Why are there so few good-quality walking games on mobile?
February 23, 2023 10:23 PM Subscribe
I've recently jumped mobile platforms, and discovered that the market for background fitness games is just as bad on iOS as it is on Android. (I don't mean things that encourage you to go run, and I don't mean the simple gamification built into platform health apps.) Does anyone know why this style of thing didn't really take off?
I have a weakness for incremental games, and enjoyed the mode in Samsung Health where your step count over the month pushed you along a path, but it was very basic and wanted something more "gamey". There are games that exist that incentivise running, such as Zombies Run, but this is a little more active than I want, which is to tick along in the background and give me more to play with if I was active that day. I'm also not looking for a map-based AR game like Pokemon Go, because I find having the phone out to play the game defeats the purpose of going for a walk, and I'd prefer to go on nice walks rather than the locations the game would prefer to reward me for (not least because sometimes it softly encourages you to drive to get those 'first visit' bonuses). What I want is a game that takes my steps and daily activity, no matter where I happen to walk, and uses that as a currency for cool gameplay stuff. There's only a few of these that exist, though:
What I'm asking is: why is the market for this so dire? Did Pokemon Go suck all of the oxygen out of the room? Are the kind of people who buy smartwatches not the kind of people who would consider downloading a fitness game, unless they were going to go for a run? Am I just an outlier, and it's an extremely small market? (Did they fix all the issues I had with Pokemon Go while I wasn't watching?)
I have a weakness for incremental games, and enjoyed the mode in Samsung Health where your step count over the month pushed you along a path, but it was very basic and wanted something more "gamey". There are games that exist that incentivise running, such as Zombies Run, but this is a little more active than I want, which is to tick along in the background and give me more to play with if I was active that day. I'm also not looking for a map-based AR game like Pokemon Go, because I find having the phone out to play the game defeats the purpose of going for a walk, and I'd prefer to go on nice walks rather than the locations the game would prefer to reward me for (not least because sometimes it softly encourages you to drive to get those 'first visit' bonuses). What I want is a game that takes my steps and daily activity, no matter where I happen to walk, and uses that as a currency for cool gameplay stuff. There's only a few of these that exist, though:
- The same company that makes Zombies Run (hi adrianhon) also has two games in this space, The Walk, and Step Buy Step. The Walk is a podcast you unlock through walking, and it's good but necessarily limited, and I burned through the story when it first came out. Step Buy Step is an actual, simple, incremental game, but it only stood up to like five days of play. They haven't meaningfully updated either in nearly a decade, or made anything else in this space.
- There is a game called Walkr that I tried, that has a somewhat dodgy translation, is full of microtransactions, and the actual gameplay system, as far as I could tell, was waiting for hour-long timers to complete to earn credits that could be used to unlock another timer.
- Another game I tried was Fitness RPG, which exposed some of the problems I think might exist in this space; it's tempting to make one step = one point, but some people have mobility problems and can't be expected to do 6000 steps, while anyone doing 20000 steps probably shouldn't be rewarded 3 times as much, so it boils your steps down into energy you can use for what turns out to be a pretty bad gacha RPG, with bad translation and an absence of entertaining gameplay systems.
- The only other recommendation I found, and most of these were fairly soft recommendations, was Wokemon, which basically takes the walking system out of Pokemon Go and makes that the game, except with ugly designs and, of course, microtransactions. It is very pointless. At least you can battle Pokemon.
What I'm asking is: why is the market for this so dire? Did Pokemon Go suck all of the oxygen out of the room? Are the kind of people who buy smartwatches not the kind of people who would consider downloading a fitness game, unless they were going to go for a run? Am I just an outlier, and it's an extremely small market? (Did they fix all the issues I had with Pokemon Go while I wasn't watching?)
i want this!!!
posted by wowenthusiast at 12:04 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by wowenthusiast at 12:04 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm fasinated to hear about the walk-to-unlock approach. I would absolutely use this as a tool I could apply to anything that's otherwise binge-able: podcasts, television series, movies, chapters of a book, articles in substack, on and on. That's a kind of dual purpose approach (combining walking/fitness with reducing screen time, or at least breaking the attention suck of it). If this were made into a package around which I could wrap any content, I would pay for it.
I think this might be one of your answers. I can't imagine this being proftable to companies or writers or the producers of any material that needs to be purchased or streamed with ads or what have you. Encouraging this approach is anti-capital, in a sense. By extension, so is encouraging phone-down walking. The more time you're away from your phone, the less you're engaging in activities that others use to generate income.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:48 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think this might be one of your answers. I can't imagine this being proftable to companies or writers or the producers of any material that needs to be purchased or streamed with ads or what have you. Encouraging this approach is anti-capital, in a sense. By extension, so is encouraging phone-down walking. The more time you're away from your phone, the less you're engaging in activities that others use to generate income.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:48 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
why is the market for this so dire?
Because the miserable little touch screen fondleslabs that any such thing would presumably run on were designed to keep us as distracted as possible from the experience of ourselves as real physical beings forming part of a real living ecosystem in a real physical world.
This is fundamentally opposed to what walking is actually for, and the contradiction is insurmountable.
posted by flabdablet at 2:13 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Because the miserable little touch screen fondleslabs that any such thing would presumably run on were designed to keep us as distracted as possible from the experience of ourselves as real physical beings forming part of a real living ecosystem in a real physical world.
This is fundamentally opposed to what walking is actually for, and the contradiction is insurmountable.
posted by flabdablet at 2:13 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
I was looking for something similar and came across "Walkscape". It's not out yet, they are hoping for early testing this summer, but I have been keeping an eye on their dev blog and updates.
posted by Captain_Science at 4:59 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Captain_Science at 4:59 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Could you describe a gameplay system that you think would work?
One of the reasons I mentioned incremental games is that it's a style of game based around resources accumulating over time; it's not hard to imagine having parts of it keyed to steps since the app was last opened instead of seconds.
One idea I had was a game where you're managing foragers; you suggest an area for them to forage, and your step count over the course of the day determines how thorough they are and how large their haul is, and they might bring back resources other than food: material to expand or decorate their homes; treasures to trade for luxuries or new skills; possibly stories that might need to be followed up on future days, like other tribes, or dangerous beasts, or mysterious structures. These sorts of mechanics exist in plenty of other games (I've effectively described the crafting half of the Monster Hunter series), which is why I'm so puzzled it's not more widespread.
I'm fasinated to hear about the walk-to-unlock approach. I would absolutely use this as a tool I could apply to anything that's otherwise binge-able: podcasts, television series, movies, chapters of a book, articles in substack, on and on.
This... is an intriguing idea. I don't know exactly how it'd work, the naive implementation of a checklist that tells you that you're allowed to get up to episode 4 in Netflix but then you have to turn it off yourself feels like it'd be easy to ignore. It'd have to interface with the viewer apps, like plug-ins that shut off access to the internet after a certain amount of time. The other trick is that you don't want to encourage people to go for a huge long walk and get very tired, because it's supposed to be a habit you form.
posted by Merus at 5:10 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
One of the reasons I mentioned incremental games is that it's a style of game based around resources accumulating over time; it's not hard to imagine having parts of it keyed to steps since the app was last opened instead of seconds.
One idea I had was a game where you're managing foragers; you suggest an area for them to forage, and your step count over the course of the day determines how thorough they are and how large their haul is, and they might bring back resources other than food: material to expand or decorate their homes; treasures to trade for luxuries or new skills; possibly stories that might need to be followed up on future days, like other tribes, or dangerous beasts, or mysterious structures. These sorts of mechanics exist in plenty of other games (I've effectively described the crafting half of the Monster Hunter series), which is why I'm so puzzled it's not more widespread.
I'm fasinated to hear about the walk-to-unlock approach. I would absolutely use this as a tool I could apply to anything that's otherwise binge-able: podcasts, television series, movies, chapters of a book, articles in substack, on and on.
This... is an intriguing idea. I don't know exactly how it'd work, the naive implementation of a checklist that tells you that you're allowed to get up to episode 4 in Netflix but then you have to turn it off yourself feels like it'd be easy to ignore. It'd have to interface with the viewer apps, like plug-ins that shut off access to the internet after a certain amount of time. The other trick is that you don't want to encourage people to go for a huge long walk and get very tired, because it's supposed to be a habit you form.
posted by Merus at 5:10 AM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: My guess is that the mobile market is such that the people who would be most interested in making neat, fun little games like this are essentially all pushed out. People who are developing for a living have other games that are likely to make more money; people who are developing for fun may not have the money to do mobile development, or to keep up with it, and are probably channeling their energies into other experimental avenues on itch.io.
I also really love this and wish there was more of it. Nintendo experimented with it for awhile. The 3DS Street Pass games had something kind of like it, where your steps got you coins (up to a daily cap) and those coins could be used in the minigames for various things (some more basic than others). Wii U Fit had a pedometer that you could load your steps into the game and watch your Mii do an equivalent hike (tracked both vertical and horizontal movement) -- very passive, but still a reinforcement. There was also the Pokewalker and related devices.
None of those are specifically phone mobile games, tho, but that's just it -- the standalone Nintendo devices are the only time I can think of this kind of game/software as really being A Thing. And the Street Pass games are def like that "Fitness RPG" you talk about -- I think it got around some of the "unfairness" there with the daily cap. And Nintendo seems to have forgotten about it, because my understanding of their mobile games is that they're pretty microtransaction-ridden and generally underwhelming.
I don't know how it's handled on Android, but it looks like it's pretty straightforward to get out of Apple. So it really does seem strange that more games don't take advantage of it, or are built around it.
posted by curious nu at 5:42 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I also really love this and wish there was more of it. Nintendo experimented with it for awhile. The 3DS Street Pass games had something kind of like it, where your steps got you coins (up to a daily cap) and those coins could be used in the minigames for various things (some more basic than others). Wii U Fit had a pedometer that you could load your steps into the game and watch your Mii do an equivalent hike (tracked both vertical and horizontal movement) -- very passive, but still a reinforcement. There was also the Pokewalker and related devices.
None of those are specifically phone mobile games, tho, but that's just it -- the standalone Nintendo devices are the only time I can think of this kind of game/software as really being A Thing. And the Street Pass games are def like that "Fitness RPG" you talk about -- I think it got around some of the "unfairness" there with the daily cap. And Nintendo seems to have forgotten about it, because my understanding of their mobile games is that they're pretty microtransaction-ridden and generally underwhelming.
I don't know how it's handled on Android, but it looks like it's pretty straightforward to get out of Apple. So it really does seem strange that more games don't take advantage of it, or are built around it.
posted by curious nu at 5:42 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Another thought - maybe the issue isn't the tech, but the perceived market. There may be a belief that walking doesn't really "count" as exercise, so developers may be focusing on gamifying running because that's "real" exercise, while walking is just....walking.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:38 AM on February 24, 2023
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:38 AM on February 24, 2023
I don’t know if you’d find this compelling but I really like Aglet. You get virtual shoeboxes every x # of steps and the different sneakers have their own wear/performance stats.
They also have geolocated treasure boxes for an extra bit of gamification.
It’s a fun little way to get credit for steps and I have found it motivating.
posted by missjenny at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
They also have geolocated treasure boxes for an extra bit of gamification.
It’s a fun little way to get credit for steps and I have found it motivating.
posted by missjenny at 7:07 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also maybe a bit outside the scope of what you’re looking for but I also love Randonautica, just for a good reason to walk somewhere I wouldn’t otherwise.
posted by missjenny at 7:08 AM on February 24, 2023
posted by missjenny at 7:08 AM on February 24, 2023
I don't think this is 100% of what you're looking for but maybe check out Pikmin Bloom which I enjoyed for a bit - walk around to unlock cute lil cartoon creatures & flowers. It is by Niantic (the Pokemon Go company) and uses their set of landmarks but I don't think it's as focused as PoGo on getting you to the specific places.
posted by anotherthink at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by anotherthink at 7:31 AM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Not a game, but ResQWalk is an app that that lets you raise funds for animal welfare orgs by walking or running.
posted by amarynth at 8:06 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by amarynth at 8:06 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Did Pokemon Go suck all of the oxygen out of the room?
I think it kinda did, in that it was by far the biggest and most successful "explore the real world" game; Niantic themselves have not been particularly successful in replicating that model.
I was coming here to recommend Pikmin Bloom also: it's a lot more focused on walking, and a lot less hands-on and interrupty, than Pokemon Go in that you're not constantly interrupting a nice walk to catch Pokemon and fight gyms.
I don't think it's as focused as PoGo on getting you to the specific places.
Yes and no? It does encourage you to complete sets of Pikmin of specific types -- "sushi", "cinema", "forest" etc, so I find this does tend to get me to explore specific places to try to collect those seedlings.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:05 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think it kinda did, in that it was by far the biggest and most successful "explore the real world" game; Niantic themselves have not been particularly successful in replicating that model.
I was coming here to recommend Pikmin Bloom also: it's a lot more focused on walking, and a lot less hands-on and interrupty, than Pokemon Go in that you're not constantly interrupting a nice walk to catch Pokemon and fight gyms.
I don't think it's as focused as PoGo on getting you to the specific places.
Yes and no? It does encourage you to complete sets of Pikmin of specific types -- "sushi", "cinema", "forest" etc, so I find this does tend to get me to explore specific places to try to collect those seedlings.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:05 AM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
The gentle app I use to nudge myself off my phone is Forest; they don’t monitor steps but you could choose a specially pretty plant for time spent walking.
posted by clew at 11:05 AM on February 24, 2023
posted by clew at 11:05 AM on February 24, 2023
Adjacent to what you want as it's not a game. World Walking. You can link it to a Fitbit or whatever or enter your steps manually. There are a bunch of different "walks" you can do. I'm currently 5% through the round the world walk. You can have multiple walks going on at once if that's motivating for you. I set up a MeFi team. In fact, I found out about this through a MetaFilter post.
posted by kathrynm at 4:47 PM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by kathrynm at 4:47 PM on February 24, 2023 [3 favorites]
Another vote for Pikmin Bloom here! It's way more hands-off than Pokemon Go. Don't let the similar map-based interface fool you, you really don't need to be on it while you're actually out walking except to start planting when you start your walk and turn planting off again when you stop, and see what fruits your little friends found while you were out.
posted by potrzebie at 5:13 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 5:13 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have not used it, but there is a website/app called The Conqueror, where you join (pay) to take fitness challenges based on specific areas, and earn real medals. I have been intrigued, but not enough to pay for a challenge.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:39 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 5:39 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I use Conqueror and enjoy it as an overall walking mechanism. The LOTR ones in particular are fun if you're a fan. I am frequently ill so stop-and-start with exercise, and the Conqueror reminds me that all these little bits eventually add up. Plus the medals are freaking gorgeous.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:59 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 8:59 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
The constraints you state are real: don't require a change in speed, don't require a change in direction, don't require screen interaction, but it has to have a point and be more than just a timer. I'm not familiar with the domain but I'm not sure what's left. Could you describe a gameplay system that you think would work?
One workaround that comes to mind is to wrap existing podcast content with "walk to unlock", which sounds like a fun DIY project. I bet it would gather a niche following if released for free. Whether it would be commercially viable is...a harder question.
posted by daveliepmann at 11:39 PM on February 23, 2023