Games @lemmy.world schamppu @lemmy.zip 7 mo. ago

My RuneScape inspired indie fitness MMORPG WalkScape is looking for more beta testers

Hello!

First off, I've struggled to exercise, and I also have ADHD. Gamifying exercise works really well for my dopamine-craving brain, but I'm also easily distracted, so the current mobile fitness games on the market didn't really work for me. That's how I came up with this idea.

Here are some info about the game and how it's different from Pokemon Go for example:

no distractions. I love games that value my time. WalkScape is designed so that it encourages you not to open it while you're walking, but afterwards. And even if you open it while walking, changing things in the game is super quick.
no GPS. So you can walk where ever you want. The game tracks your steps even without an internet connection, but you need a connection when you open the game.
no ads, no MTX. I hate predatory monetisation practises, and they encourage unhealthy spending habits. This game is about both mental and physical health.

In the game, you explore and work in different skills such as woodcutting, foraging, fishing and crafting by walking in real life. The game uses your phone's pedometer to track your progress. It's also online, so you can work with your friends towards common goals without needing to be physically in the same location.

The game has dozens of locations, hundreds of items, NPCs, shops and more is coming as I work towards the full release of the game. There's a lot of different unique and cute activities in the game you can set your character to do in addition to the typical woodcutting and mining, like volunteering in soup kitchen or helping locals repairing their boats. All fueled by walking IRL.

If you feel like you'd like to try it out, you can either apply to the closed beta (we're inviting more people right now) or if you like to support the development, you get instant to access through Patreon or Buy me a Coffee to start playing. The game is completely community funded.

Whether you decide to support or apply to the closed beta, you'll need to sign up at WalkScape Portal to the game and then apply or connect your Patreon on the account page.

You can also check our this video to hear me and the artist explain more about the game: Youtube introduction video

Or you can visit the website.

We also have my devblogs released every two weeks available at https://portal.walkscape.app/development

It's been a wild journey for me growing this thing from my personal hobby project, and awesome to see the game helping so many people to exercise more. I'll answer any questions you might have in the comments!

Stay hydrated, and keep walking ❤️

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This looks super neat! Love the theme that you've chosen for this game, everything from the UI and graphical choices looks very good imo. Got a few questions im curious about;

Do you use Google Services Framework for this game to work? I know there are quite a few lemmies who use Graphene OS as their OS on Pixel phones, where some of them might not want to have this installed, (Not that im one of them).

You write that the game is kind of designed to be opened after the walk, but can be opened while walking. Are there any benefits/features/activities for the user while walking? Such as in Pokemon Go, you stop every now and then to fetch Pokemon. Or does this app kind of encourage not to use it while walking?

Will the game be open source? Will people be able to download it on F-droid? Or will this be strictly published on Play Store + App Store?

Will there be any implementations against people who try to spoof their locations to gain "steps" easily? As low as this is, people will always do it to see their name at the top of the leader-board

I very much look forward to seeing this game come to life, I will definitely be keeping a keen eye the next few days! 🌻
- Thank you so much for the questions, I'll answer them as best as I can:
  
  I have intentionally built everything without relying on any Google service. We have couple of players with de-googled phones and the game works great. Worth noting is that when we add smart watch integration through Google Fit, that wouldn't work. We might later on build support for Garmin Connect too, but it's still a bit out of scope. But just using your phone to count steps already works with de-googled phones.
  
  Worth noting is though that the closed beta is distributed via Google Play closed testing, but it's possible to get around that as some other players have.
  
  No, no activities like that you would need to do while walking. If you need to open it during your walk, it's mostly changing what you're doing in the game.
  
  All planned active gameplay components are designed so that they'll be something you play after the walk at your home.
  
  If there's demand for more "active walking" gameplay, we might implement something for that later on. But for now, we encourage to keep it closed when you walk, and that's something a lot of players love about it, myself included.
  
  No open sourcing planned. I have released some related stuff open source (like the character creation tool), but not the game or the server tech I've built. I have made my own game engine for it, and I feel like if I released it open source I would have to compete against clones of the game I've worked so hard to make, so not really keen on doing that.
  
  Just Google Play and App Store for now, I might be releasing it on other app stores later on, but the publishing pipeline for it even now is quite a complex one for a single dev, and I'm not keen to make it even more so.
  
  Yes! I replied to the other comment with the same question in more details if you're interested reading it.
  
  And thank you so much, hopefully this answered your questions! ❤️
  
  Thanks for detailed response, and yeah absolutely answered my questions.
  
  Good to know, thanks.
  
  I think this is a good thing myself! (not having people constantly looking at their phones while walking, rather enjoying whats around them). I would defo vouch for this selling point.
  
  Completely understand - was only asking out of curiosity.
  
  Have a great rest of your day, i very much look forward to checking this game out! 🌻
  
  My pleasure, have a great day as well! ❤️
- Not the OP but
  
  It seems like there is not much to do while walking that cannot be done after, so that the app does not enclurage opening it while walking.
  
  Did you miss the part where the description states that the app uses the phone's pedometer and not location?
  
  On 4, this just changes the question to spoofing the pedometer value rather than spoofing the location. Which makes it worse, because that's much harder to detect.
  
  Well yeah hit that is hpw it seems to he from the description given
  
  Regarding 4. I wasnt quite sure wether he meant that it woudl work with both location and not location on, kind of a use as you want. I have no idea how these things work really so thought it be better to ask. But if that is the case then good. Although another comment here seemed to have stated its easier to spoof..🙁

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