When you meet Qiwei (麒威)— or Kiwi, as he prefers to be called — the first thing you notice isn’t his professional title. It’s his smile. Not the forced grin of a media-trained CEO, but the sparkly-eyed smile of someone who’s up to something. “I’m a mischievous little boy at heart,” he says with a laugh. And he means it. That rascal spirit, rooted in boundless curiosity and a deep love for play, has become the driving force behind Mango Games, one of Taiwan’s most unique experiential tourism ventures.
Origins: From Architecture to Adventure
“I studied architecture,” Kiwi recalls. As a university student, he frequently joined design competitions to earn extra income. “That’s how I paid for my living expenses.”
But those competitions weren’t limited to building designs. Around 2010-2015, when Taiwan’s government was actively encouraging entrepreneurship, Kiwi and his friends started pitching ideas at startup competitions. Their first real-world event had great turnout but little profit. That sparked an idea: win prize money first, then use it to build something real.
“Our early thinking was — if we win competitions, the prize money gives us the freedom to create.” It worked. They entered competition after competition, refining their concept: immersive games blending storytelling, real-world locations, and interactive challenges. Kiwi’s background in architecture proved invaluable.
“Architectural design and business design are actually very similar,” he says. “One builds for markets, the other builds for people.”
The Birth of Mango Games
Their turning point came after a win when a journalist approached them. “What you pitched is fascinating. Are you going to build it for real?” the journalist asked.
They weren’t sure. But three months later, after a major spread in a local newspaper — featuring Kiwi and his concept — the phone rang. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) wanted to book an event.
“The game wasn’t even built yet,” Kiwi confesses. “All we had was a concept.”
They sprinted. Within three months, Kiwi and his team designed, tested, and launched their first game — a live, interactive experience custom-built for TSMC employees. That marked the official start of Mango Games in 2015.
The name? “Mango is a fruit that represents Tainan,” Kiwi said. “It’s local and fun — we just wanted something that felt like us and would make people smile.”
Designing Cities as Playgrounds
From the start, Kiwi didn’t want to build traditional escape rooms. “We started out inspired by escape rooms,” he said. “But after the game ends, you go back to reality — and it’s like the game never happened.”
He found that separation frustrating. “We always felt there was a disconnection — the game was fun, but once it ended, it didn’t stay with you,” he explained. “We wanted the experience to carry into the real world.”
That led them to reimagine the entire experience. “No matter how immersive an indoor game is, it can’t compete with the complexity and surprise of the real world,” Kiwi explained. “So we broke the walls and brought the game outside.”
This shift redefined their model. Instead of being confined to four walls, Mango Games began turning streets, libraries, parks, and entire neighborhoods into stages — where the city itself became both the setting and the puzzle.. He wanted to escape the room entirely — and bring the stories into the streets.
“I loved city exploration,” he says. “I was always curious about the stories behind old buildings, or what could’ve happened there.”
That curiosity shaped Mango Games’ mission: to use storytelling to connect people with places.
Some of the most intriguing collaborations Kiwi highlights include one with the Taiwan National Library with the game “Martial Arts Library,” — titled in Chinese as “閱境江湖” — which transforms an actual public library into a kung fu universe. The name is a poetic blend: “閱” (to read), “境” (realm or environment), and “江湖” (the martial arts world, or an adventurous society in wuxia lore). Together, it evokes the idea of entering a martial world through the act of reading.
Kiwi explained, “We turned every reading method into a different martial arts school — visual, auditory, even interactive formats. Each represented a unique style of kung fu.”.
Players don costumes and are invited to role-play as young martial arts apprentices. “The participants become heroes-in-training, searching for masters hidden within the library,” he said. “They learn different skills — which in reality, are different ways of reading or processing information.” The story cleverly integrates elements of Taiwan’s cultural relationship with wuxia fiction, gamifying the act of exploration within a traditionally quiet space. “We wanted to reframe how people think about libraries,” Kiwi said. “It’s not just about books — it’s about discovering knowledge, and we made that discovery process into an actual quest.”.
Another project involved a collaboration with the National Palace Museum, where players followed an app-guided narrative to locate artifacts and unlock secrets.
These games integrate QR codes, GPS mapping, and browser-based mobile storytelling to connect players to culture through digital interactivity. “We don’t just create games. We create portals into the imagination of a place,” Kiwi says.
When Taxi Drivers Become Ghost Storytellers
One of the most unusual — and brilliant — Mango Games experiences happens during the traditional Ghost Month observed in many Chinese communities, a time traditionally seen as unlucky for business.
“Most taxi drivers saw a drop in demand during Ghost Month,” Kiwi explains. “So we turned it into an opportunity.”
Enter “惡靈巴士” (È Líng Bā Shì), which translates to “Ghost Bus.” The name evokes the eerie thrill of boarding a haunted vehicle — a perfect metaphor for the game’s chilling narrative. The game plunges players into a world where the dead roam the city, and every stop is filled with eerie stories rooted in real Taiwanese urban legends. Players board the cars, each driven by a taxi driver who’s also an actor.
At each stop, they must solve puzzles tied to real-life legends and haunted sites.
The twist? They’re being chased. “Imagine solving a mystery while a ‘ghost’ is stalking you,” Kiwi chuckles. “It’s scary. But it’s also incredibly fun.”
“No one had ever fully leveraged taxi drivers in this way,” Kiwi reflects.
“It wasn’t just a gimmick. These drivers became storytellers, performers — the soul of the experience.”
The concept was such a hit that the game, initially intended for Ghost Month only, is now a recurring experience during Lunar New Year too.
“It’s our way of honoring the local while giving it a creative twist,” Kiwi says.
Roleplay, Immersion, and Emotional Impact
What sets Mango Games apart from other team-building or travel activities is the emphasis on roleplay and immersion. Many games require participants to step into a character — be it a detective, a warrior, a scholar, or a refugee from a zombie apocalypse.
“When people role-play, they’re more open,” Kiwi says. “They let go of their usual behavior. They’re not managers or interns — they’re adventurers.”
This psychological shift makes the experiences deeply impactful, especially for corporate team-building clients. “In our games, people share differently. They’re braver. More expressive. They surprise themselves.”
Games range from 4-player street hunts to epic 1000-player city-wide experiences. The largest games even involve soundscapes, wearable props, and multi-platform interactions. Their library of games — over 100 routes across Taiwan — includes ghost stories, historical mysteries, and ecological journeys.
The Platform Behind the Play: Tech-Powered Storytelling
Technology plays a crucial role in how Mango Games delivers its immersive experiences. At the core of each game is a lightweight, mobile-optimized platform that combines QR codes, GPS mapping, chat-based hint systems, and real-time progression tracking.
“All of our games can be played directly on a web browser — no downloads needed,” Kiwi says. “We design for accessibility, whether it’s iOS or Android.”
Some experiences also blend physical props with mobile-based storytelling. For example, players receive printed kits or custom tools that interact with smartphone instructions to unlock clues or progress through the story. Kiwi calls it a “hybrid dimension” — bridging the physical and digital world.
Security-wise, Kiwi notes that they’ve developed “soft firewalls” — intentionally making the game logic and structure more complex to discourage imitation. “We haven’t leaned on IP trademarks or patents,” he said. “Instead, we design our systems so that even if someone copies the concept, they can’t easily replicate the experience.”
This technical strategy, paired with cultural specificity and live actor integration, makes each game uniquely hard to duplicate. “Our platform is fully MIT — Made in Taiwan,” Kiwi added. “We build everything in-house, from the game engine to the story logic. That way, we stay agile and keep creative control.” — a deliberate approach to protect their creative assets while staying nimble as a small team.
Beyond Taiwan: Expanding Horizons
With a decade of storytelling behind them, Mango Games now has its eyes set on international expansion. They’re working on a game set aboard a cruise ship, where players begin the story at sea and continue it ashore in Okinawa.
“The idea is to use the cruise as a moving stage,” Kiwi shares. “You start the game in your cabin, disembark in Okinawa, hunt for clues, then return to the ship to complete the quest.”
They also previously collaborated with the Singapore Tourism Board, crafting a game designed to attract Taiwanese tourists post-pandemic.
“We see cities as canvases,” Kiwi says. “Whether it’s Taichung or Tokyo, the model is scalable — as long as we root it in local stories.”
The 10-Year Mark and What Comes Next
In 2025, Mango Games turns ten. For Kiwi, it’s both a milestone and a motivator.
“Our next challenge is packaging our games into a full curriculum,” he says. “Especially for corporate clients. Think of it like a seven-chapter journey, where each game teaches different team values or emotional intelligence skills.”
They’re also investing in their tech platform, aiming to let others design their own games using Mango’s system. “We want to empower more creators to build story-based games,” Kiwi says.
Despite all the evolution, Kiwi’s rascal energy remains unchanged.
“I’m still that boy who likes to cause a little trouble,” he laughs. “Only now, I do it city by city — with stories.”
The Impact of Play
Kiwi still remembers one of his favorite stories: a 9-year-old player wrote him a letter after finishing a historical game. The boy had gone home, researched the history, and figured out which parts of the story were fiction and which were true.
“That’s the moment I knew this was more than play,” Kiwi says. “It’s education. It’s connection. It’s memory-making.”
And in a world of fast-paced travel, Mango Games offers something different: a slower, deeper, story-rich way to move through a city. You don’t just visit. You play. You feel. You remember.
After all, as Kiwi puts it, “Every city is a playground — if you dare to imagine it.”
