First off, we’re once again inviting new players to our third closed beta wave. If you’re interested to give it a try, you can apply to the beta by following these instructions. If you feel like you want to support the development and want to gain access immediately, you can do so here.
I started this project more than two years ago as a hobby while studying Computer Science in the university. I have ADHD and finding motivation to be active is tricky, but gamification works really well for my dopamine craving brain. I first off tried the games on offer from Google Play, but they all either had horrendous monetisation (MTX, ads, or both) or were too distracting. Especially GPS games usually need you to have the game open all the time while you’re trying to enjoy being outside and they also pose privacy concerns.
So that’s when I started to think of what would do the trick for me, and combining my life long RuneScape addiction into fitness seemed like the obvious choice. And I’m happy to say that I’ve definitely been walking nearly three times as much this year compared to last year.
WalkScape in nutshell is a game where everything that happens in the game requires you to walk. So if you want to explore or travel to a location, want to chop some trees, or you want to craft stuff - everything needs steps. You set your character to do what you want, and then go for a walk. The game counts your steps even when it’s closed, and you can open it ip when you’re taking a break or back home to see your progress and maybe switch what you’re doing.
The game doesn’t use GPS, so you can walk on a treadmill. And it can track your steps when you don’t have internet connection, and only when opening the game needs you to be connected.
Here’s what we’ve added in the last three months since I last posted:
Achievement system with almost 50 achievements. And an achievement rewards track, giving you unique items or cosmetics for your progress.
Social features. You can add friends in the game and have your personal leaderboards with them.
A new underwater realm (that has merfolk!) with a bunch of new locations, more than hundred new items, new crafting recipes, activities and more.
Realm reputation system. You can become famous in any of the four fantasy realms we have now and gain rewards for doing so.
Job boards & jobs. You can accept jobs that function as miniquests and gain rewards and reputation for completing those. These work as an item sink in preparation for player trading which is what we’re working on next.
Privacy features. These are all opt-out, so your steps and profile are hidden from others unless you specifically want them to be visible.
And a lot more!
As always, I’m happy to answer to any questions or feedback you may have about the game. Also from last post, I know many users here might have GrapheneOS, and the game seems to be running on it fine if you run it sandboxed.
Keep walking, and stay hydrated! ❤️
Some pictures:
Edit: small errors and had the same picture listed twice
Edit 2: I created an official community for the game here on Lemmy [email protected] after many people asked for it. For official development blogs, I still recommend to check WalkScape Portal as I can’t promise we can post them here as well. But we’ll see!
I signed up, happy to try it out and give feedback. No idea what my average number of steps is because I don’t super care about that, but I’d expect it to go way up if I suddenly did care (through a gamified app).
I’m actually dumb and my Garmin tracks my steps, so I DO know exactly how many I take (27,689 weekly). Damn I need to use my treadmill desk more consistently. That’s low.
I saw in other comments wearables don’t work. That’s kind of a bummer. I like to leave my phone charging on my desk and let the watch track.
Doesn’t work as of now, but this feature is something we’re well aware a lot of people need, and high in our priority. We’re just waiting for Google to get their tech together so we can start supporting it.
Yup, I have! From development standpoint, building integrations with each of the manufacturer is not really an option for us right now, a it’s both a lot of work and we can’t afford to buy the devices to test it out.
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I signed up, happy to try it out and give feedback. No idea what my average number of steps is because I don’t super care about that, but I’d expect it to go way up if I suddenly did care (through a gamified app).
I’m actually dumb and my Garmin tracks my steps, so I DO know exactly how many I take (27,689 weekly). Damn I need to use my treadmill desk more consistently. That’s low.
I saw in other comments wearables don’t work. That’s kind of a bummer. I like to leave my phone charging on my desk and let the watch track.
Doesn’t work as of now, but this feature is something we’re well aware a lot of people need, and high in our priority. We’re just waiting for Google to get their tech together so we can start supporting it.
Have you looked at direct integration with Garmin Connect? My guess is they and probably Fitbit have the huge majority of the market.
Yup, I have! From development standpoint, building integrations with each of the manufacturer is not really an option for us right now, a it’s both a lot of work and we can’t afford to buy the devices to test it out.
Ah, gotcha. Well, best of luck. I’ll let you know what I think when my beta invite comes in. Still waiting.