It’s been a while since I last posted here, and the reception for the post was really awesome - thank you all for that! I also created a community in Lemmy for the game: [email protected] where I’m posting every development blog post.
We have a new Closed Beta wave right now, so if you’d like to try out the game, you can follow the instructions available at walkscape.app/help. The wave is running until January 7th.
Since the last post, we’ve now started to add some Quality of Life updates to the game and we’re nearly finished with the lengthy optimization process of the game engine and servers. We’re expecting to release the next update next month!
If you haven’t heard about the game before, I started this project as a personal hobby project to help myself walk more. I tried most of the games available, but I wanted to have something that didn’t need attention while walking and wouldn’t have predatory monetization like most mobile games tend to have these days.
The game is inspired by RuneScape, and you level up skills, craft gear, find loot and so on by walking IRL. We have a short introduction video to the game where I explain and show how the game works in more detail.
Once again, thanks Lemmy for all the awesome feedback we’ve got and for the countless encouraging messages that you’ve sent us. And I’m hoping to see more of you in the game & community!
I’ll answer any questions or feedback here in the comments and in our own community. Happy new year, and happy walking <3
Running counts! Also treadmills or walking pads, as long as you have your phone in your pocket.
Smart watches are not supported yet, but coming. Smart watch support would already work great on iOS, but we’re held up by Google with it as they introduced Health Connect for smart watch integrations and it’s a buggy mess at the moment. Google Fit APIs (that would’ve worked nicely) are deprecated.
The game requires Google Play Services for the pedometer to work (the game uses the new Recording API to count your steps while the game is closed). On GrapheneOS I’ve heard it works if you run it in a sandbox. You don’t need a Google account for the Recording API to work, and according to the developer documentation data is stored locally.
If you can run sandboxed apps woth Google Play Services, it should work, but I’ve not heard from LineageOS users any experiences.
I thought I’d mention as it hasn’t been mentioned yet: the only way to install the game on Android is through Google Play. You also need to join a Google Group to get access on Google Play.
Hey! I almost forgot about this when I left Reddit. I was so excited to see it come to fruition some day. I’d love to beta test but I’ve moved to an office job since then so I probably won’t be able to help much.
Just chiming in to say that I enjoy this game. I just noticed accidentally that I can search in the inventory/bank for things other than the names of items, like searching for “carpentry” returns all of the gear and tools that have carpentry bonuses! That’s a really big deal for me because the bank is so full I was keeping notes outside the game on which tools and gear I need for each skill.
Yup, the search helps but we do have plans to introduce better bank & inventory management. Next update will include gear sets, so you can easily save some presets to equip.
And thank you so much, I love to hear that people are having fun with the game!
Maybe it gets to be more scummy than you want, but how about notifications when you have no activity going? Like when you finish traveling or your inventory fills up.
Been loving the game, I’m just wondering if you could add a section to the website/game that explicitly goes over what data is collected and what it’s used for?
We do have the privacy policy on there, which lists what sensitive information we collect. It’s a bit vague, and we could later on edit it to be more specific, but I don’t have the required skills to edit those kinda texts and we can’t afford a lawyer at the moment. The sensitive information we collect are your email, username and step data, and the step data includes device information (phone model & operating system).
Non-sensitive information includes all kinds of gameplay data, like items you got and how many things you’ve crafted etc. which we use for game balancing and when designing new content.
Does step data just mean the number of steps (and timestamp, I assume), or do you actually track the routes walked, which would mean gps coords/ tracks.
Cause the first is much less invasive and problematic than the latter option.
And thank you! I know it’s hard to also trust game devs these days, but we’re doing all we can to protect our users privacy. That’s why there are already privacy settings in the game too - you can hide your steps from other players if you don’t want to share those. And you can also hide your entire user profile so it’s not visible to other players. These settings also protect you if 3rd parties scrape the leaderboards etc.
I’ve been playing for a few months now. I love the concept, the art and the atmosphere of it. And I feel it’s been making me walk more. However, I can’t seem to make any substantial progress in the game. I’m still stuck on the starting landmass (Jarvonia), and while doing activities gets me raw materials and the occasional rare item, I can’t seem to do anything with them as transforming those requires skills I don’t have and don’t know how to obtain.
Am I missing something ?
Am I just not walking enough ?
In order to process higher level materials, you need to level up your craftings skills: Carpentry, Crafting, Smithing. You need to start with low end materials, which you have levels for. Then you can move onto higher level recipes.
When you craft yourself some good gear, progress in the game is a lot faster and you’ll find yourself progressing to further areas.
The FAQ states it. Looks like some combination of subscription for multiplayer elements / ongoing events or a one time fee for Single-Player. Tho, tbd. He hasn’t really asked for feedback on that so far.
Looks cool, and I’ll check it out on release. If you want beta testers though, make it easier to sign up. I’m not going to write an essay just to maybe get beta access.
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I’m intrigued, but have two questions:
Running counts! Also treadmills or walking pads, as long as you have your phone in your pocket.
Smart watches are not supported yet, but coming. Smart watch support would already work great on iOS, but we’re held up by Google with it as they introduced Health Connect for smart watch integrations and it’s a buggy mess at the moment. Google Fit APIs (that would’ve worked nicely) are deprecated.
When you say “android” does it depend on any google services? Or will it run on lineageOS with no(minimal) google stuff?
The game requires Google Play Services for the pedometer to work (the game uses the new Recording API to count your steps while the game is closed). On GrapheneOS I’ve heard it works if you run it in a sandbox. You don’t need a Google account for the Recording API to work, and according to the developer documentation data is stored locally.
If you can run sandboxed apps woth Google Play Services, it should work, but I’ve not heard from LineageOS users any experiences.
Thanks.
I’ll have a look if I can sandbox in lineage first, then maybe apply for the beta test if it looks possible.
If you apply, make sure to mention that! Would appreciate hearing if it works or not.
I thought I’d mention as it hasn’t been mentioned yet: the only way to install the game on Android is through Google Play. You also need to join a Google Group to get access on Google Play.
hey! I am in the beta and love this game. just wanted to let you know 🙂
That’s really awesome to hear <3 Thank you so much, and there’ll be a lot of more awesome stuff coming to the game next year.
Hey! I almost forgot about this when I left Reddit. I was so excited to see it come to fruition some day. I’d love to beta test but I’ve moved to an office job since then so I probably won’t be able to help much.
Just chiming in to say that I enjoy this game. I just noticed accidentally that I can search in the inventory/bank for things other than the names of items, like searching for “carpentry” returns all of the gear and tools that have carpentry bonuses! That’s a really big deal for me because the bank is so full I was keeping notes outside the game on which tools and gear I need for each skill.
Yup, the search helps but we do have plans to introduce better bank & inventory management. Next update will include gear sets, so you can easily save some presets to equip.
And thank you so much, I love to hear that people are having fun with the game!
Maybe it gets to be more scummy than you want, but how about notifications when you have no activity going? Like when you finish traveling or your inventory fills up.
This is planned as part of the QoL updates! Notifications that are opt-in for certain things happening in the game.
Hot dog! Thank you very much.
can you link to your privacy policy and/or data collection practices?
Not OP but here is the link
Sure: https://walkscape.app/privacy-policy.html
We’re based in Finland, so we follow GDPR.
Looks great! Just applied and will get my family to do the same.
Hey there! Absolutely love the idea for this game. I applied for the last Beta wave but didn’t get through, am I able to apply again for the new wave?
One application is enough! And thank you! <3
Thank you, fingers crossed for this time :)
Sounds amazing! Already applied, let’see if my wife and I are lucky _
Signed up! Keen to try it out.
This is an awesome game. I love it and works fine in beta. Thank you!
Hiya, walkscape user here!
Been loving the game, I’m just wondering if you could add a section to the website/game that explicitly goes over what data is collected and what it’s used for?
We do have the privacy policy on there, which lists what sensitive information we collect. It’s a bit vague, and we could later on edit it to be more specific, but I don’t have the required skills to edit those kinda texts and we can’t afford a lawyer at the moment. The sensitive information we collect are your email, username and step data, and the step data includes device information (phone model & operating system).
Non-sensitive information includes all kinds of gameplay data, like items you got and how many things you’ve crafted etc. which we use for game balancing and when designing new content.
Does step data just mean the number of steps (and timestamp, I assume), or do you actually track the routes walked, which would mean gps coords/ tracks.
Cause the first is much less invasive and problematic than the latter option.
The game doesn’t access your GPS, it won’t even ask the permission. It’s all steps only.
It’s just steps and the timestamp, no location data. We don’t ask for location permission, and it’s not accessible through OS APIs either.
Thanks bro, a game with privacy in mind when it comes to data collection is a godsend these days
And thank you! I know it’s hard to also trust game devs these days, but we’re doing all we can to protect our users privacy. That’s why there are already privacy settings in the game too - you can hide your steps from other players if you don’t want to share those. And you can also hide your entire user profile so it’s not visible to other players. These settings also protect you if 3rd parties scrape the leaderboards etc.
I’ve been playing for a few months now. I love the concept, the art and the atmosphere of it. And I feel it’s been making me walk more. However, I can’t seem to make any substantial progress in the game. I’m still stuck on the starting landmass (Jarvonia), and while doing activities gets me raw materials and the occasional rare item, I can’t seem to do anything with them as transforming those requires skills I don’t have and don’t know how to obtain.
Am I missing something ? Am I just not walking enough ?
Thank you so much! <3
If you feel a bit stuck, I recommend to check out https://wiki.walkscape.app/ and https://map.walkscape.app/
In order to process higher level materials, you need to level up your craftings skills: Carpentry, Crafting, Smithing. You need to start with low end materials, which you have levels for. Then you can move onto higher level recipes.
When you craft yourself some good gear, progress in the game is a lot faster and you’ll find yourself progressing to further areas.
Hi, much appreciated ! Thanks for the links. Hopefully it’ll click soon
How are you planning to monetize this?
For the online version it’ll be affordable subscription. For single player a one time purchase.
The FAQ states it. Looks like some combination of subscription for multiplayer elements / ongoing events or a one time fee for Single-Player. Tho, tbd. He hasn’t really asked for feedback on that so far.
Looks cool, and I’ll check it out on release. If you want beta testers though, make it easier to sign up. I’m not going to write an essay just to maybe get beta access.