Back in 2019, a majestic tree stood in a German park. A weeping willow that once gave me and my co-founder Jana shelter during a psychedelic trip. Just a few days later, a strong storm swept&nbsp;through the city and uprooted our loyal friend&nbsp;(see our blog entry <a href="https://www.orroworld.com/blog/11">06: When willow wept</a>).&nbsp;

Our first experience with psychotropic substances left a lasting impression on us,&nbsp;and thus we promised to give new life to the willow. Its digital counterpart was&nbsp;named &quot;ORRO&quot; and the pitch was perfect. A world of gardens followed and soon ORRO WORLD was born.&nbsp;

It then took us five years to release our app and although&nbsp;it sounds like a long time to make an app we want to admit that many lessons were learned. Even life lessons! So, one important one came with our first release in 2022, when ORRO WORLD was intended to be a game: Start simple!&nbsp;And still,&nbsp;it again took us until 2024 to make another release.&nbsp; 
 
Today, our second release came aboard. We are proud to present ORRO WORLD anew. Four self-care gardens with beautifully crafted audiotracks to relax and dream. This time everything is simpler but yes, even this took us another two years. Life lesson learned: Achieving simplicity is no easy feat!

Almost every day, I still walk&nbsp;through that very same park, following my&nbsp;usual routine with it. A big surprise came upon me when a cute, small weeping willow found its new place right at the spot where our old friend had left us!

With our latest release a new weeping willow came to life!

10: New hope for a tree

The Little Tree

Dear Community!

Today, and after a long period of being under construction, we are finally getting back&nbsp;to you.&nbsp;The past 15 months have been a transformative journey for us. Following the decision to remove our app from the app stores, we embarked on new&nbsp;conceptual waters. We aimed not just for a shift but a complete 90-degree turn &ndash; transitioning from English to German, and introducing a brand-new user interface.

Throughout this period, we faced challenges and learned invaluable lessons. Our app, ORRO, initially envisioned as a game, confronted the reality of resource constraints and a lack of professional experience. While the dream of creating a game persisted, our team, juggling numerous side jobs to sustain ourselves, recognized the need for a more realistic approach. Developing games, as we discovered, requires extensive time and expertise. Yet, ORRO held a hidden gem &ndash; fully produced therapuetical stories set in a three-dimensional world of gardens. But looking back&nbsp;this was no&nbsp;child&#39;s play!

Today, we contemplate the gamification of stories, particularly focusing on educational content within the realm of mental and emotional health. This theme has been a constant companion since our project&#39;s inception. I vividly recall reaching out to health insurance companies in 2019, armed only with determination. Although our project was in its infancy without a prototype or concrete concept, that determination has propelled us forward.

Now, with the&nbsp;clear&nbsp;vision of ORRO being a &quot;Safe Space&quot; our&nbsp;product is nearing the release.&nbsp;Our goal is to provide a motivational tool, allowing young people to explore life mastery in their personal space. Some may seek interactive strategies for relaxation, while others may prefer exercises woven into compelling storytelling.

Yet, before we make our way into the Play- and Appstore, we invite you as testers&nbsp;to ensure that your feedback&nbsp;will be refining ORRO into a tool that resonates deeply with its users. Whether you&#39;re passionate about storytelling, mental health, or simply excited to contribute: we would be grateful for your participation.

So, if you&#39;re eager to help shape the future of ORRO, please sign up as a tester&nbsp;now and reserve one of four&nbsp;digital gardens of ORRO WORLD.&nbsp;Simply send us an email to hello@orroworld.com with the subject &#39;test&#39;.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

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Is ORRO WORLD truly a "Safe Space"? Find it out with us - become a tester!

09: Testing safe-space

Dear Community

we apologize for taking out ORRO WORLD from all the stores. We will publish an updated version in spring 2024.&nbsp;If you want to get notified please send us a short message <a href="https://www.smagotcha.com/contact#form">here</a>.

We know most of you have heard about us through a German podcast. It is wonderful to learn that we receive your interest in our product. At the same time we feel more confident than ever to release the next version with German content and new features. 
 
For more information why the app was taken out, there will be another blog entry soon.

Bear with us

08: ORRO under construction

&quot;Why the heck do I have to chase storms?&quot; Recently, I omitted answering this frequently asked question. 
 
First of all, there is no need to chase them. Second,&nbsp;I hope to be mistaken that&nbsp;the bravest of you out there feel any desire to walk&nbsp;into an actual storm. So, since we don&#39;t have a manual yet: &quot;Please do not walk into an actual thunderstorm outside. Please don&#39;t risk being struck by lightning or&nbsp;trying to find the center of a tornado.&nbsp;At least if you haven&#39;t watched <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(1996_film)" target="_blank">Twister</a> before, haha! 
 
Now, let me elaborate on the storm of&nbsp;ORRO WORLD and why we would like&nbsp;you to confront them. The motive of going inside is one that arises out of deep spiritual thought. The storm is meant as an equivalent to everything that whirls inside of us: detrimental thinking, unpleasant feelings, the body itching, aching, crying... you name it! Going inside the storm means to listen to that whirling, to get in closer contact with it, to connect with oneself and everything that is present. Unfortunately, the truth is: escape is often preferred over presence. 
 
So, what does escape look like? To escape from the uncomfortable whirls means to escape from the inner storm. In the broader sense it means to escape from oneself. Simply avoiding the storm won&#39;t make it stop either. On the contrary, it will keep doing so until we can&#39;t avoid it no longer. But looking for quick escape is an attempt in vain. Because when we try to escape, we invest energy into the mere act of doing so WHILE having to deal with the whirling. 
 
Actually, do we need to be busy with two things at the same time? I feel it is my duty to make people real listeners, so they grasp healing on a different level: going inside the storm allows us to transform ourselves from within. 
 
If we want to get to know ourselves better, if we want to go a new way of healing and if we want to be autonomous beings, this, at least, is the approach we can choose. We all have the capacity of self-healing. One that is immediately accessible and highly effective. The message behind &quot;going into the storm&quot; is thus easy: we want to make you practise to confront your whirling over and over again. The more you practise the easier it will be to continue this path. Escape should be only one option of many. 
 
It truly seems easier to escape. But is it difficult to be present with the storm? In a world of constant distraction we are so used to the game of escape that it became rare to acknowledge&nbsp;our&nbsp;discomfort.&nbsp;But once we are able to listen, it goes quick&nbsp;to shift from inner whirling to inner well-being. This is the learning we would like to offer. This is why we want to make you friends with the&nbsp;storm. ORRO is the no-escape game you are free to play.

So, keep playing! 
&nbsp;

When storms whirl, why chase them? - A frequently asked question and maybe the most important one. At least if you're a cow!

07: FAQ - moo!

Fantastic story! 

Great that you pursued ORRO WORLD and I am excited to the release!

Sonia

Long before the dawn of the majestic tree at the center of ORRO, our project&#39;s idea was the little cute creature to teach people about a conscious smartphone usage. Clearly, the Tamagotchi influenced our original motive, hence the name &quot;Smagotcha&quot;. But with time going by, we wanted a world of gardens to take over, with a tree at its center. 
 
Progressing from creature to world, our designer Mette was willing to start anew. Many hours and Skype calls went by in which we discussed the details. Many ideas flooded in and before I could realize what ultimately drove me to agree on some of our designer&#39;s wild suggestions, a whole world was born with plants and planets, floors and skies, and finally: a leave-stripped tree towering in the center of the world. 
 
There is a tragic story behind it and I would love to share it with you, to reveal one of the greatest moments of my life. In our digital world of sound gardens&nbsp;we wanted to give new life to the&nbsp;weeping willow tree that once stood in a park in Germany, peaceful and majestic, giving&nbsp;shelter on a sunny but mild spring day. So, at the end of February 2019, my co-founder Jana and I&nbsp;ventured into a blessed experience. For the first time of our lives we took the risk of a daydream. An excerpt from my diary: 
 
Jana and I decided to take a trip. With a few blankets we marched towards a park close by. After about 40 minutes we began to notice that everything around us changes shape and color. The ponds that surrounded us here and there&nbsp;looked supernatural. The flora with its swinging branches was fractal-like. The honks of geese mixing&nbsp;with chattering humans sounded like theater only made for us.&nbsp;We searched for a spot where we could roll out our blankets to&nbsp;sit down under a&nbsp;beautiful weeping willow from which we could see a shimmering lake with swans and ducks paddeling around. Sometimes the sun enlighted us with its soft rays, serving prickling sensations on our skin. At times&nbsp;chilled blows of the wind moved layers of clouds to create&nbsp;playful shadows on the fluffy grass that Alice in Wonderland would have loved. On top of us the willow tree let its&nbsp;delicate branches dance, the sun&#39;s rays mystically shining through. The rustling of the wind sounded like nature engulfing us with pink noise. I lay down on my back and looked up into the massive crown. The thick stump was mighty and high. I closed my eyes and took five deep breaths. Before reaching higher than the treetop,&nbsp;magic made me speak: &bdquo;I feel connected to everything.&ldquo;

A few days after, I took my routine walk in the park as usual. I was shocked to find a bunch of forest workers cutting our&nbsp;new friend, the willow, into pieces. I had to learn that a storm uprooted the tree. It felt like an omen preparing Jana and me for a new world.&nbsp;The park workers were so generous to give me a piece of the willow&#39;s trunk that now decorates the top of my piano. 
 
Time is due that we start to play that piece.

A story about a weeping willow tree that changed worlds.

06: When willow wept

On the 22.02.2022 we finally released ORRO WORLD in the app stores and silently celebrated our first palindrome release. I remember it was beginning of 2022 and I was sitting in a Spanish canyon meditating on a car tyre when suddenly, I became aware of this magical date and in an instant I knew what to do next. 
 
I call it&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome" target="_blank">Palindrome</a> release because ORRO and the release date have a lot in common: One can read both word and date from left to right and backwards. Even better: ORRO consists of the two letters &quot;O&quot; and &quot;R&quot;, which comes down to the mirror number 22.&nbsp; 
 
ORRO itself is a mirrorworld.&nbsp;Although still in development you can see something is hiding under the garden that you entered. You can already see that there are other plants secretly growing below. How we want to put the other side into action? There are ideas out there but a decision wants to be made with care. One thing is for sure: More content will be added. Also, ORRO derives from the Basque language and translates to &quot;roaring&quot; such as the lions roar. Often, people do not feel allowed to express anger because our society suppresses it. With the name ORRO we want to point at this important outlet of human nature. 
 
After a few years&nbsp;of app development the step of doing a real release&nbsp;was important for our learning. For us it is about creating something together, about doing something that we love. That being said, we are still developing ORRO and within the next few weeks updates will be made. 
 
Stay tuned!

Meditation can be like a wake up call. The sound of "2" gave me direction heading towards the palindrome release of ORRO WORLD

05: Two, too!

Once, I started with an idea so people can be more conscious with their cell phones.

Now, close your eyes (but keep reading) and imagine yourself in my situation: In 2018, I entered this hostel lobby in Vietnam and then time stretched like chewing gum... In that slow-moving instance I saw all these hostel guests like they were glued to their phones and I simply couldn&#39;t see it no different!

An excerpt from my beloved diary:

Somewhere, deep inside of me, there was this expectation, a kind of inscription, like a code on my DNS providing commonsense knowledge, that travelling human beings want to get to know each other, that they want to be close to each other. Instead I found them only watching screens and they smirked while doing so, slowly chewing their Pho, holding their phones, not appearing to be in contact with the real world. The colorful statements about multicultural encounters, altruism and mindfulness... they were placed throughout the hostel&hellip; they seemed like an infinite joke.

It was a joke, wasn&#39;t it? How dependent were those who constantly ran around with their devices like a self-protection or gun they carry? I found it very disappointing. Now, should I pull my fellows out of their unconscious patterns and how am I able to achieve this? Why do they hide? Why are they afraid of intimacy with each other? Can they only be intimate with their phones? So, they sat there. Next to and across each other, holding plastics, metal and electro chips right in front of their faces. At that time, I didn&rsquo;t know that the more pressing problem was not intimacy with others but one specific kind of intimacy with themselves, the same one that was lacking in me, too...

I started travelling in 2010, when the smartphone was still fresh. Many travellers owned brick phones. I used to walk into hostel lobbies to meet strangers and talk to them without any virtual bricks in between. It was fairly easy to approach them with a feeling of being welcome into their personal sphere and vice verca. Many times, the next conversation was already waiting around a real concrete corner. I enjoyed the feeling and didn&rsquo;t only miss being connected in such ways when I was in Vietnam. I kept encountering this phenomenon more and more throughout my ten years of travelling.&nbsp;

From my hostel experience I learnt a few important things. First, I all too quickly blamed the smartphone for being distracting, addictive and ultimately giving me a hard time to socialize. Second, the fact quickly evaded me that I used my smartphone on a daily basis while making use of all its benefits. So, this is exactly the dilemma that many of us are facing.

We blame our smartphones and at the same time reap the benefits of it. We hate it and we love it.

Few of us are able to acknowledge that toxic love-hate relationship after exchanging wedding vows. But I truly believe we all could be more aware of how we deal with our married ones. I am 100% sure that our observations and intuitions are not flawed. The research that I find and the feedback that I get keeps confirming it: The smartphone has been the first powerful psychological shield. One&nbsp; that is keeping us safe - on the other hand hexing us into loneliness. We smartphone ourselves into isolation. It&rsquo;s easy to get in and much harder to get out. Let me suggest a remedy: Become aware of the moment you pull out your phone next time. Then ask yourself one simple question: &quot;What motivated me to focus on a phone?&quot; 

Before I started working on Smagotcha, I took care that, from time to time, I enjoyed liberty from my device. So, I bought a paper calendar or a basic alarm clock so I could leave my phone outside of my room during nights. Some time later, I realized how much more convenient my calendar and alarm clock apps were. Later, when I was already in the midst of my project, I could see myself being pulled into it more and more: On top of smartphone-organizing my private life, I had to smartphone-navigate an ever growing online team. I felt like I became quite addicted to it.&nbsp;

What for, again? 
 
To make people more aware smartphone users.

I believe that our phones are great tools. But they are ubiquitous and can be demanding. They may be glued to us and they may have a will of their own. The smartphone wasn&rsquo;t the first challenge and chance in our digital lives. It might be replaced in the future with new tools such as facebook&#39;s &quot;Metaverse&quot; lining up for us to turn us into either masters or slaves of digital citizens.&nbsp;

For me mindfulness and tech belong together if we want to start healthy relationships and become self-governed masters of digital worlds. 

Stay tuned!

 
<a href="https://href.li/?https://www.instagram.com/jcgotting/" target="_blank">Thanks for the image: Missed connections, JC G&ouml;tting</a>

Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and be faithful to your phone through sickness and adversity, as well as health and prosperity, forsaking all others, so long as you both shall live?

04: Yes, I will

Every team has a beginning, and ours didn&#39;t just happen overnight. At the end of 2018 I officially registered Smagotcha at my university in order to earn credits. By then, I had already put a lot of thought into how to make it work. Sometimes, what I initially thought would work proved false and many aspects continually needed to change. Many weeks and months had passed and it was a real challenge to assemble a proper team without being able to offer financial compensation. The best I could offer was a common vision and a work space that encourages genuine listening to one another.

In summer 2018 I had asked a friend of mine, Jana, if she wanted to join to help with the website and the logo design. As the second founder, she&#39;s been there from the very beginning and there have been many ways how she supports the project. She&nbsp;managed to acquire our first scholarship, she designs our moodboards and online content, and recently started administering our Instagram channels.

Soon after, I started looking for a programmer to code the app. I sent out tons of emails and asked many different people. After months of searching I had a tinder date and it was her who finally recommended Zsombor. Experienced in programming for smartphone applications for iOS, it turned out he loves both computer games and mindfulness. I must have been quite desperate&hellip; but what a lucky date!&nbsp;

Mette followed our team in a time when it became clear that we would need a 3D designer. She was able to envision and model the substance of ORRO: the world that must evolve throughout the mindfulness game. With her many years of experience in working with 3D she has guided other teams in their creative processes. Mette lives in Denmark and is our third co-founder.

Finally, it felt like four elements completed a core team. That is Zsombor, Mette, Jana and me.

As things evolved, I started writing our first few meditation stories. Here, my friend Brad helped enormously. Having worked for the governement as an English instructor, he was our text corrector as well as text creator for our website and social media channels. On top of this, he&rsquo;s been a great advisor of my personal journey. Brad is an experienced actor for theater and one of the last 100 finalists of MarsOne.

My sister Kathi joined us in her last year of the Dutch &ldquo;International Marketing&rdquo; program to maintain and support us with the social media channels like Instagram and Tiktok. As our youngest peer she applies her knowledge in the best way she can. Soon, she will start a six months study-abroad-experience in Mexico. 
 
In the same year of 2019 two important members of Smagotcha added some more tinder to the fire. First, our lead musician Frederik Raumann. He creates dreamy atmospheres for our guided meditation tracks and decorates them with a pinch of emotional magic. He studied music and media in D&uuml;sseldorf where he teaches&nbsp;youngsters the&nbsp;jazz piano. After him came&nbsp;our sound designer Suhyun Park.&nbsp;She&nbsp;creates environmental soundscapes. So, let&rsquo;s call her Su! ...all three of us studied the same program&nbsp;here in Duesseldorf. We all enjoyed the same courses such as composition, visual music or even&nbsp;music informatics. Recently, Su went back home to Korea where she is currently writing her bachelor thesis. Meanwhile, I took over her job as the sound designer. &quot;Hope to see you soon, Su!&quot;

In 2020 I myself have worked on the bachelor. With a team of twelve we managed to finalize the first release of ORRO. A colorful garden with a few short poetry&nbsp;stories, plus a paper with the title: &quot;Reception of pauses within digital entertainment media&quot;, was written. One more&nbsp;former fellow student of mine Sebastian Heidelberg&nbsp;advised the gameplay and optimized our first garden system. While my thesis went at full speed, the startup had to stay on track, too. Daniela Grego, my&nbsp;former&nbsp;room mate&nbsp;got inspired by the undertaking. We went through several rounds of repeated briefings on how to organize our young company and likewise she made us aware of the key roles in agile work environments. 

Then, 2021 was the the year of rebranding. The website was brought to life including this shiny blog. Counting a collaboration of seven people, including my former flatmate Buket Elci, the team has managed to do the vision statement, corporate and website design including all imagery, videos, texts and the final website development. What&nbsp;a great learning experience! 

Now, who else is to join? Soon, we wanna see&nbsp;ORRO&#39;s first release!&nbsp;We wanna take the&nbsp;challenge and learn a lot. You dare to jump into cold water with us? There are still the waters of marketing, UX research and game development. All these fields feel a bit like ice bathing. Maybe you could support us with a towel or two. Keeps the fire running, too!

Stay tuned!

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Who else wants to join our team? Wanna add more tinder? Keep our fire running!

03: From Tinder to teams

I am sitting in a room. Air goes in and out. I feel the touch of myself on the mattress. Cross-legged, my hands are dwelling on my lap. It is calm. My eyes are shut. 
 
The first minutes when I start to meditate I experience blurry sensations. I am not really aware of what I am thinking or that I am thinking. It takes me some time to get accustomed to what I do. Because I surely do something. At least meditation is not about not doing anything. Something honorable is happening: Gradually, I am creating this moment in which the setting of sensual awareness can deepen. 
 
I am getting there. Already, my body feels more relaxed. I start to become aware of how relevant it is to keep it a hundred percent still, without any movement. It is exactly that which connects me to the present. Starting to feel centered, I occasionally double-check which muscles could be even more relaxed. Often it is somewhere in my face, either between my eyes or my jaw. It is simple to acknowledge it. It is the acknowledgement itself that almost immediately softens my muscles. And after a while my face goes back to its originally tense state. And after a while, I will notice something. 
 
I might become sleepy, and sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes for just a short moment, sometimes I can feel my head nodding away before I manage to pull it back up again. Sometimes I am so sleepy that it must look like I&rsquo;m constantly nodding in agreement, saying silently yes to something that must be invisible in front of me, and that can&rsquo;t be so bad, can it? Sometimes though, it is possible to look at my sleepiness, like looking into its eye. I am then observing sleepiness and this completely changes everything. 

I become fully present and awake. 

Becoming aware of a thing transforms the very thing. This is the superpower that many meditation experts are talking about. The ability to transform things only exists in the moment. It can be unleashed when you become aware of the thing that is unaware. 

I am leaving the room now! The world out there wants to connect my gum feet with a kind of grey concrete love.

Meditation diary entry #1. Here, I share my insights with you.

02: I am sitting in a room

Wow, it's great to read how 'ORRO World' evolved and that it was meant to be a game. Good that you changed your focus!

Smagotcha has been on a slow path since 2018. So far we have gathered a bunch of people - students and professionals alike - who assist with their coding, concepts and creations. And although working online has had it backdraws, its benefits certainly came in handy in times of a pretty pandemic period.

Our scattered team is creating ORRO WORLD: a three dimensional listening experience for the smartphone, in which we become mindful explorers on a journey towards silence. Amidst the mindfulness apps that show a level of quality we want to bring quality into the level. This gamified meditation adventure is not an unexplored field though. Out there are a bunch of approaches where spiritual practice already meets technology and games. What makes us different? Keep reading.

In the center of our digital world of gardens stands a majestic tree, who, once upon a time, lost its voice in a blasting storm. When the players face it and go into its very center, they will not only find the tree&#39;s voice but also the &quot;I&quot;, meaning the central spot of the storm or the &quot;I of the storm&quot;. The storm symbolizes the storm inside. In this way it is a representation of all things roaring, day in, day out, whether it is the itch at our backs or the never-stopping noise of an urban area. Finally, someone might scratch herself and ask: &ldquo;How the heck do I get out of here?&rdquo; The answer is out there: Learn to listen. Because then you get out TO the noise, despite the noise. By the way, &quot;orro&quot; is a word coming from the Basque language which means &ldquo;roaring&rdquo;. 
 
We don&rsquo;t know where exactly this adventure is heading. With ORRO we opened a 3D-playground of possibilities. What we do know is that we we will publish a basic version first: A small set of four fabulous self-help stories, surprises included. A first set of flourishing gardens will come with a different topic to teach breathing, thinking and feeling, or hold on... you thought you were already mastering this? Then it&#39;s time to play and listen, for example you can download our app for free. 
 
We want our players to grow and learn, not to self-optimize, but to become aware of the great life we are already living. Right now.

My name is Chris. I graduated at a German insurance company and after, I travelled a lot, hitchhiking the mind during my twenties. Until 2021, I studied at a German conservatory to achieve a bachelor degree in music: Focus on classical piano and immersive audiovisual media. I call myself a creative sensitive. I gather the team around Smagotcha. Currently, around ten people are participating in the project. I am the author of ORRO&#39;s first meditation stories. 

In this blog, I continue writing about the development of ORRO world, the Smagotcha team and all the little visions that make my life transformative.&nbsp; 
 
Stay tuned! 
 
&nbsp;

So far we have gathered a bunch of people. And although working online has had it backdraws, its benefits certainly came in handy in a pretty pandemic period.

Blog Gotcha!

10: New hope for a tree