I'd say most gamification apps are first and foremost an app and they don't really feel like serious games (or games at all), think of something like Duolingo. And the main difference with WalkScape is that it's a game first and a fitness app second. There's a ton of lore, details, an interesting fantasy world and things like that which have been crafted to make a fun and interesting game that has actual depth to it. Not used just as fancy dressing for gamification app which aims to appeal to the casual players.

And in pedometer gaming space WalkScape was the first of this kind. If you think of stuff like Habitica and so forth those depend entirely on you checking off to-dos and whatnot, which you can cheat easily. With pedometer it's a dfifferent thing and we have a pretty robust anti-cheat here as well.

On our Discord you can find people min-maxing their character builds, doing interesting self-imposed challenges, theorycrafting, and they've even built online tools to optimize the crap out of the game mechanics. I think these are positive signs of the game having actual depth through its mechanics, items, designs and so forth. And a lot of these people have been playing the game for couple years now and they're still not bored of it, and I think that's what for me is lacking on most gamification apps out there: the mechanics are usually shallow or even superficial and there's not much actual game to it.

Sorry for a long answer, I couldn't think of a shorter way to put all this :D but great question anyways, thank you!

I think they use SensorManager API which we could also use if Google Play Services isn't available. SensorManager just has one big downside that it loses your steps if you restart your device, but at least it'd be better than nothing on de-googled devices.

Thank you so much, I've been using your tools quite a bit too and love the work you do!

https://youtu.be/JiUTv7bvfN4?is=m63J1aq7DEp0uob-

I tried it, seems like there's some issue. To fix this:

1. Link using the button, follow the normal procedure.
2. You will get a cannot load page eventually.
3. Go back to the previous tab where it says "walkscape would like to etc.".
4. Refresh the page.

With this it seemed to work even right now, we'll investigate this.

Thank you! Indeed the combat & farming systems are designed to be something that you can keep doing while on a longer grind. And with good item builds you can bring down the steps required for some of the items. When it comes to chest drops like Candlehat they're not as easy, but the coin system addressed that and I think the trading system addressed it even further (you now have multiple new options: buy the item directly from someone or buy the lesser tier items from people and turn those into the coins and buy the item you want from Mysterious Merchant).

And thank you so much, would love to see you in the game again!

The shoes are the symbol of Agility skill which that activity is categorized as :D but it's a fun idea to switch them to something else while you're in an underwater world.

Yes, indeed smart watches work! We have the list of supported smart watches here: https://wiki.walkscape.app/wiki/System_Requirements

Directly from our FAQ:

Offline mode - One time purchase. You’ll be able to pay once to download the offline mode of the game. You’ll receive future content updates, not have a requirement to be online to open the game, and have a slider that multiplies your steps to reach the game experience that you wish. No multiplayer features.

Online mode - affordable monthly subscription. You’ll need to be online to play the game, but you’ll receive future content updates and all multiplayer features that the game has to offer.

Free to play area - both forms of the game will have a free to play area that can be enjoyed for free.

Combat and Farming are both things that are planned to address having something to do while taking a break from walking but both will be fuelled by your steps! They'll be the type of thing where you spend your steps but don't actively walk while doing them.

Dungeons are also something we've been throwing around as an idea for the future, but that's still quite far off.

Thank you so much for the comment!

We added an action queue system to the game long time ago. You can queue traveling and activities afterwards which did pretty much resolve this issue for most people. It doesn't have crafting available for it yet but it's going to be added and crafting isn't as much of an issue like traveling + activities were.

Our DevBlog #64 on Travel + 1 if you're interested to read on it.

Thank you so much for the feedback!

We have multiple systems coming out that will provide something else to do in the game actively. Practically mini-games but more than that. Main ones are Combat and Farming.

RNG is a divisive subject, we've found that many people love how "hardcore" it is (akin to the inspiration RuneScape), so it's very much a subjective thing if people love or hate it. Now that Trading is out that works as RNG mitigation: you can just buy the item you need from another player who has it. And the game has plenty of ways to reliably grind money so you can afford to buy whatever you need.

When it comes to grinding some of the rarest items in the game - these aren't something we really recommend unless you really want to. Most things in the game can be grinded with way less than 100K steps and there are only very few things that require million (or more) steps or anything close to that.

There will be more coming to the game to smoothen some of these things you mentioned and to make the overall experience better for people who want more interaction with the game. But a lot of people also love that they don't need to interact with it much, so it's a balance to have there. And this game is designed to be something that respects your time!