DevBlog #76: Second Year of WalkScape!
Maxchill has been working on some new location art pieces!
Hello and welcome to DevBlog #76! We're back from the holidays and this devblog will be longer and a bit different than usual. As WalkScape's Closed Beta started on 18th of January, 2024, we'll take a look back to the last year and what's been done, and also cover what we're hoping for this year. Let's get started!
WalkScape in 2025
Engine Rework, Gear Sets, January 2025
The year started off with a big update to the game's engine. Most of the engine was rewritten, and we made the game's logic work in a separate library, so game logic could be more easily be shared with servers and development tools for the game.
This was a much needed update to pay off a large amount of technical debt that we had accumulated and to make development of new features much more straight forward.
With this update, we also shipped the Gear Sets feature to the game.
Devtools 2.0, March 2025
To make content development to the game easier, we built what we called "Devtools 2.0". Previously, creating content was through in-game devtools that weren't as great for creating content quickly. New Devtools have also been developed quite significantly since that whenever needed, and made it so that the content development requires little to no development work unless there are new features needed to be added.
Trinketry skill added, March 2025
Trinketry skill was added to the game, bringing the total number of skills up to 10. This also came with new services, pretty much complete rework of amulets & rings in the game, and with trinket materials being added to the game.
iOS Smart Watch support, April 2025
We added support for smart watches on iOS. This also came with new UIs for language selection, improved localization support, new content, improved in-game settings and much more. We used the earlier implementation of iOS smart watch support as a way to prepare for Android smart watch support, which was much more complex to implement.
Bogged Down update, May 2025
This update came with changes to how the Wave system works for the game, and 4 new locations adding a new sub-region to the game: the Swamp area. We also started Wave 4, after which we did changes to the supporter pricing and closed beta access in order to be able to hire an additional developer.
Adventurers' Guild update, New Players update, June 2025
These updates added new content, balancing and general improvements to help new players and make the Adventurers' Guild feel better. We also did quite a lot of bug fixing, especially related to steps graphs during this time.
Travel +1 Update, July 2025
This update added rumors mechanic and we did a major server rework, which had been started at least a month prior. The main new thing was adding Travel +1 mechanic and reworking the way activities work in the game entirely, so we could support different & more varied types of activities in the future.
Faction chest update, QoL, in-game announcements, August 2025
We did a big rework on faction jobs, chests, added repeating rewards for factions. In this update we also added in-game announcements and bunch of QoL related features, such as a new way to browse jobs in the game.
Android Smart Watch support, September 2025
After we had the iOS Smart Watch support working nicely, we started the work on Android Smart Watch support. We did a special implementation for Samsung devices, and added support for other devices through Health Connect. This update was also accompanied with a bunch of fixes, new content and balancing changes.
QoL & OTA update, November 2025
For this update, we reworked how abilities are displayed and how they work in the game, and added that they can have multiple charges. We also added a new OTA system, so content team can easily deploy newly created content & fixes through a separate tool, including new localizations.
This update also included a bunch of QoL changes, like reordering Gear Sets, sorting inventory, Work Efficiency breakdown in activity view, and much more.
Going South Update, December 2025
We added new features such as input acitivites, limited activities, Mysterious Merchant and Pets to the game. This was also the biggest content update of the year, adding two new regions to the game with new higher-level activities.
During December, we also started the hiring process for third developer to the team.
Looking back at 2025
Another new location art piece
During 2025, we almost managed to release one new major update each month while also having full-length Summer & holiday season vacations. And this doesn't count for dozens of minor updates and hotfixes we've released as well. We also had a significant change in the content team during this year. And this doesn't count for everything we've done in the background that isn't visible to the players, such as:
- We've added two new servers, with third one for OTA updates coming soon
- Major improvements on our server infrastructure, server alerts and server monitoring
- Anti-cheat systems have been improved significantly, even with the added complexity of smart watches
- Moved to a new bigger office!
- Started hiring for 3rd developer
- Most of the AI generated art has been replaced with isometric art handcrafted by maxchill
During 2024, we released three major updates to the game (Achievements & Consumables update, Syrenthia update, Major QoL update with new UI etc.). A lot of the first half of 2024 was spent on working to make the Android pedometer work properly, and during that time there was just me working on the game. In 2025, with the addition of myzozoz to the team and improving our pipelines, planning and meetings, we've sped up the development quite a lot.
What is our plan for 2026
For 2026, we're planning to increase our development speed even more and we've already shifted our focus to tackle the remaining big features for Open Beta launch. With the content creation pipeline now being in good shape, we are also planning to keep pushing out content frequently while working on the large remaining features for Open Beta.
Myzozoz has been working on prerequisites for the trading system, with the OTA being the first one that needed to be done, and we're working on the trading system constantly. In total, it's a very complex system with a lot of things we need to implement with as much care as possible, which is why it's also very time consuming. With just two developers, it's been quite a massive feature to work on, especially as we both often need to work on other things as well. Hopefully with a new developer focusing on the bigger features would become a bit more easy.
Meanwhile, I'm also working on some bigger features. I'll be sharing what those are later once they're closer to completion, and as usual, we'll be sharing more of our plans & upcoming features once they're nearer to their release.
Hiring process
In December, we started looking for third developer to the team. We had already moved to a bigger office so we have space for more people. Hiring is quite a time consuming effort, but it'll be done before the end of January. We have already interviewed one candidate in person, and we'll have around five more interviews before the end of the month.
The changes we did to the Wave system and pricing back in 8th of June, 2025 has enabled us to hire a third developer to the team. We stated in DevBlog #60 that if we could increase our revenue from $12k-ish per month to $17k (after taxes, currency exchanges and platform fees) we would have enough revenue to hire a third full-time developer. We reached this goal around November. Changes in the exchange rate of US$ to Euro did initially hurt us pretty badly (making the original $17k goal way too low), but since that we've managed to increase the revenue slowly. Also, Patreon recently added their own payout system to their service, which made us able to ditch PayPal, lowering the fees & currency conversion costs a bit.
If you haven't supported us so yet and enjoy the game, consider supporting us on Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee! Every new supporter helps us to grow and without all of this support, we wouldn't have been able to increase our development team size or buy all of these new servers we have. So huge thanks for all of the existing supporters!
Due to the hiring taking a lot of our time for the time being, there likely won't be any big update to the game in January. But as we saw with myzozoz being hired to the team, bringing a third developer to the team will after a few months speed up our development efforts significantly. And I can say that we have some really promising candidates applying to the team!
Once we've made the decision on who to hire, they'll likely introduce themself in one of the devblogs, hopefully in February once this process should be already completed.
Happy new year 2026!
And one more new location art piece for this devblog!
Alrighty, that's all for today!
I wish you all a happy new year 2026! I'm really excited with the coming year for WalkScape, as we're again able to scale our team and efforts even further. And I'm happy with all that we managed to do in 2025. We've been constantly improving and we're able to deliver faster, and I'm dedicated to keep it that way. For 2026, we hope this year to be even better than 2025!
Stay hydrated and keep walking everyone! ❤️