''Tampon Run'' is a

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

endless running Endless or The Endless may refer to: Business * Endless (private equity), a British firm * Endless.com, an e-commerce website selling shoes and accessories * Endless Computers, an American operating system company Film * ''The Endless'' (film ...

video game about

tampon A tampon is a menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inserted correctly, a tampon is held ...

s created by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser. It started as a web game made available in 2014 and released on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

in February 2015.

Gameplay

At the start of Tampon Run the game explains that de-stigmatizing

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...

is important. The player then controls a character who runs through the level throwing

tampons A tampon is a menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inserted correctly, a tampon is held ...

at enemies and collecting more by jumping for boxes. Bumping into enemies causes the loss of some tampons; the game ends if the player runs out.

Development

The game was created by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser, two high school students from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, who started developing the game during a

Girls Who Code Girls Who Code (also known as GWC) is an international nonprofit organization that aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science. Among its programs are a summer immersion program, a specialized campus program, after-school ...

camp. The pair designed the concept as a response to feeling like they couldn't openly discuss

and wanted to create a game which could have a social impact. They cite Wendy Davis' 2013 filibuster as inspiration for the game. The first version of Tampon Run was built in a week and a half at Girls Who Code. The game was then developed further afterwards and made available online in 2014, subsequently being released on

in February 2015. Software development company

Pivotal Labs Pivotal Labs (later VMware Tanzu Labs) was an agile software development consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company developed Pivotal Tracker workflow software. It was a division of Pivotal Software. History The c ...

worked with Gonzales and Houser to develop the iOS app, and over seven weeks the team added leaderboards, new enemies, achievements, and other features to the game. By May 2015 the game had been played 300,000 times across the web and app versions.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://tamponrun.com/ 2014 video games Browser games IOS games Endless runner games Video games developed in the United States