Important information: WalkScape Invite Wave 3 is currently on-going. You can gain access instantly by supporting us on Patreon or Buy Me A Coffee. You can also apply for beta access on our portal, we will be inviting people from those applications sparingly over the invite wave period. Wave 3 will last until 6th October and everyone supporting us during this period will receive access to the WalkScape for whole Closed Beta time. More information on how to play WalkScape can be found on our website - https://walkscape.app/help
Hello everyone, hope you’re all enjoying the new Syrenthia update, running around doing jobs, earning faction reputations, and finally consuming those wines and beers. This time, it’s me, maxchill, writing this because schamppu and myzozoz are busy promoting WalkScape at the largest gaming convention in Europe – Gamescom 2024.
WalkScape has now been in development for almost two years, and it's starting to shape into a more full and immersive experience. For the past few weeks, the team has been working hard to achieve this, and while there's still a long road ahead with many steps to take, I wanted to praise the work of schampu, myzozoz, and floursifter, as well as everyone on the alpha tester team who have helped immensely to find all the funny, annoying, and critical bugs!
When I was given the task of writing this, I wanted to reflect over what WalkScape has become and why I have such passion for both working on the game and also playing it. I hope this serves as an intriguing guide to the undecided reader, and provide an insight for already existing player. To better express myself I came up with a list of 5 reasons to play WalkScape:
- Improve your daily walking habits
- Progress your character in classic MMORPG style
- Explore the vast world of Arenum
- Play and compete with friends and others
- Enjoy non-predatory, non-intrusive gameplay
Improve your daily walking habits
Alright, let’s dive into the first reason, because we now actually have some data to back the claim that playing WalkScape has positive effect on your daily walking habits. Just this week we ran a quick survey on our discord where we asked players to compare their daily average steps before playing the WalkScape and after. To me the results were quite shocking, because I of course hoped that our game provides positive effect on players daily walking habits, but I didn’t expect it to be to such high extent. Let’s look at the data down below.
Here we can see that the daily step count of survey respondents has increased by ~80%, from 6,331 daily average steps to 11,413. You can also notice how with each subsequent wave we get more casual daily steppers (lower daily average) and that they actually have the most increase at 97%.
Of course, not everyone will see such a high increase, but those for whom the game clicks can expect a very impressive daily step increase. Also, don't be discouraged if you don't observe a staggering increase in your daily stepping amounts, because even if you stay at your current activity level, WalkScape still adds a bit of fun to your daily life. Over the closed beta period, we have received a lot of feedback, most of it being positive, so I also want to share some of the testimonials we have gathered since the game has been available to players.
Progress your character in classic MMORPG style
It's no secret that WalkScape draws inspiration from one of, if not the most well-known, MMORPG called RuneScape. I personally have played OSRS for only a few hours, as World of Warcraft was my MMO of choice, but from my observation of similarities, it's mainly the skill system where you can level up all skills without being locked into a specific class. Also, a big part of the game is non-combat activities like woodcutting, mining, crafting, etc.
As you can see from my character screenshot, currently there are 9 skills, but many more are to come later in development. Increasing the skill levels is the main part of the game, but there are also many more things to chase — like achievements, special profile picture unlocks, legendary items, and so forth. The game is enjoyable to both min-maxers and casual players alike.
It's also important to remember that you're not only progressing in the game, you're also progressing in real life, improving your health by walking and moving. I often forget while being happy about my WalkScape character progress, that I should also be happy about my own body and its healthy improvements. The best players in WalkScape are not the ones who have the privilege to sit at a computer/console all day, but the ones that move their legs the most.
Explore the vast world of Arenum
The world and lore of Arenum has been crafted by our loremaster schamppu. He's always been very much into crafting the grand scheme of things, which is great, because I'm myself more of a zoomed-in storyteller. Currently, only part of the world is fleshed out and it doesn't have quests or stories just yet, but we can't wait until we can start working on those.
Still, the map itself is exciting to explore. You can visit many different locations where you can enter buildings and meet NPCs, making the world feel quite alive even in its current state.
The world is divided into multiple continents which are ruled by different factions. Players can gain various benefits from doing jobs and quests for these factions. There are also locations that are accessed only by completing prerequisites, making them exciting to unlock and explore.
Although only part of the world is currently filled with content, it still provides players with enough gameplay for millions of steps. Everyone is free to pursue the aspects of the game that excite them most.
Play and compete with friends and others
I always find it exciting to share the journey and accomplishments with others, both the ones I make in games and those that are related to fitness. In WalkScape, you can do both at the same time. The game has online leaderboards for various things like skills, achievement points, and total steps.
It also has a friend system with its own separate leaderboard, so you can gather your friend group and compete with each other. Doing friendly challenges always motivates me to walk more (I did a 50k step day just to beat schamppu in a race), but in the future, you'll not only be able to compete with others but also cooperate by trading, doing dungeons, or bosses together.
WalkScape is currently in its most basic MMO shape, but that will greatly be improved upon, so you'll never feel alone in the huge world. Cooperative PvE, PvP, trading, and many more multiplayer features are coming in the future. And if you prefer to play on your own, don't be discouraged, because WalkScape upon full release will also include a single-player version.
Enjoy non-predatory, non-intrusive gameplay
It's easy to not notice an important aspect of WalkScape — there are no ads, and there never will be any ads. I only realized this because I recently tried out a few other mobile games and was hit by many ads, predatory daily offers, buyable currencies, and all the other stuff that "game makers" do to squeeze money out of players.
WalkScape doesn't steal your time by making you watch time-wasting ads or clutter free space with banners. We're very adamant about keeping the game this way. I personally feel like just because a game is on mobile, it doesn't have to follow the "industry standard" practices.
The game is also respectful of players' time. We don't have the intention of making a game that requires players to spend all of their time on it. The opposite, actually — we want people to be able to enjoy their walks without the need to look at a phone screen. There are no daily mechanics that play on people's FOMO. WalkScape lets you be as engaged with it as you want.
Parting words
Thanks for bearing with me through the DevBlog, I enjoyed the chance to reflect on what WalkScape truly is - an MMORPG that can make your life healthier while providing entertainment through the daily life.
I also want to thank everyone for supporting us through the development, without you we likely wouldn’t be able to maintain full creative freedom which is very important to us.
Happy walking, and until next time!