A Hidden Portal Is Popping Up at This University Inspired by a Pinoy YA Fantasy Series
Breakout Philippines and the Rizal Library have teamed up for something special.
Products recommended on our websites are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our links, Summit Media may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.
(SPOT.ph) Students of Ateneo might soon start seeing mysterious messages pointing them to the university’s venerable Rizal Library—or, as these cryptic posts call it, “Lazir Yrarbil.” That phrase is the passkey to an in-campus game experience that will take players deeper into the universe of YA Pinoy fantasy novel series Alinam.
YA series Alinam gets special breakout room in Metro Manila University
Set in a parallel universe Manila, Alinam stars a young high school student named Diego Domingo, who falls from our world into an extraordinary fantasy universe packed with mythological creatures and sinister intrigue.
Diego studies in the Ateneo, as did Alinam’s author, Mickey Ingles. So when an opportunity came to bring his fictional creation to life in the school he grew up in, Mickey immediately jumped at the chance.
“It's exciting for me because we're going to bring it to Ateneo, which is home, and introduce it to new readers and a new audience,” says Ingles, who, aside from being a YA fantasy author, also teaches law at the university. “This audience is really the target audience for the book.”
Following the conventions of the Alinam universe, where familiar place names are spelled the other way around, the game experience is called Oeneta Ed Alinam: Portal Hunt. Players and participants from the university can experience a side story of the cross-dimensional fantasy series. In the books’ lore, it turns out that there are multiple portals between the worlds of Alinam and Manila. In the first book, Diego accidentally falls through a portal tucked away inside an old restaurant in Binondo. But as he finds out in Alinam 2, there’s actually another portal hidden right inside his school.
Mickey uses that hook to flesh out the decades of urban legends that surround the old campus, “especially if you're an Atenean who knows about the tsismis, that this happened here or something appeared here.”
Also read: An Alternate-Reality Steampunk Manila Gets Even Darker in This YA Sequel
How Breakout Philippines designed the Alinam immersive experience in Ateneo
Bringing Mickey’s expansive fantasy world into the real world of the Ateneo is the Breakout Philippines team, who worked with the staff of the Rizal Library to set up the Portal Hunt.
You probably know Breakout for their popular escape rooms, which have been challenging brain cells and fraying friendships for the better part of a decade now. But they’re more than supersized puzzle makers. They also host company team buildings, host mystery dinner parties, design zombie-fied fun runs, and set up learning playgrounds—“basically, using these interactive concepts to enrich our youth,” according to Jor-el Soyangco, one of the partners behind Breakout Philippines.
“We’ve been enthusiasts of escape rooms for the longest time,” he continues. “On an ongoing basis, we’re always looking for cool stuff that we can do and things that have never been done before.”
Creating an immersive experience based on an original Filipino young adult fantasy novel series certainly fits the bill.
For students looking to play, Jor-El has this piece of advice: “They should be ready to pay attention to things that they otherwise take for granted. We'll ask you to take a second look.”
Teasers for Oeneta Ed Alinam: Portal Hunt will be seeded beginning next week. The official game is set to unfold from November 28 to December 1. Prizes await the top-ranked players who dare venture into the world of Alinam, with the winners announced on the final day. Don't miss the chance to meet Mickey Ingles and have your books signed at the Alinam Book Launch on November 30, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Rizal Library.
Want to get deeper into the world of Alinam? The first book, Alinam: Diego Domingo and the Mandato Ruiz, is available for P395 (Shopee, Lazada). The sequel, Alinam 2: Diego Domingo and the Three Thieves, retails for P375 (Shopee, Lazada).
Summit Books is available on Lazada and Shopee.
UPDATED (November 29, 2023): This article was updated to reflect date changes to the event.
Links are updated regularly and as much as possible but note that products can run out of stock, discounts can expire and listed prices can change without prior notice.