only be described as that – a presence or a black fog instead of a tangible entity.

I didn’t know the above details when I first played the game, however, so I started with the Manila Cathedral chapter instead.

The controls are pretty much self-explanatory (and they have labels, too), so it wasn’t hard to get used to the feel of them. The tutorial in the Victoria Street chapter, which was the last one I did, was very out of place, expressing the need for you to follow the sequence. While you’re not really missing a huge chunk of information, you will be a bit confused on what to do with Crispin (this particular chapter’s guide) when you’re unable to talk to him because of some presence that you didn’t really hear about in the prologue.

Either way, the controls are easy to grasp and the plot is pretty much flexible in that you can play the game however you like. It just might not make much sense as opposed to if you did them in the right order.

I was pretty amazed by the game, actually. It’s like the characters were there with you even though you’ll probably experience some misalignment with the sprites. Sometimes the characters look like they’re floating, but I think that’s pretty minor. Oh, and one of King Carlos IV’s (that’s King Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego for you) eyes is black, like an empty socket. The Solimans’ faces looked bruised to boot. But overall, the graphics are satisfactory.

The game uses GPS to be able to tell where you are and the phone camera to scan markers. The characters only appear after you’ve scanned the marker for a particular area, but they are pretty easy to find. They’re surrounding you, so just spin around. This fact kind of freaked me out at first though.

Imagine me holding my camera out, and Crispin says I should talk to the Pope. So naturally, I look for the Pope. The first thing I do is hold my camera out to the right, and bam! Pope John Paul II is there. Do another 90-degree turn and bam! This time Archbishop Miguel Poblete, the one that asked for Manila Cathedral to be built, appears. My point is, I kind of jumped because they were just suddenly there and I was like, “Since when were you behind me, Archbishop?”

Maybe it would better if, instead of just the marker, you were able to scan other things to find the characters (providing hints as to where these markers are, of course). Perhaps you should look at some part of the steps or one of the lampposts. It really just freaked me out thinking that the characters were surrounding me the whole time.

Characters aren’t the only things you’ll find around you. Sometimes, you can’t talk to people without giving them something first. (I’m looking at you, King Carlos IV.) You can pick these items up and give them to people (or in Koxinga’s case, brandish it and threaten to shoot him with it) so you can progress with the plot.

Each chapter has three locations for you to go through. On these locations, you have to help all of the characters you encounter. Once you’ve freed all of them (all the characters in all three locations) from the evil presence’s clutches, black fog will envelop you. That’s the evil presence trying to stop you from trying to stop him. During these times, you encounter puzzles. There are a total of three puzzles in the entire game.

In this puzzle, you are tasked to find three items that pertain to war.

When you’ve finished all three puzzles, you’ll go to the boss battle. The three guides (with the exception of Crispin as he will be replaced by La Lobo Negra) will help you overcome the evil presence so you can save Magical Intramuros and our history. As to what you have to do here, you’ll just have to play the game and find out for yourself.

Playing the game took almost three hours, but I promise you, that’s only because I looked at my watch. Otherwise, you won’t even feel the time pass! You’ll be so absorbed in the game—in looking for those markers, and in saving Magical Intramuros—that you won’t even feel tired after walking for so long. (We had this RPG experience wherein the marker was on the other side of a gate and we had to go around the wall to get in. So close yet so far…)

It was a hot day and we finished two bottles of water each, but we weren’t tired—that’s how stimulating the game really was.

Additional Comments

Igpaw was a whole lot of fun, especially when played with friends. It drains your battery (mine went from 94 percent to 4 percent) so make sure you charge up. The heat, the walking, the getting lost (you can ask around if ever this happens), the battery drain—everything is worth an amazing experience. You get to explore Intramuros while learning random trivia about the interesting characters in the game and our own history. What else is there to ask for?

So go, go ahead and experience Igpaw for yourself. Save Magical Intramuros and save our history!

Sources

ALLS Launches Igpaw: Intramuros: http://penoy.admu.edu.ph/~alls/archives/3510: para. 1-2, 4: September 21, 2015.