Walkscape – The RuneScape-Like Fitness RPG You Didn’t Know You Needed
Walkscape is a mobile fitness RPG where your real-world steps translate into in-game progress. It’s inspired heavily by RuneScape, with grind-heavy mechanics, life skills, and that old-school retro charm. It doesn’t use GPS data — meaning no invasive tracking, just good old step-counting.
I first came across Walkscape a while ago. It’s been in development since 2022, and instantly knew it was something I had to try. I walk around 20,000 steps a day during the week doing school runs, so this felt like a fun way to get even more value from that daily routine. I got Beta access three weeks ago and have been playing consistently ever since.
First Impressions
When you first boot up the game, you’ll create your character and start out in the Disenchanted Forest with a friendly NPC called Herbert. Visually, Walkscape nails the retro RPG aesthetic, and the UI feels fairly intuitive once you get the hang of it.
There’s no strict path to follow — you’re free to explore and figure things out. Sure, there’s already a bit of a “meta” beginner route worked out by the community on the official Discord, but you can absolutely just do your own thing.
Planning is Key
You’ll want a rough idea of what you’re doing before you start walking. I usually pick a goal ahead of time, so I can make sure my steps take me to the right in-game location. Once there, I’ll station myself and grind away at one of the many life skills.
There are loads of skills to level, and most of them synergise. Catching fish helps with cooking; chopping trees supports carpentry. Early on, you can either hoard materials to use later (at the cost of slower gold income) or just sell everything and make some quick coin. Certain cities, like Kallaheim, even let you craft basic items with no materials for example, cooking in the kitchen which helps kick things off.
Crafting, Gearing, and the Inventory Struggle
The crafting and gathering systems already have surprising depth. Higher proficiency increases your chances of creating better-quality items, and you’ll soon find yourself changing your gear based on what activity you’re planning. Going for a long walk? Equip agility-boosting clothes. Heading to the mine? Pack your mining gear.
This is where the inventory struggle kicks in. I started out lugging all my tools and gear around, swapping them on site, but quickly ran out of space. I had to start storing extras in the bank, thankfully the bank seems to have unlimited space, so once you get used to managing your loadout, it’s not too bad.
Daily Tasks and Motivation
Some areas have daily tasks where you hand in gathered items to build your reputation. As your rep increases, you unlock better rewards and useful items. There’s also a solid achievement system — and raising your total level gives you bonus step storage. That’s really helpful if you forget to select a task and don’t want your walking effort to go to waste. That said, I do wish we had the option to spend stored steps instead of just gaining a boost next time.
Final Thoughts
Walkscape has definitely added a bit of extra fun to my daily walking routine. It’s even encouraged me to walk more at weekends — in just three weeks I’ve hit nearly 400,000 steps. I enjoy the passive nature of the game, but I would love to see some small interactive features added, nothing too involved, just a bit of light gameplay here and there.
For example, there’s gear and weapons, but I’ve yet to come across any actual combat. I’ve got a wooden sword and shield equipped… but what am I fighting? Maybe nothing yet, but I’d love to see some kind of combat system added later. Imagine boss fights you have to walk to find, then battle using turn-based skills charged by your steps. Even better if these were co-op encounters that needed multiple players contributing steps to take the boss down.
Walkscape is currently in beta, and access is only available through application or Patreon, but it’s off to a really promising start. It fills a unique niche in the fitness gaming space, with a nostalgic vibe and a relaxed, rewarding gameplay loop.
I’m currently level 46, with a total level of 242 out of 990. My woodcutting is at level 45, but I’m only 0.5% through the XP for that one — so yeah, it’s going to take some time.
Get fit, have fun, and Walkscape your way.
Looks promising!
