this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2024

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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! (i.postimg.cc)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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(EDIT: Some people asked, so I created a community for the game here too with some useful links on the pinned post: [email protected])

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:

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!

(page 3) 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Sounds interesting, I'll apply. I'm a QA engineer and tester, so if i get in i'll start complaining and suggesting :D

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is a an amazing concept! I created an account (same name as here). And tried to sign up for the beta, however the submit application button is not working for me. I'm using Firefox on android.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Huh, interesting. Could you send me the email you signed up with to [email protected] and at which point the beta application fails? Is it while you try to submit the fully written application, or even before that?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I never played RuneScape, but I did just delete Pikmin Bloom. What if players cheat their steps? How will you detect the difference between that, and a Pacific Crest Trail thruhiker who legitimately walks 60,000 steps day after day, and over 1,000,000 steps per month?

Anyway your game sounds cool. I had an idea for a one player game while I was hiking the PCT - kinda like the Oregon trail, or dope wars, but it would be a simulation of the Pacific Crest Trail and the steps would be 1:1. So you’d have to walk 7 million steps to beat the game, and obviously make decisions along the way about food and water, weather, resting, hitchhiking, etc. But there will be long stretches of the game where you just look at a new vista, or look at the location, eat food, camp.

Anyway the reason I’m commenting is I wanted to tell you why I quit playing a walking game. I quit after a backpacking trip of 7 days with no service. When I came back, the game had nothing to do for my ~150,000 steps. No confetti or prizes. If I was actually playing it for any achievements it would be a setback to be offline for 7 days.

So yeah, if you have any players of your game who do serious miles in one day, or one week, or whatever, you should pile on the rewards. Because at the end of the day that’s all I want out of a game like that. An automated micro-recognition that I kicked ass. So I can relax my tired legs and use all my hard earned digital loot.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (4 children)

We already have an anti-cheat in the game and it's being developed further, although not exactly a priority at this point of Closed Beta. But it's shown great promise of detecting cheating. In can't disclose how it's working, as that would make circumventing it easier.

There are already a bunch of activities in game that have been designed for people who hike and gain a lot of steps during it and don't have service. Also, the offline game mode will not require service at all, so it's possible to manage it even while hiking. In addition to the current activities, we also have special "Adventures" planned that can take tens of thousands of steps without needing to open the game.

Combat system also will pretty much work as "piling up the rewards" in addition to the core gameplay. You gain combat points for each step you take, and there will be a large cap to those. Then you can play the combat system and spend those points and gain a ton of combat progress fast if you've got a lot of points saved up.

Thank you for the feedback!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Put in my application for the beta last night, and grabbed Walker Patreon today :-)

I really love the vibes of this project, as someone who loves walking and needs to walk more, and someone who struggles with ADHD, and I've always loved RuneScape, this project calls to me haha.

I feel like my character was getting more exercise than me back then, I remember I used to spend a lot of time at the guild coal mine (with those bats), so much time that this is seared into my memory....

Welcome to RuneScape.

You swing your pick at the rock.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Thank you so much for the kind words and for the support, and also sounds like the game is right up in your alley!

I also spent a lot of time back in like 2006 in Falador coal mines. Maybe it's true that the kids yearn for the mines :D

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (5 children)

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).

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I've been playing since the last round of beta invites, and I love it. Everything's pretty intuitive so far, and I find myself moving around more to give me those steps. Can't wait to see what comes next!!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Got into the beta before this one, like a week 1/2 ago, and it's so addicting. Can't wait for combat and other stuff but I'm having a blast in just the traveling/jobs/crafting I can do already.

I think you really got something here

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you so much, and awesome to hear you've been enjoying it! We're moving to combat and trading after we ship the next update (Quality of Life update)!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Since there is a server with this, will there eventually have a list of other players in locations, and will there be trading/selling items in private shops? A player economy here would be awesome

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

List of players at a location was supposed to ship already in this update, but we didn't have enough time for it. Trading is planned to be added before the end of the year (our second dev, myzozoz, will start working on it after Party system is completed)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Sweet, is there anyway for me to submit bugs? I walk around 15-20k steps a day but a lot of the times it'll not register my steps, no clue why. This morning alone I've walked a few miles, checking fences, and I get inside to make breakfast and check the game and....no steps registered :( even though the game was on in the background. I'm guessing it's my older phones (note10+).

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm loving it! I love how the steps for each activity is fair and that we can bank steps up to 8k so they don't go unused!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

The bank also grows based on your character level! Mine is now 22k steps, more info here: WalkScape Walkthrough - Saved Steps

Thank you so much! ❤️

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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. :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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

Edit: and I will be at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki if you're attending, come say hi if you swing by!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I tried it out a while ago and didn't mesh with it at all. Like the options I had was gather things, minor crafting and traveling. But zero goals or combat (as far as I could tell at the beginning). So after going around, gathering and crafting a bit I got bored and gave up.

Hell, I even traveled around to just find if there are any encounters or places with more happening and I didn't find anything.

So it felt meaningless to grind with nothing to grind for.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Combat is coming, and so are quests, which will give more direction and goals for new players.

There are a lot of goals already available inside the game, but because it's very open ended at the beginning, it might seen like there aren't anything to grind for. It's one of the games where players usually make their own goals, and then try to achieve those.

First goals usually could be to unlock the other two realms in the game, complete enough achievements to unlock the first guild in the game (Adventurers' Guild), get some good starting tools to become more efficient at it, and so forth.

If you're more combat focused usually in games, I recommend to wait until that's added, as it sounds like that might be the main thing you're missing!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah yeah, I'm not a big mobile game fan and heavily play PC games. I just missed the draw of it, but had wrong expectations probably. In my head it was more of a sandbox combat game with gathering/crafting, so I kept trying to get to the actual game part :)

While I'm not motivated at all by just achievements or grinding for grinding sake (incremental games are a slight exception there, but progress is much faster / you do have some goals dangled in front of your face). You're probably aiming more for a classic fitness tracker, but instead of step counts, graphs and so on you present it in game form. Which is valid, but just not what I was after.

As it gets brought up in this thread: When it came out I actually liked Pokemon GO, because the gameplay was interesting. Originally it only showed Pokemon near you and how far they are away (with 1, 2 or 3 foot steps). Which meant you wandered around and actually met people back in the city, grouped up to search or they knew where it was. That all got dumbed down until everyone was just sitting at the same spot and farming unfortunately :-/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Combat in the game is going to require active play, and it's meant to be played at home. It's a turn based combat system with its own progression systems, but you'll need to walk in order to gain combat points, which work as an energy to engage in the combat. So it's not possible to endlessly grind it without going for a walk, but something you'll be able to do when you've got the time for it. There are a few interviews on Youtube where I'm explaining it if you're interested to hear more about it.

Also there's already a ton of depth on the game, so I'm not sure how far you got in there if you think it only represents your steps in a different way than graphs. I recommend to check wiki to get a good idea!

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also there’s already a ton of depth on the game

I think I'm too jaded in this regard. Reading the wiki I don't really see depth. Sure, there are activities with fun names, but they are all the same (you start the activity, you walk to finish it, you get random rewards). And all the items seem to be either for selling, basic crafting or just giving you a boost percentage for the activities you're already doing.

What the activities are missing are risk/reward, decision making, surprises, etc. Or as you'd say in game design "meaningful choices".

Sure, you have the choice on what skill you work on, but besides skill go up, items to make the activity faster and gold (not sure what it's for, besides buying mats/items again?) that seems to be it.

I guess combat could help if there's actual resource investment and risk there. Like are you going to tackle this level 10 monster for higher rewards, with more likelihood to either fail (or spend extra resources on healing potions or whatever)? Or play it save and go against weaker monsters? There should also be extra gold sinks to work for / use the money you accumulated, be it limited use items, cosmetics and so on. And of course ways to play the game differently from other players, like classes, masteries, skill trees or whatever (and no, clicking an activity that says "Sandcastle Building" vs clicking "Ship repair" aren't really choices).

Just from someone who values gameplay a lot, I don't see much difference in playing the game for an hour or 100 hours, in the end it keeps boiling down to the same actions with no depth attached. Personally I didn't see the game value of it, compared to a step tracker (just that the step tracker doesn't stop counting when it's "full", I didn't like the step mechanic either where you get bonus steps only. If I've done my walking for the day I want to spend the steps, not select an activity and I get double steps for it next time I walk).

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I tried to sign up a while ago and had some issues, like link not arriving or something. Shame because I like the idea. Will try again I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

If you have problems with signing up, please send email to [email protected] and I can help you out. Tell me the email you signed up with and I can help!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Really interested in this but would rather wait for a full release - just wanted to thank you for posting on Lemmy as well as Reddit. Everything about this project seems so sincere and I'm not used to that with new apps

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Been using this since the start of the year i think and it's been really fun! Just the right amount of activity needed, for me atleast! Thanks a lot for the awesome game, and i can't wait for more updates!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Thank you so much!

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