Totem Time Launches Virtual Team Building Game kidnAPPed

Customizable “Escape” Game Enables Real-Time Relationship Building While Employees Work from Home

TEL AVIV (August 11, 2020) — Totem Time, the digital quests and experiences startup, today announced the launch of kidnAPPed, a virtual “escape” game designed to facilitate team building in the time of COVID-19 while most employees are working from home. Available for teams of any size, kidnAPPed presents a problem that can only be solved when teams work together in real time to share clues, solve riddles, and rescue a team member who has been “kidnapped.”

For the past five months, Totem Time has worked to develop the game in response to the pandemic. kidnAPPed represents a pivot from the educational AR game the startup was beta testing, which was designed to be played in public spaces such as hotels, museums, shopping malls and parks.

“With COVID requiring everyone to stay indoors and away from crowded places, we realized that our technology—which builds virtual gamified experiences—could be better utilized to help people connect in this time of isolation. kidnAPPed is the first in a series of experiences we will be releasing to address that need,” said Yariv Erel, Founder and CEO of Totem Time.

Totem Time customizes each company’s experience of kidnAPPed, developing the storyline around a real team member, and including the company’s office imagery and video clips. Early responses to the beta version of the game have been enthusiastic.

“We were looking for a remote team building experience that required team members to interact with each other,” said Shir Gershon, UK Office Manager & IL People Experience at Yotpo, an eCommerce marketing platform. “kidnAPPed revealed each teammate’s communication style and gave us a new way to engage in team building and boost morale.”

Along with engaging members of an individual team, kidnAPPed also offers a way for employees from different teams or departments to come together, a “watercooler”-like experience which is difficult to replicate in a virtual environment. The game is available in three modes to meet the tech and riddle-solving comfort-level of the players involved.

“Strengthening company communication is something we used to practice regularly, and that practice largely fell by the wayside during the early months of the pandemic. Companies are just now looking for ways to reward their employees while also working on team building and our hope is that kidnAPPed will offer a new, challenging, exciting experience for everyone,” Erel added.

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About Totem Time

Totem Time is the digital quests and experiences startup that harnesses the power of digital storytelling. Powered by its ‘Experience Builder’ tech, digital elements like AR, VR, riddles, tasks, mini games, role playing and many others come together to create engaging digital experiences. The company was founded in 2019 by Yariv Erel, former founder of justAd, a mobile ad tech firm that was acquired by Glispa in 2017. Totem Time is based in Tel Aviv. For more information, visit TotemTime.com and TotemTime.com/kidnapped/.