Tip of the day
Being overencumbered only slows down your activities, but doesn't affect travel.
Devupdates/2022
From Walkscape Walkthrough
In 2022, DevUpdates #1–6 covered WalkScape’s early technical development, including the website, Arenum’s interactive world map, step-efficient travel pathfinding, skill experience tracking, local database improvements, and a flexible drop table system. They also outlined plans for testing, Android and iOS support, optional exercise integrations, and subscription-based monetisation without ads or pay-to-win features. The year concluded with maxchill joining as lead artist while inventory, item systems, and worldbuilding continued to develop.
Posted on December 5, 2022.
- maxchill joined WalkScape as lead artist, bringing a background in Visual Communication and a particular interest in pixel art.
- A dedicated artist was needed because creating assets for items, icons, locations, and NPCs alongside programming and game design was becoming too much for one developer.
- Inventory and item systems were partially implemented and remained in development.
- Overall game design and worldbuilding had progressed, with new art assets already being produced.
- More screenshots and development details were expected the following week.
Posted on November 17, 2022.
- Completed a flexible drop table system designed to make adding items and new tables straightforward.
- Activities can use multiple drop tables, allowing a single activity to award multiple items.
Drop selection
- Three table types were supported: tables that always roll, weighted tables where one is selected, and special tables with a chance to roll alongside the others.
- Within a table, probability groups are rolled from most common to rarest. The rarest successful group determines the drop, with one item selected if several share that probability.
- Each table produces at most one item.
Design trade-offs
- Assigning simple probabilities makes tables easy to create, but an item's actual drop chance also depends on other entries in the table.
- Items sharing a probability split that chance, while successful rarer rolls replace more common results.
- Exact effective probabilities could be displayed to players, although designing tables to achieve specific final drop rates required additional calculation.
- Feedback was requested on the system and its mathematics before further development.
Posted on November 4, 2022.
- Previewed animated Agility and Woodcutting skill icons, alongside a new interface for tracking skill experience.
- Completed a major rework of the game's local database.
- Inventory and item systems were the next development priority and were expected to require substantial work.
- DevUpdates were expected to become less frequent while development continued, with occasional progress teasers.
- Longer DevBlogs explaining the game's core features were scheduled to begin on November 28, 2022.
Posted on November 3, 2022.
- The subreddit grew from 11 to over 500 members in one day.
- A Discord server was opened for announcements, discussion, and suggestions, alongside a Buy Me a Coffee page for donations.
Gameplay and exercise
- All skills, activities, and content were intended to be completable through walking, including steps accumulated during everyday activities.
- Cycling and other cardio exercise options were being investigated for later development, once the core game was nearing completion.
- A submitter comment explained the aim of combining meaningful progression, random loot, quests, and an open world with RuneScape-style skilling, without demanding attention during exercise.
Development and platforms
- The base game engine was tentatively estimated to take another 3–5 months, with no firm timeline because development was being balanced with university and part-time work.
- Limited alpha testing was planned after the engine was ready, followed by more content and eventual open early access.
- Android and iOS were planned using Flutter. The developer's lack of a Mac and iPhone could delay iOS availability.
- Testing opportunities would be announced on Reddit and Discord. Offers to help with localisation, writing, and art were welcomed, although paid work was not available.
Monetisation
- An affordable subscription was proposed to cover multiplayer server costs, with no pay-to-win features, microtransactions, or advertising.
- A free-to-play option was planned with limited access to the storyline and continents, following a model similar to RuneScape.
- Donations were preferred over charging a subscription during early access.
Posted on November 2, 2022.
- Revealed the world map of Arenum, WalkScape's in-game world.
- The map was already functional in-game, using clickable location markers to initiate travel in an interface compared to Google Maps.
- All locations shown were intended to be visitable in the completed game.
- Further explanations of the world, lore, and story were planned for future DevBlogs, beginning on November 28, 2022.
Posted on October 31, 2022.
- Introduced irregular DevUpdates to provide more technical explanations and development progress reports.
- The first DevBlog was scheduled for November 28, 2022.
Website
- The WalkScape website was online as a work-in-progress, built using Next.js and React.
- Initially a static page showcasing game features, with design improvements planned and possible future support for DevBlogs and news.
Travelling
- New locations and A* pathfinding were added to the travelling system.
- Locations are connected by routes with varying distances and terrain, which determine the steps required to travel.
- Pathfinding selects the route requiring the fewest steps.
- The travelling interface was nearly complete, with a fuller explanation planned for a future DevBlog.
Development plans and clarifications
- A submitter comment confirmed that the game was not yet available to download. A limited early alpha with basic features and online highscores was being developed, but no Open Beta timing was promised.
- Apple Health and Google Fit integration was being considered to allow progress from walks using only a smart watch. Other sports, particularly cycling, were also planned as possible future sources of progress.
- A later submitter comment explained that the game uses Flutter, with native Swift or Kotlin code able to access operating-system health data.
