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WalkScape's official Lemmy community!
!walkscape
@lemmy.worldHello! It's been two development posts since I last wrote one, as maxchill and floursifter covered for me while I was busy visiting Gamescom and organizing some business matters.
The first year of Not a Cult (the company founded for WalkScape) has come to an end, generating quite a bit of paperwork and planning.
In this devblog, I'll cover our short-term plans for the rest of the year, review how the first year has gone, and preview what's coming!
Just as a reminder, Wave 3 is still ongoing, and you can gain immediate access to the game by supporting us on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee! Alternatively, you can sign up on Portal and apply for the beta.
If you support us before October 6th or get accepted into the beta, you'll have access to the game for the entire Closed Beta period.
Alright, let's get to it!
Now that we have added a bunch of features that were missing (achievements, consumables, jobs, reputation, and more), we're going to start moving to the final missing pieces of what's needed until we can start Open Beta.
The "big three" missing features are:
The "minor" missing features are:
And the "invisible," not immediately player-facing features that are needed:
So that's the list of what's currently missing! I haven't included things like quality-of-life improvements or content updates here, as we'll continuously iterate and expand on those.
We'll try to update this to the https://walkscape.app/roadmap soon to reflect this, but here's roughly how we're planning to move forward towards Open Beta:
So, that's the very rough and quite optimistic timeline — some of it might change over time, but for the most part this is the only viable way to work on the remaining features. We're aiming to have the game ready for Open Beta next year, and based on our rough estimates it would likely be possible to have all this ready somewhere in Q3/Q4 next year. If we managed to expand the team with one more developer, it would become a lot easier to hit this target.
The first year of Not a Cult operating as a company ended!
This has created some momentary bureaucracy overhead for me, as we need to finish all of the paperwork to pay out taxes and to have all of the accounting verified and sent to the tax office. It's now mostly done, so that's great!
WalkScape itself has now been developed for a little bit over two years in total. For the first year, the development was mostly done in my free time, and only for about a year now I've been working full-time.
Things are looking great — the last year has been intense, but we managed to ship the Closed Beta and we've kept it running for nine months while improving it and adding more features and scaling the team.
A lot has been learned in the last year. For the next year, our goal is to focus on finishing what's missing so we could start the Open Beta.
Also, a lot of stuff has happened behind the curtains. The game engine and how all of it works has been greatly improved over the year, making sure that the game stays stable while adding more features. We've hired another developer, myzozoz, who has been working on a lot of the infrastructure & server stuff, giving me time to work more on the features. Maxchill and Floursifter have been able to start utilizing the development tools and work on content updates, which have also warranted the need to improve that area to support that more smoothly in the future.
We've also been showing the game at a bunch of conventions, including:
These conventions have always been awesome, as even though we get a lot of valuable (and much appreciated!) feedback on online communities, seeing people in real life, telling how much they like the game and how it's been helping them is way different. Hopefully we can participate in more consumer-oriented conventions, as the B2B conventions aren't always that useful when we are not looking for investors or publishers, but we meet some of our fans every time anyhow.
I'm especially looking forward to joining PAX West or East next year, hopefully we can make it!
As a few last things, we are currently posting a lot to our perhaps lesser-known social media accounts. If you feel like helping us out, you can check these out and drop a like & follow:
As a game dev, I have very little clue on how to run these, so we've been trying all kinds of posts to experiment on what people might like. Ideas & feedback are welcome!
I would also love to hear more feedback and impressions from both long-time players & new players, especially when it comes to the most recent Syrenthia update. Based on what we've seen so far, most people have enjoyed a lot of what we introduced in the update, but having more feedback helps us improve our planning for future content & feature updates. You can write a feedback comment here, or post to Portal/Discord/Reddit!
Thanks once again for reading! Also, huge thanks for all of the feedback and support we've been receiving during the third wave; it's been truly awesome so far.
Keep walking, and stay hydrated! ❤️️
Couldn't find anything on the wiki so thought i would ask here.
I'm sure this has been discussed and is being worked on (I did see some mentions of notification system plans in the DevBlogs and portal), but I just wanted to chime in and say that I'm eagerly awaiting the day that the app is able to push a notification letting me know that my current travel or action is complete!
I recognize that this feature is likely more tricky than it seems, as the app would need to occasionally check steps vs current action even when it's not open, increasing resource usage and battery drain, though I could be way off base here, as I'm not too familiar with the intricacies of mobile app development.
I wonder whether, upon the app being closed or minimized, it could pass the number of steps remaining in whatever task to the device's step logging api or a minimal step timer widget of some sort, then roughly handle it without having to constantly query the game server itself.
It's not terribly vital, considering the presence of the "saved steps" system, but I'm still looking forward to it. It'll be a nice reminder to keep moving and progressing!
Wave 3 Reminder: 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 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
It’ll take about two hours for your invite to show up, and we know of a bug on some devices where you need to sign in and out of the portal for the invite to show up.
We’ve accepted many thousand applicants this wave and are doing all we can to make the beta as open as possible. We are super appreciative for supporters as you are helping us make some critical hardware improvements and expand the team. Code generation and compilation has been our #1 time sink on the code side to this point, and this month that should improve a lot due to better hardware. If we accepted your application, the best way you can help us is to spread the word if you are enjoying the game!
August 20th marked the end of the team’s Syrenthia era. This update was a huge culmination of work that we announced at the end of March, and has been the team’s sole focus since May. We hope everyone is enjoying the achievements, PFP customization, consumables, faction reputation, 11 locations, job boards, friends system and other things that have been added in the past couple of months.
The Not a Cult team is pretty happy with the state of the update, and especially that nothing was so broken to allow some of the team could take a break for a week after the convention to rest and recuperate. I’m hoping to have a little break once we get further into wave 3! As a brief summary of current known issues, which will be fixed in the coming weeks:
There were several development shortcomings that plagued us during August that are our #1 priority to address. To start, the localization library we were using for the game completely broke a week before the Syrenthia release. The memory issue we faced necessitated a move to a new localization library, and we lost the ability to hotload/OTA localization in the game in the process. We were hoping to have some languages available in the game on the release of this patch, but this temporary disaster made it so that we could barely have English available on the release date.
On top of this, WalkScape was originally designed to be developed by one person, and now that we have four people constantly working on the game there have been some serious lessons learned. Long story short, we are going to completely change how the content of the game is managed and developed. The end goal is to allow us to share art, text, and game content together as a team in near-real time.
This re-design will also let schamppu and myzozoz work on longer term feature projects while maxchill and myself release regular content updates, by allowing us to exclude larger features from being pushed as part of the beta app. With the internal tooling improved, maxchill and I will likely be able to add some small content here and there during the rest of the QoL period.
This is going to take some time to accomplish, and the first big thing we want to knock out besides the internal tooling rework is a pedometer rework to fix losing steps while losing connection to the game or swiping away too fast. Once we get past that, we will start on a broader activity rework, travel + 1 queue, gear sets, and other improvements that have been discussed.
The TLDR mini-roadmap is:
Code
Content
We aren’t quite sure how long the internal tooling and pedometer rework will take, so we will release another roadmap once we have a better estimation of the time those activities will be required. We’d also love to hear content suggestions for the GDTE update!
Job Boards
I am fairly happy with how this featured turned out besides the normal quality tool tasks. Funnily enough, these tasks are way better for newer players who are progressing naturally through the content, but really difficult for late game players to complete.
Overall, job boards are meant to sink USEFUL materials from the game, and normal quality crafts are the opposite of useful. These can be sold for money, and the job boards will only ask for better quantities.
I built a balance tool for calculating the job board tasks and what it’s rewards should be before designing this feature. There’s a few that missed the mark due to poor assumptions like not being able to wear conservationist gear underwater. I was also always rounding up, which made a punishing breakpoints on fine material tasks at low quantities. I’ve adjusted this a bit and a few jobs will change (sweet kelp, etc.)
Consumables
I am also fairly happy with consumables during the early and mid game. However, they need communication in the tutorial at some point. There’s a lot of useful consumables in the early game like cooked shrimp and nettle tea that have gotten missed by most accounts in Wave 3, so when we rework the tutorial this is a priority for highlighting.
Consumables are an odd feature to balance between the multiplayer and single-player versions of the game. Some players have claimed that the consumables feel too weak to pursue, and here’s my counter-points:
There’s been some minor side points that I haven’t seen a lot of discussion points on: chest finding is now connected to insanely strong consumables and direct experience gain through the chest-exclusive consumables and memospheres. I’m curious to see what strategies and tool loadouts this encourages once we get later into the game.
I do hope to continually connect Cooking with the rest of the game loops, similar to how it is a critical part of the Crafting process in Syrenthia. Having one of the best fishing and foraging tools locked behind a decent cooking level is good for the game!
Faction Reputation and Region Chests
This was by far the most undercooked feature of the update, as it was designed and implemented in the last few days before release. Expect some changes here to many of the region chests and faction reputation rewards going forward, but I’m happy with some of them! Thanks for the discussion and feedback on several of the rewards.
Syrenthia
I pushed Syrenthia to be 6 locations instead of 4 halfway through the design process and I think the area feels much more substantial now. Now, it also has plenty of room in the future for activities in the Hunter skill among other possible gathering skills, and the area opens up interesting possibilities for other Underwater areas around the map.
Random Thoughts
Closing
Thanks for reading along. In two weeks, you can expect Schamppu back with a convention recap and hopefully some more insight on our progress on the mini-roadmap above. Stay hydrated, and stay moving!
I live in Germany and would love to take part in the beta. Is Walk Scape available in Germany?
My phone seems to inaccurately count steps, and I'm worried that could be a problem? It gives me too many steps. I counted how many steps it takes to walk from one room to another, which is around 12 - 16 steps. The app routinely gives me over 25 steps though! I'm hoping this won't be an issue? I might be over thinking.
I am just curious if anyone knows if it is possible to count steps accrued while I didn't have my phone, like on a run for example. Right now I wear a watch that sends step data to Garmin connect and it would be awesome if those steps could be pulled into the app somehow. My phone's internal step counter is a little less reliable and mostly I just leave it at home often.
I think I saw watch compatibility is planned for a later update but wondering if I could just get it to pull from Garmin connect instead of phone internal sensors, basically using that as a liason between watch and this app (I don't know if this makes any sense, I am not tech savvy)
Really enjoying the app otherwise!
Working on levelng my crafting, and cant figure out where to get flax to make rope...
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!