(EDIT: Some people asked, so I created a community for the game here too with some useful links on the pinned post: !walkscape@lemmy.world)
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 !walkscape@lemmy.world 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!
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)!
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
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)
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+).
Especially on some older devices, it's best to shut down the game entirely while walking. There's some issue if it's on the background where steps might get lost if your internet connection changes (for instance, from wi-fi to cellular).
Bugs can be reported either on our Discord (which has a dedicated channel for step recording issues) and on Portal to the bugs category.
Walked another 2 miles and it registered all steps with the game completely closed out. Seems this is the way to go.
Also for whatever reason trying to join the discord doesn't work from the link in the profile. It just brings up discord in mobile but then never registers the server in my list.
The Discord link is sometimes quite buggy, and I don't know why exactly. I think our channel can now be searched for in the communities, maybe give that a shot? Or try this one: https://discord.com/invite/8F5CWpUc
Awesome, that worked great!
Thanks!
Awesome, glad to help. And thanks for joining ❤️
What's the logic behind saved steps? I figured I could use them whenever like they're banked, but it seems I have to walk and then they are spent. So if I forget to periodically get my character to do something, then they build up but might max out and then I'm not able to use them until I'm walking again. Is this by design or am I bugged?
This is by design. You don't lose your steps, but you'll need to walk to consume them. When you walk with saved steps, you gain 2 steps every step you take, taking one out from the saved steps.