Games @lemmy.world schamppu @lemmy.zip 8 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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114 comments

In the future, when this is wildly successful, please develop a plugin for my smart watch so i don't have too keep my phone in my pocket. /stuffthatsnotrelevantnow
I looks wonderful!

I am a Pogo player and I hate having to stay looking at the phone, under the rain or with cold hands or bloody sun 😂

You write "no mtx, no ads". How do you plan to monetize your app ? Will it be a one time payment or with DLCs?
Hey there, it sounds like a very cool project.

I received my confirmation email but when I click accept the invite, it just takes me to the main page, but I still can't log in or confirm my account.

I'm using the same username as on lemmy, Varyk
Since this is an MMORPG, how so you prevent cheating? Since this works offline, what prevents someone from faking the steps count and reporting to the game that they totally made 50000 steps while the phone was offline for 24 hours?

Looks amazing! But this was my main worry here.
It amuses me that my first thought was that this would be great for ADHDers like myself and then it turns out thats why you created it lol
This is neat. I don't know if I'd stick with it enough to justify paying, but I like the idea. Also big fan of one time purchase options instead of a subscription
As someone who got into the closed beta a few days ago it is a fantastic motivator to get moving.

Absolutely love the artwork and the parts of the world I've seen so far.

Keep up the great work schamppu and team!
This sounds really cool. It would be cool if it could work with other services like Google fit or other devices that count steps so that we can go out without phone and it would still count those steps after syncing.

I'd be willing to pay for this feature, although I get that it feels like a post release extra.

Really cool, I'll sign up probably.
The game tracks your steps even without an internet connection, but you need a connection when you open the game.

Could you elaborate on the reasons why?
Any option without patreon? I deleted my account there a few years back after they tried to push those shitty payment policy changes.
I was just looking for a game like this earlier today. This is perfect!
Signed up and already find myself adding extra ways to my day to get steps, the gamification works!

Is there a Lemmy community to discuss this with other scapers?
When you say "apply to the closed beta", where do you want people to apply?
Wow, this is awesome! Definitely going to consider supporting this, looks like a lot of fun for just moving around.

As a long time RuneScape player, this is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see more of.

Are you in contact with Jagex at all? They have a history of actually supporting "community projects", best possible analogy to this being Melvor Idle, which is officially recognised and published by Jagex. And they're also known for supporting mental and physical health causes. Seems like the perfect game to form some kind of partnership on.
Will it be able to use my watch to track steps?
Hello fellow developer with ADHD! This sounds perfect, exactly what I’ve been searching for. Most apps were not gamified enough, or quickly devolved into some manipulative microtransaction slot machine.
I’ve signed up as monthly supporter and am now eagerly awaiting access to the beta :) Can’t wait to try it.
This is looking really cool! I'm really interested in trying it out.

Since you mentioned Garmin Connect in this thread, I would like to throw in my five cents too. I'm in the Garmin ecosystem for my fitness tracking devices, so it would be amazing if the game could get my step counts from Garmin Connect, since that's where I'm collecting them anyway, and lugging my phone around to do the step counting can be a bit cumbersome. But if the game is fun enough, I guess it's not a dealbreaker for the time being!
I applied for the beta today and got accepted straight away. I love the look of this game and will be using it to get me to walk out more.

First impressions are good, the game is very polished and you can see that the creators really take their time with things, the level of detail is insane.

The game seems easy to pick up and I am looking forward to following it's development closely.
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! 🌻
I'm mostly using my bike for my daily commutes these days but this looks super interesting. I'll give it a look !
Hey, this looks really interesting! I am looking forward to trying it. I just bought you a coffee and connected BMAC to my account. Do I also need to apply to the beta to get access?

Edit: I just got the mail for the beta access without additionally applying for it. But it does not let me join the group:
Sold 👀
Hello, I'm trying to submit my application on Android (Firefox browser) and the button doesn't seem to do anything when I click it. Hopefully I didn't just submit a bunch of apps at once. Any idea what I can do to get past this?
Definitely trying this one out. I've been a daily POGO player since launch because it gets me outside walking around. I liked how Pikmin Bloom had the passive pedometer angle, but it also had to constantly check GPS, so it was a battery hog.

I'd definitely benefit from Google Fit integration since I like to use the elliptical while wearing my watch. But I'd still get plenty of distance with just pedometer. Least of which because I'll already be playing POGO.
I’m really interested!!! Unfortunately I keep getting an ‘invalid credentials’ notification after clicking the link to verify. I’ve tried to reset the password but still can’t get in. I’m happy to send a donation, but want to make sure it’s linked to an account.

Do you have a character limit? I also can’t show the password while trying to log in to verify it was inserted correctly. I’ve tried both with and without special characters and am using iOS ‘suggest a password’ feature if that helps at all.

I’ll be trying again in the morning to see if goes through as I can totally understand there being a delay in verification.
Sounds really cool! Unfortunately can't currently help you out financially since I'm crunching to finish my study, but applied on the site anyways. Either way, really cool project and hope to see more of it, good luck!
This is a neat idea. I never exercised more than when I played Pokemon Go.
I'm a dumb and can't read good.
If only Blizzard hadn't shit the bed, you could have called it World of WalkCraft.
This looks really cool!
Just applied, excited to see if I can help out. Good luck either way!
I've been consistently hiking for a couple months now and I don't always enjoy it. I'll try this out and see if I can change my perspective! Thanks!
Joined the closed beta yesterday and the game seems very nice,however I'm not sure how the step counter works. In Statistics,at least , they are way off,by thousands of steps.

Edit: typo
I crafted 20 iron axes today, I'm doing my part!
Sounds interesting. I'll be waiting for a release.
Got into the beta a couple days ago! So far I love it, looks like a lot of thought/planning/work has gone into it and I hope this ends up being really successful for you! I will be playing it for a long time I can already tell 🚶‍♀️
I was just able to get in just now - it took me a couple tries before I realized it wants your email, not username

Not sure if that's what was happening for you, but I figured it's with mentioning
Saw this and tried the game. It is fine but what is not fine is the battery drain. 25-30% per charge is way too high to justify playing this game, sadly.
@schamppu a friend is running a marathon this weekend. Any chance they can get into beta by then?

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