- Krikey has partnered with The Ellen Fund to launch a game called Gorillas! — which raises the awareness of gorillas in Rwanda.
Augmented reality gaming company Krikey has announced that it has partnered with The Ellen Fund to launch a game called Gorillas! The game was created to raise awareness for gorillas in Rwanda.
“Seeing the mountain gorillas in Rwanda was one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. We want everyone to be able to feel what it’s like to be there, and with our game Gorillas! by The Ellen Fund you absolutely can,” said Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi — the founders of The Ellen Fund.
How does the game work? Using a mobile device, players can step into the mountains of Rwanda to join a family of gorillas. To survive in the forest, you will have to tap to break the termite mounds and bamboo. Tapping faster allows the gorillas to eat termites and berries. And the goal of the game is to keep your energy full. The longer you are in the game, the more gorilla animations are unlocked.
After users complete the gameplay, they can share a personalized video with friends and make donations to The Ellen Fund in order to support the conservation efforts for endangered species.
“We created Krikey to encourage conservation and bridge that gap between inspiration and reality,” added Krikey CTO Ketaki Shriram. “Not everyone can travel to Rwanda to trek with gorillas but with augmented reality, anyone can step into the forest and experience the beauty and peacefulness of the ecosystem.”
Krikey was founded by sister team Ketaki Shriram and Jhanvi Shriram (CEO). Ketaki used to be a researcher at Stanford’s Virtual Home Interaction Lab and a researcher at Oculus VR. And Jhanvi Shriram was previously a production and operations strategist at YouTube. The sister team also co-produced a documentary movie together called “True Son” and sold it to Univision/FusionTV to distribute.
And the Ellen Fund is known for supporting global conservation efforts for endangered species. And its first initiative is to build the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in northern Rwanda for mountain gorilla conservation.
Krikey can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. And the app is free to download.
