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I'm the developer of WalkScape, the RuneScape inspired fitness MMORPG where you progress by walking IRL. We're now accepting more people to the Closed Beta!

https://i.postimg.cc/8z3xhHxZ/barber-GIF.gif

Hello there, Lemmy! It’s been a while since I last posted here, and a lot has happened since!

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:

https://i.postimg.cc/Ls28Mm8d/big-gif-square.gif

https://i.postimg.cc/R0LQMC1w/Screenshot-20240821-102724-Walk-Scape-Development.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/HnVQ4Qqt/Screenshot-20240821-102742-Walk-Scape-Development.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/MTZ0XktN/Screenshot-20240821-102756-Walk-Scape-Development.jpg

Edit: small errors and had the same picture listed twice

hungover_pilot ,

I’ve been in the closed beta since February and I can vouch for this game being awesome. It’s been a great way to encourage me to take my dogs on walks and stay healthy. I definitely recommend checking it out.

To the dev, your game has motivated me to learn flutter/dart. I’ve been working with it for four months now and I’m getting close to finishing my first app, so thank you for the inspiration!

schamppu OP ,

Woah, thank you so much ❤️

Awesome to hear that the game has inspired you to learn Dart & Flutter. Dart is an awesome language, and Flutter is versatile and easy tool for making some great looking UIs! But even more so, it always warms my heart to hear that the game has a positive impact on people’s lives. Keep it up, and thank you again!

Cadeillac ,
@Cadeillac@lemmy.world avatar

This is super cool! I’m in a position right now where I have to walk my dog a few times a day. I’d love to chip in, but I just don’t have anything to spare right now. I’m gonna sign up for the beta and cross my fingers. Thank you for making this

schamppu OP ,

Thank you! We’re accepting people who’ve applied to the Closed Beta throughout the wave, so there’s a good chance you’ll gain access! The wave ends on October 6th.

We’ve got a lot of pictures of happy doggos on the Discord :D I have cats that I walk sometimes, but they’re not as effective from XP gain perspective.

Edit: and just to clarify here, access gained during any point of Closed Beta stays until Open Beta when everyone can start playing it. Open Beta is planned for next year.

Cadeillac ,
@Cadeillac@lemmy.world avatar

I just sent in my application. My partner is filling one out too. I look forward to trying this. Thank you for the information

schamppu OP ,

No problem, thank you and your partner for signing up and being awesome! ❤️

OsrsNeedsF2P ,

Last time I applied, it took like 6 months for my beta app to be accepted. That’s fine but I had ran a marathon like the week before, and did all my marathon training during that time. Was big sad. Anyways best of luck with the next round!

gramie ,

I’ve been using this for about 3 months. I would estimate that my dog walks are now about twice as long as they used to be. I don’t really enjoy walking, but this gives me just enough incentive to do it everyday and, if I feel like taking a shortcut, taking the long way instead.

schamppu OP ,

Thank you! And awesome to hear it, your dogs must be enjoying it as well! ❤️

wyrmroot ,

I joined in the last beta wave because of your post here on lemmy. Big fan! Personally I’m looking forward to combat features most of all but the pace of development seems strong regardless and I’m enjoying all the new content.

schamppu OP ,

Thank you! After the next update (Quality of Life) I’m moving to work on combat system. It’ll be a longer development process, so before the next update I’m also polishing our development tools so the other members of the team can create content updates with ease while I’m busy with combat. We’re aiming to avoid having lengthier periods of time without fresh stuff.

wyrmroot ,

Thanks for all your work and the transparency throughout, I’m excited to keep supporting the project 😀

he_is_matt ,

Fantastic concept. I agree that most of the other apps are either super monetized or too “in app” like a Pokemkon GO, or they’re just boring and don’t offer much.

This looks like something fun, motivating, and really well made.

schamppu OP ,

Thank you! And I definitely know the feeling of “being boring and don’t offer much”. That’s what I also got from many of the fitness games out there - I felt the games were way too casual to offer long-term motivation. If I’m collecting stuff for the sake of just collecting, there’s not enough to keep me hooked.

We’re trying here to keep it quite casual friendly by that the complexity reveals itself slowly. But I also think that complexity often for people comes from controls and such - here the input being just walking already lowers the bar a lot.

The combat that’s coming to the game I think really is the final missing piece, as then all of the hard grind you’ve done also ties to combat progression. Making the perfect combat build to beat a boss with your hard earned steps!

chiliedogg ,

It would be neat if it could pull step count logs from fitness devices and watches so it didn’t even necessarily need to be running while you’re doing your walk.

MrScottyTay ,

I think it uses the step counter service on your phone. It does not need to be running in the background.

schamppu OP ,

^ Yup, the game doesn’t need to be opened for it to count steps. You can kill the game entirely and open it when you want to, and the steps will load!

schamppu OP ,

This is on our to-do!

We would’ve likely implemented it already, but Google is in the process of killing Google Fit API and replacing it with Health Connect. Health Connect, as of now, is kinda terrible. So we’re waiting for Google to fix their APIs.

I’ve tried my best as indie developer to hurry them :D Last week I was at Gamescom and managed to meet with a director from Google, and asked to connect me with Health Connect team so I can tell them what’s broken and maybe have some insight on when stuff is about to get fixed.

When it comes to Apple, there’s no problem with this. But we want to release wearable support to both platform simultaneously.

mox ,

One of the things I hated about Pokemon Go was how taxing it was on the battery. It burned through my phone’s ability to hold a charge in less than a year. If your game is constantly tracking steps, I expect it’s constantly running. How does it manage power draw?

I love the concept. Thanks for sharing!

Minnels ,

Been playing this for a couple of months and I can say that the battery drain is next to nothing in my experience. No need to keep the app open to track steps.

MrScottyTay ,

It gets the step count from the device itself so it does not need to be running at all times to track it. I think it just keeps track of what the number was the last time you opened it and what the number is the next time you open it and it awards you the difference.

mox ,

If the accelerometer is running, it’s drawing power, but perhaps that can be done efficiently on some devices.

schamppu OP ,

The sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.) are anyways already running on the majority of devices, so WalkScape doesn’t really add to that. The only times it does draw power is when you boot it up and use it. But even that draws very little power - I’ve developed my own game engine on top of Flutter, which is an SDK to build apps and is very battery friendly out of the box!

Itsyaboiwhatevs ,

Just checked ok my android (stock android running on an old One Plus Nord) and it’s about 25th on the batter usage list and only used 0.34% of batter, which is less then the app i only need to sign in to my work accounts a few times a day. So atleast in my use it’s so tiny i never even noticed it.

schamppu OP ,

Battery drain is almost nothing. The game doesn’t need to be opened when you walk, and you can kill it entirely. The pedometer is anyways running on most phones regardless if you have WalkScape installed or not, so this doesn’t add battery consumption in that sense either.

For me when I just checked, it’s used less than 0.3% today which is less than most other apps I have installed. I’ve tried my best to keep this as low as possible, and we’ll probably be optimizing this even further in the future if necessary.

jjjalljs ,

Mildly interested. Concerned about monetization. I don’t do subscriptions or microtransactions, and “pay once and you’re good” is pretty rare, probably in part because there’s ongoing costs to running a server and in part because lol most people will charge as much as possible. But that’s why the only MMO I play is guild wars 2. You buy the game and you’re good. They sell expansions every couple of years.

Also you should mention lemmy on your site where you mention discord and reddit.

Ruben ,

There will probably be an offline/ironman game mode that is a one time purchase

schamppu OP ,

We don’t have an official community here (at least, not yet). And I’m quite hesitant to add one, as we already have our hands full with Discord, Reddit and WalkScape Portal communities.

When it comes to monetisation, the model we’ve planned is what seems both the fairest and most sustainable when compared to any other alternative, which is why I chose it as our plan. You can either buy it once to gain access to the offline “ironman” mode, or pay an affordable monthly subscription to play the online mode - both of which will be free to try out, so you’ll know if it’s worth your money before paying anything.

Going with single purchases only isn’t as sustainable for an online game. It’s much harder to keep it supported and expanding it long-term (and pay for servers) if we’re relying on single purchases, and it would tie us into needing to plan expansions that bring extra revenue to keep things running. By having an affordible subscription, we can keep content coming rapidly without needing to consider what kind of expansion pack and price tag do we need to put these new features behind, which I feel is much better from both game design and player perspective.

Microtransactions and ads are something I’ve clearly stated we’ll never be doing, as those also compromise game design and are predatory or come with privacy concerns.

cows_are_underrated ,

I really like the thoughts put into the game. However, I personally think, that micro transactions aren’t necessarily a bad thing, if you do them right. As an example for this I would call Helldiver’s. You can pay to get faster progress, but it isn’t necessary by any means. You can unlock everything with a reasonable amount of grinding.

schamppu OP ,

But this game is tied to fitness and also has competitive elements to it. Imagine you can buy yourself faster progress here, when it’s all tied to physical activity. It would completely ruin the game and any competitive aspects in it, and devalue the feeling of achieving things in it, if players with bigger wallets gain advantage. When there’s only an affordable subscription, there’s a ceiling to spending and no one can gain unfair advantage by paying more than others.

Microtransactions overall pretty much always compromise game design. Games usually make the grind or progress much slower than what would be actually good to drive the purchases of MTX.

I’m also personally very against MTX and ads, I think they’re the worst invention in gaming and I hate when game design is now revolving around what kind of mechanics can make people open their wallets as often as possible instead of what’s fun and cool.

watersnipje ,

I’m really glad to have found a fitness app made by someone with the exact same opinion as me on app monetization. I’ve been using the app since March and will happily pay for the subscription. I’m really happy to see this openness, and the fact that you still repeat this promise.

VelvetStorm ,

Just signed up for the beta. I also have adhd and I was overweight for the majority of my life, and then in 2018-early2020, I went from 300ish to 160ish, and I felt great. Then the pandemic hit and I could no longer go on walks and runs and then I got depressed and then injured my leg permanently and now I’m back up to 235 and I fucking hate it but I can’t seem to get the will to walk again. So this game sounds like it would be really fun.

Jtee ,
@Jtee@lemmy.world avatar

I just signed up! This looks great!

schamppu OP ,

Thank you so much, I hope you’ll enjoy it!

jodanlime ,
@jodanlime@midwest.social avatar

I signed up after seeing your last post. I made it into the last wave of invites and have been playing since last week. This game is really cool and I don’t think there is anything else like it.

schamppu OP ,

Thank you so much!

I think why this game is so unique is that it’s origins are a hobby project and come from my sentiment of creating a fitness game that fixes what the others fail at. Rarely anyone makes indie games for mobile, and I’ve been called a bunch of names for attempting making an indie game to the mobile platform by other devs. But so far things are looking great, and I’m hoping that the mobile game industry would have more indie games.

Maybe with DMA we could start seeing more, as the biggest hurdle are the app stores and how they’re made to only favour games with big budgets.

jodanlime ,
@jodanlime@midwest.social avatar

I agree with everything you said, only that I’m not quite sure what DMA is.

I want more indie games on my phone because the major mobile app developers are beyond trash at this point. I love indie devs, I love FOSS and indie games. I prefer programming that lends itself to democratizing the web and my devices.

Your game is a breath of freedom right now in the mobile marketplace. I made it in on the free invite system, but the fact that you are on the fediverse talking to me, coupled with the fact that your game and end goal seam awesome, I’m going to figure out how to become a donating member as soon as I get home.

I’m out on a night walk right now with my walkscape app open, while typing this reply. Amazing times.

schamppu OP ,

Thank you so much! And I’m a huge fan of both indie & FOSS too.

DMA (Digital Markets Act) is a new EU legislation that came into effect just few months ago. It forced both Apple and Google to allow third party app stores and change their ToS (I think in EU only). Apple even had to lower their “developer tax” when it comes to payments from 30% to just 12% in EU. It’s good progress, especially if we start seeing competing app stores (I think Epic had plans for that). But even if the app stores open up for smaller studios, there’s still a lot of convincing needed until gamers start considering that mobile games can be good too, and not only match-3 gacha crap. And the big studios never want to innovate, they’ll keep making games that they think are safe bets to generate maximum profits.

Maybe Valve could now expand to having a mobile game store? :D

LyingCake ,

I’m whole-heartedly impressed with what you are presenting here. I wish I’d seen your booth at gamescom, since I am sincerely excited by the non-predatory design philosophy you’re describing in your blog posty on your website.

I have already set up an account and written an application. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to try this out. :)

schamppu OP ,

Thank you so much! We’re accepting new people throughout the wave, so until October 6th!

AFC1886VCC ,

Buying Gf

Free armour trimming!!

schamppu OP ,

I can trim those shoes of yours if you like. 100% legit, my dad works at Jagex

sonderiaom ,

I’ve been doing Walkscape for about a month and it’s really fun!

schamppu OP ,

Thank you ❤️

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