The tao of Juan Tamad

Supreme’s recent piece on the “death” of OPM underscores a bigger issue — the death of Filipino culture as a whole. This includes our arts, folktales, and even language. While countries like Korea and Japan export their culture, Filipinos are more-than-willing consumers. In the process, we perhaps forget how to dream, think and be original. Therefore, it is time to be industrious and create things for ourselves again. It is time to not be tamad.
Ironically, today’s column gets inspiration from an iPhone app precisely called Juan Tamad. It’s a puzzle game in which players construct a bridge for Juan to reach his prize. Although the premise seems simple, the game’s design has a rich back story. I interviewed its creators at Tooch-Inc., Teddy Catuira, a former art director at Jimenez Basic, and Sandy Lichauco, a Fordham finance graduate.
The Juan Tamad duo got together nine years ago at our local MIT — that is, Mapua Institute of Technology. They instantly connected on three levels. They both had the heart for using technology to create change in people. They both were young fathers (Sandy has three kids and Teddy has one boy). And third, they shared a deeper vision of living.
By being in sync, they started tinkering on their notebooks over coffee on a project that would tackle the big question, “Why create anything?” For the duo, the answer was to create an app that would outlive them. “We want to live forever... and intellectual property is that. It is not cheesy. It is very real and achievable,” Teddy says.
Yet, the next question for them was, “For whom and what purpose?” Sandy and Teddy didn’t have to look far. They learned that local folklore was alarmingly foreign to their kids, and they decided to do something about it. And as Sandy puts it, “It all boils to love for country by understanding’s one culture.”
Among the many childhood stories Sandy and Teddy grew up with, the “Juan Tamad” tale stood out. People from their era shied away from the character because of its negative connotation, but the duo took Juan Tamad and literally flipped him over by giving him goals.
In the game, Juan Tamad has to twist bridge pieces to get himself to where he needs to be. The app is ideal for players aged five and up. It features three different stories, each with four challenges, for a total of 12 unique puzzles. It also presents all-original, distinctly Pinoy graphics and music.
In late 2011, Sandy and Teddy leaped into app development despite little experience in the field because they both believed that “Whoever acts on it owns it.” Today, their company TOOCH, Inc. creates “exciting, out-of-the-box app solutions… by utilizing the latest technology, gadgets, and platforms.”
After much work, the Juan Tamad app was launched two weeks ago. Sandy and Teddy are humble enough to say that they don’t know if their app will be the next Angry Birds or Instagram. Yet, they take consolation in knowing that it is the first step to building a bridge between future generations of Filipinos and their culture, and reminding Pinoys to create again and make something great.
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Juan Tamad is a free iOS app currently available on the Apple iTunes store. Download it now.
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E-mail this Juan at jvincentsong@gmail.com.